Traditional Japanese Meal - short lunch version

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I really wish I had brought my camera with me to my welcome party back in February. It was a multiple course traditional Japanese dinner very similar to this party we held for Naomi sensei. Naomi’s meal was the lunch version of mine so there were only seven courses instead of nine. However, this establishment boasted amazing food presentation. The food was carefully prepared and arranged. Each dish also had more variety and I felt it was more traditional than the one we had visited back in February.

First course: Appetizers: Shrimp, some sort of egg roll and spring roll, edamame, and something in a seashell on the main dish. In the colorful tray of dishes there was fish in miso sauce in the center and strange foods both to the right and left. (Often in Japan I eat things and don’t know what they are. Sometimes I ask, but after discovering that the meat I ate was horse tongue one time I decided that sometimes ignorance is better.) (Horse is delicious by the way, even the tongue.)

Second course: Sashimi: Sashimi is raw cuts of meat, not to be confused with sushi which is meat (raw or cooked) and other things, such as egg, on rice. The butterfly on the dish was cut out of fruit. The way that the shrimp is peeled back as well as the flower made out of ika (squid) and fish egg was really cool. Almost too pretty to eat, but I love sashimi too much to pass it up. ^_^

Third course: Eel on green tea soba noodles in fish stock with grated yam on top: I love eel and right now it is the end of eel season in Japan. (Currently, it is August.) You can buy it in every grocery store already cooked (Yummy!). Food is very seasonal in Japan and it was the beginning of eel season when we went here.

Fourth course: Tempura: Hopefully everyone has experienced the deep fried yumminess that is tempura. By the way, in America they don’t make it as well. It is sooo much better in Japan. =P

Fifth and sixth courses: Miso soup and sushi: Before I remembered to take the picture I downed the pieces of sushi with salmon and tuna on top. ^_^

Seventh course: Seasonal fruit: Usually the traditional dessert in a Japanese meal is fruit, usually melon, but it all depends on the season.

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