For those of you who aren’t regular viewers Michiba is the Japanese Iron Chef in the blue outfit, who is the least defeated of all of the Iron Chefs. Michiba has several restaurants but we had heard that the Ginza one Restaurant Kaishoku Michiba was his signature one. Although we didn’t spot the master himself (we guessed he probably wouldn’t be there for a lunch session) we did meet his daughter. In Japan, lunch set menus are a very reasonably priced way of eating at fairly expensive restaurants. Dinner, of course, is another matter and price bracket all together!

The restaurant was very busy and since we had a last minute booking, the were able to fit us in from 12noon -1.30pm. There were two menus to choose from but since time was a factor the waiter politely suggested that the first one would be best. We had:

New Year’s Goho-zen Menu

¥3150 (about $32AUD)

Hors d’oeuvre
steamed sushi wrapped in a bamboo leaf and sprinkled with salmon eggs
(sushi rice filled with bamboo shoot, egg, shrimp and shiitake mushroom)

The Hors d’oeuvre was a beautifully decorated and delicately flavoured sushi rice with a generous smattering of salmon eggs (yum!). And who knew you could serve sushi hot despite all of those jokes about people microwaving their raw sushi?

Main course
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