Nakasendo, Magome juku – 中山道・馬籠宿

Terraced rice fields along the hike to Magome

We are still on the road both by car and by foot with A. And after Tsunan, Hakuba, Azumino, Matsumoto, Kamikochi, Takayama, Gero, Ena we are now in the Kiso valley, or rather on the old road Nakasendo, in a very nice little inn where we are the only guests and very well taken care of. Our hike today, shortened by the heat has taken us to Magome juku, an old post town on the Nakasendo, one of the roads widely employed to travel between Kyoto and Tokyo in the past, a still very well preserved place with very picturesque views and old houses. Back at our inn: Shinchaya, our host had prepared a huge dinner as could be expected in every minshuku and ryokan. What is great with minshuku compared to ryokan is that it is more homemade-like food and easy to get recipes directly from the cook! For addresses and tips about traveling in the Kiso valley, please leave a comment!

This time the nice surprise was what is called yakimochi – 焼き餅 but it is not made of rice! The recipe is quite simple and the results quite delicious!

Yakimochi – 焼き餅 from Shinchaya

– a few taro – 里芋

– buckwheat flour

– salt

– soya sauce

– fresh ginger

Boil the taro, and peel them. Mash them with a fork, add some salt and the buckwheat flour to obtain a smooth mix. Make paddies with the mix and grill them (oven, pan…). Peel and grat the fresh ginger. Serve the grilled paddies with soya sauce and the ginger.

August 5, 2017

Wasabi – 山葵

Wasabi is an important ingredient in Japanese cooking. It is of course used for sushi, but also with tofu, soba noodles… It is an autochthonous plant that grows naturally nearby clear streams. Historically it was first used as medicine in Nara period (700AD) before being popularized as food during the middle age: Muromachi period (1300~). And probably with the sushi boom in the early 1900’s wasabi has been more in demand and a few farms were created. That’s then that the now world biggest wasabi farm started. Daio farm started in 1910 but it took about four decades to become a decent wasabi farm and what it is now. One can easily imagine the landscape transformation such an installation has provoked and how intensive production to meet demand and keep price low affects the rural and natural areas. Yet Daio wasabi farm is an interesting place to visit and it is quite beautiful. The super pristine waters needed for the culture of wasabi, the little plants in the rock bed and the curvy lines of the field bordered by leafy willow trees are really quiet and peaceful. It is a very different landscape from those usually seen in Japanese. Picturesque like a Seine and Marne village cherished by the Japanese painters in the 1900’s or the japonism painters (top picture). Visiting Daio farm is a really nice stroll. It is also possible to see people at work to extract the stem from the plant (upper picture), visit the little history museum and try some wasabi food (we had ice cream). Since they also sell fresh wasabi at the farm I was looking for a cookbook or something to learn more about how to use wasabi, but none was available. An other time…

Daio wasabi farm: free entrance, open all year round from 9:00〜17:20, count 1-2h stroll

August 3, 2017

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!!!

August 1, 2017

Special guest: cooking in Tsunan

We are back to our friends’ place in Tsunan for a few days and as usual having fun cooking with K. the local products and vegetables from their kitchen garden. In the summer they grow a lot of tomatoes that are always super delicious, a lot of eggplants and cucumbers too. K. is very good at cooking, she knows a lot of different inspirations from their travels and she mixes it quite well to Japanese traditional cooking and Japanese ingredients. Cooking with her is always very inspiring for me, and I learn a lot helping her in the kitchen. But I also cook for them some dishes, this time a blueberry tart.

Even if there is often some meat in many of her recipes, she uses a lot of fresh vegetables from their garden and she always make a twist to Japanese traditional recipes. This time she prepared shabu shabu, but served it with celery, fresh lettuce, sprouts, mizuna, pickled cucumbers, snap peas and soya sprouts… the vegetables only where so delicious. And of course there was as always, one of her wonderful tomatoes salad. K. always peels her tomatoes for the salad and serves them with many different dressings: sometimes just black pepper and salt, or just green shiso (perilla) sometimes with more complex preparations. This time she prepared a sesame dressing with roasted and grinded sesame (about 4tbs), soya sauce (3tbs), rice oil (3tbs).

July 31, 2017

Wind of change

As crazy as can be it’s the first time we are taking summer holidays!!! Back when we were leaving in Paris we usually would take holidays in the end of September, and since wéve mived to Tokyo holidays mainly rimes with business trip of one or the other, except for Christmas. But this year I was finally relieved of any summer duty at the university and A. could take some vacations easily, so we decided to took off. After investigating several options: Belize vs Buthan vs Road trip in Japan, we opted for the latter. Enjoying Japan in the summer, visiting some friends in the mountains and discovering places we’ve always have had on our bucket list convinced us. Also the attraction of no plane/no jetlag was very strong. Free to go at anytime. It seems that a bit of wind of change is blowing right now with our first summer holidays (actually second, when we were still students we once went to Berlin for a week in the August), and we’ve decided to ride on! Enjoy the present! For those in holidays, have fun, and those still working in emptying cities, enjoy! Summer is too short to let it go!

Before going, a last oneplate dinner, with just a few things: rice, pickled radishes, tomatoes, okras, and some satsumaage (fish paste fried) with some burdock.

July 28, 2017

Chichibu – 秩父

Two years ago we went to see an exhibition of meisen kimono and I totally felt in live with this new technique to make more affordable kimonos. I like how it is linked with the societal changes that were occurring at that time, freeing women, and the cultural changes with Japan in between western and traditional cultures. The vibrant colors, the rough patterns are characteristics of meisen, but not only. In the 1930’s there were several regions that were producing meisen. Hachioji and Chichibu are two close to Tokyo. A few month ago, one of our friends moved to Chichibu so it was the perfect occasion to visit her and check the meisen museum and visit the city.

Chichibu is about two hours by train or car from Tokyo in Saitama prefecture. It is a small city nested in a valley where the Arakawa river passes, and surrounded by mountains. The city expanded significantly with ghe meisen industry and a lot of buildings from the Taisho-Showa periods remain. The meisen kan 銘仙館is a former factory. The wooden buildings are really nice and it explains simply the history of meisen and the techniques used to make meisen. They still make meisen with new contemporary patterns. What attracted me to that place was that it is possible to make some meisen: there are three activities cutting-dying-weaving. I really wanted to dye but it was not possible that day so we weaved, and it was fun. Strolling in the city that has many cafes and craft shops was also great. I came back to Tokyo with second hand kimonos and wood furniture… and pumped up with greens and mountain air!

May 29, 2017

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!).

April 16, 2017

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

April 1, 2017

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!

March 26, 2017