Category: Travel

Karuizawa

We wanted to go to Hakuba for a long snowboarding weekend but didn’t manage to get a room at our favorite hotel: la neige Higashikan, so we decided to go to Karuizawa. Karuizawa is not well known for being a ski resort but rather a summer getaway to get a bit of fresh air and to avoid Tokyo heat. It’s therefore known for being a classy place for the Tokyo well off to have a country house. We really love the forest in Karuizawa and we once considered buying there before we found our house in Ohara. Karuizawa in winter is not a crowded place, most of the villas are closed during the winter, a lot of shops, museums and restaurants too. But the principal was there. There is a little ski resort with enough tracks to spend a whole day having fun there, and it’s steep enough for a few shirt black tracks. The view of Mount Asama, a nice smoking volcano, is really nice from the top of the resort.

There are tons of nice hotels to stay at. We tried the newly refurbished Kyu Karuizawa Hotel and were not disappointed. And since there are some hiking courses in the area we went snowshoeing too, which is also something I really like to do, and I found missing in Hakuba (only found guided tours). I also like very much visiting the old Nakasando-中山道 area of Oiwake with some nice old houses along the path.

Eating in Karuizawa is also nice, there are plenty of local nice products, one being ham and cured pork meat. Miso is also great and I bought a few. I can’t wait to try it!

And if outdoor is not your cup if tea or the weather is not good, there are a few art museums to visit around.

So it was a great outdoor time, with little use of connected devices; I have muscles ache and this time I know it’s not because of work and stress and it feels really good!!!

Butternut squash ravioli

This butternut squash was definitely a good source of inspiration for making new recipes, and the last thing I tried with it was ravioli, I really have a thing for ravioli. And that was awesome! For the pasta I used the same recipe as last time, and rolled it with my pasta machine. For the filling I just steamed a peeled piece of butternut squash, smash it and add salt and pepper, that’s it. I served it with just olive oil and gratted Parmegiano. The butternut squash sweetness add a perfect touch to the taste of the olive oil, and the simplicity of the preparation is just perfect to enjoy the taste of the butternut squash. It really surprised me how simple it was to make too!!

Rice – お米

In Japan finding deliciouss Japanese rice to cook is not difficult, it’s like finding bread in France or pasta in Italy. Yet finding organic rice or at least non chemical rice is not so easy. There are only few places I know in Tokyo where to find some for sure and the one usually sold in supermarkets is not chemical free. In the countryside the “Eco” label is already a guaranty of better quality in terms of production, but I’ve hardly found it in the city. Isumi is one place that grows rice in Chiba and they have a rather big production, and I was surprised the other day to find something new on the shelf at the local cooperative: a 100% chemical free rice grown locally and sold in a nicely design package. So I had to buy it. I support all initiatives for local, chemical-free, environmental-conscious production and if possible aesthetical and sustainable packaging. I think this one has it all. I believe the packaging (who buys 2kg rice vag in the country???) is really targeted at Tokyo hipsters (even if there is nothing really as such) but I think there is something good in developing it, it just has to stay sizeable and not to become a crazy business which losses all the ethics and original purpose.

Natsumikan fluffy and frosted cakes

We have two natsumikan trees in the garden, or also called amanatsu. Every year the trees are covered with fruits and usually I would make jam with them and also use the zest since I know they are perfectly safe of chemicals and other nasty products. Usually the fruits are rather sour but this year they are incredibly sweet, as I discovered while making some fluffy cakes with the peel and the juice. For the fluffy cakes I used the recipe of the madeleine but put a little more baking powder and baked them at 180deg until golden. And because the juice of the fruit is really good I did a little frosting using only ice sugar and juice. Perfect for tea or breakfast!

An unexpected finding

Rainy Saturday calls for a drive to some antiques and old stuff shop or kottoyasan (骨董屋さん) in Japanese. There are not too many but the one from the country are usually much better than in the city and much cheaper. We usually go to one we like in Otaki and where I’ve found many treasures, this time we decided to find new ones, and drove to Kimitsu (west coast of Chiba peninsula). To find a really amazing one. Tons of outdoor stuff (finally found a little (=that fits in our trunk) lantern for the garden), music instruments, paintings and as usual potteries, plates, bowls…  As in any of such places it’s never heated nor lit and so cluttered that you need a flash light to see things. Moving around also is an art since passages are really narrow! But still I love these places and could stay hours, looking at all the pieces of life and history that has accumulated there. A perfect occupation for a rainy day.

And because today was unexpectedly sunny we could spend the day outside trimming trees and trying a setting for the lantern. 

Miso-parsley-pork meat balls

Nothing better than a one-bowl meal for a perfect lunch. Donburi are really easy to prepare in endless seasonal variations, with meat, fish or vegan, with white rice, brown rice, a mox of grains… 

For this one I used plain white rice, seasonal veggies: turnips, carrots and shiitake, and prepare miso meat balls. For that I used pork meat, about 100g, 1 egg, 2 or 3 branches of parsley, 2 table spoons of panko, and 2 table spoons of miso (of your choice). I mix all together and cook the balls in a frypan until golden. The mix miso-parsley is really delicious!

Ha-uta concert 端唄

Every year (but last year) there is a big event organized by my husband shamisen’s teacher where a lot of people from the traditional Japanese entertainment business and their apprentice and students join. The event is centered on ha-uta (端唄), a type of Japanese singing from the late 19th early 20th, where is added some naga-uta (長唄), dancing and a lot of other attractions. We’ve been participating in the event every year. My husband plays many pieces and for me it was first just a lot of fun watching and listening (before I starting singing too) and a great chance for me to wear a kimono, because everyone is wearing one! Every year I challenge myself with a new pairing kimono-obi, and by wearing it myself. But always with a twist, because in the end I am not Japanese and everyone knows it!!!

The pairing of the obi, the kimono and all the accessories obimi age, obi jime, haori…)  can be really awkward at first since the color scheme and mix can for a western eye be quite a shock or an aggression. But with a bit of imagination and browsing a lot of kimono magazines (my favorite is kimono 姫) it becomes easier every time and quite fun. This year I opted for Japanese traditional patterns both for my kimono and my obi and played with greens, dark blue and ivory (which changes radically from the usual dark grey or black I often use), accesorized with a big broche that Prunellia offered me. Japanese with always a Parisienne touch!! And outside I wear it with high heel boots and a vintage clutch bag of course.

52 yens

Dekopon
Dekopon

Pretty much every morning on my way to the lab I stop by the local supermarket to buy me something for lunch. Usually some fresh veggies (avocado, tomato, rucolla…) to eat raw in my sandwich or with some pasta-rice-seeds, and a fruit for my snack in the afternoon. After the season of tangerines, I wanted some different citrus fruit and found beautiful iokan. So yesterday I got myself this kind of big tangerine that looks like an orange but not as sweet. And this morning when I was at the cashier the lady explained to me that she owed me 52yens because yesterday she mistakenly charged me for an other citrus fruit. I was really impressed! Not that she misrecognize the fruit, but that she absolutely wanted to reimburse me!!

Back when I lived in France, I remember there were oranges of a few sorts, pomelos, grapefruits, tangerines of two or three sorts, then lemons and limes, cedrats and a few other variations quite difficult not to identify immediately. Arriving in Japan I discovered a whole new citrus fruits variation. Of course there are the now famous and trendy yuzu, but there is really much more than this. The variations vary with the different regions and I am sure not to have completed the exploration, if it can be completed! I don’t even know where to start from with dekopon, iokan, natsu mikan, hassaku, kiyomi, shikwasa… All are delicious with a typical taste and smell, and most grow at different time of the year. They can be used in different preparations or just peeled and eaten like tangerines.

The avocado curse

This morning I went back to work. I hate when the clock rings, but when it rang this morning I was dreaming that it would rang as many times as there are fountains in Rome, and I just didn’t bother… But after a while I had to go back to real life… to open the curtains and see a beautiful blue sky and mount Fuji in the background. Hum… Not too bad after 17 days of the same weather to have another one. In the train, surprisingly empty I was thinking about writing something about Sicily, or about Rome, and share some of these beautiful things we’ve seen and amazing places we’ve been, but I quickly got immersed in my emails and forget to write anything. When the train arrived in Koganei, I got off mechanically and headed to the supermarket to grad something for my lunch later. That’s when I got stricken by the fact that really in winter the only thing I find suitable enough to eat is the sandwiches I make with wholewheat and seeds bread, cream cheese and avocado. I got a bonus apple for my snack and then I realized that I AM going back to work and that I NEED to break this avocado-sandwich routine to something else, but right now I’m unable to figure out which substitute could work for me and I have the impression to be under the avocado curse (like in Kid Icarus, a game I used to play on my gameboy when I was a kid where you get cursed by an eggplant!!) … What do you have for lunch at work? I’m open to ideas… Pleazzzz

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