Upon arrival, after the warm welcome of a hornet-infused shokuzenshu (aperitif, described in a previous post), we were greeted with the sakizuke, a tantalizingly colorful collection of appetizer-like confections.  As we waited for the rest of our party to arrive, I jiggled the dish and wondered what a wasp encased inside agar-agar (kanten) jelly would taste like.  Luckily, the others arrived soon after and the meal began.  My chopsticks dove first for the yellow mound of jelly.  I was delighted as the sweet gelatinous substance slowly disintegrated in my mouth, leaving behind a single gooey wasp.

Despite my best efforts to go slow and savor each bite, the rest of the hebo appetizers were calling out to me.  I quickly gobbled up the piece of sushi topped with gingery sweet wasps, followed by the suzumebachi-iri dashimaki tamago, (a rolled Japanese omelette flavoured with fish stock and filed with wasps cooked in soy).  Last I tried the small square of gomadofu (tofu made with sesame seeds - and in this case, wasp larvae) with wasabi and, my favorite of all five, the delicate kiku (chrysanthemum) flower salad with marinated wasp larvae.



As I soon learned, kaiseki meals are rather quickly paced.  If you sit in raptures over what you’ve just tasted, you’ll soon wind up with a backlog of dishes to eat!

The waitress appeared with a tray of little pots, left, and placed one in front of each of us.  As we removed the lids in unison the room filled with a distinctly earthy smell.  

Dobin-mushi is a traditional autumn broth made to showcase seasonal flavors, especially the famed matsutake wild mushroom.  The broth's contents are steamed and served piping hot with a piece of citrus.    Ozeki's version included roasted hornet larvae and adults in addition to the usual elements.  

The dish quickly spawned two table-wide debates: Did the citrus enhance or hide the flavor of the broth?  And, more importantly, did the aroma  of the roasted hornets overpower that of the matsutake? I was solidly pro-citrus and pro-hornet, though admittedly  I have never tasted a traditional dobin-mushi for comparison.  

Setting aside the question of flavor, I really enjoyed the multi-step process of eating dobin-mushi: breathing in the fragrant steam, slowly sipping the broth, and, finally, eating the mushrooms and hornets one by one.  The process reveals something about kaiseki dining that is cliched but true: it is as much an experience as it is a meal.  

This next dish was my favorite of the entire night (photo below): leeks, enoki mushrooms, miso and hornet larvae flame-broiled at the table atop a large dried magnolia leaf.  The effect of watching the leaf darken and shrivel as it heats up is almost as dazzling as the cheesy, creamy flavor of the hot filling.  Charlotte and I had sampled it previously, and yet despite having tasted this dish twice, I’m still not sure how Ozeki manages to achieve such an incredible texture.

The following dish - the sunomono - was the most piquant and polarising of the night: slices of fig, okra, persimmon, and hornet larvae in a bath of tangy gelatinous vinegar.  When bitten, the bodies of the larvae gush a waxy liquid that mixed beautifully with the acidic jelly.

Last week, Josh Evans and Roberto Flore from the Nordic Food Lab in Copenhagen, and the documentary filmmaker Andreas Johnsen from Rosforth Films, paid a visit to Kushihara. The aim of their visit was to understand more about Japanese insect foods - specifically, recipes that use giant hornets and black wasps. 

It's been a busy, exciting week. We harvested two giant hornet nests. We made honey and whiskey infused with hornets and hornet venom. We harvested so, so many wasp nests. We learnt about traditional giant hornet cuisine in two different prefectures: nimono in Gifu; sukiyaki in Aichi. We also learnt a few new ways of cooking with hornets, including a miso-based broth containing adult hornets, hornet larva tempura, and several dishes based on the way in which the larvae coagulate at high temperatures. We experienced a nine-course 'kaiseki' meal at Chikara, a restaurant in Gifu prefecture, with each course using hornets and wasps in innovative ways yet based on traditional kaiseki techniques (more details to come!). And on our last night in Kushihara, we held a mini-funeral service for the larvae that couldn't be used for cooking. Finally, we experienced the new face of insect cuisine in Japan, led by the 'Insect Cuisine Research Society', who have discovered a culinary treasure in the excrement of the cherry-tree caterpillar. 

Here are a few photos:

I am so, so grateful for this experience. I was slightly and not-so-secretly hoping for this to happen - hoping that I might have the chance to know something about the effects of hornet venom, first-hand. So when Tetsuo-san and I arrived at a nest and discovered that we had no eye protection, I remember smiling to myself an adrenaline-smile, safe in the knowledge that although I was definitely planning to avoid being stung or hurt as much as possible, this time was going to be a little more risky than my previous experience of nest collection. 

(It's probably important to note here that I know I'm not allergic to Hymenoptera venom, so I 'm not being completely reckless in my attitude. I knew that if I were to be stung, the effect of the venom would be certainly painful, but probably not fatal. And, just for the record, anyone who has not previously been stung by a wasp, hornet or bee should be very, very careful around these creatures, beautiful and intriguing as they are.)

We climbed up the slope to the nest, carrying our tools and our shochu (distilled liquor). I began to dig, using a scythe to cut away at tree roots, and a small spade to dig up the earth, as Tetsuo hit the adult hornets into the liquor. 

After about 30 minutes, we swapped roles. The nest was very, very deep, and the whole operation was taking a lot longer than usual. Tetsuo-san is a lot more experienced than me, and I was very grateful that we could swap roles at this point - though I also felt a bit embarrassed that I wasn't able to dig out the entire nest in half an hour.

So, I began to hit the hornets into the alcohol. After about 20 minutes of this fairly meditative/repetitive action, my mind began to wander, thinking about how and why these hornets were being sacrificed, and about the happiness that this liquor could bring to people, friends, colleagues… and suddenly, one of these beautiful creatures shot a stream of venom in my right eye!!

At first, it felt like someone had shoved a lit match into my eyeball. And I couldn't see much.

Then, this feeling began to reduce, and in its place came the sensation that someone had punched me in the eye - although, every time I blinked, the sharp pain of a lit match returned. And meanwhile, my nose was streaming :) 

But the real message I want to convey here is - giant hornet venom is definitely very painful, but it is not ALWAYS the sensationalist experience that so many websites claim it is. I know people who have been stung multiple times and continue to collect the nests - including Tetsuo-san. This time, I was able to laugh through the pain and then continue to hit hornets into alcohol for the next half hour or so. My eye was red and swollen, and the feeling lasted for about two hours, I think, and then began to decrease. 

I think that it's important to note that the intensity of the sting depends a great deal on the hornet (some are larger than others, within the same species), the person, the situation, and perhaps the events of the previous 24hrs, etc. It's definitely important to be as cautious as possible, but ultimately it's very difficult to say how a potential sting might affect someone. 

Meanwhile, Tetsuo continued to dig, but the nest was VERY deep and there were many, many tree roots to be cut away. We had to use a small saw for some of them. An hour or so later, I had some venom in my left eye, too, and a small amount in my nose. Water from my eyes and nose fell through the net as I continued to hit hornets into alcohol, until it was just too much and the two of us climbed back down the mountain to take a break. We threw water over our faces to try and wash away the stinging sensation… Tetsuo was also hit with venom in both of his eyes, but he was far better at dealing with it than I was. I went back only to collect the nest, but he stayed there for longer and managed to hit nearly all of the adult wasps into the liquor. 

And here is the nest that we collected! Close to 7.5kg, and totally worth it:

As I said, I'm very, very grateful to have had this experience, and to know a fraction more about giant hornet venom (there is still so much to learn - hopefully not exclusively first-hand). Next season, I don't think either of us will approach a hornet nest without eye protection! Perhaps one of us will be stung anyway - after all, it's impossible to know, impossible to predict, and impossible to protect ourselves entirely against a living thing that has the ability to cause us a great deal of pain. But that's no reason to stop, not just yet.

(I think I'll carry an epi-pen next time, though, just in case.)

Japan. Edible. Dangerous.

Upon reading these three words, what comes to mind?

For many people, the answer will be the infamous blowfish, 'Fugu', one of the world's few potentially-lethal delicacies.

Fugu are well-known because, if prepared without due care and attention, they can cause all sorts of side effects - and in some cases, these side effects are fatal. 

One lesser known way of enjoying fugu is known as 'hirezake'. Order hirezake, and you'll receive a small sake cup containing a dried fugu fin that has been steeped in hot sake. The idea is that this will enable you to enjoy the fragrance of the blowfish. 

So, how about the fragrance of Japan's genuinely most lethal animal? Yes, that's right - sake from a local microbrewery, delicately infused with a single roasted giant hornet.

The aperitif served to us at Chikara, a locally renowned kaiseki restaurant in Gifu prefecture, offered just that. Our nine-part menu began with a an aperitif of a flame-roasted giant hornet, infused in high-quality sake:

The 9-part tasting meal that followed was a showcase of Japanese haute cuisine, known as 'kaiseki ryouri'. The chef at Chikara will be serving the full course to us next Wednesday. So, until then, in the knowledge that there are more hornet dishes to come, please watch this space...