Two years ago, I visited the Gifu region and went to Hida, the nothern part where Shirakawa-go, an UNESCO world heritage site famous for its farmhouses is at. The houses are built in a unique architectural style known as gasshō. The name means “hands together” as in prayer, referring to the steep roofs that keep the snow off in the winter. Underneath the roofs, the large attic area was used to house silkworms. 
The Gifu region is also very famous for its clear and great water quality. In fact, there are a lot of sake breweries and soy sauce shops in Hida-Takayama area where one of the streams from the Miyagawa River runs. This indicates sake breweries needed good quality water.
The three must buy things here are:
1) Sake. You can get good quality sake for less than RM 50 per bottle. I took home 2 bottles.
2) Miso paste made from the best stream water.
3) Sarubobo means “monkey baby,” and is the mascot of the Hida Region. Sarubobo dolls were traditionally made by mothers for their daughters as charms blessing happy marriage and smooth birth delivery.
So when we heard about Ten’s special menu that is featuring ayu sweet fish from the clear streams of Gifu, we were really excited. This most prized river fish can only be found in the cleanest and purest rivers.
Amuse Bouche Saury Fish Parfait with Sushi Rice Cracker, Marinated Fromage Blanc with Saikyo Sweet Miso and Homemade Dried Mullet Roe. Saury fish meat is darker and more oil laden and thus has a stronger flavor than other fish. Hence, the parfait has really great flavours, and went really well with the sushi rice cracker. All images and text on this website are protected by copyright. Please do not post or republish this recipe or images without permission. If you want want to share this recipe just share the link rather than the whole recipe.
Saikyo sweet miso from Kyoto is known for its generous amount of rice malt, its sweetness due to its low sodium content, and its beautiful light beige color. The marinated cheese with sweet miso has wonderful umami!
We were really fortunate to have Chef Chikara Yamada who was a disciple of Ferran Adria in El Bulli before. From there, he developed a new cooking style that introduced espuma and liquid nitrogen before opening his own restaurant “Yamada Chikara”. 
Our sashimi platter looked like works of art.
Sashimi is all about that beautiful fresh catch, immaculate knife skills and perhaps a little bit of surprise elements. In this case, chef Yamada gave us some surprises in the form of these shoyu cubes. Just break the cubes and dip your sashimis onto it together with some wasabi. Brilliant, chef!
Even our Hokkaido Crab Shinjo with Poured in Blue Shell Crab Consomme came nicely wrapped like a present.
The soup dish was delicate with briny clean flavour, very comforting! I love all the fresh seasonal vegetables from Japan too!
Next up, chef Hishaya Yamashita, a very famous celebrity chef from Japan made us his signature Foei Gras Hamburger Steak.
The hamburger was very juicy and flavourful with a hidden treasure inside – foei gras! Every mouthful is pure luxury!
It is finally show time for Gifu-ayu sweet fish. This dish is a joint collaboration of Chef Yamada, Chef Yamashita and Ten.
The ayu fish is cooked three ways – deep fried, confit and bagna cauda.
Ayu fish’s flesh has a distinctive, sweet flavour with “melon and cucumber aromas” and all three methods bring out its sweetness perfectly.
Steamed Gifu Ayu Sweetfish Rice by Chef Yamada
It is a very simple dish, but as we eat the rice, most of its flavour is coming from the fish juices.
I was quite excited when it comes to dessert time because of Ten’s Original green tea sauce. The marshmallow and italian meringue with ice cream resemble a lotus flower, so beautiful!
Thank you chefs for the scrumptious special course. It was such an eye opening experience on what a small little fish can have in terms of flavours and textures. We hope that Ten will bring Gifu-ayu fish into Malaysia soon.
Ten Japanese Fine Dining
A-G-1, Marc Residence, Ground Floor,
No.3 Jalan Pinang,
50450 Kuala Lumpur
E: info@tenrestaurant.com.my
T: +60 3 2161 5999
Opening Hours
Monday – Sunday
Lunch : 11:30am – 2:30pm
Dinner : 6:00pm – Onwards
