Ranzan (Redwood City, CA) – More Traditional Kaiseki Menu From This Summer
Ranzan (Redwood City, CA) – More Traditional Kaiseki Menu From This Summer
by NoodleThings
1 Comment
NoodleThings
Ranzan’s chef and owner, Hitoshi is one of the most flexible people I’ve seen in the city. This was a last minute menu with some dietary restrictions I had recently gotten at the time and it was quite enjoyable. Ranzan has been one of the restaurants I recommend most when introducing folks to kaiseki or to Japanese fine dining, especially for older generations – Hitoshi is able to meet most dietary restrictions with enough heads up, although thankfully most of mine have calmed down recently so I no longer need to make use of that portion of his skillset. This was the Kibune menu which was:
1. Nanoha jelly with shrimp and dashi – nice and strongly flavoured, a bit more than you could expect in Japan. Strong tasting dashi – very heavy katsuobushi taste coming through 2. Awabi – simmer with sake, mirin and dashi along. Sugar snap peas on the side 3. Three appetizers – junsai in vinegar with a touch of ginger, sakura tofu w gelee tasting of kombu dashi and tori tsukune (chicken meatball) also tasting lightly of ginger and kinome which added some great floral almost kaffir lime leaf flavours that I loved 4. Owan of bamboo shoots, wakame and kinome – really loved this. Strong tasting mixed dashi working marvelously with the kinome 5. Lightly seared sakura dai sashimi with myoga – really loved this, great texture and flavour 6. Ainame nimono- summed fat greenling/lingcod from Japan with wasabi on top. I don’t really like Japanese preps of (I like plenty of shiromi but ainame is notably bland and fatty which isn’t my favorite), This was fine – very meaty but just not my cup of tea. Simmering liquid is good, still that has that strong ass katsuobushi dashi 7. A5 Oita w salt and side of sweet potato – very nice, fat has render and edge piece was genuinely delicious 8. Kegani Chawanmushi – one of the better ones I’ve had in the bay. Good jiggle but not overly soupy with well cooked crab through out – nothing mealy or mushy. Very impressed by this 9. Grilled pounded lotus root with mentaiko inside. Got this instead of a fried agemono, would’ve been chi-ayu. Can’t eat a ton of carbs rn but this was really quite nice. Will make an exception for the agemono next time 10. Vinegar stewed hotaru ika with wakame and shisho flowers, tasty. Vinegar helps with the bitterness from the innards 11. Rice with sakura dai from his hagama + miso and pickles, I really enjoyed this rice and the simmered sakura dai that was mixed into it adding this nice sweet and savoury element on top of the rice. Pickles added some nice sourness and refreshed palate in between the largely portions of the rice 12. Sakura mochi, forgot to take a photo but it was pretty good
Ranzan is a pretty good place if you’re interested in trying kaiseki food, regardless of your prior interest or experience with Japanese food. Hitoshi really tries to do his best ingredients wise and business is largely focused on their (really good value) lunch items but I do recommend folks try it out for dinner if have the time and are in the area.
1 Comment
Ranzan’s chef and owner, Hitoshi is one of the most flexible people I’ve seen in the city. This was a last minute menu with some dietary restrictions I had recently gotten at the time and it was quite enjoyable. Ranzan has been one of the restaurants I recommend most when introducing folks to kaiseki or to Japanese fine dining, especially for older generations – Hitoshi is able to meet most dietary restrictions with enough heads up, although thankfully most of mine have calmed down recently so I no longer need to make use of that portion of his skillset. This was the Kibune menu which was:
1. Nanoha jelly with shrimp and dashi – nice and strongly flavoured, a bit more than you could expect in Japan. Strong tasting dashi – very heavy katsuobushi taste coming through
2. Awabi – simmer with sake, mirin and dashi along. Sugar snap peas on the side
3. Three appetizers – junsai in vinegar with a touch of ginger, sakura tofu w gelee tasting of kombu dashi and tori tsukune (chicken meatball) also tasting lightly of ginger and kinome which added some great floral almost kaffir lime leaf flavours that I loved
4. Owan of bamboo shoots, wakame and kinome – really loved this. Strong tasting mixed dashi working marvelously with the kinome
5. Lightly seared sakura dai sashimi with myoga – really loved this, great texture and flavour
6. Ainame nimono- summed fat greenling/lingcod from Japan with wasabi on top. I don’t really like Japanese preps of (I like plenty of shiromi but ainame is notably bland and fatty which isn’t my favorite), This was fine – very meaty but just not my cup of tea. Simmering liquid is good, still that has that strong ass katsuobushi dashi
7. A5 Oita w salt and side of sweet potato – very nice, fat has render and edge piece was genuinely delicious
8. Kegani Chawanmushi – one of the better ones I’ve had in the bay. Good jiggle but not overly soupy with well cooked crab through out – nothing mealy or mushy. Very impressed by this
9. Grilled pounded lotus root with mentaiko inside. Got this instead of a fried agemono, would’ve been chi-ayu. Can’t eat a ton of carbs rn but this was really quite nice. Will make an exception for the agemono next time
10. Vinegar stewed hotaru ika with wakame and shisho flowers, tasty. Vinegar helps with the bitterness from the innards
11. Rice with sakura dai from his hagama + miso and pickles, I really enjoyed this rice and the simmered sakura dai that was mixed into it adding this nice sweet and savoury element on top of the rice. Pickles added some nice sourness and refreshed palate in between the largely portions of the rice
12. Sakura mochi, forgot to take a photo but it was pretty good
Ranzan is a pretty good place if you’re interested in trying kaiseki food, regardless of your prior interest or experience with Japanese food. Hitoshi really tries to do his best ingredients wise and business is largely focused on their (really good value) lunch items but I do recommend folks try it out for dinner if have the time and are in the area.