Another interesting feature of shun in restaurant meals that Andoh mentioned is anticipation. She said that sometimes a dish like the chikuzen daki (#4 above) will be almost completely seasonal, with one or two exceptions. The restaurant will use their special connections to obtain ingredients that anticipate the next wave of produce that the average shopper will see at markets in the coming weeks.

Through one way or another, I ran across a few other on-line pieces by Elizabeth Andoh. One is a short interview in the Chronicle about the concept of washoku. Another is the Tokyo Food Page, which Jennifer linked If you follow the pickle pot link above, be sure to poke around the for other writings by Andoh and additional information about Japanese cuisine.

I jotted some notes and posted a few photos about the dinner over at my blog. Coincidentally, my six most recent posts have been about Japanese cuisine (tempura, curry, okonomiyaki, and more).

Now I know what my name will mean in Japanese if I just drop the A.