Kappo Yu Restaurant

Having read and read about Kappo Yu Japanese Restaurant I just knew I had to try it.  A 10 course set menu that changes every night.  Every night.  I could go there again, tonight, the very next night after I have eaten there and have a totally new 10 course meal.  Incredible.

I walked to the restaurant last night as it was a wonderfully mild evening.  The restaurant is about 2 miles from our apartment and the walk takes about 30 minutes - unless you are snapping pictures, as I do, then it's about 45 minutes. The walk took me into the heart of the Former French Concession, (Chinese Govt. please note, I have used the word 'Former' in my description - no fine please. More on this later) This area is what I consider the most beautiful part of Shanghai.  Tree lined streets, old art deco apartment buildings, wonderful old lane homes or old mansions tucked away behind walls.

 I turned the corner on to the quiet side street of Wuxing Lu.  My steps quickened in anticipation of seeing the restaurant. What does it look like, I wondered?

 Number 33 Wuxing Lu, fitted out with it's best smoking section - outdoors thank goodness!

Here we are at the front door, granted a booking at 6:30pm seems a wee bit early to start such a grand dinner but there are only two seating's and beginning a 10 course dinner at 9pm seemed too late a start. 

 It's a small restaurant with 10 seats at the counter and two tatami rooms.

 As the reservation was for 6:30, and I believe an on time arrival as polite and important, I was on time.  In addition a lot of time would be needed to eat and savor a 10 course meal!  Of course this is China and not surprisingly no one else had arrived.  Fortunately the Chef - Yohe Terada, does not wait until all 10 guests have arrived to begin the meal service.

 The menu looked interesting but my eyes flashed on to one dish that I wondered if I would even like a little bit. Yellow pepper mousse with Sea Urchin.  The kind waitress asked if there was anything on the menu that I didn't eat - implying that a) she could omit it or b) she would make a replacement.  I am not sure which but I quietly gulped and said: well, I don't particularly like sea urchin.  Mind you I had it once, 26 years ago at a Japanese restaurant called Kabuki next to my college in Danbury, CT.  Believe it or not Danbury,CT is not  known for it's prowess in Japanese cuisine and me being all of 19 years old at the time of the first and only tasting of Sea Urchin, I thought perhaps I should buck up and try it again.  Oh, and for those of you who know me well, I am not a pepper lover. Hot spicy peppers no problem, green peppers and such not my favorite flavor.  The waitress who had inquired about any eating disabilities I might have paused and said the Sea Urchin is delicious here I should try it.  I thought about it for 3 seconds and said, everything on the menu looks lovely and I can't wait to try everything.

 

 Our fearless Chef Yohe!

The long counter was set with these tiny vases with two sprigs of tiny flowers in each.

 Preparing the first course.

 The first course, I was told, had a substitution as the Bonito was not available so large red shrimp would be served instead. That seemed like a reasonable exchange to me.  The red thing in the back is a very large thin slice of beet which has been deep fried just like a potato chip! The honey mustard sauce was a perfect blend of sweet, salt and spice.

 As you can see I didn't like it at all!  For this type of meal, you can eat everything on your plate, nothing is "just for garnish" you are suppose to eat all the bits to get the full flavor and taste.  And yes I ate the fried shrimp head.  Once again proving that fish heads of any sort, cooked in any style, even everyone's favorite - fried - does not taste good.   The rest of the items on the plate were perfection!

Guests began arriving at about 7pm, and I was on to my second course! The presentation for each course was thoughtful and beautiful.  The second course was crab with vegetables, what looks like an egg at the back of the dish is squash that was scooped out into a ball shape and next to it a piece cut into a rectangle.  Everything was done so carefully.

 What's this you ask?  I asked the same thing.  Fresh unpeeled wasabi.  Wow!

 After a quick peel and grind on the porcelain plate grinder....

 the next thing you know it's being served to me! Here we have some sashimi  flown in from Japan and Spain.  It was so fresh and tasty.

 One more delicious bite.

The fourth course - Yellow pepper mousse with sea urchin was, if you can believe it, by far my favorite.  It was incredible. A  yellow pepper mousse cream (a bit like soft melted ice cream) was placed on top of the sea urchin with sliced red pepper and a sweet salty sauce on the bottom.  It was perfection.  I am so glad I didn't reject it.

A bit of tempura  with smoked salt.  Smoked salt?  It did indeed have a smokey taste. This course was only OK, maybe my least favorite but tasty nevertheless.

One of 'strange' fruits' I have be introduced to here in China a type of berry called Yangmei. It becomes ripe in May/June and is a little tart.  The inside has a stone the size of a cherry. This refreshing bite had cold sake jelly on top, really it was just very very cold jello. This dish was great!!!

Above it a plate of fresh yangmei berries.  They are very tasty but you must be careful when you eat them as they will stain everything!

On to the seventh course.......beautiful small plate with cover but once removed you realized you had to be an adventurous eater!

This was the grilled sweet fish with broad bean sauce.  The small orange veg on the left side is a mini squash. I wonder about how these are grown, they are so petite.  The whole fish can be eaten, yes even the head. And as it was the size of a large marble I did pop it in my mouth and eat it, yup still tastes funny.  You would think I had learned that lesson at course one.  The rest of the fish tasted nice, sweet white flesh in a green bean puree.

Course number eight, King Crab legs!!! What is happening here is a mini hot pot. The pot on the right side of the picture has soup and is heating up for me to put the fresh crab legs in for a 1 minute cooking bath. Once cooked you dip into the homemade ponzu sauce which is in the forefront of the picture.  Very very tasty. 

Course nine was more sushi in a handroll form and then came homemade desserts. Mango ice cream, panne cotta with fresh puree of strawberry (my fav) and hot sweet red bean soup(least fav).  Unfortunately my camera gave up at course eight, hey I was ready to give up at course six.  I suppose all this really means is that I have to go back and do it again to capture all ten course and have a full accounting.

It was a great experience and actually do look forward to doing it again.....maybe next year when I get hungry again.

Borneo!

As we began our decent over the island of Borneo I began to get excited for our new adventure.  Kinabalu is the highest peak in Borneo's Crocker Range and is the highest mountain in the Malay Archipelago. Mount Kinabalu is also the 20th most prominent mountain in the world by topographical prominence. (Thank you Wikipedia)

 But that's not it! It's just the Crocker Mountain Range.

And here is the entrance to our lovely hotel!

They 'found out' it was our anniversary (month), so one night our bed was decorated with rose petals. Which was a lovely gesture except for the fact the room attendant forgot to leave towels that day in the bathroom. Probably because she spent all her energy on making our bed look pretty.  Oh well, there is always a trade off.

And a nice chocolate cake with strawberries was left for us as well.

View from our balcony!

Self portrait while Tony was making himself ready for drinks at the sunset bar.

We headed to the club floor first to peruse the free hors' dourves and drinks as well as lay out our plan for the next day. Sailing, snorkeling, rainforest walk, mangrove river cruise, relax in the sun? What shall we do?

After one glass of wine we headed off to the Sunset Bar to watch our first sunset on Borneo.

It was a neat area set up on a multi-tiered wooden platform with bed-like chairs to sit on.

The Sunset Bar was hoppin', nice music and loads of people. We were told everyone comes here to watch the sunset.  The next morning we were met with brilliant blue skies and we enjoyed our breakfast out on the balcony at the club lounge.  Yes, that's sushi for breakfast. I also ate a little fruit.

We decided our plan for the day.  First a couple hours at the pool, then move to the beach at lunch time. I'd like to tell you that we struggled with this monumental decision but we really just went with how we felt at the moment. It's not too tough to be on vacation. 

With a hard day of relaxing behind us we headed once again to the club to have a refreshing watermelon juice and a view of the sunset from the back balcony of the club.

The sun set in a flame of orange and we noticed as we walked back to our room that the east view of the island was bathed in pink, very pretty and a bit startling.

I was finally able to capture a picture of the famous Mt. Kinabalu.  It is usually covered in clouds.

We did decide to take a trip to see the Proboscis Monkeys.  We went by bus with an arranged group. The drive took 2 hours and as we passed through some towns I saw this little shop.  Who knew Tony has an empire stretching to Asia. 

We were told we could possibly see wild cats as well as the monkeys. These were the only "wild" cats we saw.

Out on the boat the air was coolish (when the boat was moving) and we had a wonderful guide who taught us about the flora and fauna and kept his eyes peeled for monkeys and other wildlife.

The proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) or long-nosed monkey, known as the bekantan in Malay, is a reddish-brown arboreal Old World monkey that is endemic to the south-east Asian island of Borneo. It belongs in the monotypic genus Nasalis, although the pig-tailed langur has traditionally also been included in this genus - a treatment still preferred by some.^[3]
The monkey also goes by the Malay name monyet belanda ("Dutch monkey"), or even orang belanda ("Dutchman"), as Indonesians remarked that the Dutch colonisers often had a similarly large belly and nose. (Info and picture from Wikipedia)

Here are my shots of the monkeys in their natural habitat.

We did see two other species of monkeys - I have forgotten the names but this one is known for the hair that stands up on the top of it's head. The monkey is silver grey in color.

As night began to fall a large herd of water buffalo began crossing the river in front of us.  My camera was not able to capture the picture as the shutter has to stay open for a long time due to the low light  and I was unable to hold the camera still long enough to keep the focus. But I think you can make out what is happening here.  It was very exciting to be near the wildlife, watching them attending to their business.

Another pretty sunset.  The next part of the river ride - yes there was more was to see - the fire fly in it's natural setting.  My camera could not capture this marvelous experience but I can try to describe it to you.  Imagine being out in the dark woods (heavy with mosquito's) and all of a sudden a large bush lights up and gently pulses with teeny tiny Xmas lights.  It's a natural light show and it is magical.   As we continue to float down the dark river another tree lights up!  I could not get enough.  I was sorry for the river safari to end.

What is this magical sparkly(and fragrant) car you ask? Our cab to the other Shangri-La resort.   Tony had a golf lesson and tee time and I thought I would go with him to check it out.  What resulted was a change in resort locations.

A new beach, new room and new location 45 minuted north of our current location.  While Tony played golf I went back to the other Shangri-La resort packed our bags (Tony LOVES when I touch his stuff!) and checked us into the new location.

View from the lobby and lobby.

After the surprise was organized I settled into the golf club to wait for Tony and had a delicious raspberry lime club soda.  There was fresh puree of raspberry and fresh lime mixed with club soda - no funny tasting syrups here. It was the best drink I had all week.  As I waited I just knew Tony was going to be pleased that I changed the hotel. He would not have to get into the sparkly, smelly car and drive the 45 minutes back to the first resort.  It was just a 5 minute walk up the hill to our new digs!

This room was a bit nicer then the first and Tony was quite pleased! The outdoor balcony even had a bathtub!

Our new pool with the rainforest nature reserve just behind it.

Another fantastic sunset!

Tony took me to dinner at this wonderful seafood restaurant call Coast.  The chandeliers are suppose to look like jellyfish. Pretty cool!

The next morning we headed to the nature reserve where some wonderful Orang Utan live.  We were (hopefully) going to see some up close and then walk along the canopy walk and enjoy the cool shady rain forest trails.

This little guy came swinging right toward us!

The nature reserve does feed them so we were fairly confident that we would see at least one Orang Utan.
Next, a nice walk along the canopy.

View from up top, our beach and the resorts' sailing gear!  We went out sailing in the afternoon and had an exciting time sailing around.

What a wonderful way to spend our 10th anniversary.  OK, so a month early but I was planning on celebrating all month long anyway.

If  you are curious here are the links to the two resorts.  The first one we stayed at was the Shangri-La Tanjung Aru - http://www.shangri-la.com/kotakinabalu/tanjungaruresort

And second was the Shangri-La Rasa Ria - http://www.shangri-la.com/kotakinabalu/rasariaresort

Both are spectacular!