Kinosaki Kaiseki 1

Nothing beats an onsen holiday, pottering around Japanese style rooms in yukata doing nothing but drinking, eating and bathing, it's my kind of holiday. Onsen vacations aren't often cheap but the room cost includes amazing food, our room at the Oyado Seri Onsen Ryokan was 16 000 Yen per person (around $180) but included this dinner that would have easily run to $100 on its own in Sydney and an equally large breakfast. Additionally they gave us free tickets to all the baths in town and transported us for our entire stay meaning no entertainment, food or taxi costs the entire time.

Much as formal Western dining follows a pattern of appetiser, fish, poultry, meat and so forth formal Japanese dining has a pattern of appetiser, raw dish, simmered dish, grilled dish, rice and dessert; with additional courses at the behest of the chef.

From Goth Goes Otaku 2 Kinosaki Onsen

Our room in the Onsen Ryokan



My place setting and the beginning of the appetiser course



Squid, ebi prawn and sea snail



Fresh local crab, during Winter the Kinosaki special is snow crab from the sea of Japan. This came with a yuzo and mirin sauce that I am unable to find a recipe for but was mouth wateringly amazing and had both the boy and I, not usual crab fans in histerics.



Sashimi boat including whole trout, squid, snapper, ebi, salmon, scallop and kingfish.

The entire boat was mirrored so that we each had the full set of sashimi courses.



Red bean rice with broiled prawns in a fish stock bouillabase



Grilled mackerel with lima bean and pickled ginger shoots



Hand spun spinach udon with gratted yam, wasabi, salmon roe and sturgeon roe (caviar)



Wagyu beef, peppers, onions and asparagus for grilling





Fugu, sugar snap bean and eggplant tempura





Shelfish and fern osuimono



Spinach and white fish cha-han



Tsukemono



Gen-mai-cha - toasted rice tea with a glass of ume-shu (plum wine) on the rocks behind it



Local vanilla ice cream and kiwi fruit



One of the other very old world nuances of onsen ryokans is that you are often appointed a parlour maid to serve you your food and meet your needs during your stay. This is our lovely server Yoko who was more than happy to help us out by naming the ingredients we didn't recognise and the importance of each item.