JAPAN: Gion Mitokou JAPAN: Gion Mitokou

Address unknown
but it’s on the west side of Hanamikoji Street, just south of Shijo, Kyoto

Kyoto is an absolutely fascinating city, known for it’s Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, palaces, gardens, architecture, culture, food and of course, geisha.  We’d spent much of the day roaming the streets of Kyoto, and in the late afternoon met with Peter MacIntosh for a geisha walking lecture, where I was able to snap the beautiful photo above.  Peter took us down to the Gion quarter, where we were able to see and learn about geisha schools, okiya (geisha boarding houses), ochaya (tea houses), and geisha life in general.  Afterwards, we asked Peter to recommend a restaurant where we could sample kaiseki ryori, a traditional multi course Japanese dinner of the highest order.  What a recommendation he gave us!

So without further ado, here is our fabulous meal at Mitokou.

We started with sashimi, and yes, that is toro you see before you, two wonderful fatty melt-in-the-mouth slices.  To the right, delicate slivers of kingfish.  I just love the detail of the presentation – a shiso leaf underneath, a ball of freshly grated wasabi, and a little pink flower bloom.

The saké was served from a length of bamboo submerged in a slurry of ice.  I think saké should always be served like this – how neat.

The two white poppy seed encrusted slices were (I think) made from fish or prawn paste (or both), and it was served with a shelled prawn, a slice of fresh wasabi root and small gingko nuts (in the little bowl).

A little nama-fu (wheat gluten) maple leaf adorned the next dish – a sweetly braised egg-filled shishamo, although it was larger than ones I’ve eaten previously (perhaps something other than smelt?). Either way, I popped the whole thing in my mouth – head, tail, eggs and fins.  Yum!  A couple of pieces of simmered daikon sat to the side with a textured white miso and mirin paste.

I was surprised to see a dobin-mushi served next, my first ever experience with such a dish. The dobin is the name of the earthenware teapot – notice how the lid is actually a cup turned upsidedown?  The “mushi” part comes from the verb, musu which means “to steam”.

On removing the lidded cup, the steam unfurled wonderfully brothy aromas.  Our waitress indicated that we should squeeze the yuzu into the pot, which we do, and then we dig in with our chopsticks and retrieve singular pieces of prawn, chicken, fish and finally, the king of mushrooms, matsutake.  Well, it is autumn after all   After consuming all the little morsels we pour out the yuzu’d spiked broth – oh wow, simple but stunning.

I absolutely adore tofu, and was pleased to be served two types.  The one above, served chilled in a lightly seasoned dashi, was delicately sweet and decorated with a little wasabi and a goji berry.  It tasted just like the tofu cheese we’d had at Itsukushima in Miyajima, but only more silken.

We were also served plain silken tofu, simmered in paper.  One has to be ever so careful in extracting the tofu from the liquid so as to not destroy the integrity. You then dip them into a mix of shoyu, grated ginger, sliced green onions and bonito shavings.

Miso glazed and grilled cod came next, topped with wilted chrysanthenum leaves – oh my, this left Nobu’s dish for dead!  Next to that was a fresh ginger sprout (where can we find these in Melbourne?!), and a whole chestnut that had been simmered/candied in red wine. May I draw your attention to the lovely autumn plate…isn’t it divine?

This fresh onigiri was filled with little pieces of roasted chestnut, and I half suspect they used the sweeter glutinous rice to make it.

Not exactly sure what this dish was, but it consisted of a thickened mushroom stock that held plump grains of barley and whole mushrooms.  It was wonderfully umami.

I adore this photo – just check out those perfectly cooked Japanese pearls of rice, topped with crunchy chirimenjako (whole salted fish).  It is hard to express the pleasure of eating a mouthful of soft rice, and having that hit of fishy salty crunch.

Of course, no meal is complete without having tsukemono, which literally translates as “pickled things”.  We had a lovely slice of daikon (uh huh, not that bright yellow stuff we usually get down here), a ball of shiso pickled greens, and some pickled gourd.  Oh…how I yearn to have such pickles here in Melbourne!

The other requisite of the meal is miso, and this particular bowl had some added extras; yuba (tofu skin), mitsuba (herb)…but damn if I can remember what those little balls were!

For dessert we had a mind blowing kanten jelly that was served with roasted kinako (soy) powder.  Oooh…how I so wish I knew what the flavour actually was; it was slightly floral and fruity, but just magnificent. Unfortunately my paltry Japanese was unable to figure this one out.

This really was one of our memorable meals in Japan – so much so that I can still remember and taste much of what we ate, two years later!  (yeah, I know…I’m slack with these Japan posts!)