Kaiseki (会席): our washoku dinner tonight (pics)
Here's a follow up to the washoku post on Presentation Zen. Kaiseki is a kind of full course washoku that you have in fancy restaurants (and sometimes not so fancy ones). There are two kinds of Kaiseki I think. The kind we had tonight was this: 会席 (the kanji are meet and seat -- there is a feeling that this is the kind of meal prepared for special guests, etc.). The original kaiseki I think was this: 懐石 which goes back to tea ceremony and simple foods served as part of the art of having tea back in the day. Sorry, I have to review the history of Kaiseki a bit, but in any event, the meal we had tonight was a form of washoku and it definitely embodied the five principles of washoku. The pics do not look so great off my cheap camera (bad lighting, etc. -- but it gives you an idea... ).
Above are the pics in order of the dishes being served. In this case not everything is served at the same time. There are many courses -- you can see the menu at top. The first thing served was the appetizer made of yam and uni (sea urchin), etc.
