kamizono

Thank you for all the beautiful comments yesterday. Made me blush.

I wanted to share with you where we went the other night....Kamizono.

We've eaten there in the past but it was always at lunchtime.

Tables usually filled apparently it was a slow night for them and we wondered if we would be the only ones dining there. Finally after we ordered another couple came....whew!

You can go a la carte, but we decided to choose the prix fixe menu 3675 yen (about US$36.75) per person. We chose our entrees, and ordered a bottle of beer 525 yen (about US$5.25), and then the dishes came one by one out of the kitchen.

A chilled tomato which was cooked in kelp/bonito stock and topped with a single caper...It looks tiny in the photo but it was a nice 3-inch round size. Be sure to drink all the liquid that comes out of the tomato...lycopene!

Next a gratin made from gomadofu (a curd made from sesame seed paste), some sliced green pepper, topped with enoki (a type of mushroom, flammulina velutipes aka velvet foot), melted cheese...different but delicious.

Hamo (pike conger) with a delicious broth at the bottom, topped with some grated daikon, shichimi (7-pepper), kaiware (radish sprouts) & ume (pickled apricot) paste with a squeeze of sudachi (lime) was nice.

The fourth picture is of tsukemono (pickled veggies), which is out of sequence from our dining experience.

The wife of the chef does the pickles & veggie dishes, here she had pickled some ginger, a baby melon (which tasted like cucumber) & daikon.

Next came a steamy foil filled with matsutake (the king of mushrooms in Japan), enoki (flammulina velutipes), assorted colored bell peppers all cooked in butter and stock (bonito/kelp)...This dish definitely said "Autumn".

An assorted plate of sashimi (raw sliced fish)...the avocado that topped the maguro was a bit too firm for my liking but everything else was fresh and delicious.

Satoshi's entree was their fried shrimp. He orders this EVERY TIME we eat there. He said he loves the texture of their fried shrimp, it has a sort of snap when you bite into it.

You can't see his side dish, but it was a crisp slaw made from raw scallions. So good!

I chose the scallops. You could either have them fried or grilled with salt, I chose grilled.

These scallops were huge! and came with some grilled vegetables like yamaimo (yam), assorted bell peppers & fresh shiitake on the side. With a squeeze of sudachi this was really good. And as a palate cleanser there was a stalk of young pickled ginger.

You normally see this young stalk of ginger served with fish (as a palate cleanser).

Rounding out the evening we had a bowl of rice topped with some dried nori and tiny rice crackers to eat as chazuke (rice with tea), and the tsukemono that I mentioned above. (Thank goodness they give the ladies a bowl of rice half the size of the guys!)

By this point I was really full, I gave half of my rice and pickles to Satoshi. The chef and his wife noticed this and told me next time I should just leave the food on the side.

Of course, I did manage to squeeze in the fresh fruit at the end of the meal...Asian pear, persimmon & a grape...all Autumn fruits.

We were both so full that after dinner we decided to walk the 30 minutes home. We concluded that whenever we eat there it is best not to have any beer--makes you too full!

It was another great experience at this restaurant and we'll definitely be back.