As a special we are allowed into the kitchen that's usually a no-go but
we're allowed to show you guys so let's have a look.
It's a real shark skin? - Yes
WHAT?!
After eating your heart will feel satisfied.
You're palate will feel satisfied too.
If you feel that beauty, I would be happy.
Out of the hot bath and right into the first floor because here is the restaurant and
if you follow me... what sets a restaurant in a Ryokan apart from a restaurant, for
example if you go to a hotel, is the Japanese cuisine. S o they use for example
an environmentally free way of fishing here. It's like the Kada method.
You can see it's really fresh right in front of us an there's lots of English here
which I'm really happy about. It explains like red sea bream rice ball from KATA
high-quality freshness and so... they're really proud of the way they fish
and prepare it.
And international chef! I found this. Is that real? That's real,
that's not a picture that's actually the uniform. "It says Japan Hina no Yuu"
and this international chef Hiroto Akama has even got like a medal or
something for that. That's not a picture it's actually a real uniform in here.
There's another one here... let's find out ... Hiroto Akama... okay he is the master
chef of Hina no Yuu where we are right now, it's a hot spring hotel located in
KADA Wakayama Prefecture and appeared in many TV programs as an expert of
Washoku, Japanese traditional dish so he knows what he's talking!
"Serving as an acting master of JACA Japan Authorized Cooks Authorization
I didn't even know something like this existed! I think we're in for a
treat today. We're in for a treat! I am super ready for this now!
As a special we are allowed into the kitchen, that's usually a no-go but we're
allowed show you guys so let's have a look...
I will disturb you guys for a moment...
I have never ever ever seen a traditional Ryokan kitchen ...
It's huge. There's so many people working at the same time
And you can see some of the foods are already being here prepared
Everyone has something to do everyone's very busy...
Just look at the attention to detail!
Look at that that looks more like a flower bouquet than actually
something to eat
Wow just look at this room...
T hat is posh ladies and gentlemen
Okay I already got the first appetizer could you explain what this is?
This is a saki zuke course. It's basically consomme panna cotta with
fiddlehead fern, carrot and sea urchin garnished with kinome.
How many courses are actually coming?
Six courses HASSUN
The menu it's like... hand drawn as well isn't it with all the details on it.
Yes the menu is hand drawn by our chef Hiroto Akama...
Let's eat.
It's so pretty... look there's a little cherry blossom leaf style on this...
right can maybe... eat that together... it is soft like a panna cotta
I wish I could hold us up a little prettier. Ok let's try.
That's just what do you want for a starter it just really it works up your
appetite it's not too strong in taste, but you get a nice aroma right
at the start.
I'm not sure if this is Sashimi or Ikebana. So what is all of this on here?
First we have the sashimi, you have yellowtail, Maguro (Tuna) Tai,
which Kada is famous for... and Hachiou which is bell fish
What is that little thingy here, the wooden thing with the green stuff?
That's a sharkskin paddle and then this is fresh wasabi. You use it to grate
wasabi, which ... if you prefer to have wasabi with Sashimi you can enjoy it
That's real wasabi but it's like super rare! You don't see real wasabi.
Yeah it is a little rare even in Japan, a lot of people use kind of like
Substitute stuff?
A synthetic wasabi but here we use all fresh wasabi.
It's a little bit sweeter here.
So our fish are directly from here. The the fish market is literally maybe 150 feet walking.
I could actually see the fish market from the hot spring upstairs.
You can you can see all the boats the fishing boats. They
usually start about 4:30 in the morning so when I was living here, they'd wake
you up. You can hear all the boats running. All the fish come in fresh.
The Sashimi is always fresh here.
How do I do the wasabi then? It's the first time there's fresh wasabi...
May I? Take the wasabi with the grater ...
In a circular motion? - Yes
And the skin stays on? - Yes
It's called oroshi. It is shark skin. - Is it real shark skin?
- Yes. - WHAT?!
It's shark skin on top of wood? - Yes you can right there
Right okay, try? - Absolutely.
Oh Wasabi, just like that?
Super fresh wasabi ...
That's actually quite a lot if you know the taste of wasabi.
Be brave! - Okay...
Oh, Uuuuh...
Tt is sweet but it has like a kick that comes in afterwards...
it but it doesn't hit your nose as much as it as the synthetic stuff does.
It doesn't kick like synthetic wasabi
Synthetic wasabi kind of burns for your nose but this one has like a nice burn
on your tongue as well... this is nice ...
I prefer this!
Okay so first of all pick up some of the fresh wasabi ...
Grab yourself your fish, so this one here is the Tai sea bream
right... and then this one here...
That's the sashimi soy sauce.
Oh have it with salt? Ok just a little bit of salt.
Fold it all up...
Oooh I'm getting kind of nervous...
Wow I just look at this! This looks so good!
Mmm-hmm
Wow this is so soft and has a really good bite to it at the same time
Mm-hmm! And the salt fits perfectly! get it we'll
It's Yellowtail Hamachi.
What do you recommend for this one? - Kukki wasabi.
This one here? Is that kukki wasabi?
Kukki wasabi.
I've never tried kukki wasabi, but this one is kukki wasabii.
It goes best with this one, yellowtail.
This is so good. Eating sashimi has never been so much fun
because there's so many flavors to enjoy. This works together perfectly.
Now, I've never seen a thing like that. I don't even know how to describe
it. It looks like, I don't even know like a vase maybe?
What is it?
Have you ever seen layered bento? So it's almost like surprise surprise surprise
So there are different things on each layer? - Yes
three-two-one ...
This looks like fish eggs?
Actually it's daikon oroshi (grated raddish) with togarashi (spice) and Negi (onions)
So that's layer number one and then layer number ...
Wow what is that?
So this is the one gaori dish. It's Tai with wakame from here in Kada.
As well as shiitake dashi and kombu. A nd it's garnished with fresh chopped Negi.
... or green onions, sorry.
Oh okay
There we go and let's dip it!
Dip dip.
MMMMMH!
So this fish, this time it's not raw, this one is boiled?
Steamed! - Steamed!
It also has fresh Shiitake, it also has amounts of the third amino acid...
If there was a vegetarian customer, and you didn't want the taste from the fish...
you could substitute with shiitake and still get that UMAMI flavor.
Even vegetarians can try the Umami flavor.
My whole palate is like filled with that umami taste... It's great.
This one doesn't look look like a meal...
but like a Japanese garden. You have trees going through it and bushes and
flowers. I don't even know where to start eating. So what can I
find on my plate right now?
This course is called the Hassun and it
basically captures the image of the season. Right now it's spring so you
can see the sakura bamboo is now growing ... and a lot of the seasonal vegetables
that are used in this dish are all from spring season.
Where do I start eating? Same thing with the sushi. Is there a trick to it?
You want to start with the vegetables because they're less in the umami
flavor. If you started with the meat, it would kind of like overpower the
vegetable dishes.
So same thing with the fish itself, if you have sashimi: start
with the white fish first and then work your way towards the really rich in
flavor fish. Like usually the red fishes.
Can I take this off? Like with me?
♡
Firefly squid! That has like the coolest name ever!
I will eat the whole thing. - Yeah go for it.
That's the thing like nothing I've eaten so far out of all the fish, has like a fishy
taste to it. All of it just tastes of the actual freshness yeah how do you
describe it? That's pretty good.
This is the ONMONO. It's a steamed course.
Inside is Kare (fish) which is how to describe....
basically like baby fluke or flounder if you're familiar with those fish.
Nasu, which is eggplant, as well as Fuu which is like a gluten cake
and a Japanese broccoli rube.
That's the KARE fish. You can see the flour is on top it's wonderful.
It's still steaming hot. Can you see that?
mmm ♡
Now the final course we will enjoy Ochazuke style, so first of all
I'm going to pick up one, this fish. Is that also red sea bream yes?
Yes and goma tare (sesame sauce).
Sesame sauce.
Look at that. Wow.
It's quite a large bite but I'm gonna try...
♡
Delicious sauce right? - The sauce is delicious!
Just have a look! Mmmmh!
So there's hot soup here as well...
Whoa, it smells so good! You can see that the color of the fish slightly changes
from the heat.
I'm gonna take my spoon for Ochazuke you're allowed to take a spoon.
Wow it tastes again completely different! I'm like foooofood heaven!
It tastes really different again if you add it actually as a part of the soup...
it goes so well with the rice, so fragrant!
Really strong flavor!
Finally we arrived at the dessert course now what is that jelly-like thing on top?
That's a jelly with Kanten and sake pudding and the fruits are kiwi, mikan and
strawberry Ichigo.
There's a bit of anin in it as well I heard earlier
Yes yes it does!
You said something about fruits, wakayama fruits.
Wakayama is the fruit kingdom of Japan ... so we're really really big on fruits here
very very famous for mikan. There's a lot of mikan omiyage in the front .
As well as persimmon and also some melons. Melons are very
popular here in Japan.
Fruit Kingdom! Let's taste some of the fruits of the fruit
Kingdom of Japan.
A little bit of everything
♡
That's fuity and zesty and really cleanses the pallate
Right after a lovely meal you want to have that too just finish up and give you that
little bit for your second stomach, the "betsubara" (for the sweet tooth).
I am Akama Hiroto, the chief chef of the Hina no Yuu Restaurant.
We heard it we heard a lot about him from you.
Now I wanna ask you, what concept do you have for this restaurant and food?
The concept I have for my food is...
Kind to the body. Kind to the women. That's my number one aim.
You are what you eat.
Having foods that are bad for you in your daily diet or on your travels is not good.
So visitors and women, will be happy about that. Their hearts will be satisfied,
Of course their palate will feel satisfied too.
And if good food makes their skin better, they will be happy too.
What do you care about when you make your first class dishes?
Fresh items, freshly plucked items,
and also local ingredients.
That's the highest priority.
It also looked amazing. I saw flowers and such.
Like I said, I want to use local ingredients.
Flowers that are currently blooming, edible weeds and such...
I am not sure how to express it differently. Weeds and such
I include them into my meals.
I make dishes that let the visitor feel the current season.
What do you foreign customers say?
My foreign customers are very pleased.
They often say they have never seen dishes like mine before.
You have recruited one foreigner as chef in your kitchen.
How did you link up with him?
We first linked up via Instagram. - What?
He send me an application via Instagram.
He said he wanted to learn at my restaurant.
And I invited him to come.
That's how it started.
This was really really so delicious!
Thank you both. It was a real feast.
You can see a lot of dolls all around...
It's fascinating what people have
donated and brought here for the shrine to look after....
why underwear I'm gonna
make my offering now
one of their talismans here is so beautiful it's actually cherry blossoms
you