Fine Dining

Instead of hiring a nanny, as we did in Seattle, we've assigned a much smaller childcare budget to a Saturday night babysitter. This gives us a chance to try some of Tokyo's estimated 80,000 restaurants, in a competitive foodie culture that demands creative recipes and fresh, seasonal ingredients.

Last weekend, we wandered into an average-looking Italian place called Bernini, and had a completely delicious supper.

I ordered risotto with porcini mushrooms. Here are the mushrooms, pre-risotto, on display.



To assemble the dish, our server brought an enormous wheel of parmigiano-reggiano to our table and shaved cheese from the center. Then she blended the cooked rice and cheese on the cheese wheel!




Juicy mushrooms landed on top.



Blaine had wild boar with piquant cabbage.