East Asia is a different world in every way. Ever astonishing, the region perpetually has a surprise in store for the visitor. But among the region’s many features, I’m mostly interested in their spectacular cuisine.
CHIHANA
Osaka and Kyoto are connected by a high-speed train that zips along at a brisk 240 km/h, meaning that a journey that once took an hour now takes a mere 15 minutes. We stayed in the city for two days, dining in two different restaurants during our sojourn. Our first reservation was for a restaurant called Chihana. It’s a tiny place that sits just seven people – three at the sushi bar and four more at the tables. A gentleman and a lady own the place: The lady serves while the gentleman prepares the sushi. For drinks, there is champagne or red or white wine; you can choose one of them. We opted for the champagne, deeming it the least risky option. At Chihana, all the dishes are prepared in front of you. The chef, who is clearly a professional, cut and cleaned a shrimp that was more than jumbo size right before our eyes. The chef also prepared more than 20 kinds of sushi, sashimi, and rolls. He has a style all his own – a style that is impressive enough for Japanese standards that it fetched three Michelin stars. In a nutshell, the meal was delicious but very costly!
KITCHO ARASHIYAMA
The day after Chihana, we went to Kitcho Arashiyama, a famous restaurant where customers had to make a reservation six months in advance. Because I had previously tried but failed to make a reservation for the place, it wasn’t even on our Kyoto itinerary. But as luck would have it, Kitcho Arashiyama informed us while we were in Kyoto that we could go there for lunch – an opportunity we were certainly not going to turn down. The restaurant is a full 50-minute drive from the city, but that didn’t stop us; along the way, we even got a chance to see some of the prefecture. Like Chihana, Kitcho Arashiyama is run by a husband-wife team in which the man cooks and the woman serves. Kitcho Arashiyama is an intriguing establishment with six rooms, each of which has just a single table. In other words, the whole place has just six tables, none of which see each other. In keeping with Japanese culture, we sat on the floor, deciding what to eat with the help of the server. The food was out of this world, while the whole event had an aura of yesteryear. At the end of our meal, the owner of the restaurant served us dessert.