Dining Diaries XXIX

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

When we visited the new Rigoletto Bar and Grill on Roppongi Hills a few weeks ago, we couldn’t help noticing the equally new Yasaiya Mei next door, specializing – as the name suggests – in vegetable cuisine. Our interest was piqued, so we made a reservation and went there for dinner. The specialty of the house is vegetable shabu-shabu. There is an à-la-carte menu, but since we were unfamiliar with the restaurant on our first visit, we ordered the kaiseki course (¥8,000). It started with a bagna cauda, consisting of a slice of squash, cucumber, and two different radishes, served with a very fine anchovy-based sauce. Already it was apparent that the vegetables were of the utmost quality! A tiny cup of chilled sweet corn soup was served next, followed by a set of five items: yam noodles, mountain vegetable leaves, tomato jelly, unagi on sticky rice, and strawberries and kiwi with a sweet tofu sauce. A beautifully arranged sashimi dish came next, garnished with fruits tomatoes and various vegetable slices, and aloe in a ponzu sauce. At this stage the tablecloth was removed, revealing the built-in heater on the table. But before the main course, there were grilled broadbeans and baby corn, served with fuki miso. Then a copper pan with a strong beef cheek broth was placed on the heater. The manager told us that we could alternatively have ordered a salmon-based broth. The broth now boiling, he added various Japanese mushrooms and gobo shavings. What a delicious scent emerged from that pan! Now it was time to help ourselves, adding a variety of leaves and herbs – mitsuba, shungiku, nira, cabbage and lettuce, let it blanch for a few seconds, then get them together with some mushrooms into our bowls. Towards the end we were served rice, to which the rest of the broth and the meat was added. To cool our tongues we received watermelon cubes and a Japanese gooseberry, followed by kuzu starch noodles with watermelon syrup to dip in. Tochū green tea with tomato and yomogi macaroons ended the meal. Wines are from ¥5,800, but the recommended Adega D’Aruga koshu wine from Yamanashi (¥7,500) was a perfect choice for that course.

Roppongi Hills West Walk 5F, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, 03-5775-2960, www.eat-walk.com/roppongi/

Explanations

• yasai: vegetables, greens
  
• shabu-shabu: a Japanese variant of hot pot - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabu-shabu
  
• kaiseki: a traditional multi-course - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiseki
  
• bagna cauda: vegetable sticks with a hot sauce - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagna_Cauda
  
• unagi: freshwater eel - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unagi
  
• sashimi: fresh fish or seafood - (not for Andsome) see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sashimi
  
• ponzu: a citrus-based sauce - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzu
  
• fuki miso: a fragrant paste made from fuki - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuki
  
• gobo: burdock root
  
• mitsuba: a Japanese plant, meaning "three leaves" - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuba
  
• shungiku: edible chrysanthemum leaves - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shungiku
  
• nira: garlic chives - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic_chives
  
• kuzu: arrowroot
  
• tochū: a young green tea
  
• yomogi: Japanese mugwort - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yomogi
  
• koshu: a white grape from the Yamanashi prefecture
  

[andsome]

Sounds good, but I would love to try it all personally. :D