Esora’s Chef Araki presents a menu filled with his fond childhood memories around springtime’s best produce.
Throughout the tasting menus (lunch at $328, dinner at $368), you’ll find gastronomic gems like Aori Ika (bigfin reef squid) served alongside deep-fried spring takenoko (bamboo shoot) and nanohana (rapeseed stalks), which takes inspiration from Chef Araki’s childhood where he would pick wild bamboo shoots and nonohana in spring.
There’s also the fish course of Menuke (rock fish), whose presentation is inspired by the springtime activity of hanami or cherry blossom viewing-cured menuke is grilled over binchotan and plated with clam stock that’s dotted with green spring onion oil and pink daikon petals, capturing the moment of being under a sakura tree in the park.
Dessert is no less wonderful with the Ume dessert, where a plum-shaped candy shell is filled with ume sorbet and drizzled with an orange-yuzu sauce. With the ume tree long giving Japanese people a sense of the changing seasons, this dessert is a wonderful way to end your meal and welcome the start of spring.
