He hosts a monthly “DINNER AND MUSIC” event in which he prepares all vegan cuisine and invites a special guest musician to provide the entertainment. Check his web site for more information. In this event, he prepared every dish with a tea that we provided him with. AWESOME.
Menu for the Evening.
Shoko and Phil co-founded the group, “Natto” several years ago which has released 2 highly acclaimed CDs and toured in the States and Japan.
Arrival
First Course
As the guests enter,
they are greeted with cold infused Karigane Cha from Kyoto served in a Tempered Wine Stem.
Tea and rice soup,
Ochazuke (genmaicha green tea) paired with a cold infused Kyoto Bancha.
Salad paired with tea
Salad,
Cucumber wrapped in daikon slices with fried oolong tea leaves and apricot sauce.
Paired Tea,
Sakura/Aojiso/Gold Leaf tea (yeah, there really are gold flecks in this tea!)
Entree paired with tea
Entree
Green tea noodles (matcha) fried tofu balls stuffed with lotus root, carrot, sesame seed, ginger, basil with an oolong-walnut sauce daikon pickled with Shincha and cherry blossoms with a side of gyokuro tea leaves with shoyu.
Paired Tea
An Oolong from Taiwan called Oriental Beauty
Live Koto Music
Shoko Hikage, originally from Akita Japan, grew up playing koto. After College, studied with the great avant garde koto masters, Kazue and Tadao Sawai.
The Finale
Thanks Philip
Dessert
Matcha 3 ways
matcha cake w/ maple matcha ice cream and matcha covered raspberries Paired Tea
Premium Blooming Tea served in a Tempered Wine Stem.
Anyone who has attended his “Dinner and Music” event, please share your experience.