It's in the stars
Had dinner at the Residence of the Japanese Ambassador to the International Organizations...and it was amazing. Everything that they served was Japanese and everything was of the absolute highest quality. The main spread was a buffet, and I took virtually everything but the chicken (since I can't be too sure of the halalness of the chicken here in Vienna). For appetizers, there was this ingenious spinach and nuts (peanuts?) concoction, with the slightest touch of soy sauce - one of the best things I have ever tasted. The bitter greenness of spinach went perfectly with the sweetness of peanuts and the saltiness of soy sauce, and I am getting happy just reminiscing the burst of flavour. The other main appetizer was a paste of sorts, with sweet potato and yam and other stuff. Rather nice but forgettable. It's the kind of thing that you'd have as comfort food, although baby food (banana flavour or wheat and honey) has always been my choice of comfort food.
On to the main dishes! Cold soba noodles (at least I am assuming that they are soba. I very rarely eat cold noodles. or green noodles, for that matter) were a lot better than I expected, but maybe that's because they thought out the whole menu carefully enough that the food items complement each other. White asparagus (!!!!!) cut along the grain and tossed with Japanese plum sauce was the absolute highlight of this evening. Goodness. Normal white asparagus is served with hollandaise sauce but plum sauce gives a delightful sweetness to savoury, even mildly bitter white asparagus - it is simply perfect. And their being cut along the grain ensures that the thin slices of asparagus are well coated with the sauce for a fine balance. Stupendous.
Lastly, my typical favourites that I eat at any Japanese place. Unagi sushi!!! Well marinated and grilled, absolutely smooth, succulent flesh...eel doesn't get better than this. You can tell that it's really really first-rate unagi (because we've all tried subpar unagi at sushi bars bah) and I wish I had more, but I was eating far too much already. Chawanmushi!!! The Japanese prof kindly told me how you can tell that the chawanmushi is steamed properly (no bubbles at the rim) and it was unlike any other chawanmushi that I've eaten before. It had young bamboo inside, which tasted amazing and tender, steamed fishcake which made me clap my hands in joy when I put it in my mouth, and some sort of nutty thing which was surprisingly good with the steamed egg. I'm generally not a fan of nuts in my food (like my mum putting cashewnuts in my porridge huh what) but I must say that they did nuts pretty well today in the various dishes. There was also tuna sashimi :D With some tangy sharp white sauce on it that made my lips hurt but man oh man was that some smooth sashimi or what. I would have preferred sake sashimi (naturally) but tuna was very very good, and I was immensely satisfied. Normally, I wouldn't have been satisfied with tuna sashimi, so that's saying something.
Everything was washed down with water and apple juice, and topped off with a cup of yummy green tea. I am actually excited to visit Japan just to eat such excellent Japanese food again haha. Fingers crossed.
On to the main dishes! Cold soba noodles (at least I am assuming that they are soba. I very rarely eat cold noodles. or green noodles, for that matter) were a lot better than I expected, but maybe that's because they thought out the whole menu carefully enough that the food items complement each other. White asparagus (!!!!!) cut along the grain and tossed with Japanese plum sauce was the absolute highlight of this evening. Goodness. Normal white asparagus is served with hollandaise sauce but plum sauce gives a delightful sweetness to savoury, even mildly bitter white asparagus - it is simply perfect. And their being cut along the grain ensures that the thin slices of asparagus are well coated with the sauce for a fine balance. Stupendous.
Lastly, my typical favourites that I eat at any Japanese place. Unagi sushi!!! Well marinated and grilled, absolutely smooth, succulent flesh...eel doesn't get better than this. You can tell that it's really really first-rate unagi (because we've all tried subpar unagi at sushi bars bah) and I wish I had more, but I was eating far too much already. Chawanmushi!!! The Japanese prof kindly told me how you can tell that the chawanmushi is steamed properly (no bubbles at the rim) and it was unlike any other chawanmushi that I've eaten before. It had young bamboo inside, which tasted amazing and tender, steamed fishcake which made me clap my hands in joy when I put it in my mouth, and some sort of nutty thing which was surprisingly good with the steamed egg. I'm generally not a fan of nuts in my food (like my mum putting cashewnuts in my porridge huh what) but I must say that they did nuts pretty well today in the various dishes. There was also tuna sashimi :D With some tangy sharp white sauce on it that made my lips hurt but man oh man was that some smooth sashimi or what. I would have preferred sake sashimi (naturally) but tuna was very very good, and I was immensely satisfied. Normally, I wouldn't have been satisfied with tuna sashimi, so that's saying something.
Everything was washed down with water and apple juice, and topped off with a cup of yummy green tea. I am actually excited to visit Japan just to eat such excellent Japanese food again haha. Fingers crossed.