Hachikian (chicken restaurant) はちきあん

OK...so its a chicken shop... but they serve duck too!

Its a pretty big call to make but Hachikian serves some of the best chicken I have ever eaten. And two plates of it were raw.  This restaurant is rather famous in Kyoto and with good reason. They specialise in.. you guessed it - chicken.. and eggs of course. Both as fresh as a daisy... but far more delicious. The restaurant has several outlets (this main store being just north of Marutamachi on Kawabata dori) and their own farm in Shiga where all the chicken and eggs are lovingly tended to. 

When we first entered the restaurant the poor staff looked a little perplexed.. how would they communicate with us...? Clearly they do not receive a lot of foreign visitors - which is a shame - but chicken sashimi, one of the many dishes in the course menu tends to scare even some of the more adventurous eaters away. 

The staff, including the owner (right hand side in pic above) were ever so polite and, quite frankly, a little relieved when they realised I could speak a little Japanese. In fact they seemed overjoyed and went out of their way to welcome us and explain what we were eating and regularly checked in to see that we were OK throughout the meal. They were visibly (and audibly) amused that we had ventured in initially - but by the end of the evening they were posing for photos and gave us a gift of sweet egg yolky biscuits to take home, asking us to please return. 

We started with this rich but clean flavoured chicken soup - soothing to say the least. 

Two different kinds of chicken tataki- very lightly seared chicken - so it was almost sashimi (but not quite)- above with tade (an antibacterial water pepper) and myoga (Japanese ginger bud - aromatic and also quite peppery) in a soy and sesame sauce.  Below, in a ground daikon dressing. 

appetisers including a dashi jelly with chicken and dashi maki (omelette roll)

Steamed chicken on finely sliced raw, but very sweet, onions and good soy - simple and sublime

A meaty chicken wing, grilled to perfection - just lightly salted to let the rich chicken flavours shine

this little fella above, in the frame on the wall, is the restaurant mascot - look for his face on the signage outside to make sure you are in the right place!

 Chawan mushi - silken smooth. perfection. Nothing inside - just eggs and dashi.

Chawan mushi, literally translating as steamed tea cup  - is referred to as a soup as the savoury custard separates from the stock leaving a luscious clear broth in the base of the cup. Usually a chawan mushi contains several ingredients - eg chicken, prawn and various vegetables and mitsuba. Sometimes it comes adorned with an ankake sauce. and although usually served in individual cups - it can also be made in a large bowl for sharing at home. 

mmmm... nurturing.

Now this wee snackette contained the kind of crunchy little bites that I tend to be drawn to - some crisp chicken skin, fried tsukune (seasoned meatballs) and a little play on kyoto sweet - yatsuhashi or otabe ( a cinnamon dough filled with red beans). In this case a spring roll wrapper encased a cinnamon scented chicken mince, with just a hint of sweetness - like a bstilla! very moreish...no pun intended.  The token green is a deep fried shishito pepper. 

Udon topped with with chunks of duck in a duck broth with sansho and negi - and pickles to the side. Wonderfully aromatic and cleansing. 

When the eggs are this good - and we are talking, thick, sweet, creamy, non eggy yolks - you can't turn down the opportunity to try the tamago kake gohan - where the raw egg is mixed in with hot rice. Normally a special soy is offered to pour over but the flavour of this is so delicate and pure you would be wasting a very fine egg to add anything else...

Dessert was a yuzu sherbet - with whipped egg whites used to lighten the icy mix. The perfect finish to this excellent meal of high quality poultry and eggs. 

Dinner ended up being about 6000 yen per head - its not cheap. But the lunch time meal is, according to several sources, excellent value if you just want the opportunity to sample this local specialty restaurant's cuisine. 

Mayumi's Kitchen

My friend Mayumi is a natural born cook and a wonderful source of foodie information for me. I'm constantly picking up hints and tips about recipes and Japanese food culture. Mayumi was taught how to cook from an early age by her mother - a tradition that has been dying out in Japan over the last few decades.  

Recently I was invited to a wonderful dinner with her family and she allowed me to snap away at some of her creations.  Tempura of early spring vegetables, a huge chawan mushi,  kaki furai (fried oysters),  furofuki daikon and tofu with homemade miso, daikon greens with chirimen and umeboshi,  yuba donburi and pickles.  Heaven. 

After which we retreated to a cosy room upstairs (where Mayumi performs tea ceremony for friends and spends quiet time sewing together the most gorgeous crafty projects - this lady is truly talented in the home arts!) for coffee and a custard cream pie baked by Myong Hee!

In the kitchen this week...

A small triumph. I have finally finished recipe testing for the new book! uhhh, that's not completely accurate as I do intend to retest a few things from my tiny kitchen in Kyoto but for now it feels good to have completed round one.

Whilst mine were possibly not the neatest Soba (buckwheat) noodles ever kneaded into submission the slippery, mottled grey slurpables tasted pretty damn fine regardless. I'll own the fact that tidiness is not my key strength and shall conveniently buy into the idea that 'creatives' are supposed to be messy -  and that is all that shall be said on the matter. Thank you. My hands are over my ears, eyes shut tight, shaking my head defiantly...

The chawan mushi (steamed savoury custards) were the silkiest batch yet and the Tako no Yawarakani (tender simmered octopus) well and truly lived up to its name. Like a hot splade through butter. My Senbei (rice crackers), although "scrumlicious" according to one source,  varied dramatically in texture from batch to batch and shall remain a work in progress. Dastardly humidity has wreaked havoc on my rice flour causing it to behave somewhat erratically.  If you see me in the street arguing with myself over the disparity between rice flours from Japan, Thailand and China and the curiosities of the various brands within each category in conjunction with certain hideous, anti-baking weather conditions  - take my advice and run for the hills lest you catch the fever.

Deserving a small celebration I managed to sneak in a fab meal at Duke Bistro last night (above Darlo's  Flinders Hotel where (flashback alert) a lifetime ago,  I may have precociously strutted my stuff on the bar in a dance off with local drag queens. Now, of course, I'd be lucky if I managed to hoist myself onto a bar stool - but I digress).  So what do 3 food writers and a flamboyant restaurateur order for snacks - everything on the menu that's what! And if we hadn't asked the handsome young men behind the bar to "just bring us whatever" (shorthand for please concoct me something divine Mr Mixologist) I may have better recall of the meal. What I do know is that the wonderfully quirky Mitchell of Orr and his mate "Limbo" are producing some mighty "good tucker" to quote one of our party. I also have it under good authority that I shall return... and yes, the fried wings with thick n creamy coleslaw milk and hot sauce are as good as everyone says. The tiny radish in dashi butter were sensational in their simplicity and the morcilla with crispy pigs ear should never leave the menu. I want now.

Of course getting out of bed at 6am to make a flight to Melbourne for meetings was a bit of a struggle and a reminder why I shouldn't drink with friends born the decade or so after me - but coffee was my hero.   An over-enthusiastic stream of warm breast milk from seat 25F was not entirely refreshing ( I don't recommend it as a hangover cure)  however it jolted me further into consciousness and a quick afternoon's drenching in an unexpected, torrential downpour took care of much of the residual matter.

After drying off at Cumulus I swung by a friend's place for half a cup of herbal tea on the return leg to the airport and was savaged by newly acquired Persian kitten. Cute but just a little bit evil. Tiny teethmarks are the new ankle-bracelets.  Sleep deprived and inspired by said cat  -tinned tuna on quinoa crackers was about all I could muster for dinner and ... look into my eyes, look into my eyes... 123, now sleep!