Winter at Wayama...

[khiemtran]

Okay, something is definitely going on here. We went back to Wayama for their "Winter" Kaiseki and they've lifted it up to a whole new level. To find this in a humble suburban restaurant is starting to feel a bit miraculous - even more so because we were the only table there for most of the night.

First up was this three way opener. The hollowed out lemon skin has lemon-flavoured cream cheese mixed with surprising sweet potato. The omelette was amazingly delicate and filled with crab meat and roe. At the back is edamame (soy beans) fried in tempura batter. Each of these little dishes was amazing.



Next came the sashimi dish "on a snow mountain". The chef had actually crafted a snow scene out of ice and daikon as a base for the fish. You can see part of the sweet potato on top of the tower (or possibly a snowman).



Next, eel simmered with egg and onion. The chef really does soups and broths very well.



Now some grilled kingfish in teriyaki sauce. Yes, teriyaki, but definitely not the sort that comes out of a jar. Note the (half) Brussels sprout in the foreground. Between the two of us, we got one whole sprout, perfectly cooked and salted. The carrot in the background is also tiny.



Next, some melt-in-the-mouth wagyuu in a ponzu sauce, with daikon on the side. Sublime!



Hsiu Lin doesn't eat beef, so they gave her roast duck instead. Underneath both meats was a bed of very finely sliced red onion, which combined nicely with the sauce.



Next came a real surprise. A lacquered vessel shaped like a bottle gourd ("hyoutan").



You have to be very careful about opening it. The bottom section contains udon noodles.



The middle layer contains condiments that you place on the noodles.



And the top contains a sweet broth. (Make sure you don't tilt it too much when you take it out, or the liquid might escape.)



Putting it all together... First, the toppings go on the udon.



Then you pour on the broth...



And for dessert? Green tea ice cream and red bean and cherry cake.



It was really quite surreal having this sort of dining experience in an empty suburban restaurant. There was only one other party that came in just before our dessert course (and they didn't order the kaiseki). We also heard that they're going to stop doing Monday nights from next month, but I wonder how busy they are the rest of the week. Is the chef working up new recipes on the quiet before opening somewhere else? Have they tragically misjudged the local market? Either way, I can only hope we can keep on enjoying this treat a little while longer...

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

This seems very mysterious. Sadly, unless they have some secret source of income and are just cooking the meals as a hobby, if they don't increase the number of customers, they are likely doomed. :(

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I don't know how busy they are on Fri-Sat, but they also don't offer the kaiseki on those days. It could be, of course, that they simply can't manage the kaiseki except on a quiet night and maybe the chef is just doing it to keep his hand in. I certainly hope they weren't losing money just being open that night, while we were enjoying our own private chef sending out wonder after wonder.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

...wow.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes! I don't know what's going to happen, but I suspect it's either go to be "do you remember when we used to go there before it became famous?" or "What a shame nobody went there!" It is the sort of place where you have to let go and your preconceptions and be able to appreciate good food in unlikely surroundings.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

There's a strange episode in M.F.K. Fisher's The Gastronomical Me, in which she and her lover Chexbres come upon a country inn run by deranged gastronomes in the 1930s. It was nearly abandoned on the brink of a full-blown second world war, and its chef and waiter forced an extremely large and delectable meal on Fisher and Chexbres. Your meal doesn't look as if it would leave you rolling helplessly in your chairs, but it sounds as if it had a bit of that quality....

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, it certainly wasn't a large meal (considering we shared exactly one Brussels sprout between the two of us), but the level of attention and craft suggests an impressive amount of enthusiasm.

[aliettedb.livejournal.com]

Wow. Now I'm hungry...

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

We've still got one more season to try (we started in "Summer"), so we'll be back again before too long. We're trying to work out who else we could invite, but unfortunately, the subset of our friends who would appreciate the food and who would also be within travelling range on a weeknight is quite small.

[aliettedb.livejournal.com]

well, I would come, but it's a bit far away :)

[soon_lee]

Is it just me or is that sweet potato cap slightly rude-looking in the sashimi course?

This looks like really well-done food but it is worrying if you were the only diners there that night.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure it's meant to be a snowman, but now that you mention it...

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

That all looks extremely tasty.

I thought of you the other night when we ate out at a Chinese dumpling restaurant. I told my husband, "Argh! I should have brought my camera for khiemtran! Oh, and I have to tell him I ordered a hot pot only because he had blogged about how to eat one." :P

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I hope you enjoyed it! I've been meaning to take some of my workmates out for hot pot. It's still just a bit daunting here for the uninitiated. If you haven't done it before, you're never quite sure what to do and some people can be daunted by the sight of the all the raw ingredients.