Fresh Spring Roll with Rucola/Roquette Salad

When I bought Rucola/Roquette Salad at a super market last time, because it was cheap, I took a lot of them.

Last time, I made simple salad- so this time, what should I do with it? I could make pasta, fried rice etc... but as I didn't want to have any carb, I decided to make fresh spring roll!

Ingredients:

Rucola/ Roquette Salad,
Bean Sprout,
Eryngii Mushrooms,
Sliced Pork Back Rib,
Cherry Tomatoes

Dressing:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil,
Yuzukoshō
Lemon Juice,
Salt and Pepper,
Dash of Soy Sauce

Rucola/ Roquette Salad matches very well with Yuzukoshō which is made from Chili peppers, Yuzu peel and Salt.

Nice and fresh, very well balanced and much more filling than just salad. and yet, low calorie as well.
Besides, Rucola/ Roquette Salad contains 4 times more vitamin C than Spinach, 40 times more calcium than Pepper and much iron etc etc!

Sounds like a dish for beauty...

Happy Eats!

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-Non diet meal- you need it sometimes!

Since I wrote about super healthy food last night, why not talk about something slightly more exciting but contains full of fresh ingredients.

It was for lunch on a weekday. Yes, I know, I took a day off and decided to enjoy my quiet and sunny afternoon since I never manage to do so in weekends ;)

Hamburger- when you hear this word, what do you come up with?

I personally think of words like "unhealthy"and "junk food". I know that I tend to like more vegetables and fish but I am sure that not many of you have considered hamburger as a proper meal.

Main problem with hamburgers are- they never have enough vegetables!

But this J.S burger offers you one big delicious burger which you can chose two different toppings from avocado, cheese, chili bean sauce, egg, bacon and pineapple, with crispy fries, salad bar and a drink at 980 yen at lunch time (11am to 15 pm)!

They have one in Shinjuku and Shibuya. Shinjuku has a nice terrace seats where you can enjoy sunlight during daytime and the one in Shibuya offers many comfortable couch which I hardly ever find in a burger shop.

You wouldn't believe this quality is from an eatery produced by an apparel brand ;)

Chose Chili bean sauce and cheese this time.

Happy Eats!



P.S Surely it isn't a good idea to talk about such delicious burgers on the night when I have skipped my dinner...

my diet dinner

My last weekend started on Thursday and finished on Sunday. It was totally full on weekend. After having a weekend like this, you have to compensate your body for it by having heathy and low calorie meals for a little while.

Rucola leaves
Petit tomatoes,
Sliced Apple,

Dressing;
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar,
Honey,
Lemon Juice,
Salt and Pepper,
Lemon Zest



Of course some mozzarella will be nice, but I didn't have them in my fridge, damned!




Happy Eats!

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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