Category: Travel

Aix en Provence

Moutain Sainte Victoire  
Moutain Sainte Victoire  
View from my bedroom
View from my bedroom

As you may have noticed I am not in Tokyo now but in France after two days in Paris we went south and are now spending a few days in my hometown: Aix en Provence, at my parents’ place. Prunellia and I grew up in a beautiful environment. Prunellia probably didn’t enjoyed it as much as I did but we were very lucky. And now that time has passed I see myself even luckier because we can stills enjoy that. A large family house in the middle of pines and oaks, a pool in the middle of lush greens, a tennis court, friends nearby and always ready for a coffee, and nearby the moutain Sainte Victoire and a little (touristic and posh) city with plenty of history.

The museum hotel the Caumont in Aix city center
The museum hotel the Caumont in Aix city center

There are plenty of things to do in Aix en Provence, starting with walking around the city center, its gothic cathedral, the narrow streets of the old center, the farmers markets, the hotels particuliers or mansions with their typical architecture and the numerous foutains. Then there is Cezanne and all the painters, the atelier and the beautiful landscapes around that inspired them with amazing little hikes (not always possible in summer because of forest fire prevention). Recently a few new museums have opened one in the countryside, in a vineyard: chateau Lacoste, contemporary art outdoor, a must see place. The other one in one of the old mansions in the city and the renovation and exhibition are really nice: hotel de Caumont (don’t misunderstand with a hotel where to spend the night!!!). 

That said, being in my hometown means a lot of local products for cooking and traditional recipes prepared both by my mother and I: soupe au pistou, bouillabaisse, fig tarts, flan (pudding), zucchini flowers…  Many of the recipes have already been posted in the past because they are real classics and I cook them in Tokyo too, but some are just not possible. I will still share them with you in the next few days.

Special guest: La bouillabaisse

Monk fish in the bouillon
Monk fish in the bouillon

For this second special guest, we have picked our mother with a very traditional dish in our family: La bouillabaisse, or Bouillante. This typical Provence dish is a grand summer tradition in our family. Our great grand father used to go fishing near La Ciotat every Sunday and bring back the fishes, our great grand mother prepared it, our grand mother fished too and took over to prepare it , and now our mother prepares it too. 

No one fishes anymore in our family and what was a  fisherman’s hot pot to use all the small fishes and less noble fishes has now turned into a very high end and not so easy to eat/find dish. Of course a lot of restaurants in the south of France serve something they call bouillabaisse but nothing compares with our traditional and familial preparation. Bouillabaisse in our family consists in 3 separate dishes: the fish soup with bread, saffron potatoes and rouille; the fishes cooked in bouillon; the “ramichelle” with rouille. The first thing is to find the proper ingredients and even when living in the south of France it is not that easy! The rock fishes for the soup: wrasses and combers, the white fishes for serving in second: large red mullet, john dory, monk fish.

Soup with the saffron potatoes and bread and rouille
Soup with the saffron potatoes and bread and rouille

Once that is secured it is rather straightforward to prepare. The fish soup must be a clear bouillon. In our family that’s the way it is made and eaten. We use only fishes (no crab…) and don’t keep any flesh to obtain a brown golden bouillon. It is all hand made, no machine here.
Large soft potatoes are sliced roughly and sickly and boiled in saffron water. 
The rouille is a kind of mayonnaise with saffron, paprika, red pepper and additionally garlic if you like it.
The ramichelle are simply vermicelli boiled in the fish soup (not on the pictures because honestly not very photogenic!) eaten with rouille so delicious!

Thanks Mum for this amazing dinner and this familial recipe!

Bouillabaisse family table with croutons, saffron potatoes croutons again, fish soup and rouille
Bouillabaisse family table with croutons, saffron potatoes croutons again, fish soup and rouille

Aman Tokyo

 30m pool with view for laps
 30m pool with view for laps
room with view
room with view
bathroom with view too
bathroom with view too

What a nice experience to stay in a beautiful hotel in your own city! Last time we did that was for our wedding almost 10 years ago, when the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo was still brand new and we hold our casual party in the same building. Since then none of the new hotels in Tokyo really attracted me enough to want to stay in a hotel in Tokyo, the two things that attract me the most in urban hotels being the swimming pool and the view. During the summer I often thought about staying at the new Otani or the Okura for their outdoor summer pools, but in the end weather and work never managed to be right. Until the Aman opened last spring… The minute I saw a picture of the black pool and the view I wanted to go. At first it was almost impossible to have a room there without planning long ahead etc… Right after it opened and my parents were visiting we went for a drinkonly, but now that the press boom is all about Amanemu in Ise, the Tokyo hotel has more availability on last minute booking. So we finally did it and I’m very glad we did. The place is impressive, not just the lobby but the rooms too, and the pool of course that we amply used. It has nothing to do with wabisabi, it is Japanese in style but not in dimensions, it’s like a cathedral. I loved the material, in particular the lava stone for the bath room. Simple, efficient and elegant without being pompous. Everything is about the view and that’s exactly what you want. I loved the modularity of the room and bathroom with the giant sliding doors, the steps that creates a partition in this huge space while preserving the view from everywhere. And the sofa by the window to srutinize outside, the streets of Otemachi, the construction sites, Hibiya park… Like looking at a model.

25year old umeboshi

I must say that when our neighbor told me she would give me some 25year old umeboshi, like if it were a very special gift, I was a bit suspicious. Who keeps food for that long? I mean we can keep alcohol but pickles? Then I did my homework and found out that 100 year old umeboshi do exist and are still edible so what’s 25 years?! And then she bring me a little bag of the treasured plums. And finally we tried them. I wanted something really simple to try them to actually enjoy the taste so I simply prepared gomadofu (sesame flavored tofu), a red cabbage salad with jakko, and rice, plain white rice. I was worried they might salty, or sour but actually they weren’t. The flesh is rather dry compared to umeboshi of the year, but the taste was really amazing. Rather sweet with a strong plum taste, not sour at all. I guess they would be perfect for ochazuke when the plum flesh can get a little more moisture. But they were worth trying! And since she gave me quite many actually you’ll see umeboshi a little bit more in the future!

Rainy season – 梅雨

梅雨 literally the plum rain is the perfect word for the Japanese rainy season. In June it’s getting hot and humid and this is the season for harvesting plums. So everywhere it’s about ume-everything: umeshu, umeboshi, ume jam… We have several plum trees in the garden producing every year dozens of kilos of fruits. Unfortunately in the past we haven’t been there in June for the harvest season. Only last and this year we managed to be in Japan and harvest our plums. Last year with the help of Mrs I. I made some umeshu that I’ve just bottled, and is apparently delicious (I can only enjoy its beautiful smell since I don’t drink alcohol anymore). It was actually more simple to do than I expected only it takes a whole year to wait to start drinking it.

This year I decided to make umeboshi with our 85year old neighbor. She promised me this winter to teach me and since then I’ve looking forward to it. The day finally came! I harvested some of our plums Saturday, washed them and had then bath in a lot of water for a whole night and yesterday I prepared my first umeboshi. Here again it was much simpler than I expected. It’s only salt and plums. And time. Bonus before I can enjoy our umeboshi obasan gave me 25year old umeboshi. Something I’m looking forward to try too very soon!! I’ll keep you updated!

One more thing I love about this season too, this is also the season for vibrant greens and colorful hydrangeas blooming under grey skies, giving this special and beautiful rainy season light and colors to the country.

And an other one

Indeed, I am still crazy busy at work with this grant application, but hopefully it should be all done today. In the meantime we still need to sustain ourselves and the Japanese one-plate is on the menu again with an unexpected variation. Indeed, I prepared the green beans with miso and the pickled onions, but we have some fresh simmered small bamboo shoot on the plate now, that I didn’t prepare! 

There exist two types of bamboo shoots, the big one I’ve been cooking quite often because you can find them everywhere and the small one that are more let’s say “wild” and that one needs to pick in the forest. Picking bamboo shoot is a real fun sport, basically it’s hiking and them crawling in bamboo groves. We’ve had the chance to go bamboo shoots picking with our friends from Tsunan once and it was really awesome. Like wild mushrooms picking it takes some time to figure what to pick and to know the good spots. Unfortunately in Isumi we don’t know yet these spots and people keep them secret, like everywhere!! But one of the guy we met on the tennis court came to bring us some small bamboo shoot simmered with sesame oil. There is something here quite unique with Japanese, is that they love to offer us food they make and local products. I think it goes together with this tradition of food souvenir etc… I need to do some research about that! 

Anyway that’s how we ended with a perfect Japanese one-plate, with only fresh and delicious local products.

Ratatouille ravioli

Yes, I made ravioli again! I was too happy last week to finally masterize the pasta machine and the ravioli mold. So far I was using them but it was never perfect, but now I know how to do and it works really well. And because we love ravioli there is no excuse not to make some! The problem was to find the appropriate filling. Last week I used asparagus, but this time I wanted to challenge myself with something new, something more summer than spring. There was not too many option at the farmers market, so I decided to go for ratatouille since there was everything I needed to make a real ratatouille the way my grand mother would.

So first prepare the ratatouille: onion, zucchini, eggplant, capiscum, tomato. All cut in small pieces, a bit of olive oil, garlic for those who like I don’t), salt, black pepper and a leaf of fragant laurel. Cook at low heat under cover for 2 to three hours, check and stir every 30min. Since we want to use this as a filling it needs to be significantly dry, so remove the cover if needed in the end. Cool when ready, ravioli filling cannot be used warm. Then prepare the dough with the classic recipe: 100g flour, 1egg, salt, olive oil. I actually used half flour half semolina. Then roll your dough until the level of thinness you like (I used 8 out of 9 on my pasta machine). Then flour well one side of the dough and ise the ravioli mold to fill them and shape them. 

Now prepare a big pan with water to boil the ravioli, and add one big branch of fresh rosemary for the broth. Keep the water boiling 3min before adding the ravioli. The smell of rosemary should be quite strong before adding them. Cook until they come back to float on the surface. Serve immediately, just with olive oil and pepper. The rosemary broth slightly perfumes the ravioli to bring a perfect balance of taste with the ratatouille filling.

Shojin cuisine and cooking class

Sanko-in in Koganei
Sanko-in in Koganei

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!

Pictures courtesy of Sanko-in website
Pictures courtesy of Sanko-in website

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!!! 

Sable-navette

Guests for dinner at home twice in a raw and working each day until late, I needed something delicious, simple to accomodate with fruits… and that can be prepared in advance.

I invented this recipe of little bites sable with neroli, that feels like eating navettes marseillaises. Just flour, butter, egg, brown sugar and plenty of neroli. 

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