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.

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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".

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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.

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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!


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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.

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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!


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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?

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