Category: Life-style

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

To Osaka!

En route to Osaka for for a few days! Which means no cooking and fewer posts from me. What I love with traveling in Japan by train, is this habit that people have to eat on the train. Eating on the train is part of the journey and at the station finding the lunch box (bento-弁当) that you would like to eat is whole part of it. At Tokyo station you have plenty of options. If you commute by train there is a nice underground bento shopping district. If you arrive directly to the station by bus or taxi I recommend the underground floor pf Daimaru, which offers serious eating options. Plan a good 15 to 30 minutes to browse all the different shops! Today I had a crush for sakura rice and it was a very goodd choice. Something I will try to cook at home too. See you in a few days!

 

New potatoes omelette

For the first time in a week my head didn’t spin and seeing the world so still is quite strange now! I kind of got use to living in a spinning boat and adjusted to it. My appetite is coming back too! But I still prefer to eat simple food. So I made a new potatoes omelette. Some kind of comfort food. I just used two new potatoes washed and brushed that I cut in small cubes and cooked in olive oil until golden, then added 4 eggs beaten with black pepper and salt and cooked under cover. I flipped the omelette when the top is almost dry and cooked a little longer before cutting and serving. Really nothing amazing about that recipe bit honestly delicious.

Spring in the plate!

It’s getting warmer, out the winter coats! And the spring vegetables are everywhere on the market shelves!  I couldn’t resist to preparing the first spring vegetables sautéed of the year. A classic in our house that can accompany fish, meat, tofu, eggs, or just be eaten like that. Choose the spring vegetables of your choice: new potatoes, asparagus, green peas, snap peas, new carrot today for me, but you can add new onion, green beans… a bit of olive oil in a pan and start to cook the potatoes, then the carrots, the green peas, finish the asparagus hardest part and later the heads and the snap peas. Add kosher salt and pepper and serve!

TPS renewal!

It’s been two years already we’ve been working on TPS and we thought the website deserved a new design. More easy to read and more easy to search. With a new interface that will also support our new activities. Indeed, since we cook French-Japanese cuisine and our readers are scattered worldwide we will soon propose to deliver a selection of products we use in our recipes directly to your door so that everyone can try our recipes and try to cook with original French or Japanese grocery products, not with some poor quality replacement. But for the fresh products, no choice, you have to go local. Remember that all our recipes can be adjusted to whatever you have in your fridge or what’s at the farmers market.

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Little breads

Recently I haven’t posted much about bread making. I made a trial for a panettone which was a delicious “something”, but not a panettone the recipe I used from “journal des femmes” website was just a big scam, after more searching in some cookbooks, I think I have a nice recipe to try. I also baked less because the past weeks have been quite cold and I know I have troubles making the dough prove and raise properly in this cold everything ends much more compact than it should.  But taking this as an opportunity I wanted to make an energetic breakfast so I decided to bake to make oat wheat breads and flaxseed little breads with whole wheat and spelt flours. The result was really nice. Because of the cold the breads were very dense and compact with a beautiful golden color. The taste and texture were exactly what I wanted, so even when your house is coldd you can bake! Don’t expect to make fluffy brioche or bread loaf, but for compact and nourishing breads it is perfect!!!

New desktop favorite

I try to play tennis at least twice a week during lunch break, which means then that I need a quick, energetic and easy-to-eat-while-working lunch. So I have developed new sandwiches slightly faster to make than my usual desktop lunches (here and there). Instead of the big slice of bread I now use the bread I was using this summer more often: whole wheat small slices that when cut in two make a perfect size to handle and 3-4 bite. I have moved away from cream cheese for cottage cheese more often even in winter for a good dose of proteins, and in the middle I add whatever I find: mushrooms are still a good choice that goes well with the rest, tomatoes too but it’s not really the top season for that. I just tried cucumber and rucolla, plus a few pumpkin seeds and it was really delicious. And I’m sure I will find other things to try that takes only 3min to prepare. What’s your favorite lunch when short on time?

Mini corn crepes

In a constant search for better quality and better taste I have almost completely stopped buying processed food. Only when we are in a rush/have forgotten do I buy bread at the combini, otherwise I prepare something: pancakes, scones, crepes, bread, or A. stops at the nearby bread artisan to buy some sordough bread. Of course it requires organization and a bit of effort in the morning but it is also very gratifying to eat freshly made food. And getting used to prepare quickly the routine gets easier and faster, mire accurate too. And it helps for fixing anything not only for breakfast but also lunch, dinner… so when my mum sent me some vegan spread (some kind of salty porridge, I’ll try to make someday) and we are waiting for dinner to be ready, it took me only 5min to prepare a corn flour dough and make some mini thick crepes to try the spread. I used 100g of corn flour, works as well with chickpea flour or whatever you like, 1 egg and s bit of water. The dough must be thick but not too much. Then in a heated pan greased with olive oil I made small crepes (3-4cm diameter) with one tbs of dough each. Flip when almost dry on top. Serve with the topping of your choice.

My Japanese style vegan soup

Largely inspired by the quinoa soups (winter and autumn) I made, I wanted something more Japanese. So I cooked in a pan: one sweet potato, one large sato imo, a piece of kabocha and a leek in a bit of olive oil, and in an other pan I cooked a mix of seeds and beans together with brown rice, I cooked them as you would cook regular Japanese rice. I didn’t cook the veggies and the rice together to avoid over cooking the veggies, to keep their beautiful colors (black rice has a tendency to color a lot) and limit the stickiness of the rice and seeds. Just before serving I added a bit of boiling water to the rice mix to make it soupy, and I deglazed the veggies with a large table spoon of soy sauce. I served the rice mix, the vegetables and topped with golden sesame seeds. A rich and tasty soup for a winter evening.

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