Chakaiseki Cuisine at Kyoto Japanese Cuisine “MIZAI” May of Dragon Boat Festival was also wonderful! A time to learn a lot

This week, continuing on from last week, I went to Kyoto to revisit Japanese Cuisine Mizai, a restaurant where it is extremely difficult to get a reservation unless you wait a year or more to get in.

Every time we visit, the floral arrangements are always wonderful, and this month, the restaurant was casually decorated with Kakiemon 12th and 14th generation vases, horse artifacts, katsura and hollyhock.

It was as if we were being served in a museum with bowls and plates of national treasure level artifacts…

We started with the first bowl of Ichimonji rice cooked with rice from Shimane Prefecture, and served with super-premium spring matsutake mushrooms from Amakusa.

As someone unfamiliar with chakaiseki etiquette, I was told that the lid of the smaller soup bowl should be placed on top of the lid of the larger rice bowl and placed on the right side of the tray.

We all toasted together with iris sake, generated by the owner of the restaurant, Hitoshi Ishihara, and then put chopsticks to the “mukozuke”.

The mukozuke was a plate with a hollyhock under a laurel leaf, satsuki beans with sesame paste tofu paste, green beans, red konnyaku from Omi, and a small plate of cooked hana-sansho pepper…

From here on, the dishes were served in a rage.

Sashimi, simmered dish, palate cleanser, meat, deep-fried dish, bamboo shoots grilled on kombu, strong side dish, appetizer, hot pickles, savory dishes, sweets, green tea, 2 kinds of fruits, sherbet…

The highlight of the evening was 《broiled bamboo shoots on kombu…》

The bamboo shoots were picked in the morning from Yamashiro, Kyoto, and grilled with kombu (kelp) using the “jikini” method, which is a cooking method that does not remove the lye.

It is grilled with kombu (kelp). It is served with cooked dried daikon radish. (I was allowed to take a picture of this with permission.)

I am already full! I can’t even fit in the smallest space in my stomach…

Chakaiseki by nature is a frugal dish, but Mize is a Japanese restaurant that continues to win 3 Michelin stars.

Therefore, he said he could not put it together in a frugal way…

We hope to visit again in a different season.

Thank you very much!