Osaka

For the Obon summer holidays Hideaki and I went to Osaka for a visit with his parents. It was dreadfully hot, as it always is this time of year, and I was so tired out from the camps that I was too tired to even take pictures. Which is a shame, as there were plenty of photo opportunities, what with my cute niece Marya and her family visiting at the same time, not to mention the new dog. Yup, my parents-in-law bought a puppy. It's a Pomerian, and although I'm not much of a dog fan and especially not fond of little toy dogs, I have to admit he's pretty cute. And my in-laws are delighted with him, which is nice to see.

About the only pictures I took were of food, and some very good food it was too. This lunch was at a new branch of Mimiu, an Osaka restaurant with a 200 year history. The specialty is apparently udon-suki (a version of sukiyaki featuring udon noodles) but we didn't bother with it as it didn't sound very nice in the heat. My lunch above included rice, pickles, hamo nanban-zuke (escavitched pike conger), gomadoufu (sesame tofu), braised hijiki seaweed, mango jelly, a small bowl of yubasoba: soba (buckwheat noodles) in hot broth with yuba (tofu skin) and an assortment of sashimi (squid, bream and tuna).

We also shared a few plates of sobazushi, which is exactly what it sounds like: sushi rolls made with soba noodles instead of rice. Here it was filled with cucumber, shiitake, anago (sea eel) and shrimp tempura. It was very good, and as it can be rather hard to find, I'd come back here just for the sobazushi.

Another nice meal was at Ume no Hana, a tofu kaiseki (traditional multi-course meal) restaurant. It's a chain, and I've been none too impressed with it in the past, but this time I really liked it. Either it's improved or the branch we went to, in Senri Chuo, is extra good.

As with any kaiseki meal, the dishes rivaled the food in impressiveness. The inviting place setting above was waiting for us when we sat down--don't you just want to pull off those lids and see what's inside?

 

This is what: spinach dressed with dashi, gomadoufu (sesame tofu) and yuba (tofu skin) in soy milk.

Another lidded dish contained tofu shumai, steamed dumplings made with tofu and chicken instead of the usual pork (shumai are Japan's version of Chinese siu mai dumplings). This is one of Ume no Hana's signature dishes, but while it is tasty I don't find it particularly impressive. I did really like the ponzu (citrus soy sauce) that came with it as a dip, and it turns out they sell bottles of it on the way out.

With apologies for the fuzziness (I forgot my camera and had to take these pictures with my phone), this is tuna sashimi and raw yamaimo (mountain yam) wrapped in yuba.

This is yudoufu, tofu simmered at the table in kombu dashi (kelp stock). Normally it is a very plain dish, but here they've added yuba, snow peas and fu (wheat gluten).

When the yudofu is ready it is spooned into dishes and eaten with soy sauce and shichimi (seven spice mix). I love yudofu and while it is really a winter dish, it was so yummy and soothing that I wasn't bout to complain.

Chawan mushi (egg custard), one of my favourite dishes in the world. 

Namafu dengaku, cakes of raw wheat gluten skewered, brushed with miso sauce sauce (kinome, or prickly ash leaves on top, and yuzu, or citron, on the bottom). I thought I didn't like fu very much, but this was very nice, with a wonderful soft but chewy texture.

I also really liked this, which was a mixture of tofu and hampen (steamed fish paste), deep fried. The interior was soft and fluffy like hampen, but with a richer flavour. 

The best dish of all was this unassuming renkon manju (lotus root dumpling). The crunch of the lotus root was a wonderful contrast to the soft, almost runny (it reminded me of akashi-yaki) dumpling, and the broth was perfectly seasoned, managing to be both subtle and rich at the same time.

Yuba gratin: yuba and mushrooms baked with cheese.

The end of the meal was signalled by okawa (steamed glutinous) topped with fuki to sansho no tsukudani (soy-braised butterbur and prickly ash pepper), suimono (clear broth) with yuba and pickles (cucumber, daikon and napa cabbage). Dessert was a tiny scoop of sudachi (a lime-like citrus) sherbet, a perfect ending to a fine meal.

And then it was time to head back to Tokyo, enjoying some nice views of Mount Fuji on the way (this previous post has a better picture).

Mimiu, Minoh branch (other branches throughout Japan)
072-720-5688
1-1-19 Ina, Minoh-shi, Osaka
Open Monday to Friday 11:00 to 3:00 and 5:00 to 10:00 (last order 9:00), weekends and holidays 11:00 to 10:00 (last order 9:00)

Ume no Hana, Senri Chuo branch (other locations throughout Japan)
06-6871-6006
Osaka Monorail Senrichuo Building, 1-1-5 Shinsenri Higashimachi, Toyonaka-shi, Osaka
Open daily 11:00 to 3:00 and 5:00 to 10:00 (last order 9:00)

Comments

[Louana]

I work in Senri Chuo and have been to many restaurants there, but I haven't found Ume No Hana yet. Is it near Senri Chuo station, with all the shopping malls? I don't recognize the address, I don't understand Japanese addresses one bit... I keep forgetting my own address...

[Tess]

What a beautiful meal! (Gorgeous dishes, too.) I love seeing your pictures of food because it gives me an idea of what to aim for when I try a new recipe.

I was surprised to see tofu shumai! I made them recently and liked them quite well, but I thought that perhaps the author of my Japanese cookbook had invented them—she includes quite a few recipes she's adapted from the West. It's amusing that the title of her recipe is "tofu daisies." She even has the cook serve them on a bed of greens and the effect is that you are eating little flowers.

I've made sobazushi, but before I started blogging about cooking through this book, and that reminds me I should make them again. They are not really difficult. To get the soba noodles aligned, you have to tie one end with string. Cook one bunch of noodles at a time, and wash the strands gently, comb the strands straight on plastic wrap...

[JoeInVegas]

As usuall, it all looks beautiful. But it seems like so much food - how can you get down so many courses? I thought it was us Americans that had the reputation for such eating. (but not such pretty food or so many courses)

[Amy]

Louana, it's right next to the monorail Senri Chuo station on the north side, and a short walk south of the Hankyu line Senri Chuo station. Here is Ume no Hana's map:
http://www.umenohana.co.jp/ume/detail.php?no=119
And here's a Yahoo map:
http://tinyurl.com/5xy6hk
Hope that helps!

Tess, I saw your tofu daisies yesterday and was just as surprised as you! I was about to comment, but I thought I'd better post this first so I could add a link to my comment. But here you've beaten me to it!
I did like the tofu shumai, but it was a little blah to be a signature dish. Maybe they are purposely under-flavoured in order to showcase the ponzu dip? For something to make at home it would be outstanding though, and yours look great. I like your idea of making them smaller and will try that if I ever make them myself.
And I can't believe you've made sobazushi! You know there are people in Japan who don't even know what that is? It's pretty rare and looks so difficult to make that I'd assumed it was a restaurant-only dish. But my husband loves the stuff, so I might try making it. Did you get the recipe from The Japanese Kitchen?

Joe, keep in mind that the servings are small. It's hard to get the scale from the pictures but the dishes themselves are tiny, with the food inside them even smaller. It's also eaten over a few hours, which helps. Still, we were all pretty full and I didn't finish my rice, and anything more than the sherbet for dessert would have been too much.
By the way, the website lists the calories for all of their various course menus: http://www.umenohana.co.jp/ume/menu.php?no=119&kind=regular We had Ume no Hana Zen, 4th from the top, which weighs in at 1136 calories. Not bad at all!

[Marie]

So happy you are back home and posting again! I am impressed by the sobazushi, they don't look like they'd even have a chance of falling apart on the way to your mouth. Not that I'm a Japanese food expert by any means, but I've never seen sobazushi before, so I really hope to try them someday (soon).

[Tess]

Hey! You could still comment about the "Tofu Daisies!" My few readers might be interested to know that it is not a fake recipe! Mine were flavored with ginger, scallions, and sesame oil which is not unusual, but the presentation with the greens is interesting. (oh, I hate "cute" but...) I think it was the texture, more than the taste that made them interesting, but I'm not running a signature restaurant and I look for easy and tasty...plus they are cute.

The first time I made sobazushi, it was from my project-book. She just has you cook the soba as normal and then scatter the noodles over the nori. The second time, I used a recipe from "Washoku" by Elizabeth Andoh. She uses the technique of cooking the noodles tied together so they all line up, and they turn out much better/neater. It's funny because Ms. Shimbo (my project-book author) describes the same technique to stuff a fish fillet—sorry, I have not blogged that recipe either, though I did it in the CT forum... I'll try to post about them soon, but I'm sort of caught up in work obligations right now.

[Liz]

What beautiful and interesting food. And as for the dishes themselves, I'm besotted !

[Anna]

Yo, I agree, such a beautiful meal, i am now hungry, LOL!　And i didn't know sushi rolls can be made with noodles before!

[Amy]

Marie, tastewise I prefer regular sushi but the sheer novelty of sobazushi makes it worth a try.

Tess, it's interesting that the recipe by a non-Japanese turned out better. Has that ever happened before? Looking forward to your sobazushi post!