Beyond the Sushi Boat; A Special Night at Kumagoro.

Twenty years ago, John and I spent a night at the Hotel Okura in Amsterdam. For dinner that night, we decided to stay within the hotel and choose one of their restaurants. We settled on Yamazato, their restaurant that serves traditional, Japanese food. At that time we had no idea that it was a Michelin star restaurant, and we had no clue what a Kaiseki meal was, but that is what we ordered and our minds were blown away by the experience.

Kaiseki is a traditional, multi-course, Japanese meal that consists of light, small dishes served on individual plates. There are several forms and the Bento lunchbox is a small, casual variety of the Kaiseki. The idea is that food is enjoyed first by your eyes, then your mouth. Presentation is important as well as sampling multiple flavors, textures, and ways of preparation. In the years since our stay at Hotel Okura, we have enjoyed traditional Kaiseki dining at several restaurants, but never quite like the one we had at Yamazato.

John spent several months working outside of Mito, Ibaraki prefecture in Japan for his job at Boeing in the early 2000’s and had the joy of experiencing Japanese social dining culture there. John is a 6’5, very caucasian American, and in rural Ibaraki he was quite the oddity. His Japanese colleagues took great joy in challenging him to eat all sorts of things that are not typical, Western fare, like fish eyeballs. To their great delight, John is not your average Western caucasian and ate everything they put before him. I did not have the joy of this experience; our marriage has always meant long periods of time apart when John travels, and my birthday wish this year was to have a proper Kaiseki meal. Anchorage has a multitude of sushi restaurants, but none of them offer a Kaiseki experience on their menu. I wanted to be Kaonashi; I wanted to eat EVERYTHING!

My husband was on a mission to make me happy, and contacted Kumagoro in Anchorage to see whether they would accomodate an off-menu request. He chose Kumagoro because they have a varied menu beyond the trite sushi boats of many Japanese restaurants in Anchorage. If anyone could pull this off, they could.

Kumagoro is not a gimicky restaurant. They don’t deploy tricks or frills to lure you in. Their restaurant is modern, sleek, and as clean as an operating theater (and this is what you want from a restaurant serving raw fish). My Alaskan readers may recall a sushi restaurant that bombarded the radio with advertisements of custom R&B songs (that restaurant failed). Kumagoro does not need any of that. Their food speaks for itself. Anyway, for the past few weeks, John had been emailing back and forth with the owners of Kumagoro to set up a most special night for me, and boy howdy, did they deliver!

I dressed up all glamorous, only to be photobombed by my breeding pair of turkeys! (Lest I forget that I live on a homestead beyond the boondocks, even on a special night).

It was snowing and we left early, just in case the roads would be nasty or some accident would close the death road Glenn Highway for undetermined amount of time, and arrived a bit early. This was not a problem for the folks at Kumagoro; they treated us to valet parking, our table was set with a flower and tablecloth, and we ordered some drinks while waiting for the Chef to be ready.

We started our meal with a simple miso soup (not pictured), followed by tempura, nigiri and tamagoyaki.

Next up were delicate scallops topped with salmon roe. They were visually stunning and so delicious, I could have been happy eating just that.

These were followed by stunning sashimi rolled in cucumber.

You already know I love spicy foods and the next dish was right up my alley. Super spicy prawns. They may have been a smidge too hot for John, but he was a trooper! I adored them!

But hold on to your butts!

How about some Wagyu beef wrapped around asparagus?!

Holy decadence, Batman! KING CRAB AND LOBSTER!!

Followed by a sashimi plate that could make you cry of joy!

And last of the main courses, but definitely NOT least, steak. I was told by the owner that this is not the way this steak is prepared on the regular menu, but it was a special for us. It was AMAZING. So tender, so tasty.

Kumagoro delivered a meal beyond my expectations. I can’t even begin to tell you how wonderful this was. Each dish was small, delicate, well proportioned and well thought out, but I was stuffed beyond belief at the end of my night. We did, of course, save room for the last course, dessert; a small sliver of coconut cheese cake and fruits.

In our culture, unless you have specific dietary requirements due to medical issues or religion, going off-menu is often seen as a faux pas. It’s as if you are insulting the chef by questioning his craft and choices, and inconveniencing the line cooks who may only be trained to make what the head chef instructs them to. In other cultures, it is more acceptable. I used to work for a Chinese tailor shop and when our boss took us out to eat, she would tell us: “Do not look at the menu! I will take care of this!” She would speak to the restaurateur and before you knew it, a net would go into the fish tank and an eel was pulled out, only to reappear 15 minutes later, steamed to perfection at the table with a plethora of side dishes. We were the first “special request dinner” at Kumagoro, and their young, talented Chef did not seem to mind. He prepared an amazing dinner with joy and gusto for us, but if you want to experience that, contact them before hand like we did.

Kumagoro