Eat! Kyoto! - Part III

(Photos for this post were taken with T's mobile)

T brought me to a Sukiyaki restaurant within walking distance from Kyoto Okura Hotel. It was an old Japanese house with tatami rooms for private dining. This restaurant has long history and famous with their fabulous sukiyaki. Each sukiyaki set meal comes with starters, 150g wagyu beef, assorted vegetables, rice and pickles, and dessert.

Starters were nicely presented, there were grated raw yam topped with sea urchin, squid with dressing, Japanese style fish cake, simmered bamboo shoot and sashimi wrapped with shiso leaf. Obachan said it was the best time to enjoy bamboo shoot during spring.

Soon after we finished our starters, obachan brought it hotpot for sukiyaki. Beef slices were thick and big, first slice was grilled before cooking in sauce. Then, it was served with raw egg. When I saw such big slice of beef, first thing on my mind was "how do I eat it?" To my surprise, I could bite off easily and it was so soft that almost melt in my mouth!

After removing first two slices, more sauce was added into the pot. Then obachan arranged tofu, onion, mushroom, fu (wheat gluten, looked like button mushroom in the pot), leek, noodles and more beef in the pot. Before it was boiled, I could not resist to ask for rice! Obachan paused when T asked her to serve the rice first. We supposed to have rice after hotpot, together with variety of pickles and miso soup but I had my first. A typical Malaysian huh? As for desserts, we had choices of assorted fruits or icecream. Icecream of course! It was sakura mochi icecream, a new flavour for me.

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It was an unforgettable dinner for both T and I. That night, we were so cruel left behind John at hotel's childcare and went out for sukiyaki dinner. I could not wait to go back to hotel after dinner. According to the staff there, John was crying when we left him but stopped not long after that. He moved around actively and liked to play with train with wheels. When we were there to pick him up, he raised his arms immediately after he saw me and looked very happy. I cuddled him so tight... I felt really bad.