Month: August 2016

Typhoon night

The season for typhoon has arrived. It marks the beginning of the end of summer when days are still hot and the light turns different. I have the impression that the “real” summer was really short mainly because we were away from Japan. Leaving Japan is always difficult because I love every single season and sub-season, but all are quite short. With the end of summer coming slowly summer vegetables will disappear at the farmers market and we will move on towards mushrooms, kabocha and other autumnal vegetables and fruits. So let’s enjoy the summer a little longer while the typhoon is raging outside with what I call a Japanese ratatouille made of capsicum and eggplants (white and purple) and deglazed in soya sauce, to top a simple bowl of rice. I wish you a happy Thursday!

Japanese food addict

When we are in Japan I don’t think about it, I naturally cook Japanese at least once a week sometimes more. When I say Japanese I mean rice (white or brown) and something with dashi and/or miso and/or umeboshi. These tastes have been part of our daily life now almost as much as good olive oil and basil. And when traveling I miss them, after a short while and the excitement of tasting new thing. They are simple, plain and fine at the same time, they are the promise also of fresh and simply delicious ingredients (for me) just as olive oil is too. Yet it is easier to find good olive oil and cook with olive oil (and with cooking with our friends and eating at their place several times I was really lucky!) than it is with miso, dashi, umeboshi and rice. I mean real delicious ones are still hard to find. So during this two-week trip I’ve craved for the simplicity of a bowl of Koshihikari with umeboshi, and that’s the first thing I cooked when I arrived home. I also prepared some dashi to cook some eggplants and used it for flavoring scrambled eggs. It is that simple and delicious. Is that the taste of home in Japan? Or does that make a Japanese food addict? What do you crave for when away from home?

Back to the kitchen

The perk of jetlag is to be hungry all the time and to wake up early in the morning giving plenty of time to see the sun rise and prepare breakfast!!! And if Canada is known as the mapple syrup country, it’s definitely not somethings they serve often or basically never. So I was craving for mapple syrup on pancakes, and finally prepared crumpets to have an even thicker pancake to soak with mapple syrup. It’s really easy to prepare and so delicious. I served them with fresh nashi since now it’s the best season. Have a nice week, mine is busy with work and Saturday the cooking contest finale!

Oh oh Waterloo ♫

Long time no update… Sorry for that, I’ve spent a few days in Chicago followed by almost two weeks in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada for work and friends. And it was really a good time. Starting with a sunny weather and friends willing to make us discover where they live, we were very very lucky. This Mennonites area is growing plenty of delicious vegetables and there are farmers market nearby where you can find loads of fruits like you never see in Japan: blueberries and strawberries by the kilo, peaches and apricots by the box… No wonder why our friends cook their own jams! It’s so cheap! And home made jam is so delicious!
Despite leaving in a hotel room for 2 weeks I manage to “cook” with just a knife and a spoon and eat fresh fruits and vegetables everyday. And finally cook when we spent the weekend north in French River in a lovely cottage of the Pine Cove, swimming, hiking and kayaking everyday for hours. Even with the limited ingredients we had it was so nice after so long to be in a kitchen and cook for everyone after a long outdoor day! In particular the kitchen of the cottage was super well furnished with high quality cooking ware so it was really enjoyable! Thanks A. for coming with me, thanks D. & C. for showing us around and spending so much time with us to make this Canadian experience really memorable and all the good work done too!
Now it’s time to go home! 

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