talking about fruit.

Have you ever had a perfectly ripe mango or peach, picked from the tree? You bite into its soft flesh, sweet juice drips down your chin, living with flavor. The fragrance of a freshly cut cantaloupe is enough to stimulate salivary glands, preparing the mouth to marry with splendid taste. The body's reaction to fruit does not stop in the mouth, but continues as the digestive system accepts a food filled with enzymes.it is compounded with vitamins, minerals, water-soluble proteins, enzymes and trace elements.

I would like to point it out here is from all those glorious nutrition that fruit contains, I think "enzymes" is still under rated by many people.

Enzymes are needed for the digestive system to work. They are necessary to break down food particles so they can be utilized for energy. The human body makes approximately 22 different digestive enzymes which are capable of digesting carbohydrates, protein and fats. Raw vegetables and raw fruit are rich sources of enzymes.

Especially because all of us loose our ability to produce concentrated digestive enzymes as we grow older, it is important to eat fruit for your beauty, wight control and of course for your health.  However, to eat WHEN is even more important.

Have you ever experienced burping or getting stomach ache after eating fruit before?
It is because you ate fruit after eating something else like as a dessert.
As fruit contains a lot of enzymes, they only take about 30 mins to get delivered to your stomach while usual meals take about 2-4 hours. So when you eat fruit after something, they get stuck in your body and it will create ruminal fermentation. In this way, you're wasting the precious enzymes!

It is definitely much more beneficial to eat fruit before eating, specially for breakfast.
A significant fraction of the human body is water and living water that fruit contains helps you to detoxicate your body.

Also, many people tend to think that fruit contains much sugar and it's not good for diet and may cause diabetes but this is wrong;
White sugar and fruit sugar are totally different, white sugar increases blood glucose levels as it gets assimilated rapidly by intestine wall and it required much insulin to deliver sugar in the blood to each cells, but with fruit sugar, it is much more complex and it does not require insulin. Eating fruit correctly actually helps to decrease blood glucose level.

To eat fruit correctly;

• Eat it when your stomach is empty
• Eat them raw (The enzymes are destroyed by heat).

Of course there is nothing wrong is having an apple tart after meal with your cup of tea, or chocolate banana crepe with your espresso. I just thought I should share this fact that eating fruit at the right moment can help your skin conditions, weight control, blood glucose level control etc etc.

To always enjoy good food and drinks, you need to be healthy, right?

Marramiero Altare Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 05

When you think of Trebbiano (also known as Ugni Blanc in France), it is refreshing, clean fruit such as muscut with slightly bitter finish and I would normaly consider this grape as vin de table as it is known for high volume in the vineyards and doesn't have a reputation for producing dynamic wines.

This wine maker Marramiero has become one of the best wine makers in Abruzzo with over 100 year history in its land of Pescara. With its Altare series, it will blow away your image of Trebbiano.
Its flavour is intense, interfusion of  reminiscence of citrus fruit, nuts and spices with long finish and colour of  luminous gold.

I personally think it would match perfect with pistachio cream sauce ravioli filled with pork and caramelised onions, or fresh chevre cheese such as Sainte Maure.

I've started drooling. Let's try to cook them soon...!

Chicken Chicken Chicken

Our friends of mine got us 2 kilos of chicken thigh. Apparently her friend works for a Yakitori restaurant and she gets so much of them for free. It's always great to have friends like that (hair dresser, nailist or doctor...).

Anyway, I was quite tired from not having enough sleep as my best friend got me a nice bottle of Beaujoulais (will upload about this wine later.) last night for me handing in my resignation to my boss yesterday (yay!) and we stayed up till 4. So, I didn't feel like cooking anything too complicated for my dinner.

Easy, not technical and something you can leave it on hear for a while... and with chicken.



- Chicken Thigh cooked with White Wine.

Throw a clove of Garlic and finely chopped chili into olive oil on small heat and leave them till the oil starts having the beautiful garlicky smell.
Take out only the garlic and throw roughly chopped onions. After pan fry the onions for 3 mins, add chopped chicken thigh (skins underneath first) then pour generous amount of white wine and place randomly chopped cabbage, tomatoes and mushrooms on the chicken.
Put the lid and let it simmer for 5 mins .

Take out the scum and add dried herb (Thyme, Oregano, Rosemary, whatever you like), a cube of vegetable stock and salt, then put the lid back again and leave it for 15 to 20 mins on low heat.

Carrot Salad:

Carrot,

Dried Raisin,

Spring Onion,

Ginger Juice,

Honey,

White Pepper, 

Salt.

I used Spring Onions (only the green part) as I didn't have Parsley but it worked out very well!

Let's have a glass of white with it, shall we? 

(I thought of this wine: Pieropan Soave Classico)

Bento Bento

Yuzu Pepper Paste Grilled Chicken with Spring Onions, 

Japanese Omelet, 

Steamed Broccoli with Tuna Mayo Sesame Sauce, 

Japanese Pickled Pearl Onions,

Pickled Plums etc.

First, Marinate chicken Thigh with a bit of salt and Sake then pan Grill them in the pan.

You don't have to fully cook them here as the chickens will be put them in the oven later.

Yuzu Pepper Paste Sauce: Yuzu Pepper Paste, Sesame Oil, Lemon Juice, Soy Sauce, Mirin and Sake.

Place the sauce on the chicken and put them in the oven for 10 mins at 180 C.

Itadaki-masu!

Meet Glue...??

Obento!...so that I will look forward to tomorrow 2

Bean Sprout Namul (Korean Seasoned Vegetables),

Sesame Broccoli,

My mother's Kimchi,

Japanese Omelette with Spring Onions,

Grilles Sausages,

Millet Rice

and Cherry Tomatoes

make my Obento today.

my favourite meal of the day 2

I wanted to eat bread not rice this morning, but I wanted to have Nattō which is extremely nutritious-high in omega 3 fats, protein as well as a dozen vitamins and minerals.

So my breakfast this morning looked like this...

Avocado, Ham, Fried Egg on bread

and

Baked Natto on bread

I know that some who don't like natto went "ewwww" by this picture but some who like it, you should definitely try it.
You just need to toast a piece of bread first, mix natto with attached sauce and little bit of mayonnaise, put it on the bread and back to the oven. Add black pepper to finish.

Yummy!

Kimchi Puree

Thanks to my friend, Sophie, I got to know this amazing idea of "Kimchi Puree".
I'm not sure what how she makes it though, I decided to make my own.

Mama's Kimchi,
Mirin,
Sake,
Soy Sauce,
Sesame Oil,
Dashi (Fish Stock) Soup

1)
Grill Mackerel with skin side on the top first (about 7-10 mins), flip over and place Kimchi puree over the fish.

Grill them for 5 mins.

2)
Layer Sesme Seeds the put them back into the grill for 1 mins.






Also made Japanese omelette, and sweet egg plants with new onions for my obento.

잘먹겠습니다!

(Bon appetit in Korean)

Obento!...so that I will look forward to tomorrow.

<Tomorrow's Lunch Menu>

Grilled Mackerel with Kimchi Puree,

Sweet and Spicy Egg plant with New onion,

Japanese Omelette,

Boiled fresh Edamame,

Cherry Tomatoes,

Pan Fried Takana (leaf mustard)

15 grain rice

My favourite meal of the day

 is breakfast.

Sato-chan (my friend)'s Fuki (butterbur),
Kikurage Tsukudani,
Natto (Japanese Fermented Soybeans),
My mother's cucumber Kimchi,
Fried Egg, Sliced Avocado, Ham and cherry tomatoes,
16 Grain Rice,

Golden Kiwi Fruit x Banana Salad,

Yogurt.

Have a fantastic day!

x

Quick Meal -Natto Avocado Tuna Don-

My favourite combination on rice:

• Nattō (Japanese fermented soy beans)
• Tuna Sashimi
• Avocado

1/ Dice up Tuna and marinate them with Mirin (Japanese sweet cooking rice wine) and Sake (both pre-boiled), grated ginger and garlic, soy sauce and sesame oil.
2/ Mix a pack Nattō with attached sauce and an egg yolk.
3/ Dice up an avocado.
4/ Mix 1, 2 and 3 lightly with wasabi paste.
5/ Garnish with sesame seeds and sea weed.

Miso Soup: Tofu, Wakame and left over egg white from 2/.

Cooking Time: 20 mins (excluding time to cook rice).

Meshi- Agare (bon appetit) !

Lyon Higashiyama @ Ikejiri Ohashi

This is a place to enjoy cold meat.

They make their own ham, pate, sausages etc. and the pricing is very reasonable.

This plate, assorted meat platter had chicken liver pate, pate de campagne, pork ham and smoked lamb and only JPY1,380 and they all are of course home made and taste beautiful. You can feel and appreciate the difference of each meet by the texture and flavour.

Had this with Louis Latour Valmoissine 2007 (JPY 5,800) which has distinct bouquet with very apparent tannin but offers smooth finish. Just enough character to enjoy the cold meet with but not too much to disturb.

Also, the salad we had was amazing. sliced turnips and grilled panchetta (homemade) salad (around JPY 800). The fat of panchetta became the perfect dressing of this salad by adding its saltiness and richness to it.

We also ordered trippa cooked in red wine (JPY 750) however, it wasn't my favourite as I felt it was too rich and perhaps trippa goes together much better with tomato sauce. 

I forgot to take a photo of it but blue cheese omelette (around JPY 900) was also perfectly cooked and had natural sweetness which matched very well with the flavour of blue cheese.

The confi de Duck that we had at the end was for me quite disappointing as this is one of my fouvourite dishes and it wasn't salted evenly and some parts were too salty. 

I'm sure we loved the second bottle (was from cote de rhone) but forgot to take the photo and guess too much talking were involved among 3 girls....

Despite of some negative points, it is definitely worth while going there as it is really cheap comparison to some other french restaurants where you feel like you are paying more to the interior designers and their furniture than to the chefs, and quality of their cold meet is promising. The atmosphere inside the restaurant is cozy and just like casual bistro in Paris. What I also like about this restaurant is their service as they keep just enough distance away from their customers but not more to make you feel you are not looked after. 

Average: JPY 4,000~ 5,000 p/p

Opening Hours: 11:00~ 23:00

Fixed Holiday: None

Phone: 03-5724-4522

Address: 3-14-1 Higashiyama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo

1 min walk from Ikejiri-Ohashi East exit.

Website (only in Japanese):  http://blog.goo.ne.jp/lyon-higashiyama

summer curry

I still had my glorious courgette sent over from  my mother, I  had to come up with a dish to cook in.
It's still May in Japan but it was already 25 degree today. So thought it might be nice to cook spicy curry with grilled courgettes and egg plants, just to feel summer ahead.

Spice;

Cinnamon,Curry Powder 

Nutmeg,

Cumin Seeds,

Turmeric,

Coriander,

Cardamom,

Garam Masala,

Red Chili Powder,

Fennel.

Pan fried finely chopped onions after frying finely chopped garlic and ginger then add chopped carrots, mushroom. (it is very important to cook onions till they get browned.) After them being lightly cooked, add pork and beef mince then cook till the colour turns all brown. Add red wine and get the alcohol boiled away, add yogurt and the spices mentioned above.  Cook them for a little while to avoid your curry to be boring and powdery, then add a crushed canned whole tomato.

Add salt, soy sauce for saltiness, add honey or apples (crushed or baked) for sweetness.

Just before your rice is ready, grill your courgettes and egg plants (on the pan or in the oven) without any oil and serve them on your curry.

As I had some cucumbers that have been sitting in my fridge for a while now, made a quick salad to have some freshness with this meal.

Slice up your cucumbers, mix with a canned tuna, sesame oil, rice vinegar, white sugar, soy sauce and sesame seeds.

Ita-daki-masu !

Spring Supply

After the most unhealthy Golden Week (long holiday in Japan), the best thing you could do to compensate to your body is to cook nice and healthy food.

With a phone call from my mother just before the G.W ends, I received beautiful spring supply from my hometown Kumamoto. She knows that there should be a lot of alcohol involved in my holiday as the first thing she said on the phone was "you must be hangover today.". Yes, she knows me too well.
With her special various Kimchis, there are fresh green peas, bamboo shoot and beautiful courgettes.
It is kind of hard to find fresh green peas in Tokyo and the frozen ones just taste nothing.
It's just amazing how happy these pretty vegetables can make me.

So what I decided to make with them is Green Pea Rice. It's damn simple but as long as you use right amount of seasoning, it turns out to be one of the most unforgettable rice of your life.




Ingredients;
for 2 cups of white rice and water (Japanese rice: water= 1:1.2)
2/3 big spoon of sake
2/3 small spoon of salt
dried kelp
2/3 cup of green peas

Add everything to rice a part from green pea and mix.  Then add green peas just before switching your rice cooker on the top of rice and turn it on.

There are actually two ways to do this;
the other one is to boil the peas separately, used the water to boil peas (cooled down) for cooking the rice and add the peas just after rice is ready.
With this way, peas are greener and beautiful but I think that it looses its taste and when you cook them together with rice, the rice observes its flavor and I much prefer this way.

With using the other vegetables, I made simple vegetable soup with chicken wing. The soup that comes out of chicken skin and the bones are full of nutrition and collagen. it is a perfect ingredient for your hangover recovery.

Dice up the vegetable (I used bamboo shoot, new onions, spring onions, carrots, courgettes and radish this time but can be anything you like) and slice up ginger.
Grill chicken wings in a pan separately just to get the golden color and throw them and the vegetables into a boiled water.
Add a bit of salt and sake then let it boil for about 30 mins.
Adjust the taste with salt and pepper and it is ready to eat.

Itadakimasu!

Minestrone -one of my favourite things to make-

Ingredients;

Cabbage, Eringi Mushroom, Paprika, Potatoes, Potatoes, Onion, Egg Plants, Carrots, Celery, Panchetta, Garlic, Chili, Canned Tomatoes, Consomme Cubes, White Wine, Water, Olive Oil, Laurel leaves.

(Chili here is not to make the soup spicy, it is just to give a little accent.)


You can basically use any kinds of vegetable except onions and celery. Having said that, I wouldn't use Shitake or Shimeji mushroom as I feel the flavour is too strong.

1) Stir fry all the diced vegetables in order (onions- bacon- celery- carrots and potatoes...) with garlic and chili olive oil and add white wine.
2) Boil 1) for a little to get the alcohol out then add enough to have the ingredients soaked.
3) Add some salt and let it boil again then take out the scum.
3) Add crushed canned tomatoes with consomme cubes and Laurel leaves.
4) leave it for about 15-20 mins and salt and pepper to taste.

I usually cook Minestrone the night before eating to allow the ingredients blend right in with the soup.

Add Parmesan cheese before eating and ready!

Cooking time: approx. 1hour

(depending on how much vegetables you use)

As I usually use many kinds of vegetables and takes a while to finish choppinp.

While I chopping, I think of flavour that each ingredient could give to the soup so it is a little tiring but also my favourite part ;)

x



With leftovers

Fresh Tomatoes, Chicken Thigh, New Potatoes, Onions,

Garlic, Chili, White Wine, Dried Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano, Salt and Pepper.

Approx. Cooking time: 30 minutes

x

Relation between architecture and cooking

Apparently many people knew about this. I didn't.
For those who didn't either:


architecture et nourriture from oskar alegria on Vimeo.

It was one of the best of my recent discoveries.

x

Food Education

On the 1st April, my friends and I went watch a film called Food, Inc in Shibuya district.
In Japan, we have this special discount days for cinemas, which are every Wednesday for ladies (don't ask me why) and 1st day of every months for everyone. It usually costs JPY 1,800 per person though, on those dates, you can watch a film at JPY 1,000.

Anyway, this film is a documentary directed by Robert Kenner who lifts the veil on American food industry exposing the highly mechanised underbelly that's been hidden away.
It was divided into chapters dedicated to points along the commercial food chain and started off with showing inside American super market with a phrase " There are no seasons in American super market." You know, you can kind of guess what to expect now.

After 10 minutes I kind of started regretting about watching this film specially when they were showing how they make their chickens to grow faster and fatter so that they can make more money out of one chicken more efficiently. I even thought I might end up becoming a vegetarian after finishing this film (it obviously did not happen, thankfully.) It's difficult when finding out you could be unintentionally supporting some unreasonable factors that you don't appreciate and there is not much you can do about it, but on the other hand, I agree that every consumer has a right to know what we are actually eating and we should have more interests towards this.

The film leads you to the end showing the difference with organic farms and how they fight against the law etc.
At the very last minute, they talk about what the viewers can do for themselves and the world such as eat organic, do not eat junk food and pay more attentions to what contains your food that you are buying. I mean, seriously? I'm sure we all knew about it. Maybe it's only me to think that this checklists was nothing new to me and depressingly little after being given everything we've just seen. This film left me with powerless feeling and some frustration.

However, speaking of knowing what you are putting into your mouth, I have recently finding out that not every school in every country teaches their children food and cooking properly and this shocked me hard. I know my parents are really big food lovers and this doesn't happen to every child, though I was taught how to use knives, how to grow some vegetable and rice, to cook basic meals, to clean the kitchen properly and how nice it is to cook for somebody at the stage of primary school. I never thought that this was the special education and I strongly believe that it must not be. What is the point of learning science and all that complicated subjects (don't get me wrong, I do think it is important although I was never good at it.) if you don't know what you're actually eating for your lunch and what makes your body?

Oh well, this is far off the subject but I have to admit that I did not regret watching this film although it didn't become one of my favourites. It still gave me a good opportunity to think over the whole food industry again and nice discussions with my friends over many beers with Thai food on that night.

Oh, for that dinner,
Did I eat chicken?
YES.

Was it organic?
didn't even think about it.

Was it tasty?
YES, and that's all it matters to me.

x

THAT has become THIS.

My OBENTO.

PRAY FOR JAPAN, EAT JAPAN

Dinner Tonight.

NIku-Jaga, Japanese Omelet with Carrot, Cabbage and Tofu Miso Soup and Millet Rice.

too many thoughts..

Have watched Foood Inc. tonight.

too many thoughts and too many drinks...,
what is to be involved..

Maybe I shouldn't be fooling around people if I was engaged or not?

April fool.

Drunken fool.

don't think I'm clever enough to consider such issues although I would like to.
All I care after all is what can I  cook to make you smile.

When I get sobered up, will talk about the film in detail.

Japanese Style Salisbury Steak

Took a week off from work last week to give a little rest to myself after having to experience constant big and small earthquakes and fear of the radiation activity. Most of my Japanese friends remained in Tokyo while I was being a chicken in my hometown and just spending most of my time in my mother's kitchen.

It was so calm and relaxing, even wished that I never had to go back to work especially when you will have to give a little apology speech in front of everyone for taking a week off for "nothing".

Speaking of "nothing", I used to hate the fact that Japanese companies consider this little escaping as "nothing" while some of foreign companies that I know in Tokyo even shut down for week or so.
However, I have come to wonder what would be like if all Japanese companies did that?
What do I love about this place? -This city never sleeps! This is thanks to all those people who have remained and kept working despite of the fear they have.

So I have decided to stop complaining about my situation and start working again like everyone else although it might not do anything directly to rebuild this whole country.

I also thought that I should do a little something to show my respect to my friends who didn't leave Tokyo and kept working through.

What can I do? of course, to cook.

I have invited 6 of my lovely friends over to my house and cooked Japanese Salisbury Steak which was the first proper dish to cook when I hadn't ever tried anything by myself in my life. I am not a vegetarian nor vegan but I was never a big fan of meet dish such as a piece of steak or Korean BBQ since when I was small but somehow I always loved this dish.
It could also be the dish that I have cooked the most so far. It takes a long time and a lot of work though, more you focus and more love you put into, tastier it becomes. (hmm, just like every other dish anyway.)

Pork Mince (30%) and Beef Mince (70%),
Cooked Onions (til its colour become brown) and cooked Carrots,
Egg,
Crushed Garlic,
Bread crumb (soaked in milk),
Flour,
Nutmeg,
Salt and Pepper.

The Sauce:
Cooked Onion, Carrots, Celery, Apple with Butter,
Red Wine,
Water,
Milk,
Tomato Puree and Tomato Juice

Steamed and Oven Grilled Potatoes.

Steamed Carrots and Broccolis

Sometimes you need a little help of good food to make people smile ;)

x

remaking

since I made quite a big portion of spinach and pumpkin soup and thought that it should have had more pumpkin in it (or less spinach), I decided to remake it tonight.

a little more of home made Pumpkin puree, Milk and Nutmeg.

Also small amount of Honey to help bring out sweetness of Pumpkin.

And yes, it was so much better!

Can't wait for my lunch tomorrow with good bread...!

x

Spinach and Pumpkin Soup

It was snowing in Tokyo this morning! What's wrong, it's already March, you know...
But at least now I have a good excuse to stay home and cook instead of going to the gym.

Went in to a supermarket on my way back from work without knowing what I will cook for myself tonight.

Very good looking spinach jumped into my eyes first.
Then imported Pumpkin were cheap today.
don't know why I bought chicken though, guess I was too hungry.

Ingredients;

Spinach,
Pumpkin,
Onions,
Milk,
Soy Milk,
Butter,
Flour,
Vegetable Stock,
Salt
Parmesan Cheese


Boil Spinach and make them to Puree, cook chopped onions with butter and make Pumpkin puree also.
Make White Sauce in your pot then add Soy Milk, then add both puree and vegetable stock.
Boil it for 4- 5 minutes, and while you are doing that you should cook your crouton for the meantime.

Garnish your Soup with Parmesan cheese, your crouton and dash of olive oil.
Then your Spinach and Pumpkin Soup is ready to keep you warm for the night.

I definitely should have used more Pumpkin though, but it was still very good, specially for the recipe I just came up with today.

Happy Eats!

x