Thursday, September 20, 2007

Kaiseki Meal at Kuriya

Kaiseki is a traditional multi-course Japanese meal analogous to Western haute cuisine. Usually the meal courses are served in various ways of cooking methods. At Kuriya, Great World City, where I had my Kaiseki lunch, the 6-course meal comprises an appetiser, a fried item, a steamed item, sushi, soup, dessert and coffee. The dishes are served excellently by the polite and knowledgeable staff. In fact, they had the foresight to place the kaiseki menu on the table so that I can follow the courses and identify the various items in each course.

The appetiser, itself, consisted of 5 items: scallop and flying fish roe jelly, french beans tossed with sesame sauce, braised sardine with plum, brised japan chilli leaf, conger eel and cucumber. I like the refreshing and cooling scallop and flying fish roe jelly best.



The second course was the fried item. Essentially, tempura, the deep fried dish comes with prawn, potato and other vegetables. What was unique: the three gingko nuts that were placed strategically around the dish. Healthy and decorative!



The steamed item was salmon and mushroom with chrysanthemum sauce. The mushroom pieces were mixed with broken japanese rice to form an almost gruel paste.



The Nigiri or hand-pressed sushi was filling! This was served with the soup: minced crab meat and prawn in clear soup with egg white. This was one of my favourites!



Finally, the dessert which almost took my breath away. Not expecting much, I was unprepared for the magnificent sight that was in front of me. The waiter described each item: vanilla ice-cream, mocca mouse cake and assorted fruits. Together, with the coffee, I was completely satisfied with the entire lunch experience that day! The entire 7-course meal: $35++.



My lunch partner had the teriyaki salmon set at $24++. The salmon was done with crispy skin and no bones. The set comes with a smaller dessert (but equally well-presented) and coffee.



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