Chawanmushi - Japanese Egg Custard

Chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し, literally "tea cup steam" is a discreet dish, maybe less noticed. It is eaten with a spoon - a rare thing for a traditional Japanese dish. The egg mixture is flavoured with the classical trio - soy sauce, dashi, and mirin. Then, it contains seeds of gingko biloba (called ginnan), shiitake mushroom, lily root (yurine, rather impossible to find outside Japan), a type of processed seafood like surimi or fish cake with a pink brim called kamaboko. Chawanmushi is an appetizer.