Mr Rabbit guest review!

The Rabbitz spent the weekend after Thanksgiving in Kyoto, touring temples and taking in the fall foliage with about half the population of Japan. Mr Rabbit’s Japanese Cousin (MRJC) joined us on Saturday in time for dinner. MRJC had booked us at Matsu, a restaurant specializing in Kyo-ryori (Kyoto Cuisine). Apparently this was not an easy booking; a friend in Tokyo knew someone in Kyoto who ate at Matsu often, so phone calls were made, favors were asked, lifetime obligations were incurred, and finally the “foreign dignitaries” were granted a reservation. All of this was explained to us by MRJC sotto voce as we sat down at the counter and looked around.

After a brief discussion about dietary limits (No clams for Rabbit) and a question about whether the cuisine should be dumbed down for a foreign palate (Hell No!), the Master and his staff got to work. The first course was scallop sashimi (fish for Rabbit) with some mushrooms, fish eggs, and fall blossoms.

Next was a fried course: whole river fish, squid, and lotus root, plated with more fall blossoms. The whole fish was bitter (an acquired taste) which offset the more neutral squid and lotus root.

After this, they introduced us to the lobster who was about to become the soup course.

We named the lobster Pinchy and chit chatted with it for awhile. Then they took him away to make the next course. It was a lobster broth with lobster meat and mochi. I’m not sure what they put in the broth, but it was fabulous; and the combination of the fresh lobster meat and the chewy mochi was a nice texture contrast.

At this point, the Master mentioned that the soup had been served in heirloom lacquer bowls. As we emerged from our lobster-induced haze, we noticed that the lids on the bowls were all different. MRJC explained that good places were expected to serve their food on priceless antiques and works of art worthy of the food.

Since we’re food geeks (we explained to all the puzzled Japanese that we were Ryori-no Otaku) we took pictures of all 3 bowls.

But back to the food. The next course was some small fish plates. Some snapper sashimi with edible chrysanthemums.

This was accompanied by some fugu, raw and blanched, on ponsu sauce. We had not expected to eat poisonous blowfish on this trip, but it had a subtle texture similar to the snapper. And it didn’t kill us.

We will see in the next installment that the fugu was a foreshadowing of dishes to come…

Posted on December 1st, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Japan, Restaurant Reviews