Kodaiji Wakuden (**), Kyoto, November ’23

Cross post from https://instagram.com/vinoyvaca

First time experience with a formal Kaiseki meal. Kodaiji Wakuden was selected because of the relative ease of reservation and they were able to accommodate our 1.9 year old boy! Our visit coincided with the start of the snow crab season – both a blessing and a curse because the cost of the menu gets adjusted upwards steeply during this period. The cooking is pure, minimalist, and contemplative – every course upheld the essence of its components. I suppose the style here is little more austere even for Kyoto standards. Beyond the food, the luxury of the private setting, the relaxed pace, and the elegance of the service made us realize that Kaiseki is more an all-round experience than merely lunch. These qualities somewhat rationalized the very elevated cost of this lunch (more than all the other meals over a week in Kyoto put together, if you believe me!) If I were to be brutally honest, we would have felt short-changed if the same food was served in a regular restaurant setting at this price point. Another nit point: not that we left still feeling hungry but we agreed that another 15% more food would have been much more satisfying!

– Taiza snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) presentation. Kyotango’s special brand of snow crab caught exclusively by a small fleet of artisanal day boats. Wakuden’s founders originally hailed from Kyotango so I presume they have special relationships with the fishermen to get first dips on the best catches. Watch for the green tag that’s their mark of authenticity. I suspect that the prices for these ‘branded’ snow crabs has been squeezed upwards by speculators in recent years, leading to the what we had to pay at the restaurant.

– Koppe crab and its eggs, apple pieces, vinegar jelly. Served with a shot of sake.

– BYO: Billecart Salmon Brut Rosé in half bottle. Fresh, zippy, uplifting, and befitting of the mood of the meal. I must also add that I have never witnessed wine poured with so much grace. A very modest corkage charge was initially quoted by the reservation concierge but was kindly waived off on site.

– Miso-marinated blowfish tempura, ginkgo, air potato. Very tasty and rich morsel of fried fish but positively miniscule. The flake salt provided on the side was really excellent, I wished we asked where we could buy some.

– Autumn vegetables (carrot, water celery, lotus root, burdock, mizuna, shiitake, and udo) in boar soup. Amazing broth: deep and savoury but simultaneously very light and focused. Maybe its the fabled quality of Kyoto’s water. The vegetable added sweetness/minerality and were just on the right side of crunchiness without being chewy/stringy.

– Grey large-eye bream (Meichidai) sashimi, grated red turnip, shiso fruit, sea urchin dip. We really enjoyed the sweet and aromatic pop of the shiso fruit.

– Taiza crab leg, first serving. Grilled over very hot charcoal to aromatize the shell and render it brittle. The doneness was brilliantly judged and the flesh remains slightly pearlescent. Very clean and subtle marine sweetness coupled with luxuriously fat strands of crab. Interestingly there isn’t much inherent salinity in the crustacean itself. Salt was provided and necessary to pull out the maximum flavour of the crab.

– Second and final serving of grilled crab. More photogenic than the first serving. Between this and and previous serving, I couldn’t help but wonder where did the rest of the crab go…

– Crab miso! Basically the crab’s liver and fat was blended with some soy and mirin to produce this soup for the Gods. Insanely delicious.

– Tamba beef shabu-shabu was not cooked in soup but briefly swished over ripping hot charcoal. Very loose-grained and delicate. Melts in the mouth without any heaviness of lingering fat. Sweet-spicy condiment with Japanese red vinegar and jalapeño. Could have easily eaten a second portion.

– Grilled mochi with karasumi (bottarga, cured mullet eggs). A Wakuden signature.

– Crab and egg over rice. So simple but so sweet and good. I think it was another type of crab (not the Taiza beast).

– Yuzu jelly. The flash of silver was my son fighting for the spoon. He ate most of the jelly.

– Monaka with chestnut paste, cashew, and pine nuts.

– Rounding off the meal with whisked matcha. Grassy, bitter, and slightly saline. As if to cleanse yourself of your earlier hedonism and to prepare you to return to the real world.

by vinoyvaca