Wikiwiki Poke Shop

Wikiwiki Poke Shop WIKIWIKI POKE: we used to be a restaurant; now we do crazy popups and events. SIGN UP at the link in bio to be the first to know
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Poke bowls, oyster bar, and other seafood delights.

05/23/2026

this was just one course in the snow crab kaiseki meal at Beniya Mukayu ryokan in Kagaonsen, Japan

follow along for more crazy Japan dinners and Washoku cooking videos with Midwest ingredients.

i never thought relaxing could be so much fun until i visited Beniya Mukayu.a ryokan located in the hills of Kagaonsen, ...
05/22/2026

i never thought relaxing could be so much fun until i visited Beniya Mukayu.

a ryokan located in the hills of Kagaonsen, Beniya Mukayu has hot spring baths, a moss garden, several libraries, and art exhibits designed to help you unwind and contemplate the meaning of “zero”. Zero stress, zero responsibilities, zero expectations for your day. Only 12 guests stay on any given night.

they also serve kaiseki dinners every night that are truly world class. we were served a dinner of snow crab that shattered all expectations for a meal. i think i ate 3-4 crabs in total throughout this meal.

how crazy was this meal? For one course, our server grilled an entire crab for us and then picked all the meat out so we could eat it with chopsticks. This was opulence on an ingredient level.

Take a glimpse with me into this traditional ryokan seamlessly transitioning into the modern era.

05/18/2026

Japanese cuisine is not just delicate miso soups and quiet little rice bowls. there’s also a strain of absolute chaos to it. Precision paired with reckless indulgence.

I felt that most at Rokukaku-tei in Osaka - a kushikatsu restaurant that served me 20 courses of deep fried food that even my midwestern American ass had no frame of reference for.

at Rokukaku-tei, they painstakingly assemble intricate skewers before frying them all in the same panko batter. fish purée piped into the holes of fresh lotus root. Whole fish skeletons woven onto skewers. fresh white asparagus stalks fried whole.

without the menu, half the time you have genuinely no idea what you’re eating until you bite in.

I affectionately dubbed it “the Applebees tasting menu.”

when I got back home, I knew I wanted to make my own version.

salmon kushikatsu with Hiroshima lemon mayo, salmon roe, and lacinato kale

05/17/2026

I had warabi mochi for the first time in an old tea house in Kyoto.

soft, cool, only slightly sweet, an absolutely unique chew. somewhere between mochi and jelly. and an amazing powder that was slightly sweet and kinda familiar but also totally one of a kind.

this version uses Michigan rhubarb. Thank you it turned out so beautiful.

a very old japanese dessert adapted through the freshest midwest spring ingredients.

catch me with a donburi like this three days a week now that the fulton street farmers market is back on its summer sche...
05/16/2026

catch me with a donburi like this three days a week now that the fulton street farmers market is back on its summer schedule.

rice, local eggs, dashi omelette, spring vegetables and mushrooms simmered in dashi, preserved things from the last couple weeks and months.

japanese in structure. midwest in ingredients.

today’s bowl came together from

05/12/2026

takana might legitimately be one of the most underrated pickles in the world.

I started thinking about it differently after eating ramen in fukuoka: rich broth, salty fermented greens, lots of texture and acidity.

using ramps for it feels very Midwest spring to me.

the garlic flavor in the leaves and became so complex after fermenting. texturally, it was perfect.

i think a lot of people imagine high-end sushi as being about luxury or excess.what stood out to me most at SUSHI SAKAI ...
05/11/2026

i think a lot of people imagine high-end sushi as being about luxury or excess.

what stood out to me most at SUSHI SAKAI in Fukuoka, Japan was restraint.

everything is deliberate: the sourcing, the temperature of the rice, the sequencing, the aging and curing of the fish. even the sushi vinegar is configured daily based on the taste of the fish.

some of the most memorable bites looked almost plain. But some of the cooked and fermented ayes absolutely blew my mind.

i came away thinking less about “fancy sushi” and more about how much technique disappears when it’s done well.

05/07/2026

early spring, Midwest.

a couple weeks where the ground starts waking up again.

yachaejeon = Korean vegetable pancake.

one of my favorite ways to indulge in the bounty of the season.

05/06/2026

ramps show up for like 2 weeks.

this is how you stretch it.

just fish sauce, sweet rice flour, ramps, and time.

it’s a system, not a recipe.

eat it on rice (my favorite).

05/05/2026

miso soup isn’t really a recipe
it’s a way of cooking whatever’s in season

dashi, miso paste, some ramps and morels

don’t overthink it
this is how dinner comes together

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Grand Rapids, MI
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