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.