Locals happily wait outside in the cold for up to an hour for a taste of the casual and deeply flavoured dishes at Kazu in Montreal. Inside, proprietor and chef Kazuo Akutsu, who was a highly skilled kaiseki chef in Japan, applies his talent to creating robust izakaya dishes, including these pickled vegetables. The cucumbers are sprinkled in shichimi togarashi, a mix of seven potent spices including chili, orange peel and Szechuan pepper.