Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Jiki Miyazawa じきみやざわ

As is common in Japan the restaurant is named after its proprietor - and according to a Japanese Foodie friend Jiki Miyazawa is one of Kyoto's finest young chef's. (the link is in Japanese but the map shows you it is two blocks east of Daimaru and about half a block north. It is on the east side of the street)

The photos of this meal are from the vault I'm afraid - I ate here almost 18 months ago when my oldest friend (and sista!) Vanessa came to visit.  Here she is in the restaurant entrance - playing tourist ...
We were first offered our choice of beautiful sake cups. People travel across Japan to dine off the dinnerware - many of them extremely valuable antiques....
Seasonal starter of tiny firefly squid - smaller than a broadbean!
Fresh wakame - "scratched up" which makes it more porous and slightly... er slimy. It is served in the dashi it was cooked in with some bamboo shoots and garnished with kinome - the leave of the sansho (pepper) plant
My nemisis - namako shiokara - the fermented (raw) guts of the seaslug, on rice, hiding under a sakura leaf
Chef preparing a beautiful sashimi dish with a very soft variety of uni (sea urchin) and a sweet soy dressing
On of the most divine renditions of goma dofu (sesame tofu) - grilled and served with a sesame dressing (yaki goma dofu)
Kinome yaki sakana  - Grilled fish with kinome
This Akagai (red ark shell clam) was slammed down, live, onto the bench  - where it tried to slink away before being quickly sliced into submission
With fine shreds of udo and slices of raw okra it was a particularly refreshing, elegant dish - if somewhat brutal...
Grilled anago (conger eel)  in thickened dashi
rice and pickles
custard apple
Sakura monaka  - a cherry blossom shaped wafer filled with cherry blossom flavoured anko (red bean paste) - it is being warmed in the background above
Chef preparing Matcha ( whisked, powdered green tea) for serving with the Sakura sweet. 

7 comments:

  1. Is this related to a French restaurant by the same name? I went to a place called miyazawa in Kyoto in the mid 1990s.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello there, I am afraid I don't know of any connection to a French restaurant by the name Miyazawa but if I find out otherwise will let you know.
    Cheers, J

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Jane, can I ask how much you paid for this meal? As I noticed there are many different sets in their menu.

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Jane, can I ask how much you paid for the meal? As there are various sets in their menu.

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hmmmm... this was early 2010 so my memory is a little hazy on the cost - I think, with sake, it was close to $150 Australian dollars per person so maybe around 10,000 -12,000 yen? sorry - hope that helps.
    Cheers, Jane

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the information!

    ReplyDelete