Ko No Mono is a dish of seasonal pickled vegetables.
The first dish in the beginning of the episode called "ortolan" is a little bird which needs to be consumed with bones and all. The dish is forbidden to consume in Europe since 1979, due to the protection of this endangered species. In France however it was the favourite dish of the early French president Mitterrand. This is why until 1999 the dish was still legal in France.
The song (Goldberg Variations, BMV 988: Aria) played in the beginning of the episode is the same song that the Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) listens to in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) when he tricks the guards and breaks out of his cage (starting at 1:14:13).
The opening sequence features a figure in a wheelchair in flames, rolling down an incline in a parking garage. This is a re-creation of the scene in Manhunter (1986) at the 1:01:00 mark.