Itosho – いと正

Last year I tried Daigo and a temple that serve Shojin-精進 cuisine. This time it is the turn of the Michelin one star Itosho in Azabu juban. The number of restaurant serving this kind of cuisine seems to be slightly increasing but Itosho is one of the long runner, since it started almost 50 years ago. And it has been run by chef Ito, a nice little character that serves himself the dishes he prepares. The place is in a small street of Azabu juban area and it is much less luxurious than Daigo, but the private room simplicity (all classic Japanese style seating) and neatness is perfect to make a time shift and appreciate the cuisine. Of course Ito uses fresh seasonal products, and it is perfectly delicious. Paired with some sake from Takayama, his region of origin. The tofu is amazing and the use of egoma is just right. And honestly it is quite affordable. Booking is mandatory and choosing the size of the menu also. We picked the middle one (I thought my father would complain with the smallest one) and it was quite a huge amount of food already!

Itosho – いと正

3-4-7 Azabu-Juban, Minato-ku, Tokyo; (03) 3454-6538

Open daily for lunch 12-3 p.m. and dinner 5:30-9:30 p.m. Cash only for payment.

March 17, 2017

Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi – 三越日本橋

I often go to shop at Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi because it is the closest department store from our place and it offers some really amazing services that I hve never found somewhere else: an excellent antic jewelry repair corner, a fur reform service, a nice shoe repair center, a huge corner for patisserie and bread making, with organic flours, fresh yeast… and of course, some Italian products and European products. I don’t use often the fresh products corner, but they have some nice fishes and vegetables. And only once in a while I shop there for prepared food. When we have visitors from Europe and we don’t want to eat out, but I am too busy with work to prepare a proper Japanese dinner, I like to go shopping there. First for the gyoza… the shiso and seaweed gyoza are just super delicious. They have a beautiful choice of seasonal food with pickles, tofu, crackers, and sweets. Going there with your foreign visitors you can be sure they will enjoy it and be amazed. The fact also that you can taste many of the products is really perfect. And during weekdays it is not even crowded. They often have exhibitions of Japanese craft related to fashion in the big lobby. This time, with my parents that freshly arrived in town, I knew that Mitsukoshi would be a great place to go for a walk, in particular on a rainy day. They love gyoza and it is almost a tradition now that the day they arrive in Tokyo we have gyoza for dinner at home. But this time we bought much more than just gyoza!!!! Sakura daikon pickles, rice crackers, yuzu mochi… A real shopping spree! All more delicious than the other!

Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi – 三越日本橋 :

Tokyo Chuo-ku Nihonbashimuromachi 1-4-1

March 4, 2017

Hummingbirg @Hakuba

As I was writing two years ago, when you live in Tokyo, Hakuba is the ultimate place for winter sports. The snow condition is amazing, they have wonderful tracks of all levels both for skiers and snowboarders in Happo-one, some back country options, even in Iwatake a cross country course (though it’s not easy to find equipment) and some snow shoeing options now. My favorite hotel is still La neige. But today I want to focus on my favorite restaurant there: the “Hummingbird”. Every time we go to Hakuba we go there and it is always perfect. The chef: Hidefumi Hasui, after working in the largest Japanese restaurant in New York during the 70’s and 80’s and working as graphic designer, he now cooks alone in his kitchen very delicious simple, home style cuisine with simple local fresh products. Exactly the kind of cuisine you want to eat after a day outdoor in the cold and the little variety of food in ski resort cafeterias (Japanese typical ski food being udon and curry rice, and now with the foreign crowd from Australia they’ve added pizza, French fries and fried chicken… so there’s a lot of room for improvement here!). His pickles are a must, as well as the grilled salmon and the zosui – 雑炊, something that is in between rice soup rice porridge and risotto, I also love his tofu salad with tones of herbs, salad and tomatoes. The restaurant is very tiny and only a dozen of people can have dinner there every night, served by the only waitress, so booking is mandatory. With his popularity increasing every year, during the winter pick season booking one week ahead or more is now timely. During the lowest season the restaurant is open only for reservations so again, call a few days before going. Whenever you go to Hakuba, go to the hummingbird absolutely, but give a call first!

Restaurant info: Hummingbird

〒399-9301 Nagano-ken, Kitaazumi-gun, Hakuba-mura, Hokujō

長野県北安曇郡白馬村和田野の森4715-1

tel: 026-172-7788

February 18, 2017

Miso, miso, miso

Miso is usually sold in large containers in Japan (it is with rice one of the rare ingredients that comes in large packaging compared to Western countries). It is a real pity because I love different types of miso depending on what I am cooking and I usually don’t keep several sorts because I don’t use it every day. In summer I like red miso, in winter white miso, but I also love miso with grains inside, and miso made of barley or of soy beans… So you can imagine how much happy I was when last night with D. we found a little place in Kichijoji that is both a restaurant and a miso shop where you can by miso by 100g units. Let’s first talk about miso, then about the restaurant.
The shop is ran by a single person (土平哲生さん), the elder son and 4th generation of miso makers, that does everything. His shop has a collection of miso coming from different places in Japan and made of the different ingredients, is has also some spicy miso and other fancy ones. It covers all the possible different tastes: very salty to very sweet, creamy to crumbly. And of course you can try all of them before deciding which ones you want to buy. I decided to go with miso made of 100% barley with a crumbly texture, and for a creamy but not too sweet white miso. I am now looking forward to cooking with these new miso.
The restaurant is a bare 10 seats place, with a little kitchen. Since D. is alergic to dairies and doesn’t eat meat at all we asked him if he could prepare something for us that would accommodate us, and he just prepared on the spot some dishes for us. I really like the idea that he could basically cook whatever we wanted with the ingredients he had, it reminded me of “深夜食堂”, a Japanese TV drama where “master” cooks whatever people want in is tiny restaurant. So we first asked for raw cabbage with different types of miso to try some of the different options, then he prepared for us some simmered eggplant with white miso, onigiri with vegetables pickled in miso (I found that not only his miso is delicious, his rice was also amazing!), and we finished with a salad of tofu, fried eggplant, tomato, green beans, with a miso dressing of course! Everything was simple and delicious and so simply prepared that it tasted like home!

Soy Bean Fram – ソイビーンファーム
Open everyday from 11:30 to 22:00
5min walk from Kichijoji JR station, north exit
Tokyo Musashino-shi Kichijoji Honmachi 2-15-2
東京都武蔵野市吉祥寺本町2-15-2

October 14, 2016

Atami 熱海

Hoshino, villa del sol, or the former library

Once a high end onsen resort with beautiful view of the seaside and stunning village spreading in the steep lush green sides of some small mountains, like many other onsen destinations Atami has been transformed into a sad village with too many horrible onsen ryokans that are now falling appart, a pitiful shopping street that goes dark before 18:00 and to complete the picture the seaside bears the scar of a highway. Between conviency and cheap development for Atami was the top destination for honey moon in the 50’s and 60’s, it is still possible to enjoy Atami and a bit of its past grandeur or rather simple luxury and beauty. A few beautiful villas old and new nested in the winding roads up the hills and a few exclusive hotels still exist. A few of the country residences built in the first half of the 20’s century can be visited, and a Hoshino resorts have made some tremendous effort to recreate some of the past atmosphere.

Using both a Japanese and a western building, that used to be a library, they have created a nice secluded space that is large enough to forget a bit about the ugliness of the rest of the city. A steep stair goes up the hill from the library passing by the two onsen bathes and end in the Japanese building. Climbing up one can enjoy the sound of the waves and the wind in the giant camphor trees. Except for onsen and a bit of local food degustation there is strictly nithing to do in Atami, at least for the moment. The only worth seeing museum being closed for renovation for several years, and not opening until 2017… Swimming requires a bit of a drive, and there might be some hiking trails but unfortunately we couldn’t try them because of the rain. There is a beautiful drive through the pass that goes up to Hakone.

But somehow, walking through the deserted streets at night has something really magic, some kind of Midnight in Paris or a magic hour, when your imagination can just make up anything.

September 12, 2016

Coconut oil curry

I am not too much in food trends and I am not too keen in trying new fashionable products. I see them on the shelves of super market: hemp, egoma… but never or rarely buy any. Three months ago when our friends from Germany visited us and we went food shopping for organic rice and Japanese products for them to bring back home, they convinced me that coconut oil was nice, and before that I read that it has many virtues so I bought some. And then I kept it in the fridge since then. Open it once or twice, but the smell rebutted me and I continued cooking with olive oil as usual. Last night I decided it was time to try. So I come up with a recipe where I could as well have used a little coconut milk: a spicy vegetables mix to serve with grilled snapper and black quinoa. I used 1 onion, 1 potato, 1 capsicum, 1eggplant and 1yellow zucchini all cut in bites. In a big pan I heated one large teaspoon of coconut oil and added the vegetables: onion first then potato, eggplant, then the rest a little while after. And cooked under cover. I added 1tsp of curry powder a little of cumin powder, a tsp of anise seeds and a very little of nutmeg powder. Added 10cl of water and stir. Cooked an additional 5 minutes without cover. The curry is ready!

In the meantime I prepared the black quinoa and grilled the fish. Prepared the plates and served immediately.

Then what about the coconut oil? The smell is quite strong and the taste persistent in the food, which for my preparation was perfect but it can be slightly repelling in some dishes or may be one needs to get used to it. It is vey nice for golden brown veggies, I obtained a very beautiful color and texture. So yes it’s nice, but for me it is going to take a little more brain to find recipes where to use it. Any suggestion to start with?

June 8, 2016

Shojin cuisine and cooking class

There aren’t too many places were you can eat vegan food in Tokyo, but recently the number of vegan cafe and vegan restaurants has dramatically increased and we’ve been trying quite a few. Yet to enjoy Shojin cuisine, there are still very few places. There is the most famous Daigo we went to last February, that provides the highest end of kaiseki shojin cuisine with a real unique experience. Then Itosho. Both being on the Michelin with respectively two and one star. Then there are a few temples providing a simpler experience, more rustic, but also interesting. Lucky enough there is one of these temples close to where I work: the Sanko-in and when I have visitors I like to take them there for lunch, for them to experience something different. At the Sanko-in you can eat some vegan buddhist cuisine in a budhist temple. Entering the temple and walking to the back building where the dining room is, is already setting the tone: quiet, simple and peaceful. The dining room is very simple, a little kitsch, but the chef and her assistant are really nice and welcoming (it’s run by two ladies). The cuisine uses seasonal ingredients of course and their famous matured tofu in miso, something close enough to a creamy cheese. The chef also prepares tea to accompany the lunch and it is a rare chance to enjoy macha and susuricha for my foreign visitors. A place I recommend if you don’t have the chance to go to Koya-san, or if you want to learn Shojin cuisine. I will enroll soon to her cooking class!

Ah! She also recommended me a book on Shojin cuisine that Soei Yoneda, the previous chef-abbess from the temple wrote. It is unfortunately not edited anymore but thanks to amazon I got my hands on one and should receive it soon!!!! Can’t wait!!!

May 25, 2016

All Isumi everything

With friends from France and their kids visiting us in Ohara for a few days we’ve been busy showing them around, going to the beach, swimming and I’ve been busy in the kitchen preparing for our meals and trying to show them the best of the area: veggies, fruits, fish and pork. So for breakfast I prepared a huge (the biggest bread I’ve ever cooked) half whole wheat half white flour bread and I bought Isumi ham and cheeses, some local jam, honey and harvested a few fruits from the garden. Simple and delicious.

May 2, 2016

Shojin cuisine – 精進料理

I love kaiseki cuisine (懐石料理) and in particular cha-kaiseki (茶懐石). I’ve learned it for a year and it helped me a lot understand Japanese cuisine and cooking, it also helped me to train my palate. But what I really troubles with kaiseki because it includes quite a lot of raw fish, shellfish, fish eggs etc… And so it is when you go to kaiseki restautants. In particular it is always a fixed seasonal menu, and it kind of doesn’t really make sense to go to a high end kaiseki restaurant and pass on the half of the courses, or ask for a special menu. But hopefully there is Shojin cuisine! You may think of Shojin cuisine as the rustic vegetarian they serve at Mount Koya, but actually there are several places where it is treated as kaiseki and this is just awesome. I know I can eat everything without worrying and it shows the potential of vegetarian or vegan cooking to be super high cuisine. Shojin cuisine is related to Zen Budhism and is meat-fish free, while being very ingenious in using gluten, soya beans etc.., it is also a seasonal food, so somehow the precursor of Japanese macrobiotic eating in its original meaning. I’ve planning to learn Shojin cuisine for a few years but my lab kept me to busy. I’m hoping that I can start this spring.

Example of seasonal dish served at Daigo (from Daigo wesite)

Our dessert last night and the view to the garden

In the meantime while we were looking for a place to celebrate our anniversary I suggested we could try a kaiseki Shojin cuisine restaurant that I randomly found while looking for vegan places in Tokyo. So we booked at Daigo (http://www.atago-daigo.jp), near Atago shrine in Tokyo. The place has something a bit magical, since it is a little Japanese heaven in a high rise with the service expected from any high standard ryotei. The food was amazing as expected (and as usual I won’t show you badly taken pictures of this deliciously and beautifully designed food, you’d rather try yourself) and once back home we realized it is actually a 2-star Michelin restaurant. I can only but recommend the experience when visiting Tokyo!

The most impressive dish from our menu is hard to choose but I was impressed by the bamboo shoots with kinome dressing (or for the fashionable word “pesto”), which take both ingredient to perfection. Something I will definitely try my way very soon!!!

Individual dining room at Daigo (from Daigo website)

February 25, 2016