Adventures in Japan no. 20

Last night I went out for dinner at Cous-Cous (a French restaurant in Yonago) with 2 of my English students, Masumi and Masami. Masumi is an advanced English speaker who makes a living selling Issey Miyake and goes to wine parties as a hobby. Masami is a beginning English speaker and also a customer of Masumi's. Masumi was a fantastic translator, though after we'd collectively consumed two bottles of wine, it became a little more difficult to understand her.

Masumi chose a 5 course seafood menu for our meal. I know fish is quite popular in Provence and most of the south of France, but I guarantee that sashimi-style raw fish isn't French. What would Julia Child think?

For the first course we were served an egg custard full of assorted seafood – I believe we had cod and lobster.

The second course was a stack of sashimi piled on top of a tomato wedge and a half of a radish – covered with a gelatinous fish consommé. It was probably my least favorite of the dishes, but it was still pretty good. The flavor of the consommé was very delicate and matched nicely with one of the bottles of Italian white that Masumi brought to the restaurant.

The third course was Shimane (a near prefecture) beef. It was amazing. Beef in Japan is so expensive and extensively marbled. It was sliced and tossed with wild greens and a warm mustard vinaigrette.

For the fourth course we had abalone and a small lobster in an escargot sauce. This was fantastic! I was a little put-off seeing Masumi eating the entire lobster, shell and all. The abalone was wonderful – very firm meat for a shellfish, and the escargot sauce paired so nicely with it – but I felt a little guilty eating an endangered species, so I asked if I could take the shells home. In Japan it's unheard of to bring leftovers home from a restaurant, so my request was received with laughs. I might not have normally asked to bring the shells of the fish I was consuming home, but I'd had a lot to drink and was really feeling the guilt from the abalone.

For desert we had a small piece (the size of a wine cork) of chocolate cake and frozen yogurt.

We ordered a cheese tray as an excuse to finish off the bottle of Italian red that Masumi brought, and finished dinner with double espressos.

I woke-up this morning a little groggy and forgot about the two napkin-wrapped abalone shells in my purse. Now my purse smells like fish. A small price to pay for a fantastic night.