Category: Address

Life in Florence

So, it’s been four days we’ve been in Florence, except for Sunday that we spent walking around the city as described here, it’s been a rather studious time. A. leaves early in the morning while it’s all dark and comes back late at night, and this gives me more than plenty of time to work, write and spend a little hour or two outside walking around the city in the cold and shopping for lunches and dinners.

I’ve now explored both the San’Ambroggio market and the San Lorenzo market, got to see everything twice or thrice to decide what to buy choosing between all the delicious cheeses, fresh pasta and all the fruits and vegetables that are alien to Japan. I must say that I passed on fish, not being fully satisfied with the stands and on meat as there was too many options and I am not good with meat too much… but I guess that I will have to try some for A.. For the moment I’m sticking to speck and San Daniele and it’s been perfect. I also got my tea from La Via del Te as recommended by Giula from the beautiful Juls’ kitchen. And really I am more than happy with my little kitchen and the simple cooking I can do!

So far the things I have really been enjoying are the greens: I packed on lamb’s lettuce, rucola, zucchini, fennel and artichokes and I have been using them in many various preparation. My best being this delicious dish of pasta with olive oil roasted fennels and zucchini and topped with rucola. It is so simple and so fresh, and so easy to make, that here is my recipe:

Pasta with zucchini, fennel and rucola (for 2)

– 125g of pasta

– 1 zucchini

– 1/2 fennel

-1 handful of rucola

– olive oil, salt and pepper

– additionally some fresh parmigiano or some other cheese

Boil the water for the pasta and the pasta. In the mean time, wash and cut the fennel and the zucchini, and in an olive oil greased frypan cook them, but not overcook them! Add the drained pasta, salt, pepper, and olive oil, top with rucola and stir, serve immediately. Add cheese if you like!

And have a great Wednesday! 

Firenze!

 Good morning from Florence!  So here we are, finally in Italy, this time it’s not Sicily but Tuscany, and it’s not for the Christmas holidays with the family but a business trip. Nonetheless it’s the Christmas season and it’s Italy with panettone and Christmas songs everywhere and the many delicious food to eat! In order for me to have enough space to work and to cook A. has rented us an apartment where I have a small kitchen to play with, and just 12h after landing in Florence I was already happily cooking lunch for us!

my panettone and I!
my panettone and I!

What was I doing during 12h? Well I slept 6, then woke up at 6AM in the dark… right… it’s Europe, it’s winter and it’s dark until 7:00 or 8:00…
Waking up early is still a great thing, because while it’s still all sleepy and empty and the sun is rising slowly we first enjoyed walking around the Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio before it’s getting impossible to enjoy. And then only we went for some important shopping: food! We first went just around our apartment to Eataly (but honestly when you’re in Italy you don’t need Eataly, there’s so much more to explore!) and at the San Lorenzo market, where they have a food court on the second floor of the mercato centrale where you can buy, take away or eat there plenty of Italian food: pizza, fresh  pasta, curd meat, Fiorentina beef, fish… no city is escaping the hipster food fashion with all the good and the bad… Anyway… I got there and around some essentials: olive oil, parmigiano, panettone, honey, tangerines, and for the lunch: fresh vegetarian ravioli with spinach and ricotta and some speck. Everything for a day outside walking all over the city in the cold, because it is quite cold indeed in the narrow and shaded streets of the city.

all what's needed to start with!
all what’s needed to start with!

It is impressive how quickly the city gets crowded on Sunday with groups first and then just crowd and past 11:00 am it gets really crazy, so to avoid most of the crowds we then headed for the Abbazia di San Miniato al Monte, from which the view is worth the small additional climb from piazzale Michelangelo! It’s so quiet and green. And I recommend the funny bucolic and almost rural walk down through the via dell’Erta Canina among the olive trees and the cypress trees. And well that’s how my first day ever in Florence went… beautifully and deliciously! And there five more to come!

Kurashiki – 倉敷

This year so far, we haven’t traveled much abroad, rather we traveled to many places in Japan that were on my bucket list: we went to the north part of Okinawa, to Hakuba in the summer, to Takayama, to the Kiso valley etc… one other place on the list was Kurashiki. So when our visitors from France asked where we could go together, I opted for that destination. October is a perfect time to travel in Japan, the weather is usually nice, warm but not as hot as in the summer, and there is a beautiful light.

The canal and one of the Ohara houses
The canal and one of the Ohara houses

Because I didn’t have much time with moving and work, I didn’t really prepare our trip in detail, except for train tickets and hotel booking. I prepared it in the train on the way, and I think I did some pretty good job to entertain us 48h. The historical old town of Kurashiki, very well preserved with no electric poles like in Tsumago, with its canal, its weeping willows, and its tiled black and white cellars, is beautiful but actually it is very small. We hesitated visiting the Ohara museum, the first museum of western art in Japan, but then decided that there was better things to see than some Rodin sculptures or some Monet paintings. Instead we preferred the Ohashi house, the Ohara house, and the folk craft museum. Once we also had checked in the nicest cafes and the craft shops, and tried some craft workshop (A. and I finally made our first pottery on a potter’s wheel!!), we were surprised that there is actually more than that to visit… if you have a car… which is actually very easy to find! And much less crowded!!! In particular, the Tamashima area has a few interesting places to visit: Yunoki house, Entsuji temple and Tashima Haguro shrine. One thing also that was worth the drive, is the view from the top of the Washuzan at sunset. The view point is perfect to see the Seto Ohashi and the various small islands in the Seto Inland sea. 

At work on the potter's wheel
At work on the potter’s wheel
Entsuji
Entsuji
Old town of Kurashiki  
Old town of Kurashiki  

Yamanashi!!

entrance of Erinji
entrance of Erinji

The last stop of our trip was in Yamanashi prefecture to visit wineries and fruits orchards. I had know idea what too expect and what we would actually see, and it was a great surprise! First the place we stayed at (Fuefukigawa onsen – 笛吹川温泉) was fantastic with a chef preparing delicious cha-kaiseki cuisine and adjusting easily with my very special food restrictions. We had plenty of local products at each dinner and breakfast there and it’s been a long time since I haven’t had proper cha-kaiseki. Probably since my last cha-kaiseki class too many years ago… so I was really happy! Then we went to visit on foot the surroundings and were enchanted by the mix of orchards and residential areas near Erinji, a remarkable temple with old beautiful pine trees. In the orchards one can find grapes of course, but also peaches, chestnuts, persimmons, apples… Most people may be chocked by the excess of care given to the fruits: each may have a little paper hat to protect it, and in may cases they are wrapped in a little paper bag. It results in fruits that are almost all perfect, protected from bugs, heavy rain, direct sun…

protected grapes
protected grapes

Many places on the road sides sell fruits to eat directly on the spot or take away, it gives a very casual, not Japanese atmosphere that was very interesting!!!

panoramic view of the Suntory winery
panoramic view of the Suntory winery

Want to know more about what to see and where to stay? Leave a comment!!! 

Learning new recipes

We are now in Hakuba for the second stop of our little Japanese road trip. Staying as usual at La Neige Higashikan where we are pampered as usual. We spend our days hiking and visiting the surroundings, which are very different from the winter. It’s the first time ever I go to the mountain in the summer (I am more of a sea person) so seeing all the lifts, and the lush green pasture is very new to me and going up the mountains and hiking among the streams and the flowers was a great experience!!! 

What was really great is also to have dinner at our favorite Hakuba restaurant: the humming bird. The chef and his wife received us like kings! They opened the restaurant just for is and cooked us some delicious local cuisine, like awabitake: some delicious mushrooms from Nagano area, rhubarb compote… and some home made pickles that tasted very different than what we usually eat. The secret of such sweet taste was very simple but new to me: to pickle it they used plum syrup!!! 

Pickles in plum syrup: 

– plum syrup in enough quantity to cover the vegetables

– cucumbers

– 1 dry red pepper (togarashi) 

Wash the cucumbers, remove a bit of the peel to create stripes. Cut the red pepper in thin slices. Add the red pepper in the plum syrup. Dip the cucumbers and wait a few hours to one day. Remove the cucumbers, wash them briefly. Cut and serve.

Have a beautiful month of August!!! 

A nice custom

In Japan when you go to a bice restaurant there a nice custom of leaving the restaurant with a present, generally food present. Many of the Japanese restaurants we jave been practice this custom, but I don’t know where it comes from. I need to investigate more!!!! 

I remember some delicious pound cake from Robuchon, sometimes so breads or some cookies or chocolates in French restaurants. In Japanese restaurant it is often some pickles or some rice and this time we had again dinner at Itosho, a Shojin cuisine restaurant, it was some nice green peas rice. To which I added a scrambled egg to make a perfect quick dinner the next day! A very nice way to prolong the experience!

Have a beautiful Sunday! 

Parisian addresses for travelers

Our hotel life in Paris is continuing with a few nice discoveries and rediscoveries that I really want to share for those away from home in Paris. First of all the hotel. Finding a good hotel in Paris with all the services and the quietness is nit an easy task.

Hotel:

After trying many many hotels in many different places, left bank, right bank, I think we’ve finally found our home in Paris: La Reserve. I wanted to stay at the Mandarin oriental again, because I liked the swimming pool and the large rooms, but A. didn’t like it that much (sloppy room service and poor attitude of the security staff and bellmen at the door) so he convinced me to try La Reserve, and there has been no disappointment from start to end. The pool is nice, little used, the hotel is sizable and the staff super nice, the rooms are very quiet and well furnished. The service is very personalized and all is about smiles and freshness. The location is also great (nearby many galleries and in the midst of green) and the little things like the courtesy chauffeur are just nice surprises. 

Restaurants: 

Flora Danica, is a real classic Danish restaurant in the Maison du Danemark on the Champs Élysées, that has been there forever in Paris. We used to go when we lived in Paris. It has changed many times but the quality of the food is steady and the dishes are simple and delicious. The nordic Scandinave interior is beautiful and cosy. The dishes, mainly salmon and mackerel are really nice. Ingredients come first, no fancy arrangements.

Haï Kaï is a restaurant in the 10eme by the Canal Saint Martin. A hipster area of Paris. The place interiror is very simple and the dishes really great. The discovery menu is mking some ambitious and provocative combinations, the a la carte menu is more considerate and has some beautiful dishes like the merlan au beurre or the Parisian gaspacho.  A nice new address in Paris with a cheffe (woman chef!).

Parisian walks

So, here am I in Paris just for one day before heading to Aix-en-Provence for work. Spring is turning heads here as much as sakura and hanami were in Tokyo and the beautiful warm weather and the jetlag invite for random walks and terraces farniente. With the Paris marathon raging on the right bank we decided to stay on the left bank and enjoy the fresh green of spring with a walk in the hospital La Salpetriere that has a beautiful park nearby the central church, before heading to the classic chic jardins du Luxembourg and finish on the Seine bank after browsing the art galleries in the 6eme. Paris is definitely a city to visit on foot, selecting random streets and seating here and there randomly to have a drink and a break. I personally love to seat at the jardin du Luxembourg drink stands at les Editeurs, place Saint Sulpice or place de l’Odeon. My favorite drinks when jetlagged and in France are some childhood drinks: diabolo menthe (mint syrup and sparkling soda) or straight freshly squeezed lemon juice. Have a beautiful week ahead!

the gardens of hospital la Salpetriere
the gardens of hospital la Salpetriere
Fontaine Medicis in the jardins du Luxembourg
Fontaine Medicis in the jardins du Luxembourg
Seine river from the left bank
Seine river from the left bank

Pierre

There are quite many Michelin rated restaurants in Kansai, many are Japanese cuisine restaurants. For A.’s birthday I was looking for a nice place to spend the evening, many are closed on Sunday and I couldn’t make a decision. After spending some time at the Saint Regis hotel, we checked in at the Intercontinental hotel (because it has a swimming pool, something I really enjoy when on business trip) and that’s only at that time that I realized their restaurant Pierre was a newly starred on the Michelin list. Their menu attracted me for being both simple and creative and I was not disappointed. Since I have a list of things I don’t eat that can scare more than one chef and A. has also his preferences that are different than mine I assume that we are a headache!!! But everything was perfectly adjusted and the plates were beautiful, fresh, and perfectly sized for us. Contrarily to many places in Osaka where meat is central, at Pierre local vegetables are playing a main part. If you are in Osaka, I warmly recommend that place, the service lacks a bit of confidence, but the food is exquisite. Wine pairing with the menu was really nice too. Booking is more than recommended as it is quite busy and if like me you have likes/dislikes the chef can accommodate more easily.

Pierre @hotel Intercontinental Osaka near Umeda station and Grand front.

Japanese spring vegetables at Pierre

pictures from the official website  

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