Spa and Kaiseki: the ultimate Japanese luxury - Part II

Looking back at these pictures makes me hungry and want to go back home for another onsen trip! I'm continuing tonight with more pictures and more description of our kaiseki meal at Benkei in the outskirts of Kyoto.


Our sashimi selection was plated on a bamboo mat, resting on a bed of ice. The amaebi (sweet raw shrimp) was surprisingly good. Too often, amaebi has that mushy, squishy, sticky texture, but this shrimp was so fresh and so clean with a natural sweetness and no stickiness. The consistency and texture was similar to lychee and I enjoyed it every bit. The rest of the sashimi plate (uni, squid, seared tuna) was not memorable, except the 'hamo', the shredded white fish you see in the front. Hamo is usually a summer fish, so I was a bit surprised by its early appearance. This is a technical piece, since the Chef has to chop the hamo bones into pieces while not damaging the skin underneath or totally butchering the meat through a process called 'honegiri' or bone-cutting. The hamo is then blanched and served cold. I love the texture of the hamo skin against the soft and delicate flesh.


Speaking of blanching, that is exactly what shabu shabu is, and did I tell you I love it? And shabu shabu doesn't necessarily have to be done with beef. A common alternative is snapper or tai, and tai-shabu is served in many upscale Japanese eateries. In typical ryokan fashion, we each got individual clay pots and candle-based pot heaters for our tai shabu course. This was yummy, yummy, yummy. We waited patiently until the broth inside was boiling and then added our vegetables to cook. When the pot came back to a boil again, we dipped our snapper sashimi slices in there just until it was white on the outside, heated yet raw in the inside. The hot surroundings with the melt-in-your-mouth soft sweetness of the snapper was highlighted by the tangy ponzu sauce.


Although the tai shabu was delicious, my number one favorite dish from my dinner at Benkei was this unagi sakuramochi-style. Just like a sakuramochi, inside the fragrant cherry leaf was a ball of mochi-gome, the super sticky rice that the Chinese and the Vietnamese in the Bay Area call 'Sweet Rice'. This is somewhat misleading since the rice is not any sweeter than regular Japanese rice. This dish was not sweet either, as my sakuramochi title might indicate. This was a warm, savory dish with a nourishing quality beyond description. There was a slice of unagi between the cherry leaf and the rice, adding a plesant richness to the dish. The sauce was a thick, rich fish-based dashi and the perfect accompaniment to the rice ball. The saltiness of the cherry leaf worked so well with the warm and comforting broth.

We had an interesting take on the common 'sunomono' (vinegered item) dish, where we were served sashimi with a dipping sauce of vinegar and mirin (super-sweet sake, used only for cooking). I had never thought about sunomono that way and I appreciated the creativity very much. The idea was executed very well, and the mirin-vinegar was wonderful with the clam sashimi. I think I will do a variation of this at a sushi dinner party I am planning next (after this weekend's Kyoto Feast).


The final dish of Benkei and my kaiseki posts is a Japanese beef steak, cooked and kept warm by the same individual heaters that were once holding our tai shabu clay pot. Our server came by about three times to clear empty plates and bring us new courses, and in one of her visits, she took our tai shabu pots away and brought us these steaks. She wasn't sure what kind of wagyu it was, but it sure was tender and juicy, just as wagyu is supposed to be!

We finished the meal off with a soup and rice. I think we had dessert, but I was SOOOOO sleepy, I don't remember it. Half dead from jet-lag and a bad case of some nasty virus, I didn't even make it to the post-dinner soak that I was looking so forward to enjoying. I rolled over after dinner and relaxed in the second room while the ryokan ladies came and set up our traditional Japanese futons in the other room. And within 30 min of my epicurean debauchery, I was blissfully asleep, wondering how I managed to be so fortunate - a tummy full of fabulous food and resting so peacefully, surrounded by wonderful scents of tatami and wood.

I woke up promptly at 6 AM the next day for my soak and yoga in the outdoor bath again. I sure am a lucky one!

Spa and Kaiseki: the ultimate Japanese luxury - Part I

Thanks, Mogurin, for letting me use this beautiful picture of the view from our ryokan!

A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn with tatami rooms and complimentary yukata (pajama-like versions of kimono). Ryokans often boast gorgeous hot spas from nearby hot springs (onsen) and kaiseki dinners served in the comfort of your own room. As a child growing up in Japan, my family frequently vacationed at family-friendly onsen ryokans, where the adults spent countless hours bathing and soaking while the kids played in the arcades or at the ping pong tables.

As I grew up, I cared less for the arcades and more for the quiet baths and terrific cuisine. During my recent trip, my Mama arranged for us to stay at a beautiful onsen ryokan, known for its sophisticated Kyoto Kaiseki. This was high-end onsen vacationing, far removed from the onsen trips of my childhood. It highlighted my grown-up appreciation for quiet and peaceful calmness. And I appreciated my Mama's thoughts so much for selecting somewhere that fit my current (grown-up) state of mind - who I am right now - so perfectly.

Benkei, our ryokan, is located in Arashiyama, a district within the Greater Kyoto region. Arashiyama is the spot where nobles living in Kyoto during the Heian period went to vacation, which sounds funny now, seeing that it seems like Arashiyama is within the Kyoto city limits. It is famous for its cherry blossoms and claims to be the spot where the sakuramochi was first created. Arashiyama is also has a hot spring source, and its weakly alkaline water is supposed to help with muscle soreness, skin clarification, and fatigue. I think any fatigue will be gone, regardless of the hot spring quality, after the pampering and relaxing an onsen ryokan like Benkei offers!

Benkei is relatively small with only 15 rooms total and many scenic bathing options (two per sex and one 'for rent' by couples/families/individuals). I prefer small ryokans for many reasons. The first of them is the fact that I don't really like to bathe with other people, and the spas at small ryokan at off hours are empty. I was the only one in the ladies' outdoor bath both times I went for a long soak - and a giant bath tub all to myself is luxury at its best. I even did some yoga in between my soaks! Outside! Completely naked! It was so liberating. By the way, these baths are very well protected and no one can peak or even worse, sneak in, although I've seen footage of monkeys coming down from the mountains in the Northern onsens for a dip along side their distant human cousins.

The other highlight was dinner. My Mama chose Benkei for our Kyoto stay, since the food was supposed to be some of the best traditional kaiseki meals at a ryokan. And I have to agree, it was quite stellar. Dinner at ryokans are served in your room, and you get to lounge around in your PJ Kimono (yukata) with wet hair from the onsen soak and lay down in between courses. It's super-relaxed and it was exactly what I needed, since I was coming down with some terrible viral sinus congestion. And since I overloaded you with more traditional food presentation with my two Hyotei posts, I'll post some of my more adventurous food photos!


As with all typical kaiseki meals, we started with a bunch of small bites, but unlike a super-traditional kaiseki course like the one at Hyotei, they served us a bunch of courses at the same time. Being a ryokan, the focus is more on relaxing and less on super traditional service. The Sakizuke and Hassun (equivalent of appetizer courses) were served all at once. Here you see a shrimp sushi, two-layered crab 'cake', a yam-like potato, and salmon wrapped in yuba (counter-clockwise from the shrimp). There was a home-made green bean tofu with uni as well on the side.


Then, they brought us the sakisuimono, the first of the soups. This was a clear soup with a huge shirauo (small fish - remember my tempura post?) cake that was really delicate and tenderly soft. Seasonality is so big in Japanese cuisine that the same ingredients are used in many of these restaurants. The fun part is seeing how differently they are presented from restaurant to restaurant, which I suppose is the joy of dining out anywhere! The green leaf you see on top of the fish cake is different from the green leaves in the soup. The one on top is Kinome, which has a very distinct scent and is ubiqutious in Kyoto cuisine. I LOVE it. It's very fragrant and smells like nothing else - gotta go to Kyoto to try it! The greens inside the soup is just mitsuba, which is a bitter leaf vegetable, available in some of the more exotic grocery stores around here in the Bay Area.


It is bad manners in Japan to pick up more than one object at a time with your chopsticks, but the color contrasts between the clear broth on the bottom, the orange carrots, the green mitsuba stalks, and the creamy fish cake was so pretty, I had to snap a shot.


Yes, takenoko again!!! And it was very good too. Maybe not quite as 'clean' tasting as Hyotei, but to compare anything to Hyotei is not fair. This dish had a strong bonito backbone, and I really enjoyed it. Again, you see the kinome here, and it definitely added another aspect to the dish. So small, yet so critical to creating that Kyoto flavor...

Well, looks like I've used up my blog-time today, so I'll have to split this post in two too! I spent too much time yapping about the onsen aspect, I didn't get through the food! Oh well. Come back tomorrow for more wagyu, snapper shabu shabu, and my favorite dish of the night: unagi sakura mochi style!

Click here for Part II!