Indian Spinach Curry

On Mondays, I usually try to cook new things to make my bloody Mondays more pleasant.

I cooked Indian Spinach Curry tonight.

• Lot's of Spinach,
• Potatoes,
• Onions
• Chicken Thigh Meat,
• Tomatoes,
• Ginger,
• Garlic,
• Yogurt,
• Fresh Cream,
• Cumin Seeds, Turmeric Powder, Curry Powder, Coriander Powder, Garam Masala, Cayenne Powder
• Salt

It did involve a lot of work but the process was pretty simple and I am very happy with the taste.

I think I'm going to drop some of this curry to one of my friends' place as he has been super busy at work and I am guessing that he has been mostly having to eat only pre-made meals recently...

Hope he's going to enjoy it.

x

Bagna càuda

In Japan recently, all the restaurants are so big on Bagna Cauda Sauce which is a warm dip typical of Piemonte, Italy. It became so big all of sudden. It is usually made from garlic, olive oil, anchovies, butter and cream and apparently it was introduced to Japan by the same guy who also introduced Tiramisu.

I was thinking how this became so popular here. This sauce is very tasty I agree, but it isn's something that I would want to order everywhere. I think more than this sauce, "eating vegetables" are very big in Japan right now.

Since the world has become so convenient and there are so many pre-made meals everywhere, I think people have stopped to look back and wonder if this is really good for us. Specially in Japan, we do not have many vegetarian people like in Western countries and we are not very used to eat fresh vegetables traditionally. it is kind of "new" to us and it appears trendy to many of them.

Last night, I went to a restaurant called La Boucherie du Buppa in Nakameguro. I definitely love this restaurant (specialized in gibier and they are amazing! will talk about this restaurant later.) However, the sauce that came with fresh vegetables got me thinking. This sauce was beautiful and loved that they just don't serve normal Bagna càuda like in other restaurants and tried to be creative. They used Miso and peanut butter but in my opinion, it matched with only one of the vegetables that came with. They served very fresh and naturally sweet tomatoes, colorful radish and all those unusual and tasty vegetables but I preferred not to use that sauce most of the time which I thought very unfortunate.

I don't think this trend would last very long. I mean the Bagna càuda sauce not eating vegetable bit. I think that it will shift to something else that will help people eating vegetables as well. I hope that it will be something that brings character of each vegetables out more than Bagna càuda sauce. I don't really like the whole idea because you have so many different kinds of vegetable in the dish and they are very fresh and they all taste different! Even when we eat sashimi, we quite often use different sauce for different fish, we sometimes use ginger instead of wasabi and so on. Hope that some restaurant will start treating the beautiful vegetable in the same way too.

It may apply to other industries too? Sometimes, "trend" makes you go blind and makes you ignore your "real sensation".

x

Wine Bar Mayu @ Shibuya

There is my favourite wine bar in Shibuya called "Wine Bar Mayu". "Mayu" means Cocoon in Japanese and it is because they have 8 separated rooms, just like Inside of Cocoon.

I love their concept: You don't have to show off your knowledge about wine, don't be so stiff, just enjoy wine, food and your company. This is also why they set chopsticks as well as folks and knives on your table. There is no rule to enjoy your time, just be yourself.

I took a good friend of mine there one night. My favourite Megu who loves drawing and helped this wine bar creating their Christmas cards last year. You know, our nice girl's night out.

In this bar, so called "Otoshi" is a glass of sparkling wine. In Japan, most of restaurants and bars ask you for a table charge (JPY 800 at Mayu) but instead, they serve you a small nibbles usually, and I believe that from what they serve there, I can pretty much guess their quality.

We started with their "Otoshi", sparkling wine and ordered a fresh oyster from Hyogo, Japan.

It is very simple, yet it is the perfect beginning of the night for me.

Then a plate of assorted appetizers arrives.

From your right;
Gorgonzola and Pumpkin Terrine with Prune.
Brandade with Tapenade Sauce.
Cured Snapper Carpaccio with Yuzu Dressing.
Raw Horse meet Sashimi. (They don't usually have it)

Then the warm appetizer is foie gras served with gnocchi and black sesame sauce.

Sweetness of Sesame matches perfectly with the well cooked foie Gras. Crunchy outside and melting soft inside.

What's next? yes, Poisson du jour, Suzuki poêlé with red wine sauce.

Then Roasted Venison which was hunted by a friend of the owner. Very fresh, doesn't have the stinky smell of venison, but has a lot of flavour. We matched with Chateauneuf du Pape '06 (Juliette Avril), ah, this is the heaven.

We had so much more food and wine after this although it was still Thursday night. This course (menu B) is JPY 5800 including home baked bread and tea or coffee as well as delicious dessert which we didn't have on that night as we wanted to keep drinking. I think it's more than worth it and maybe you get something free or a bit of discount if you mention my name there...?



Beautiful Oysters and drunken Megu-chan

We decided to order one more oyster each with sparkling wine instead of desserts... that's our style.

x

My Lunch Box

Penne,
Cabbage,
Shrimps,
White Wine,
Garlic,
Milk,
Miso,
Chili,
Parsley,
Black Pepper 
and,




Tomato sauce made on the night before:
Garlic,
Onions,
Can of ripe tomatoes,
White Wine
Laurier,
Salt and Pepper,
Consomme Cube,
Salt and Pepper




Unfortunately I didn't eat any of this (but tasted of course) tonight as I ate and drank way too much this weekend and I'm gonna have to save myself...


At least there is something to look forward to on depressing Monday at work.


Happy Lunch!


x

late night dinner for my flatmate

Since I have been asked to cook for my friend's B.D party and had some risotto prepared, I completed one portion of mushroom and bacon risotto (going to add spinach for the party though) to have with my home made Chai for my flatmate who is coming back soon from out drinking.



it's 5 am now. time to sleep.

x

My Pasta Salad

Since there are not many good choices of restaurants around my office and I hate to spend my money on food from convenience stores, I usually take my obento (lunch box) to work everyday.

When I decided to prepare my lunch box for the next day, it was Sunday afternoon. After having a big weekend with only 2 hours of sleep, I couldn't make myself motivated to cook something too complicated but I had to at least cook so that I feel slightly better. Don't you know the feeling?

So what I decided to make, was simple pasta salad.

This is the ingredients that I was going to use;

Red Paprika
Courgette or Broccoli
Can of Tuna
Brown Mushrooms
Onions
Fusilli
Parmesan cheese

However, when I went to my favourite supermarket in my neighbourhood, red paprikas and courgettes were all sold out and broccolis were sold at JPY 280 which I thought ridiculously expensive.

So these are what I bought instead;

Grape Tomatoes instead of Red Paprika
Japanese Cucumbers instead of Courgettes or Broccolis

I firstly drained cucumbers of its juice by adding a bit of salt and leaving them for a while as Japanese cucumbers contain much more water than Western cucumbers.

Before draining.

While leaving the cucumbers let's prepare tomatoes and mushrooms.
Marinate grape tomatoes with extra virgin olive oil, sliced garlic, salt and peppers.
Chopped brown mushrooms with butter and sliced garlic.



Now you put them in the oven!

After leaving the cucumbers for 30 mins and draining its juice by squeezing 3 times, they will look like this;

Pan fry sliced onions with butter and chopped garlic which I didn't take a photo of, but I'm sure you all know how it looks like ;)

Start boiling water for pasta with olive oil and salt, and now it's time to make some source.



Mayonaise, Whole Grain Mustard, Olive Oil used for Tomatoes and Black Pepper.
(I added some more Musturd later though.)

Last time I made this pasta salad, I added a bit of yoghurt and it was good, but for the purpose of keeping them longer, I decided not to use it this time.

Add a can of tuna into the source and give it a good mix. (of course the oil of tuna has been drained.)

Cook the pasta until al dente and put them to the same pot that you used after draining the hot water.
Throw all your cooked ingrediants with the source, but exept the tomatoes.

Mix them well and add some grained parmesan cheese, then add the tomatoes at the end.


Finally it's ready to eat!

Itadakimasu!

It is nice and simple, reccommended to eat as lunch, specially at picnic and BBQs with your friends and family under the sun.

Happy eats!


x

Japanese slurping culture while eating noodles and soup.

While I was having nice lunch with a friend of mine who just came back from crazy new year trips at Omotesando, we had a discussion about Japanese slurping culture while eating noodles and soup.

I've had many discussions about this topic with other people before and my opinion for slurping while eating Soba noodles is to bring out the aromas, just like when you do wine tasting.

Some people told me that it is also to give compliments to the chefs, but I couldn't quite agree with it.

That is true- Japanese people are well known for their politeness and humbleness.

While there are so many taboos for using chopsticks and other things, why do we "slurp" that is a taboo of western culture? It is OK only when you eat noodles and soups, not while chewing.

There should be a better reason than just "to give compliments to the chef". I still quite like my theory of Soba though, it does not apply to Udon, Ramen and soup.

So I searched:

There is a functional reason- As Japanese people eat soup and noodles while they are with how they eat that ends up making some sound, it bring down its temperature. 

More importantly, It is not about you should "slurp" or not "slurp". Japanese have a culture of "enjoying the sound" while eating as well as tasting on your tongue, smelling the aromas with your nose and watching with your eyes. Japanese culture is not black- and- white. It is full of ambiguity, just like Japanese colors. This can also be said in Japanese words, attitude, philosophies, and our sense. 

This is the theory that I found and I could agree with. 

I'm not sure what you think from this.

"Eating does not consist of only manners and taboos." 

If you have this in your mind, slurping sounds that a Japanese person making next to you while eating noodles may become a little less unbearable?

x

bloody hell...

Wasn't the world as sweet as having no hangover after drinking three bottles of wine.




Information for the wines as well as beautiful meals that I had last night will be uploaded shortly.
I ain't in the mood to talk about wine quite yet.
x

Uguisu Restaurant @ Sangen-Chaya with "night for food lovers"

From when I met this amazing couple who are also food lovers, we decided to have "night for food lovers" with another friend of them (ours now) once in a while. Basically, the concept is one of us to take all to the person's favourite restaurants where the others have never been.
Our memorable first restaurant, "uguisu"was chosen by a lovely lady, K (not me) and it was very well selected and thanks to her, it has become one of my favourite restaurants in Tokyo.

This restaurant is located in an area called Sangen-Chaya, 10mins walk from Sangen-Chaya, North exit. It wasn't so easy to find but since it seems quite well known in this area, the first person who I asked could tell me the direction easily. It was on Tue I think and we made a booking at about 8pm for four, but we couldn't get a table and we had to sit at the bar! Well I thought it was nice. If we were two, I would have asked to sit at the bar anyway. Watching the staff cooking and working is also one amazing spice I believe.

We asked for a menu as others always would do in a restaurant, and what they brought was a black board full of name of the dishes. I was trying to read what was written there, but it was not necessary, because the waiter started reading them ALL, explaining how they cook. It was purely amazing and it definitely worked for us as it made us feel like ordering ALL of them. I was so sure he is involved in cooking. While he explained we could feel his love to each dish and was quite close to fall in love with the dishes already, or him (think he was pretty good looking). In fact, I saw him and all the waiters from that night in th kitchen when I came back there a month after. This explains.

From the amazing choices, we firstly ordered,

Couscous salad with Grilled Organic Vegetables

It was very simple, yet tasteful.

Brevoort Terrine

My apology for quality of the photos, I did not take my Canon with me that night. I also ordered this dish when I went back there a month after. It does not have the smell of Brevoort, but still kept its flavour. Perfect with Bio white wine with some sparkling which balances your mouth up with some freshness to it.

Salmon meuniere with Cream Sauce

I think I didn't chose this dish. I was never a big fun of cooked seafood dishes in restaurants which I didn't know why. With this, I immediately knew right away; because I never met an amazing dish like this!
The skin was crunchy and it was very tender inside which how every meuniere should be. The sauce, (speechless now remembering how it was) phew was just perfect, not killing the flavour of salmon, it was just adding some beautiful richness to it.

Then, for my first time I tried

Boudin Noir

What can I say, it didn't make me a big fun of, to be honest. But is it how it is? I guess I will give it a try somewhere else;)

Oh and this one I loved!




Petite-toes stuffed with beef mince

 Have you tried petite toes before? In my home town, it's quite usual to eat them, but not like this.
The sauce has some acidity and sweetness of fruit and bouillon of pork was making it settle. The meat was very complex and tender. I recommend to eat this dish with lightly bodied red wine with a bit of acidity such as Gamay from Beaujolais.

We had so much more than that with 5 bottles of wine! That's what always happen with good food, good wine and good people, right? (We moved a wine bar in Shibuya after that and had 2 more extra bottles...)

I would be more than happy to show and explain about this place now, but since I would like to do that with better photos, so I will leave some for later.

Oh I forgot to mention about their wine list;
Mostly biologic wines.
They do not have a wine list. You just ask them what kind of wine you feel like and they will bring some choices to you.

Price? Of course I asked.
They answered,

"The most expensive bottle here is about 5,000 yen".

Don't you love it.

x

Amakusa

I went back to my home town, Kumamoto for NY 2011.

In Japan, we traditionally spend our NY's time with families and with friends (or lovers) for Christmas as we are not Christian and we are Buddhist, just like the other way around of western culture. It has been almost 10 years since I left my parents' house and I go back there once in a while but never in NY time. This one could have been my first one since then.

I always spent my NYs with friends partying till last year and it was fun, but for some reason, I started to miss my family, friends back home and specially fresh food from there, very badly.

When I first arrived in Tokyo, I got very surprised by price of fresh vegetables, fruit and seafood. Of course I am aware that these things always happen in the every big cities, but as a food lover, it was still a big issue. Tomatoes here taste nothing to me and broccolis and courgettes cost fortune! Does it do something to do with the fact that people go out to eat all the time?

Anyway, every time I go back to Kumamoto, there is a favourite course of my family.
We go to Onsen in Amakusa where is famous for seafood in the morning and we eat lunch at a restaurant called "Fukushin"(sorry the website is only in Japanese). They have various kinds of super fresh seafood and they are reasonably priced.

Because their menu is big, I ordered a glass of cold beer for the meantime so that I can relax and take time on deciding ;)

After close to 30 mins of discussion (!), we decided to order fresh Oysters, stewed Kasago (marbled rockfish), Sashimi plate, Sushi platter, Grilled Prawns and Kaisen-don (Sashimi on rice). Quite a lot for 4 people... but of course we had no problem finishing them all ;)

I started with the oysters. Gosh, I though I was having S*X in mouth!

Fresh Oysters

and then, pick some of the Kasago and Sashimi...

Asked my brother to share some of his Kaisen-don, but declined!  :(

So, I am not sharing my sushi platter either ;P

It takes for about 1 hour and half or even more with traffic jam to go from Kumamoto city, but it's definitely worth it. (Maybe because I get to sleep in the car on the way back?)

x

Dish Cafe @ Yoyogi-Uehara.

Let me introduce you one of my favourite cafes in my neighbourhood.

The place is called "Dish Cafe". It is located in front of Yoyogi-Uehara station (south exit). This place is in the second floor which is above aYakitori restaurant and it is not the kind of place where you just walk in without knowing it.

The biggest reason why I love this place is they keep serving meals even after "lunch time" is finished and their food is good. I always struggle finding a place with good food when I wake up late on my day offs, as there are tons of restaurants/cafes around but they always stop serving meals or close down between 3ish to 5 or 6pm. Well, not to mention that it is my problem and I should wake up at  lot earlier though, you know it's not so easy after a couple (or more?) drinks on the night before ;)

They have a little terrace as well although it does not have such a pleasant view since it is right in front of the station and the noise is quite loud, but I still kind of like it.
Inside, they have some couch seats which look very comfortable and great for some desserts and coffees as well as table seats that are more appropriate to eat meals on.

This cafe usually serves lunch plate that has salad, main, pasta and some bread for 1,100 yen.
You can chose main and pasta from 2 kinds each which may become one depending on their stock. I really think it is very reasonable for what you get.




Lunch Set with Pan Fried cod and Tomato Sauce Spaghetti with Shrimp and Asparagus.  


They keep serving this lunch set until they run out of their stock, but even if they have been sold out by the time you order, do not worry, there are other good options.
There is something called "meat plate" which has one stewed chicken wing, salad, stir-fried pork mince with coriander with some Thai rice. This is very tasteful and filling. This cafe also offers you a delicious salad (you can chose the size from small and large) with a poached egg, croutons and of course with various and fresh green leaves and tomatoes.
Their pasta is also a tempting option too. Depending on the day, they have different kinds of pastas but what I always remember is puttanesca. It is very well balanced with sourness and richness of the tomato sauce. Their portion is not very big, but the taste you will get in your mouth is definitely fulfilling.

Drinks:
Their are coffees are pretty decent and they offer several kinds of tea and herb tea as well.
Wine: I never ordered a bottle of wine (maybe because I always go there with a hangover.) But from what I saw on their wine list wasn't too bad. I remember they have good range of Italian wine than French, reasonably priced.

Ordering one lunch plate, a cup of coffee and a small bottle of Perrier, it was around 2000 yen.

I don't know if you think it is expensive or not, but I feel like going back there right now while writing this post ;)

x

New Start

Hello everyone.
I know it is already February but anyway, Happy New Year!

I had another blog with exactly the same title, however very stupidly, I have forgotten my account address as I didn't update it for a long time and its account was something that I created only for the blog.

I think it was a good thing that I have to restart. I received many critics about my previous blog thanks to my precious friends and now it is time to improve but still, any critics are welcome ;)

This blog is simply to share my unforgettable food life with you all.

Hope it helps you to have even better food life.

Thank you.

x