About food in Japan

French - Les Creations de NARISAWA (Michelin *)

Les Creations de Narisawa; we cannot miss the name of this restaurant, when we talk about the best French restaurants in Tokyo or in Japan.

The restaurant is awarded 1 star by Michelin guide and on this April, it was elected  to"The best restaurant in Asia" as well as the top 20th of The S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants 2009.

This is the second time for me to have lunch here and is the first time in last one and a half years. Some of my friends have a passion for having meals at Les Creations de Narisawa.

The menu list reminds me the chef, Mr. Yoshihiro Narisawa's creativity.

Let's see with my photos.

One of Amuse- bouche very fresh radish with soil? No it looks like soil but not real soil.

The first plate: Natsu no hatake (夏の畑, Summer fields)

He often uses fresh vegetable for his cooking but I cannot count how many kinds of vegetable are on the plate

Everyone is fresh and surely has pure strong flavour of vegetables.

The second plate: Shiohigari (潮干狩り, shellfish gathering)

Shellfish gathering on beach is one of seasonal events in Japan. The plate reminds everyone the exciting events in childhood.

Thirdplate: Green bed

The green bed is made of sprouts or choux de Bruxelles. Not only the presentation but also the quality of ingredients, pork and sprounts made us very satisfied.

Another fantastic imagination is this "flower pot" served with

pieces of bread.

Yes It looks like a pot with soil and small sprouts and no one would try to eat

This is actually a kind of spread to be put on a piece of bread.

Stiring it for a while, it became surely something to eat...

 

Our surprises continued to the two dessert plates.

What the restaurant is pushed to The World's 50 Best Restaurants must be his creativitiy. Every time we go, we encounter new surprises time by time and season by season.

I am looking forward to being astonished again by his "creations."

Restaurant name: Les Creations de NARISAWA

Address: 2-6-15 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Website: http://www.narisawa-yoshihiro.com

Related website: The World's 50 Best Restaurants  http://www.theworlds50best.com

 

Tamaya, Zushi

Today, it is "Marine day" in Japan.

I would like to introduce my favourite cake shop in a beach town not far from Tokyo.
Zushi beach is only one hour train ride + 10 minutes walk from Tokyo.

It is nice to be able to enjoy sea breeze without taking long hours journey or overnight stay from Tokyo. Just spend a day on the beach and refresh yourself before going back to the concrete jungle for dinner or noisy nightlife.

On the way from the beach to JR Zushi station, please do not forget passing by Zushi shopping avenue (Shotengai, 商店街） in order to get souvenirs of the beach town.
The cake shop Tamaya (珠屋） is one of "do-not-miss" spot there.
It has a half century long history and serves as a pastry shop, cafe restaurant in Zushi.
The cakes are mainly traidtional Western style ones or from the master's original ideas.
They might not be mod but surely show respects to traditional works. They are not too sweet and are likely to be loved by anyone from young to old.

My most favourite one is Swiss Roll.

It is very simple roll cake that reminds me my childhood days. Apricot jam on the top creates good harmony with the basic roll cake and butter cream.

Savarin is wrapped in aluminium foil. It was dipped in liqueur syrup and butter cream with pieces of marron is sandwiched. By making it cool in a fridge, the tast is enhanced.

This is also good for a gift to make a set with fine cake.
The original tea bag is in a small pack of cute illustration.
It is a product of collaboration with an unique tea shop in Tokyo.

Tamaya also runs cafe restaurant on the location, where not only sweets but also lunch menu are provided.

Shop name: Tamaya 珠屋
Address: 1-5-8 Zushi, Zushi city, Kanagawa 249-0006
Website: http://www.tamaya1950.com

郷土料理（Kyodo ryori, local specialty） - JAPAN'S TASTY SECRETS issued

Local specialty is called as "郷土料理"(kyodo ryori) in Japanese. In north or south, seaside or mountains, we have variety of kyodo ryori by region by region. To introduce such local specialties from farms, mountains or fishing villages in Japan, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries issued a guide book of kyodo ryori in English on June 2009. The 65 pages publication features local specialty of each 47 prefectures in Japan with photo and brief explanation. Many of them are casual food such as noodle, nabe (pot), manju (Japanese style cake) and ones can be seen only in the region.

The book will be distibuted at airports in Japan, Yokoso Japan! booth at internatioanl travel fairs held at major cities in the world.

The electronic version is available on the internet.
To download it, please click here.

Related link:
Rulal Development Planning Commision website (Japanese)
http://www.rdpc.or.jp/kyoudoryouri100/

Wagashi (和菓子） - Shimizu (清水） in Kagurazaka

Wagashi(和菓子） is the generic name represents all kinds of Japanese traditional sweets. It has been developped for centuries with tea ceremony schools. As it has been often served with green tea, many kinds of wagashi are very sweet.

Unlike traditional sweets in other parts of the world, wagashi attracts people not only with the taste but also with aesthetic appearance. We traditionally appreciate the beauty of four seasons. The mind is reflected in the world of wagashi. Hence traditional high-end wagashi masters create different products season by season, some times using seasonal ingredients.

Shimizu, a very traditional wagashi shop, is located in Kagurazaka, central Tokyo. Arriving in the shop after a minutes walk from Kagurazka subway station, we feel that we had a time trip to Edo era. The house exterior, inetrior and sweets made us imagine the ancient world. All of the small pieces in the showcase are fancy. It must be hard to select some from the attractive choices.

Finally I bought four different pieces. During summer, it has more products looks cool, like jelly.

The most impressive work is tiny "firefly" in the center of the square-shape jelly.

It never be something unexpected, but should be there. The master dipicts a firefly lighting in the grass and the dark and he puts the world into a small piece of sweets.

How just a piece of sweet can be so romantic like this 

I wanted to gaze the piece with joy for longer but I enjoyed having it as well.

Many kinds of wagashi are fresh and it is better to consume them within a short time after your purchase.

It is regrettable to finish it but I am looking forward to finding another piece in different seasons there.

Shop name: Shimizu
Address: 110 Yaraicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

Tofu (豆腐) – how to make it?

Tofu, which is made from soya beans, is one of the best known Japanese foods.

It is quite popular as igredient of miso-soup or healthy side dish. It has never been lacked in traditoinal Japanese diet. But even for Japanese, we do not know well how it is made.

Today I joined a specially occasion to learn how to make “tofu” and to try to make it by ourselves

 

What provided to us at the beginning were only 3 items; a paper cup, a small plastic spoon and a small packet of clear liquid. That’s enough to make tofu? Let’s see…

 

The clear liquid, called “nigari(にがり, bittern)”, is essential ingredient as coagulant to make tofu. It contains minerals come from sea water. To be surprising, ingredients for pure tofu are this mineral waters and warm soy milk only But for making high quality, yummy tofu, it is very important to mix up these two ingredients very quickly and evenly as soon as the liquid is poured into soy milk in a paper cup. After we had a short lecture and demonstration how to move a spoon in a small cup by the tofu master, we reviewed and practiced the steps several times with an empty cup, because our chance to have soy milk is only once but no time is given to look back how to do it.

 

We had to take the process very quickly to succed in having fine piece of tofu.

I　did not have time to take photo of this process…

I followed the instruction and took all steps without fail, maybe.

After ten minutes since warm soy milk was poured into my cup, finally it looks like and smells like tofu!　

It was really very short time experience to learn how tofu is made. But it was very interesting.

Of course we tasted the own made tofu. The warm piece of my tofu was much better than a cold factory-made tofu that we can find at supermarkets.

 

Begian beer bar - Delirium cafe Tokyo, Japan vs Belgium food, not football, match

Celebrating the friendship football match between Japanese and Belgian international teams, a Belgian beer bar in Tokyo planed "food battle Japan - Belgium", while the sports match was taken place by the same two countries in the same city.

Traditional food from both countries lined up on the special menu list.

The 1st round - Potato
Japanese style fries...? never head about it.

The answer is sweet potato fries

It is rather sweet than salty.
This is neither a traditional nor typical bar snack, but is familier for Japanese as hand-made mum's snack for kids.

I guess, at least, high-fiber sweet potato is healthier food than the traditional Belgium speciality.

The 2nd round - Clam cooked with alcohol

Hamaguri with sake, mussels with beer both are very traditional food.
Mussels should never be missed at Belgian bars.

Please do not leave the soup at the end.
After having all the mussels, clear soup left in the bowl is the second delight from the food. Enjoy the juice from mussels.

The 3rd round - traditional meat dishes
We could not reach to the stage, to be honest...

At the end of the intersting match, Belgian food goes well with Belgian beer not surprisingly, while Japanese food does with sake. I recommend for the next match, when we have, the bar brings sake in order fairly to verify which one is better...

By the way, as for the football game, Japan won against Belgium; the score 4 - 0.

The bar provides selected Belgian beer including 50 kinds of draft brands imported directly from breweries in the origin country.

Restaurant name: Delirium cafe Tokyo
Address: Tokyo Club Kasumi Dining 1st floor, 3-2-6 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Website: http://www.deliriumcafe.jp

Normally it closes on Sunday.

Tempura (天ぷら） - Ginza Shinohalu （銀座 しのはる）

Tempura is "deep-fried food" in Japanese style. It is one of the most recommendable Japanese food for non-Japanese people. I believe that many people like it, as long as you do not mind food with oil and flour.

If you would like to have tempura food in the least expensive way, it is to get them at supermarkets. They could be also available at any kind of Japanese restaurants. If you want the best and fresh ones prepared by specialists of tempura, it is better to go to a "tempura restaurant".

Typical ingredients for tempura cooking are shrimp, fish, vegetable such as eggplant, Shitake Japanese mushroom, sweet-potato, pumpkin.

Shinohalu in east Ginza, just a block away from famous Kabuki theatre, is a Japanese upscale restaurant specialized in tempura cooking.

It is often featured by TV programe and magazines because of the high reputation for carefylly selected fresh seasonal ingredients cooked by professionals. However the lunch time, it is available at reasonable cost from Yen 1000 to Yen 2000. That is definetly value for money.

One day my lunch was "Zeitaku(lavish) Tendon" (tempura on top of a bowl of rice). It costs less than Yen2000 even with two big pieces of shrimp, a piece of fish, some vegetable tempuras, all freshly-fried in front of me at the counter table.

Restaurant name: Ginza Shinohalu

Address: B1 floor, M & S building 4-13-11 Ginza, Chuo-ku Tokyo

Website: http://www.ginza-shinohalu.com

Related story: Kakiage (かきあげ）

http://aboutfoodinjapan.weblogs.jp/blog/2008/08/kakiage-9483.html

Belgium chocolate - Galler CHOCOLATE - THE

It is not easy to find a cozy table for a cup of tea or coffee in Ginza without making a que on weekend afternoon. Galler CHOCOLATE - THE is my favourite place in Ginza to forget the bustle of the shopping and entertaining town.

The cafe-restaurant by the established Belgian chocolate house, Galler, is located on the second floor of Seibu department store, just a hundred meter away from busy Yurakucho station.

What should not be missed iteam is of course sweets with Galler chocolate.

A great pair of Belgian speciality - chocolate and waffles is a recommendable menu.

Chocolate and sweets are not a single feature of the cafe. Flower decoration and piano playing music at the cafe are also by Belgian famouse professionals.

While taking a rest from hassle of shopping in Ginza, enjoy Belgian specialities at the cozy tea room.

Cafe name: Galler CHOCOLATE - THE
Address: Yurakucho Seibu Department store Fasion-kan (pavillion) 2nd floor, 2-5-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Website: Galler Japan (Japanese)
            http://www.galler.co.jp

Omiyage (お土産) - Rokkatei (六花亭） from Hokkaido

In Japan we have a long bank holiday weekend on May, called Golden Week.
This year 2009, I had 5 days off in a row from 2nd to 6th of May. Some other people had longer one adjoining another weekend or another bank holiday 29th of April.

Anyway after the long holiday, it is likely that Japanese people exchange a box of sweets from their holiday destination each other. That is called "Omiyage"(お土産, souvenir). Therefore everywhere in major tourist sites when we travel across Japan, we are able to find box of local sweets suit for Omiyage at hotels airports and souvenir shops etc.

Rokkatei (六花亭) is one of the most popular sweets house in Hokkaido （北海道), the north land. Dairy products are specialities of the region and sweets with cream, butter from Hokkaido must be good quality ones.

The most-well-known product by Rokkatei , I believe, is "Marusei butter sand"(マルセイバターサンド).
The name "Marusei" came from the butter producer name used for the sweet. Rich butter cream mixed with dried raisin is sandwiched with two pieces of biscuit.

If you have one, you must become a fan of it!

White chocolate made from fresh milk of Hokkaido is another speciality of the house.
According to the company, they are the first producer of white chocolate in Japan from 1968.

Not only the tasty chocolate is, the package is also the reason why this is highly appreciated as Omiyage from Hokkaido. Each flavour chocolate has different illutst of local spieces of flowers.   

Another choice for Omiyage could be this box with two flavours mixed; white and strawberry. Two kinds of flower are depicted on the wrapping paper and each piece of chocolate is shaped in the flower petals.

Rokkatei shops are located only in Hokkaido region. In Tokyo occasionally the productes are available at major department stores and supermarkets, otherwiese it is sold through online shop. We do not have many chances to get the good chocolate products. That is why we are very happy when we get Rokkatei products as Omiyage from Hokkaido.

Rokkatei website: http://www.rokkatei.co.jp  

六花亭マルセイバターサンド【10個入】 【0428_GWレビュー】 

六花亭の人気チョコレート！六花亭 ストロベリーチョコ ホワイト【0428_GWレビュー】

******************  Find accommodation in Japan  ***************

OSAKA / NARA / SAPPORO / TAKAYAMA / TOKYO/YUFUIN 

YAKUSHIMA / NOZAWA ONSEN / NISEKO / NIKKO /

HIROSHIMA / MATSUMOTO / KYOTO / KANAZAWA / ISHIGAKI ISLAND /

HAKUBA / FURANO / BEPPU /

 

Wagyu (和牛 Japanese beef) - Meat Yazawa

Hamberg and steak...it is not really considered as Japanese food. The menu is still quite familier for Japanese nationals and what is provided at the restaurant Meat Yazawa is surely Japanese food.

Beef cattle raised in Japan is called "wagyu(和牛, Japanese beef)" and among Japanese it is considered as the highest quality of beef. At restaurants or supermarkets, if you have choices in origin of beef, you will find that the Japanese beef is the most expensive. Even among wagyu, it is also categorized by quality and the price differs by the quality. Needless to say, famous brand beef such as Kobe, Matsuzaka is the highest quality among wagyu brands but Japanese beef even from other parts of Japan is still expensive compared with imported ones for example from Austraila and United States.

Meat Yazawa is originally a meat packing wholeseller and it runs a restaurant on the Meguro riverside in Gotanda. The restaurant is proud of serving only the highest quality (A5) beef there. However the price is surprisingly inexpensive and that attracts a lot of people enough to make a que line in front of the restaurant.

At a corner of the restaurant, trophies and plaques, as the proof of high quality beef breeded, are displayed.

According to the information at the restaurant, they recommend medium-rare cooked hamberg, because it is the best way to taste the high-grade meat.

With the egg york, it was an unforgettable plate...

Restaurant name: Meat Yazawa
Address: 2-15-13 Nishi-Gotanda, Shinagwa-ku, Tokyo
Website: http://www.kuroge-wagyu.com/my/