Lyla restaurant

Chef Narikiyo (picture from Figaro Madame Japon)

Since Prunellia has written a post about the restaurant Abri in Paris, I couldn’t help writting a post about the restaurant Lyla in Tokyo, which was recommended to Prunellia and Aurore by the chef at Abri when they came to Japan last February. So we went there together to discover and really appreciate the refined, delicate cuisine prepared by chef Narikiyo. And since then went again to enjoy some more seasonal food.

Each time the food was perfect, with special attention to each member of the party likes and dislikes and with a genuine style to prepare vegetables mixing French cuisine and Japanese kaiseki. The plating is also a delight, and desserts are as good as the rest. As a personal policy I don’t take picture of food in this kind of restaurants and prefer to remember the taste and colors, so you won’t see anything I have eaten there. I can only give you hints like bisk sable, greens with carrot leaves jus, lemon curd in kuzumochi…

Since I’m not a big eater I always picked the “carte blanche” menu which was just perfect in proportion, and allow you to enjoy everyhing from start to end.

Even though Lyla has received a lot of attention in the press, the chef is always there to say good bye and chat with you, and for the moment it is still possible to book a table on late notice which is really apppreciable.

http://www.lylatokyo.com

Once the booking’s made the staff will call you back to verify your likes, dislikes, allergies, special diet etc… because there is no menu, it’s all up to the chef.

Sardines, radish and comte cheese (picture from Asahi)

June 5, 2015

Back to the basics

After a whole week in Seattle, it’s good to be back home. Though the city has numerous farmers markets, with very attractive food, the hotel life allows only for limited purchases and preparation. There are also a lot of food trucks but honestly the idea of having lunch standing or seated like punks in the street is not very attractive, though the food looks good. As for restaurants, food was ok, fresh but I didn’t find anything outstanding. The best we had was surely grilled salmon or grilled halibut with asparagus. There might be some nice places serving local food (not limited to seafood, which is not what I like best) but we couldn’t find them… It’s really a pity because driving around Seattle one can find again tones of organic farms selling their products, fruits, veggies, delicious yogurts…

So being back home it is time to go back to the kitchen and improvise some summer recipes with fresh food and light enough to beat the jetlag and the heat. So we’re back to the basics: quinoa and bulgur as a base, baby leaf salad, cherry tomatoes and cucumber, yellow zucchini, ocra, and to finish pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and white chia seeds. Back on the tracks!!

May 31, 2015

Bye bye Tokyo… Welcome Seattle!

I am travelling to Seattle for work for a whole week so you won’t hear much from me for a few days. I hope to find the time to try some nice places over there and come back with new ideas and favorite items. I already know I’ll be packing on some things that are only found in the US and hope to find the earnest cereal bars I found In Boston last month!

If you have any good recommendation of things to do, places to check-out in Seattle and around, let me know!!!

In the mean time Prunellia is taking over, but with a slower pace (she’s busy with other projects) . I’ll be back Monday, June 1st, but you can catch up with me on Instagram and maybe FB… Bye bye!

May 24, 2015

Soya fallafel

While in Capetown last year, thanks to our hosts at the Manolo we managed to have a table at the very demanded Test Kitchen. One of Capetown best restaurants, and sometimes ranked in the top 10 xorld’s best restaurants. The experience was great abd what I apprfciated a lot is their flexibility to propose vegetarian full course and vegan full course menus that have nothing less than the regular full course menu. I picked the vegetarian one and was delighted, in particular there was some mini fried tofu balls presented as tofu fallafels. With a crispy deep fried outter shell and a melty inside. Since then I’ve been thinking about it and finally I’ve finally come up with my own idea of a soya fallafel. What I like in the fallafel is the mixture of texture with roughly cut peas and the pureed ones. So my recipe is really simple: I used dry soya beans (daizu-大豆) that I rehydrated and boiled, then roughly blended them and add some firm tofu, stirred well and then made balls and fried in a pan (probably deep frying is ideal).

Though different than the fallafel from the Test kitchen in Capetown it was really delicious!

May 21, 2015

Tokyo’s croissant ranking

My experience of making croissants was great but not perfect, so before I manage to make the best croissants in town, I am still looking for the best you can buy. You know, the one that are light and buttery, crispy outside and melty inside, well… THE perfect croissant. Hunting truly delicious croissants in Tokyo is as difficult as in Paris and I must admit. There are really a lot of bakeries that make croissants, and I’ve tried quite a lot of places already. In many places the taste of butter is not present, in others they top the croissant with some sirup making them too sweet, and sometimes they just have the appearance but nothing for the tate. Here is my list of bakeries in Tokyo making “real” croissants with hopefully a permanent address (a lot of shops move, open, close in a short time so it’s hard to track them):

1. Johan (in Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi, but there are some other places for sure)

2. Le grenier a pain near Hanzomon

3. Kobeya kitchen at Hiroo crossing

4. Vie de France (pretty much everywhere near a train station)

There might be some local stores I haven’t tried yet, so if you have a good address let me know!!!

There are a few big names in the bakery market but for croissant you can forget about Paul (never liked them, even in Paris), Viron (too dry and crispy, baked too long it seems), Kayser, Le pain quotidien (not fresh enough, and buttery enough)…

I’ll keep you updated if I find anything to add to that ranking, but you can send your addresses too and I’ll try!

May 14, 2015

Looking for delicious local cheese in Japan?

I think I have finally found the spot!!!

The other day I was introducing some locally produced cheese by Komagata cheese factory in Ohara, the problem is that it’s not easy to find and so far I’ve seen it only at one of the local product retailer Na no hana. So that’s quite limiting.

Sunday morning we went to Ohara market on the harbour. I thought it would be fish-only market but in fact it is a quite big (for Japanese standards) farmers market, selling also fresh vegetables and many other things than fishes. That’s where I found the stand for Takahide cheese factory. A farm higher inland in Isumi, near Kuniyoshi. Their cheeses look a lot like the ones from Komagata, with a little variation. I picked the Isumi white moon (いすみの白い月) and did not regret that choice. It is perfect!!!

Very much pleased with that choice, we decided to go and check out the farm directly. It’s a short drive from our house and a nice one among rice paddies and traditional farms. The Takahide farm is up a hill in a kind of group of dairy farms. There is a little shop where they sell directly, but the stock is not big and I recommend giving them a call before if you are looking for something specific because it seems they don’t hold stock very long and depending on the time not every thing is ready yet. They also sell fresh milk and seems to organize some events.

Where it is interesting for you, if you live in Japan and looking for delicious cheeses is that you don’t necessarily have to go to a big department stores or an import stores to buy some cheese from France or Italy anymore! Takahide cheese factory has an online shop where they sell their cheeses and fromage blanc!!! It’s not cheap but it’s really worth the try and it’s local at least.

Since cheese cannot be dissociated from bread for me, at least the cheese that you eat, right not the one to top pastas etc… I prepared a plain fougasse with just a little of salt to eat with the Isumi no shiroi tsuki cheese, a very good match. And I tried their reblochon style cheese: Makiba no taiyo まきばの太陽 with a whole wheat bread. It’s just insanely good!

Isumi no shiroi tsuki and fougasse (Plate from Kutani yaki)

Information:

Takahide farm in Isumi 高秀チーズ工房: http://www.takahide-cheese.com

Ohara farmers market 大原朝市: every first and third Sunday morning of the month, plus some extra days during holidays, on Ohara harbour.

Kutani yaki 九谷焼: http://kaburaki.jp

May 5, 2015

Showa style

Yesterday was Showa day. Showa was the governing emperor from 1926 to 1989. Of course it covers WWII events, but what is really interesting for me is the postwar development of culture and style during and after the American occupation, after Japan’s been defeated. This period has been marked by a lot of movies, a radical modern style, the development of large housing complexes in the suburbs: danchi. This is very well depicted in a few movies I love: elegant beast (1962) by Yuzo Kawashima, Tokyo drifter (1966) by Seijun Suzuki, Good morning (1959) and Tokyo twilight by Yasujiro Ozu. It is also permisible from the works of Kenzaburo Oe. For a real taste of it, it is possible to visit a reconstructed danchi unit in Matsudo museum in Chiba prefecture and a few of this kind of units are still standing. After a trend for demolishig them (the beautiful Asagaya housing complex…) there is a trend now to refurbish these units and use them as community housing where young people and old people would share space and benefit from the proximity of each other, hipster housing…

Asagaya housing complex in 2011 when we visited it, before it was demolished

And just yesterday I found this amazing photo book that covers a lot of Showa style. The pictures are really nice and gives a good idea about what it was. More than just covering architecture it really covers style and a bit of fashion and habits.

April 30, 2015

Fougasse

The fougasse is one of my favourite bread. It goes back to when I was a little kid in Aix en Provence and a few days a week “le pere Richard” was making these delicious plain fougasse with little hearts to take off. Since then this olive oil base bread has gained popularity and now you can find fougasse of pretty much any taste pretty much everywhere. As part of my bread making “training” preparing some fougasse was an essential step and it’s surprisingly simple! Actually, olive oil based breads: foccacia, fougasse etc… Are extremely easy to make and to bake.

For one large fougasse I use: 166g of flour (of your choice); 9g of dry sourdough; 2g of dry yeast; 4g of salt; 105g of water; 10g of olive oil; 75g of filing of your choice: olives, herbs, dry tomatoes, anchovies, cheese, ham… or just nothing. After stirring all the ingredients for about 10 to 15 minutes, keep in a warm place for 2h, then shape the dough, wait for an extra 1 to 2h before baking at 230 deg until goden. Finish with a thin layer of olive oil applied with a brush.

April 25, 2015

Sardine and spicy tomato pasta

This week, just back from the US, has been quite crazy at work and since we haven’t been to the country our stock of fresh veg has turned short quickly, and we’ve eaten a lot of avocado, baby leaves salad, fresh sprouts and tomatoes. Recently also I wasn’t cooking pasta or risotto too much, but I must admit that I shut down a bit on cooking the last few days, and focused on simple dishes. So we’ve been eating pasta a few times! Pasta, like risotto and quiche are an amazing source of imaginative dinners, while being always different, you can make any variations and never eat twice the same thing. This time I prepared spaghetti with a slightly spicy tomato sauce and sardines. In Japan it is really easy to find good fish, and already “prepared”: 刺身用 for sashimi. Which means no fishbone, no skin, perfect cut, 100% edible, and for me something quite crucial to eat fish: no head, nor fish shape!! Depending on seasons and locations you can find different varieties of fishes, this time I found nice sardines. I prepared a tomato sauce with tomatoes, olive oil, oregano and a little of Japanese 7 spices, then grilled the sardines, and topped the spaghetti.

April 24, 2015