Tea Time

Tea Time in Japan in the little house that used to belong to the Emperor or whomever was the local feudal lord at the time of its building. Japanese tour guides always explain that wherever you are standing used to be someone's summer home or winter home or absolute favorite place in Japan. They must think I know who they are talking about, but I don't really.

The main room of the house where important documents were signed
and business conducted.

I just like all the doors and all the rectangles.

Another cool door. This one leads into a smaller room whose purpose I cannot remember...

A lovely view

Matcha is very bitter so it is served with a little sweet that is usually pure sugar.

First you eat the sweet slowly so that your mouth fills up with sugar.

Then when you drink the matcha, it is less bitter because your mouth is 

still so sweet. 

An interesting theory. But by the dregs of your matcha,

the sweet is pretty much gone. 

Ritsuren Kouen

Or "Takamatsu Continued".

Last Saturday we wandered around a grand old garden in Takamatsu. Ritsuren Kouen is one of the most famous gardens in Japan. It is luxuriously supplied with plum, camelia, and cherry trees, and looks quite amazing when everything is in full bloom. In the dead of winter, it is stark and filled with cold pale light, but still tranquil and lovely.

I wish these signs were around for life...

In Japanese, it says 'please do not enter". 

Doing my part to conserve nature.

Grr. This came out crooked. It was very hard to see the screen
and my camera has no view finder. Curse you technological
advancements in photography!

That little house behind the trees is where we had tea. See next post. 

Reminds me of Portola Valley

Every garden in Japan is a little like Central Park in NYC. An oasis of natural (if manicured)
calm in the midst of the bustling city. 

Takamatsu

On a side note, homemade tortillas: delish. Homemade rum raisin fudge: toffee. 


Last weekend, I bundled myself off to Takamatsu in Kagawa Ken, a little north and a little east of my little slice of heaven. I met up with some friends and we stayed at a ryokan inside a western-style hotel. Which is to say our bedding and room was Japanese-style (which is exotic talk for “sleep on the floor” and “miniscule bathroom”) and our dinner and spa was also Japanese-style (read “amazingly varied and scrumptious” and “naked with friends”). First some notes on dinner and room.

This was our starter plate. 2 pieces of Unagi sushi, fish roe,
a prawn, a candied fish (anchovy or sardine thing?), a
giant lima bean, and something brown and squarish. We still
don't know what that one was.
The upper-right hand corner was actually dessert:
black sesame custard and plum wine.

So when we sat down at the table, this was waiting for us. It was a very beautiful presentation. Next came a sashimi boat, but I didn't steal a picture of that (these are Melania's pictures - we figured just one of us should take pics at dinner and it should be the one who looks the most asian without a flash bulb disturbing other diners). After the sashimi boat, we were each presented with our entree. 

Crab. Tasty tasty. 

Lobster mayonnaise. In the original file, this picture is
saved as "f*ing AMAZING lobster!" because it was.
Just. That.  

And steak. Not very exciting, but very tender.
Tiny pieces, though. Grr.

After I won the last battle with Blogger (read the battle of the steak picture insertion), I moved on to describe Chabu Chabu. I don't know if that is the actual name of the course or the name of the foods in it or what, but basically Chabu Chabu is an onomatopoeia for "swish swish". You get a little pot of dashi at a rolling boil and you add various ingredients like so:

First you add the veggies, then you swish the fish around until it reaches your desired state of cookedness. Then you add the pork until that cooks, then the tofu, the little fish cakes, and finally a batch of udon noodles, but unfortunately, I was full by that point, so i didn't eat all of mine.

 

After all was said and eaten, we had our sesame custard and our wine. 

And I almost forgot!

Because so much of our meal came with fish parts, you may be wondering, "Isn't that wasteful? What about the rest of the fish?" Fear not, nosey-parkers, we ate most of that as well in little bowls in between course. Like so:

That's a fish head and part of the rest of it. 

Surprisingly yummy. 

Tune in in a few minutes for "Ritsurin Kouen"

or "the continued adventures of M, M and Lulu.