After the Knife Festival, SR, our guests from the prefectural offices, and I went to Cafe Flottant for lunch.
SR said he was randomly choosing a restaurant and then we ended up at this SUPER AMAZING MIND-BOGGLINGLY DELICIOUS restaurant.
They owners mainly run a restaurant in Shibuya (I think it's French food) but they come to Chikura for the warm parts of the year. They have a course dinner menu (by reservation only) as well as curry, a burger platter, and 3 sets for lunch.
Set A: chicken stewed in white wine
Set B: pork stewed in black vinegar
Set B: Chicken hamburger steak with a mushroom demi-glace sauce
I got set B. It was so good, I have had dreams about eating it multiple times ever since.
Here's the set. On the left is a healthy multigrain rice. The salad was a carrot-sesame salad, in the cup is potatoes au-gratin, and the meat was some kind of thick slice of stewed pork covered in sauteed peppers and the stewing sauce which seems to have included mushrooms and onions.
I picked up a pair of chopsticks because shredded salads are easier to eat with chopsticks. Plus, I like to save the best dish (usually the meat) for last.
So, first was the salad. I got the faint-essence of sesame oil, which I sometimes find overpowering in taste and for some reason tends to remind me of korean pickles. However, this was a light and fruity sesame oil. Oddly, I couldn't really place my finger on what the other ingredients in the salad, which I find is usually a good sign. This salad had just enough seasoning to enhance the flavor of the sweet carrots without overpowering it. I massacred it.
Next was the potatoes au-gratin. I didn't have high hopes for this because a majority of readily available cheese in Japan is highly processed and mostly flavorless. This, however, was completely different - a creamy, cheesy concoction with a depth of flavor, again, without being to salty or overpowering. I could have easily polished off 3x as much. I would have liked to, actually...
...that is, until I got to the meat. Until now I had been eating with chopsticks, and thought "what the heck" and decided to put the meat to the test. To my surprise, the thick, wooden wari-bashi cut through the meat like butter! It was if the meat, in fear of my chopsticks, fell apart on its own.
I put the meat in my mouth and nearly jumped out of my chair. The waitress, surprised, seemed to flinch for a moment, but then turned away with a chuckle. It was divine...
The taste would play no second to the texture. Even though it was stewed in vinegar, there was absolutely no sourness in the least. Plus, I could taste the lovely sweet-ish broth (we say dashi) from the veggies. There was just enough fat left on the meat for the meat to really melt in your mouth (without feeling you're going to vomit on a bunch of jiggly stuff), a lot like the Satomi pork that Odori Kitchen used.
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| One section of the restaurant and our waitress. Needless to say, I scraped my plate clean. After lunch and before our drinks, the waitress brought out a tiny plate of alphabet block-shaped chocolates as a palate cleanser. How cute! My initial wasn't among the letters, so I convinced everyone to make up a name or a reason for choosing the letter they chose to eat. It was kind of a fun ice-breaker! |
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| There's a patio, too. Too bad it wasn't sunny :-( Unfortunately, for whatever reason, it seems this restaurant will close (perhaps for good) at the end of the month. What's more unfortunate is that I probably won't get back over there before it does. Don't make the same mistake! Hurry over to Chikura for some mind-blowing today. Liz |
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