New kitchen

Last weekend we moved in our new apartment in Tokyo so the past days have been pretty busy juggling with work and getting used to our new place. While we got familiar with it quickly, the kitchen may have been the biggest change. It’s a tiny apartment so the kitchen is also tiny but it is opened on the dining/living room with a direct view through the window. It means it’s a lot more enjoyable than my previous one that, though larger, was really dark and felt isolated from the rest of the apartment. It’s been only a few days I’ve cooked in there, but already I love the late afternoon light that bathes it (the perks of working from home). I’m now getting used to the gears, and I had to give up my oven until we do proper renovations. Hopefully both our previous and new apartment are in the same building, and we still have our former apartment for 2 more weeks, so A. uses it as an office during the day, we both use it as a pilates studio in the evening, and I still go to bake there!!! Honestly, I don’t know how I will survive without an oven… I need to start thinking about pot baking and steam breads… though I usually have a lit less time in Tokyo than in Isumi to make tests. But I see it as a great opportunity to learn and test new techniques, so if you have any experience I’ll be happy to learn from you!

You may not have noticed yet, but one thing that is new also is my setup for taking pictures of the food I prepare. I used to have a straightforward cooking-plating-picturing stream… now it has gotten a little bit more complex, but I kind of like the new setup. You tell me if you do to…

Regarding food… well I must say that the past days, I have been preparing very simple things: often Japanese rice, or pasta, because every minute I had available was used to unpack something, to hang artworks, and I am happy to say that we’re almost done!! A. has worked really hard to make it happen! And cooking has been a bit rushed these days!!

But I’m happy that spring is now coming fully with it’s collection of greens, new something and the freshness that goes with it. I’ve cooked new onion a lot these days, new potatoes and snap peas too. For example altogether in a pan fried version, separately with rice, in chahan, or in a quiche version.., and they are always delicious… the pictures speak for themselves, and I assume no recipe is needed!