hashimoto

I had one of my all-time favourite meals last night. Jeff and I went to Hashimoto's with our friends Mark Thompson and Jon Steinberg yesterday evening. We've been planning a high-end Japanese restaurant outing for months, waffling over the choice of a restaurant as well as a date when all of us would be free. Jon suggested Hashimoto in Mississauga after reading about the restaurant in a Toronto Star article.

Hashimoto offers kaiseki cuisine, a multi-course set dinner that changes with the seasons. The chef (Hashimoto, who works alone in the kitchen) chooses what you eat. The restaurant holds about twenty people, and it was full last night; advance reservations are strongly recommended.

Apparently Hashimoto takes notes/photos of each dish to e-mail to guests and for his own records, promising that no guest will get the same menu twice. Not realizing that I'd be getting photos anyway, I took digital pics of my own. :-) Some of the photos below are mine, some are from Hashimoto.

Our group, from left to right: me, Mark Thompson, Jon Steinberg, Jeff:





We started with a "sesame and starch with sesame flavour" dish with gingko nuts, sweet potato, lotus root chips, and a chestnut. I was somewhat skeptical about the big greyish sesame blob that came with the first dish; it came with a dollop of wasabe on top and it didn't look all that appealing. Delicious, though! We all enthusiastically cleaned our plates and awaited more:



Next was sea bream and red clam sashimi, with daikon sprouts and some other garnish we didn't recognize. It came with a dish of mouthwatering dipping sauce on the side.





I'm not usually crazy about clam sashimi, but this was wonderful!

Next, monkfish in clear soup with a green bean garnish:





Then baked persimmon filled with deep-fried eggplant, persimmon, and shrimp, topped with sweet miso paste:





After eating the scrumptious filling, we ate the persimmon itself. I've never eaten persimmon before. The baking process made the fruit sweet. Yummm!

The next course was stewed pork, marrow squash and sugar beans, on a small dollop of hot mustard. HEAVENLY. Later, Hashimoto told us that the pork takes three days to prepare:





Next: taro potato, burdock, and sweet potato. Sounds like a dull dish, but I've never tasted a potato dish like this. In fact, I've had to revamp my whole idea of potatoes after last night:





The second-last course was the traditional ending of Japanese meal, with pickles, rice and soup. We were invited to have seconds, and we all did:





Dessert was an orange jelly:





The eight-course meal (nine, if you count the fact that we had seconds of one of the courses) took four hours, but we didn't notice the time passing. I came away completely satisfied, neither over-full nor still hungry. At the end of the meal, Hashimoto came over to our table to chat, and also took a group photo of us with a digital camera; he said he would e-mail to us.

Wonderful food, excellent service; Jeff and I definitely plan to eat there again. I just wish this restaurant were in Toronto!

Links/News:

Four years ago, I started up "Filkhaven" at Talk City. That environment never really worked out, sadly. Happily, Filkhaven now thrives as an IRC, thanks to the efforts of Rob Wynne and Mike Whitaker!

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Today's Blatherpics:

Taken at Hashimoto's. 6435 Dixie Road, Mississauga, Ontario, Phone: (905)670-5559.