Kappo Cuisine - Mieda

Chef Nobumasa Mieda

The excited gourmet group club peeps were all shoved into separate taxis and arrived on time. Our reservation was made for the first seating, that means we gotta finish our dinner by 8.30pm!!!! That's too short~~~~

the 9 seaters kappo restaurant is located on the main street of Susukino. Again, one would never be able to find this restaurant bcoz the entrance is so tiny and unpretentious.

What I know was the Takoyaki kiosk is just downstairs. Busy passerby were queueing up for these, but I'm not a fan of takoyaki. As in I won't crave for it. 

All of us squeezed into the tiny lift to a certain unknown floor. Once the lift opened, Chef Takashi Kimura's familiar face greeted us...

Phew we are at the right placeAAA And one step outta the lift, is already the beautiful zen restaurant. Wow this is really incredible, how Japanese make use of space, from the tiny lift lobby of 5 feet by 7 feet to this!!!



Chef Nobumasa Mieda was already bz prepping up with all the fresh ingredients he had sourced much earlier. There's only 9 seats hence we had to squeeze ourselves into the long counter table. We have been booking entire restaurants at this trip, just like a private event. Hahahahaha nice me like :)


First thing first....quenched our thirst!!!!
we were perpetually hungry and thirsty.....and like lil kids needed to be pacified with something. In this case, it was alcohol. Quick quick quick we are thirsty!!!


Captain Chris and Dr. Epicurean our sommelier.....bz analysing some rather interesting wines. So wat was it that they were discussing about?


A very rare cold climate pinot noir grown and made in Yoichi, Hokkaido. As expected, Japanese being so anal, there is definitely good technique in the wine making and purity in this bottle. Whilst I like French Burgundy reds a lot,  I also appreciate this bottle for what it is which is truly an expression of the local terroir and reflection of the vigneron's skill.

The pole/north star is being used a lot in Hokkaido. It's also the Sapporo Beer's logo. Speaking of this star, it is usually visible on the sky during summer at approximately 9.11pm. In fact you could also see the milky way if you faces north....the thing is...at this time of any day I'll be too bz drinking away to do star gazing.

Note to self: must make time for this in the future. Not very often you will have a clear sky on the north hemisphere for this and I've never seen the Milky way yet!!!!



Once the noisy and excited guests seated themselves, the first appetizer was served. Homemade yuba with fresh shrimp in a vinaigrette jelly. The green stuffs were seaweed, almost like moss texture with a fresh sea brine taste from Aomori near Hakodate. Yummmssssss, soft velvety umaminess wraps our tongue.


excuse me for my chopsticks with green stuffs but I would like to show you the cutlery holder. So cute!!! Almost like something outta the Science Class.



Kappo cuisine is really interesting. It is usually served over the counter where you could interact with the chef. Food is prepared from behind the counter straight to the diner. Almost like a sushi sashimi restaurant, a kappo chef need to master all arts of japanese cooking from cutting, boiling, stewing and frying.

So u gotta be a master of all. Definitely much more difficult than being a sushi chef. To be a kappo masterchef u need a minimum training of 10 to 15 years. holla holla that's so long!! I could get my surgical certification~~~~~

This dish which took so many steps and care was really yummy with good texture.

Asparagus glutinous "nian gao" at the bottom which has been pre-fried to release its full earthy flavour. The crab and sea urchin were placed before the extremely yummy arrowroot starch from Nara was poured on top. Finally some lightly toasted sesame.

Oh yummsssss very very good combo!!! of earth and the sea

See!!! Look!!! everything was gone....slurp~~~~

this square wabi-sabi bowl is so adorable. I like how Japanese appreciate imperfection and made it something perfect. Even the colourful dots were placed "simply" to create an aesthetic beauty.

Next course was a sashimi dish. Chef was bz grating fresh wasabi with his sharkskin board. U see at kappo dinner, the chef really have to do everything, from preparing your appetizer to cutting sashimi to frying, grilling, boiling, stewing....and finally presenting your food in such beautiful manner.


Sashimi of Makokare marbled sole fish was presented on a box of ice. With some fresh chives, shiso flowers, pickled red ginger and a dollop of wasabi. The beautiful slices of fish were prep up with finely grated daikon.

the delicate sashimi was served with 2 different dip of homemade soy and ponzu sauce. I've alwiz prefer the ponzu for its citrus taste.

Tempura of Hokkaido Super SweetCorns with truffle salt. I didn't know sweet corns and truffle paired so well, especially after that Italian lunch where chef served egg and corn omelette with black truffles. It's so good bcoz the tempura flour was so light and the corn was still crunchy on the inside.

in lightning speed....this piece of tempura was gone!!!
krup krup krap krap
yummmzzzzzzz

Steamed Green Abalone with miso sauce. The abalone was really good on its own with its natural sweetness and soft texture. Somehow the miso sauce was a bit overpowering, in the end all of us shove the sauce aside and enjoyed the green abalone on its own.


Then chef took out a few fire burner, put a pot on it, laddled in some homemade kelp broth...peeled some local aubergines. Such joy to be seated here to enjoy all the cooking process. It made us appreciate our food event more. 


Soon more vegetables and toufu were added in. Noticed that the baby corns have been slightly charred to release the breathe of fire? There were also pieces of pre-fried fish.

We were given  this cute tube of togarashi to flavour our soup afterwards. But again, we don't need any flavouring bcoz it was so good on its own.

Our hearty bowl of Hokkaido Greens in Kelp broth

The fish was also pre-fried, with a cocoon the texture of the fish was protected from the heat of its soup. How clever!!!


Big slurp fr Dr. Epicurean
Oiiiishiiiii neh!!!!!!

Chef Mieda was preparing to grill these salmon on skewers. Every now and then we could sniff around something nice coming out from this tiny counter kitchen.

Homemade pickles of daikon and carrots. The carrots has been charcoal burnt to have this unique smoky oak flavour. Interesting.


Wines lineup. Since there's 12 of us....we have to HAVE 2 bottles each.

Really really eppy People :))))))))
I'm happy to see everyone had such an amazing time!!!

our grilled salmon was served with this rice.....look at the grain!!! to top it, Chef Mieda scooped some fermented yeast in soyu, chili and sansho pepper. Full of flavours~~~

He prepared 2 HUGE claypot of rice...soon guests were asking for 2nd bowl, 3rd bowl, 4th bowl
but the champion of all was Mr. JS who had freaking 5 bowls of Salmon Rice.

-_-"

Lorraine, Captain Chris and Lily
The ladies went shopping that afternoon, so Lorraine was happily decked in her spanking new Issey Miyake dress :)))

Captain Chris with dearie Wife Lily. U know when chinese ppl say "Fu Chai Seong" literally translates to husband wife lookalike....this is it!!!!

I was bz chitter chattering around...and saw our dearie friends were still refilling their bowls and bowls of rice. Bowls and bowls and bowls endlessly...I guess the 2nd champion was Mark :P

After such a great dinner, we were relieved to be serve a simple dessert of lightly toasted pastry with a dollop of green tea ice cream and red bean paste. So u just assemble ur own "sandwich" and yummmmzzzzzzz. The shape of the pastry reminded me of Momiji that we ate in Miyajima Island.

Arigato Gozaimasu Chef Nobumasa Mieda
It was a FEAST!!!!!!

and it was 8.40pm, we were late and had to roll ourselves and our round like Kumamon bears stomach into the elevator, down to the busy road of Susukino.

Susukino is really a robust part of Sapporo with a lot of nightlife, restaurants, bars, pubs, karaokes, endless night shopping and also a red light district.

Yes u saw it right, we were still eating at this juncture...some limited edition Haagen Daaz ice cream we got from 7 Eleven.

It's so competitive here that there are boys and gals with food menu attracting customers to their restaurants/cafes/pubs/bistros. READ FOOD Menu...not something else...tee hee hee

Some karaoke joints even have boys cross-dressed like anime characters. I don't really know wat's it all about Karaoke and Anime. But one thing for sure, there's no promo or marketeers for "Pachinko" the games arcade/slot machines which is more like a casino to me :P Bcoz ppl go there to gamble.


Sharon and Monkey.....
yes more food....as we walked back to our hotel, we saw more and more food and couldn't help but continued to stuff our faces. From fried chicken to ice creams, cream puffs and Moss Burger!! Sharon said Japan has got to best-est cream puffs in the world. I have to agree!!!!


Tower of Sapporo. It's really nice to have a nite picnic here. The weather was just right. Plus there were so many festivals on goin then namely the Beer Festival and also Jazz Festival. Where u could just drink and partay your summer nites.

Wooooohoooooo~~~~~~~

Soon after my Ebi Prawn Moss Burger....I stared at my round tummy and was all ready to sleep. Looking at the starry starry nite of North Sky from the 29th floor of my hotel, still in search for the Pole Star...I bid Oyasu Minasai and zzzZZZZZzzzzzz.