There is no single word that best describes the cuisine of SHÓKUDŌ YArn. While the root of the recipes may be traditional Japanese, each dish is complex with European overlays as well as modern twists. It is perhaps most accurate to say the meal here is homemade cooking à la fusion.

The starting course is a set of little curious experiences. To start, the seemingly ordinary bowl of matcha green tea is spiced with ginger ale. While the tea is brewed using the most traditional techniques, the warm, fizzy, sweet liquid is nothing like you’ve ever tasted before as it slowly seeps through your empty stomach.

Next to the matcha bowl is a pretty little spoon with a bite of soft nerikiri mochi dough, infused with aromatic olive oil and salted cherry blossom petals. Placed neatly on top of black rocks, are slices of aged prosciutto ham. As a seasonal welcome, the bites are served along with a branch of pretty cherry blossom.

The Yoneda couple brings on both humor and irony with the next dish. Addressing the overly commercialized food industry, two little “Yärngen-Datz” ice cups come in a plastic bag with a “Yarnson” sticker, mimicking Japan’s convenience store giant Lawson. Inside the easily-recognizable packaging is fukinoto (butterbur sprouts) ice cream, bringing fresh breeze of spring in a surprising match of refreshing bitterness and creamy sweetness. The delicious cold treats are topped with layers of rosemary tentsuyu jelly and fried tempura crumbs.

A Japanese mother’s classic dish, nikujyaga, becomes a curious experience at SHÓKUDŌ YArn. The beef and potato stew mixes up three different type of potatoes, each unique in flavor, prepared using a special technique for delicious creamy texture. As if a page from a science textbook, the chef has handwritten the names of the potatoes on the plate with arrows pointing to each piece, and topped with beautiful umbrella like flat leaves. A salad to drink? In a beautiful round wine glass is a magical and colorful salad, layering wasabi leaves, mustard leaves, mizuna leaves, lotus roots and tapioka. The salad is drizzled with a dashi broth dressing that brings all the different flavors together, and topped with a lovely little purple flower.

The next dish is a visual riddle. In front of you are a blocks of chocolate alongside a bowl of udon noodles. The dish, chokotto hotaruika, means “a little bit of firefly squid.” As the play on words suggest, the brown blocks are an unheard blend of firefly squid, dried tomatoes, miso paste, dashi, cocoa butter and olives. They slowly melt on top of the warm noodles, transforming into a rich creamy sauce.

Then, a true signature dish. The One, which sounds like wan, Japanese for soup, is made right in front of your eyes. Using a tall classic syphon coffee maker, Mr. Yoneda, brews a blend of aged Hokkaido kombu and dried tuna flakes, leashing whiffs of the sea to the air. He then mixes sake into the warm broth and pours it on a bed of colorful seasonal vegetables and red seabream fish cakes. Tossed with truffles, the aroma alone is so complex and so delicious.

The next sweet and light delicacy is Miringo, a fusion of mirin and apple (ringo) as the fun naming suggests. Like a delicate piece of sculpture, finely sliced dried apples are placed on top of a piece of sponge and mirin-flavored ice cream. The sourness and sweetness create a perfect balance.

The final dish is a tasty treasure hunt. Named Okashii, which means both “snack” and “strange,” Mr. Yoneda has hidden pebbles of delicious dark chocolates in a pile of real rocks. The chocolates are such perfect replicas, you may have to pop them in your mouth to know if you made the right pick!

Ingredients
Most of the produce used at SHÓKUDŌ YArn are grown locally, either in Ishikawa or neighboring prefectures. The fish are sourced from ports in Noto. For vegetables, the couple often visits the central market in Kanazawa as well as local farms to meet and get to know the producers directly. They are committed to growing a strong sense of community through their unique and dynamic cuisine.