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It's white truffle season again, and somehow I haven't been as enthusiastic this year as I have been in years past. I have, in fact, only tasted it once this season at a dinner in Paris. So when someone asked if we wanted to join a dinner with white truffle at
Nikushou, I was happy to go along.
Japanese snow crab with ponzu jelly and Shizuoka tomato - starting a meal here with Japanese snow crab (松葉蟹) seasoned with
ponzu (ポン酢) jelly is always a good idea.
Next up is a cup of warm
somen (素麺) with a white miso broth, which came topped with an oyster
Boss figured that we should have white truffle with this... but neglected to train his staff on shaving technique...
The
somen came from Himi (氷見) in Toyama Prefecture (富山県). I'm glad that I got the oyster instead of fish cum. I thought the truffle worked fine with the white miso.
Next came the raw seafood platter:
Surf clam (北寄貝) - with some
sudachi (酢橘) juice. Very fresh and sweet.
Pacific saury (秋刀魚)
Monkfish liver (あん肝) - this was really smooth, and not too fatty... if one can believe it. Somehow the white truffle brings more sweetness out from the liver.
Australian ox tongue (オーストラリア牛タン) - the perennial crowd favorite. Very springy and crunchy. Wonderful texture.
Hanging tender from Saga (佐賀サガリ)
Wagyu hotpot - needless to say this was very, very tender and tasty. Apparently the recipe for this came from
Kanda (かんだ), but now white truffle has replaced
matsutake (松茸). The presence of
yuzu (柚子) in the sauce added a lovely fragrance to it.
Kumamoto sirloin - is this more of the usual?
Actually, no. This was the first time that I've been served
sukiyaki (すき焼き) here, and of course sirloin works really well. They've cut the big slice into 2 pieces for us this time, with the first piece being served "as is".
I was actually expecting more sauce but RAW Yeah has obviously decided to do his own thing...
The second piece was served with white truffle on top. Definitely worked well together!
Apparently this is a thing here at
Nikushou, but somehow I've never had it.
Scrambled eggs were made in the same pot that the
sukiyaki was done in, soaking up all the leftover soy sauce that now carry some charring. Serve over rice, and you've got happy mouths.
Finally, we tried to use up some of the leftover truffle by sprinking it over some ice cream. We've done this many times before, but it works better with vanilla ice cream.
Given that I drank too much at lunch and was still suffering the effects of being inebriated during the day, I decided to bring along just one bottle of wine for dinner.
1999 Etude Cabernet Sauvignon - drank about 1 hour after decanting. Still kinda sweet on the palate, and a little ripe now, like stewed prunes but without the acidic profile. After 2 hours this was still going strong. After more than 20 years the wine was smooth on the palate, but that doesn't mean it's light on the palate. Still has very good concentration.
I'm glad we took it relatively easy tonight, because I definitely didn't need another big meal after lunch. Happy to have done the wagyu and white truffle combination.
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