Substitute Sunday

I got the text messages this afternoon.  DaRC's friend had a booking at Nikushou and flew airplane.  Would we be able to join him tonight?  Well, we didn't have any plans because we didn't want another big meal out, but we decided to step up and help out.  So Japanese beef (and other goodies) for dinner it is.

Japanese snow crab (松葉蟹) - with tomato, mozuku (モズク), and the usual ponzu (ポン酢) jelly. Some perilla flowers on top for visuals as well as the aromatics.

Very refreshing to start off with a chilled dish, and of course the acidity helped to whet our appetites. The Japanese snow crab was deliciously sweet.

Oysters steamed with kelp - the oysters are from Akkeshi (厚岸), and definitely pretty fat.

We had a small selection of sashimi:

Yellowtail (鰤) - I love yellowtail, but we haven't gotten to the best season yet.

Yellowtail belly

Pacific saury (秋刀魚) - pretty nice and fatty now.

Smelt with roe (子持ちししゃも) - I love smelt, and this tasted very fresh.

Local beef chateaubriand - always tasty, and tonight this came with some Manganji green peppers (万願寺とうがらし). On the side we also had a condiment made with diced onions from Awajishima (淡路島).

Sea urchin with glass shrimp and salmon roe (雲丹  白海老  イクラ) - the sea urchin came from Canada. It's hard not to like this combination...

Crispy grilled eel with sansho sauce - the usual. Pretty good lah.

Beef filet katsu with Taiwanese bamboo shoots - them bamboo shoots sure were tasty after being battered and deep-fried.

The filet comes from Kumamoto.

We finally reached the yakiniku part of the meal

Thick cut Australian wagyu tongue (オーストラリア 和牛タン) - this is a perennial favorite, and no wonder. Thick cut is just the best, delivering that wonderful, satisfying springy texture which is harder to achieve with thinner slices.

Tenderloin chain - well, this isn't something you see everyday. Looking pretty beautiful and tender.

The first piece wasn't cooked enough, and ended up being cold in the center. A rare miss for RAW Bro.

The second piece was better.

Hida A5 top shoulder blade (A5飛騨牛 ミスジ) - always one of my favorite cuts. So, so tender.

Beef curry udon - this was a surprise, and actually very, very tasty. Not the same as the house curry rice, but I'd be happy with this any day.

The fruit selection here is always nice, so we've got melon and muscat.

I didn't want to drink too much tonight, so I kept things civilized.

Kokuryu Daiginjo Tsuru (黒龍　大吟醸　つる) - seimaibuai (精米歩合) of 50%. Some fermented rice lees notes, sweet on the nose. A little short on the finish. Second pour was slightly better, a little dry mid-palate but sofer on the finish. Got better 1 hour after opening, sweet on the palate and also on the finish with a slight hint of dryness.

2004 BOND Matriarch - decanted for an hour before serving. Nose showed a little stewed prunes. After 2 hours this turned a bit savory like black olives.