Oichii
Happy Friday everyone!
Oichii ("delicious") is definitely the word of the day, but only because I don't know the Japanese for "fancy schmancy".
Today we went to Ginza, which is the posh area of Tokyo where all the high-end fashion labels and the most prestigious restaurants can be found.
Our intensive pre-holiday research took us to a Spanish restaurant on the fourth floor of an unassuming building down a side street.
Zurriola is a beach in San Sebastian, Spain, but it's also the name of this two Michelin star restaurant which serves beautifully-presented tapas dishes using seasonal Japanese ingredients.
We made the reservation quite a while ago having literally looked up every Michelin-starred place in the city - this being the only affordable place with more than one star - and let them know it was our honeymoon.
We were greeted by a server who led us to our table, but little did we know, it wasn't just any old table, or even a table by the window.
Nope, we were seated right in front of executive chef Seiichi Honda.
The atmosphere in the kitchen was serene, with a live guitarist playing intricate instrumentals in the background and Honda's apprentices busily following his every command, as the chef calmly worked his magic.
To start, we were served a seasoned rice cracker and a small crusty bread, which the chef advised us to eat whole, as it was filled with olive oil. I'm not even sure how, but I'm glad he let us know. I can just picture both of us sat there all afternoon with Bertolli drizzled down our chins!
We ordered a glass each of a Spanish rioja called Predicador, which one of our old colleagues at Turnberry had always talked about as if it were the king of wines. It was in fact pretty damn tasty.
More olive oil accompanied the homemade bread, along with sea salt. before the real stuff started.
The first course was called prawn tartar, but as chef Honda explained, it was made up of locally-caught baby shrimp (again eaten whole, heads and all), a jelly made from Spanish sherry, diced prawn "tartar", and various other delicious stuff which we couldn't identify. All of this was to be scooped up and piled onto a homemade crisp.
The whole shrimp had the rich flavour of a lobster bisque, which contrasted nicely with the freshness of the tartar and the sherried finish from the jelly.
Next was "bonito and eggplant" - tuna tartare with aubergine puree, on a pastry disc. Again, the freshness of the fish was incredible, it tasted like nothing I've ever had.
Continuing the seafood theme, we were served a short pasta fideua made with squid ink, which the chef explained is similar to a paella. On top of the black strands was a tender whole baby squid and coconut foam.
For the main course we had to choose two dishes from a grilled sea bream with suquet soup (a bit like a bouillabaisse), roast deer with carrot vinaigrette, and an Iberico pork stew with an Idiazabal cheese bonbon.
We went for the sea bream and the deer, since as Lucinda pointed out, deer is probably more expensive than pork!
Again both courses were incredible and full of flavour. The deer was perfectly pink and came with purees of celery and apple and a whole roasted thin baby carrot, while the sea bream was accompanied by the rich creamy soup and charred baby gem, and topped with fresh crab and diced tomato.
At this point we were both just happy to be alive, but they insisted we stay for dessert.
In keeping with the autumnal theme, we were served a chestnut mousse, with a biscuit base, whole chestnuts, hazelnuts, an acorn jelly and a quenelle of coffee ice cream on top.
When we were finished, the waitress took our coffee order, before chef Honda congratulated us on our honeymoon with a specially-decorated plate of chocolates.
We had a brief chat about Scotland and how much we love Japan, before he explained that the chocolate itself was actually made in the restaurant, not just the sweets themselves.
The plate showcased their homemade chocolate in four different ways - a chocolate and mint shot, lime chocolates with gold leaf, chocolate with banana and caramel and chocolate crisps.
Oh, and the coffee was pretty good too!
On the way back, we popped into KitKat Chocolatory (a boutique for Japan's weird and wonderfully flavoured KitKat variations), because clearly we hadn't seen enough chocolate already.
Then we spent a while exploring Hakuhinkan Toy Park, which is like Tokyo's answer to Hamley's.
I didn't sleep too well the night before so grabbed a quick nap, which gave our stomachs a chance to recover before heading out to Asakusa.
We were hoping to pick up street food but all the vendors were shut, so we just had a look around Sensoji Temple instead.
The culture box had been well and truly ticked but we were still hungry, so we went back to the Solamachi mall at Skytree again.
This time we got karaage (Japanese fried chicken), a burger wrap thing, gyozas, a bread bun filled with curry, and a sushi set with pretty much every creature in the ocean included.
The big revelation this time around was that the supermarket has a microwave, so we managed to find a member of staff to heat up anything that needed it, and had a great feast on the street outside.
Once we got home Lucinda helped me eat most of the sushi. Between us we tackled squid (head and tentacles), tamagoyaki (sweet egg omelette), tuna, prawn, salmon, some miscellaneous white fish, and unagi (eel)!
Tomorrow we're hoping to have our third Michelin star lunch in a row (it's a hard life), but this time it's a bit different - all will be revealed.
We've also got a trip to the zoo, the park, a ninja festival and lots of other crazy stuff planned, plus I'll be keeping tabs on the Scottish Cup score from midnight onwards!
#monblu 🙏
George
Oichii ("delicious") is definitely the word of the day, but only because I don't know the Japanese for "fancy schmancy".
Today we went to Ginza, which is the posh area of Tokyo where all the high-end fashion labels and the most prestigious restaurants can be found.
Our intensive pre-holiday research took us to a Spanish restaurant on the fourth floor of an unassuming building down a side street.
Zurriola is a beach in San Sebastian, Spain, but it's also the name of this two Michelin star restaurant which serves beautifully-presented tapas dishes using seasonal Japanese ingredients.
We made the reservation quite a while ago having literally looked up every Michelin-starred place in the city - this being the only affordable place with more than one star - and let them know it was our honeymoon.
We were greeted by a server who led us to our table, but little did we know, it wasn't just any old table, or even a table by the window.
Nope, we were seated right in front of executive chef Seiichi Honda.
The atmosphere in the kitchen was serene, with a live guitarist playing intricate instrumentals in the background and Honda's apprentices busily following his every command, as the chef calmly worked his magic.
To start, we were served a seasoned rice cracker and a small crusty bread, which the chef advised us to eat whole, as it was filled with olive oil. I'm not even sure how, but I'm glad he let us know. I can just picture both of us sat there all afternoon with Bertolli drizzled down our chins!
We ordered a glass each of a Spanish rioja called Predicador, which one of our old colleagues at Turnberry had always talked about as if it were the king of wines. It was in fact pretty damn tasty.
More olive oil accompanied the homemade bread, along with sea salt. before the real stuff started.
The first course was called prawn tartar, but as chef Honda explained, it was made up of locally-caught baby shrimp (again eaten whole, heads and all), a jelly made from Spanish sherry, diced prawn "tartar", and various other delicious stuff which we couldn't identify. All of this was to be scooped up and piled onto a homemade crisp.
The whole shrimp had the rich flavour of a lobster bisque, which contrasted nicely with the freshness of the tartar and the sherried finish from the jelly.
Next was "bonito and eggplant" - tuna tartare with aubergine puree, on a pastry disc. Again, the freshness of the fish was incredible, it tasted like nothing I've ever had.
Continuing the seafood theme, we were served a short pasta fideua made with squid ink, which the chef explained is similar to a paella. On top of the black strands was a tender whole baby squid and coconut foam.
For the main course we had to choose two dishes from a grilled sea bream with suquet soup (a bit like a bouillabaisse), roast deer with carrot vinaigrette, and an Iberico pork stew with an Idiazabal cheese bonbon.
We went for the sea bream and the deer, since as Lucinda pointed out, deer is probably more expensive than pork!
Again both courses were incredible and full of flavour. The deer was perfectly pink and came with purees of celery and apple and a whole roasted thin baby carrot, while the sea bream was accompanied by the rich creamy soup and charred baby gem, and topped with fresh crab and diced tomato.
At this point we were both just happy to be alive, but they insisted we stay for dessert.
In keeping with the autumnal theme, we were served a chestnut mousse, with a biscuit base, whole chestnuts, hazelnuts, an acorn jelly and a quenelle of coffee ice cream on top.
When we were finished, the waitress took our coffee order, before chef Honda congratulated us on our honeymoon with a specially-decorated plate of chocolates.
We had a brief chat about Scotland and how much we love Japan, before he explained that the chocolate itself was actually made in the restaurant, not just the sweets themselves.
The plate showcased their homemade chocolate in four different ways - a chocolate and mint shot, lime chocolates with gold leaf, chocolate with banana and caramel and chocolate crisps.
Oh, and the coffee was pretty good too!
On the way back, we popped into KitKat Chocolatory (a boutique for Japan's weird and wonderfully flavoured KitKat variations), because clearly we hadn't seen enough chocolate already.
Then we spent a while exploring Hakuhinkan Toy Park, which is like Tokyo's answer to Hamley's.
I didn't sleep too well the night before so grabbed a quick nap, which gave our stomachs a chance to recover before heading out to Asakusa.
We were hoping to pick up street food but all the vendors were shut, so we just had a look around Sensoji Temple instead.
The culture box had been well and truly ticked but we were still hungry, so we went back to the Solamachi mall at Skytree again.
This time we got karaage (Japanese fried chicken), a burger wrap thing, gyozas, a bread bun filled with curry, and a sushi set with pretty much every creature in the ocean included.
The big revelation this time around was that the supermarket has a microwave, so we managed to find a member of staff to heat up anything that needed it, and had a great feast on the street outside.
Once we got home Lucinda helped me eat most of the sushi. Between us we tackled squid (head and tentacles), tamagoyaki (sweet egg omelette), tuna, prawn, salmon, some miscellaneous white fish, and unagi (eel)!
Tomorrow we're hoping to have our third Michelin star lunch in a row (it's a hard life), but this time it's a bit different - all will be revealed.
We've also got a trip to the zoo, the park, a ninja festival and lots of other crazy stuff planned, plus I'll be keeping tabs on the Scottish Cup score from midnight onwards!
#monblu 🙏
George
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