Duck Day 2016: corwin and ctan’s “kaiseki” Thanksgiving
As those of you who follow me on social media know, corwin and I celebrated our 25th anniversary this year by taking an amazing trip to Japan. For our annual gastronomic extravaganza known as “Duck Day” (because corwin has never liked turkey and started a tradition of always having duck back when he was in college and cooking Thanksgiving for himself for the first time), it probably comes as no surprise that this year we drew on the trip to Japan for our inspiration. [See previous duck day posts.]
“Kaiseki” is a complex term that can refer to a way of eating, a cuisine, or a specific kind of high-end restaurant meal in Japan, sort of like how “French” can mean a lot of different things depending on the food context. While in Japan we experienced both the incredible service and perfection at Arashiyama Kitcho (possibly Japan’s best restaurant, and the pinnacle of kaiseki), the amazing traditional vegan food at a Buddhist monastery on Mt. Koya (the roots of kaiseki cuisine), uni torched with in the shell on the streets outside the Tsukiji Fish Market, perfect tea service in a tea house at the center of a lake in the park that had once been the royal duck hunting preserve, and a booze-fueled pub crawl through the izakayas and hidden eating spots of Akabane with a chef friend of a friend. (To name only a few of the amazing meals we ate.)
Here’s the traditional Buddhist meal we were fed at the monastery where we stayed:
A photo posted by Cecilia Tan (@ctan_writer) on Sep 28, 2016 at 4:56am PDT
(“Temple stays” [“shukubo” in Japanese] are a totally done thing in Japan, by the way. I highly recommend going to Mt. Koya. You can book your monastery stay via the Internet and then purchase the Koya-san World Heritage Train ticket to get there on the Nankai Line from Namba Station south of Osaka, which you can get to from anywhere in Japan by Japan Rail.)
Compare to the extremely fine elegance of Arashiyama Kitcho:
A photo posted by Cecilia Tan (@ctan_writer) on Sep 26, 2016 at 4:19am PDT
The light towers in the “village” of delicacies shown above are carved of whole daikon.
Horsehair crab with vinegar jelly. #ctanJPN #arashiyamakitcho
A photo posted by Cecilia Tan (@ctan_writer) on Sep 26, 2016 at 3:30am PDT
Anyway. Our goal with this meal was not to try to recreate the elegance of Kitcho or the authenticity of the shojin-ryori cuisine of the monks, but to use some of the courses in a kaiseki meal as a template for creating a meal that brought some of the flavors and experiences we discovered on our trip to our dinner guests. Just like a traditional haute cuisine meal includes certain possible courses, i.e. the amuse, cheese course, fish course, soup course, etc… kaiseki includes such courses as seasonal, lidded food, steamed food, nabe (soup or stew), rice, etc.
The first key to an incredible meal is ingredients. You just can’t do it without the right stuff. Everywhere in Japan we were served real fresh grated wasabi. It’s almost nothing like the powdered kind! Delicious, refreshing, not overly horseradish-y at all. We saw it for sale in the market in Kyoto for about $6 a root. If only they could be had here for that! These were Fedexed from the West Coast:
The Rhizome Fairy arrived! #freshwasabi #duckday16
A photo posted by Cecilia Tan (@ctan_writer) on Nov 23, 2016 at 11:54am PST
The other thing we had every day in Japan in some way, shape, or form was yuzu. Yuzu is rare here. I see Meyer lemons and even Buddha’s Hands in Whole Foods regularly, but only once have I ever found fresh yuzu in Massachusetts, at a Japanese grocery that no longer exists. After we’d been traveling for about a week I said to corwin, you know what? I’m not sick of yuzu yet. By the end of the trip, we still weren’t sick of it. (We also never got tired of Japanese food.)
A video posted by Cecilia Tan (@ctan_writer) on Nov 24, 2016 at 1:51pm PST
Here’s the menu we handed out to our guests:
Here's what the menu we gave our guests looks like #duckday16
A photo posted by Cecilia Tan (@ctan_writer) on Nov 24, 2016 at 8:03pm PST
Duck Day 2016
Kaiseki
kai·se·ki (pr. kīsekē/)
noun, Japanese, from kai (from kaichu ‘kimono pocket’) + seki ‘stone.’
a style of traditional Japanese cuisine in which
a series of very small, intricate dishes are prepared.
一 Seasonal
Uni
with cran-boshi, purple potato puree, and chips of kale and sweet potato
paired with Dove Tail Omori nigori (unfiltered) sake
All ingredients local, including the Dove Tail Sake (Waltham, Mass.), Maine uni, cranberries pickled ume boshi style.
A photo posted by Cecilia Tan (@ctan_writer) on Nov 24, 2016 at 6:34pm PST
Opening course fully plated with UNI! Maine uni. #duckday16
A photo posted by Cecilia Tan (@ctan_writer) on Nov 24, 2016 at 6:36pm PST
二 Sashimi
Charcuterie of Duck
with fresh wasabi, house made gari and pickles
Okay so instead of taking “sashimi” literally, we did it as a cold duck charcuterie course, with a cured duck breast, duck sausage, and a duck liver mousse on purple daikon. With miso-pickled eggplant (nasu), cucumbers pickled in sake lees, a daikon pickle, and pickled ginger.
Second course "sashimi" (duck charcuterie and Japanese style pickles & fresh wasabi) #duckday16
A photo posted by Cecilia Tan (@ctan_writer) on Nov 24, 2016 at 6:37pm PST
三 Steamed
Dumplings
Duck Shumai, Chive Dumpling, with chili garlic sauce
paired with Oorong Chu-Hi (chilled carbonated oolong tea with shochu)
These are not Japanese, of course. Our meals are often Asian fusion and it’s my tradition to usually try to tackle some kind of Chinese wonton or dumpling. As usual I cannot recommend enough Andrea Nguyen’s book ASIAN DUMPLINGS if you want to learn to make them yourself. This was my first time every tackling traditional shu mai (but with ground duck instead of ground pork, zomg delicious) and the crystal green chive dumplings I love at dim sum. (Chinese chives are much bigger and milder than what we usually call chives.)
Duck shumai! First time I'm making shumai from scratch #duckday16
A photo posted by Cecilia Tan (@ctan_writer) on Nov 24, 2016 at 7:59pm PST
Chive dumplings! My first time making these. #duckday16
A photo posted by Cecilia Tan (@ctan_writer) on Nov 24, 2016 at 7:56pm PST
After steaming, the chive dumplings were then pan fried.
The plated dumpling course. Spiral cut carrots, homemade chili
