Tsunan – 津南町

Every once in a while we go to visit our friends and their cat in Tsunan, in the Niigata mountains. We originally planned to go for new year but the snow has stopped us: our car is not equipped for snow… so we took the opportunity of the long golden week to drive up and to stay 2-3 days there. We’ve been there 10 times or more, at each season but it’s been a while we haven’t been in spring and it was the perfect timing for sansai as you already from my previous post, but also cherry tree blossoms and beautiful river streams full of the recently melted snow.

Each time we discover something new, but we also have a few habits. Let’s start with the habits:

Always stop by the COOP shop in the village to buy 三八五 – sanhachigo to make pickles. They also use to have delicious apricot jam but not anymore…
Drive up to Sakae to buy honey and pollen. I started eating pollen a long time ago, under the pressure of my nutritionist mum. At first I hated it, but after years, now I really find it easy to take a spoon of pollen every morning before breakfast.
Stop at the sake factory, not for sake but for some carrot juice! They grow 雪下人参 – yukishitaninjin literally carrots under the snow, and they give a very nice and sweet carrot juice. You may also find the juice other places.
Stop at the local antique shops. Well, actually this time we didn’t since K. gave us plenty of ceramics and glassware.
Take a walk to the geo-park to see the cliff and the river. We really love that place, even if a few years ago they transformed the little path into a wide wheelchair friendly road, with an artificial pond… the view hasn’t changed a bit.

As for the new things… we discovered Nakago – 中子 a small village by a lake with a few sakura tree. The place is on a plateau where they do a lot of farming. The beautifully opened view and the quietness were totally exquisite.

The other place we went was on the way to Akiyamago, a small village with a suspended bridge on top of the Nakatsu river, the Mikura bridge – 見倉橋. It was a beautiful walk down the river, and you can go up the other side of the bridge to the Mikura village. But we didn’t, so next time we’ll visit K. we know were we could go!!!

May 10, 2019

Golden week!!

Well, well, well… this time of the year has come again and for me golden week means first ocean bathing, the beginning of the bodyboarding season and the beach season. This year the weather has decided differently and it is so cold that I spend my evenings curled in my cashmere or under a plaid, with heater still on. Not only is it cold, it is also raining quite a bit some days Limiting all outdoor activities. So I decided to think of the summer and get ready for it, and took on the challenge my neighbor gave me: sew my own yukata!

My first challenge was to find the proper fabric in colors and patterns that I would actually wear. I opted for online shopping at Hotta-shop and found a cheap roll of yukata fabric 100% cotton and made in Japan, and delivered in a decent amount of time. I’m actually very pleased with fabric and think of ordering some for my next projects. Then during 3h with my 88yo neighbor I learned how to measure and cut the fabric for making the yukata, and starting sewing. I’m still halfway through, as we had friends from France over for a couple of days, I will likely finish today or tomorrow…

Sewing is a great challenge for me as it is a very twisted way of thinking that I need to acquire, and my teacher prefers spending time in small chitchat than the long explanations I would actually need. Anyway I’m having fun and can’t wait for the summer to come!!!

Oh… but don’t worry I haven’t forgotten to cook! For our friends, after our little hike I baked my new scones in a white chocolate, and milk chocolate and miso peanuts, they simply loved them!!! I cooked plenty of other things, some coming soon!

April 29, 2019

Hikes

Spring and fall are the perfect seasons for hiking in Japan. The temperatures are just right not to get a sweat but not to freeze or die of over heat, bugs are fewer and either the flowers and tender greens, or the crimson colors of fall make a picturesque scenery. There are plenty of options to go hiking in Chiba and I won’t overview them here. There are few things I take in consideration when searching for a hike: the path needs to mainly be a non drivable road. What’s the point walking on the road side?? The path should be a loop or as much as possible not use twice the same route. There are very few hiking trail in Isumi to my knowledge, and one of our favorite is now impracticable as bamboos grew all over the path. So our favorite options are in Otaki and Katsuura. We’ve been to Yorokeikoku 養老渓谷 in the fall many times, for the maple trees, the monkeys… and for the spring we could never find something that was satisfying. I usually like the sight of the ocean in the spring as a remembrance that the swimming and bodyboarding season will start soon for me (though some people surf all year round, I find it hard to get in the water when it’s freezing cold outside). Actually Katsuura, about 20-30min drive south of Isumi, has quite a few hiking options, and this time we found a scenic short hike I thought was really worth mentioning.

South of Katsuura is the small town Ubara 鵜原 mainly a fishing port and a nice little hike called Ubara utopia 鵜原理想郷 that takes you up the hills with a stunning view of the ocean and the cliffs and down the beaches and tiny fishing harbors in coves.

The hike is rather short, count 1h maximum, but is really worth. It takes you through tunnels carved in the very soft rocks and going up and downs in a beautiful vegetation and to scenic views. Everything is very well indicated so no headache about which way to go, and the parking space at the starting point is large enough and easy to find (other parking options are also possible on the beach side). We came by scooter so it was even easier for us to park.

If you plan to come for the weekend, there is a small ryokan just at the beginning of the hike: Ubarakan 鵜原館 which seems to have a nice rotenburo (outdoor bath) and a few bathes in the carved stone caves and room with ocean view!!! We haven’t tried it yet so I have no idea how good it is…

After the hike we rode back home and it was time for tea and a little snack, so I decided to make one-bite scones. I am recently testing a new scone recipe and I think now I have the perfect balance to share with you. And with all the spring greens around I prepared a seasonal classic: macha white chocolate. Here is this version but it works with anything.

Scones

– 150g of flour

– 30-40g of sugar (depending on what you use for flavoring, for white chocolate use 30)

– 1tsp of baking powder

– a pinch of salt

– 40g of butter at room temperature

– milk (quantity will slightly depend)

– 2tsp of macha powder

– 2 handfuls of white chocolate chips

In a bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, add the butter and knead to mix everything together. Add the milk slowly while kneading. If you want a uniform green color add macha now, otherwise wait until the end. Stop adding milk when the dough is moist but not sticky. If you’ve added to much milk just add a bit of flour!!!

I wanted a non uniform green color so I added the macha at the end and the white chocolate. Shape the scones and bake at 180deg for 10-15min depending on the size of your scones.

April 14, 2019

Spring is here!

After the fukinoto and the canola which both announce the arrival of spring and the cold unstable weather that usually accompany the plum blossom end, the next step is the real arrival of spring in late March or early April with the famous cherry blossoms of course, Mole’s quince and the jonquils putting beautiful colors in the garden but also the bamboo shoots (takenoko 筍)and the other wild vegetables: fern (kogomi こごみ), horsetail (tsukushi つくし), angelica tree buds (tara no me タラの芽)…

We don’t have kogomi and tara no me in our garden, or not that I know of yet (I discover new things each year!), I found a few tsukushi in the past but never enough or at the right time to harvest them. This year I found really plenty, enough to consider cooking some. Tsukushi are a bit of a delicate plant and their pollen is not very good so it’s better to harvest them early. The one on the picture below is for example a bit too old, this can be seen by the dark color of the head: the pollen is already about to go out! The pollen of tsukushi is blue to black, and looks like mold!!! I have never seen tsukushi in supermarkets, I assume they are too delicate for transport and shelf time. Their flavor is very subtle so I like simple preparations: quickly sautéed, or simply blanched in dashi. To prepare them, simply wash them and remove the corollas parts using your thumb by simply rolling the stem with the corolla on top of your nail. Then cook them in a pan with a bit of butter or as said above blanched them in a regular dashi. Serve them right away with rice, scrambled eggs… nothing too strong.

I my case I made a simple fried takenoko rice with sesame oil, scrambled eggs season with a few drops of soya sauce. That’s it!

March 25, 2019

Memories

No cooking or recipe talk today… just talking about me and us. About what February 24th means…

12 years ago today A. and I got married… it took us years to find where and how we would do it, but suddenly, one day, in Tokyo, we found the place and everything was settled in less than two months. Planning for years is not really our style… The whole idea was to have fun and share that with friends and family here in Tokyo. This day ended in a flash, everything was so quick that every year I wish I could do it again… wear that beautiful off white kimono, walk to the shrine, share sake with A., enjoy the plum blossoms, and then take every one to a very unique kaiseki restaurant, and finish with champagne and plenty of friends, a shamisen performance from A.’s group and a memorable lion dance by our friend K.. I also perfectly remember not having time to eat and scavenging our room and ending up eating a whole box of macarons M. offered us!!! I am so grateful so many people came from all over the world to share that moment, and many more, with us… and thanks to those that were with us by thought.

I wish you a lovely Sunday!!!

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

February 23, 2019

New start!

With a sister who has let me down without a word after 3 years of Tokyo Paris sisters, I have decided to come back to my very first website and to continue to share my culinary experiences with those interested in Japanese-French-Italian cooking, and in fresh, local and seasonal food. So basically nothing has changed but the name and address.

I didn’t have much time to vamp the website yet and work on the data but I will. I plan to try to have something simple, accessible and comprehensible. I realized that the glossary from TPS was not enough and I have new ideas to present the specific ingredients so that everyone can easily replace them with what is available locally or know which ingredients comes when. Indeed, why would you desperately search for a very specific ingredient from far far away when there are so many others ingredients available that were grown locally and totally make the trick? For example it is very simple to replace gobo (Japanese burdock) by tragopogon, and vice versa, same family different branches. The taste is of course a little different but it works very well and anyway, I’ve never seen tragopogon in Japan! It’s the same with citrus fruits. There is almost to none oranges grown in Japan that reach Tokyo, they all come from very far away countries. But instead there are decopon, hassaku, natsumikan and so many others that work as well. And in many cases they have traveled just 100km to reach Tokyo!

Let’s get started! And I will share my adventure of last weekend about miso making very very soon!!

March 13, 2018

Dirty hands

I love to put my hands in gooey mixtures quite a lot, and this weekend is what I did!! I first started bu making some brioches for our breakfast. The dough for brioche is always a hard kneading wirk because of the egg and butter the dough gets really really gooey and it takes a good 30-40min of string kneading to obtain the silky soft and smooth dough expected. I could use a robot you could tell me, but kneading is really part of the fun for me, if not most with eating together the final product. The result: 6 little brioches was really great, all warm out of the oven for breakfast. And when they we finished for tea time, I regretted not to have made more…

The other gooey mixture I worked with this weekend was clay for ceramics. After our experience of making pottery in Kurashiki, we wanted to do some more, and finally by chance the other day at some event in Isumi we found Ezonoco a potter which work I like very much and who is also having some classes at her workshop. So we finally went there and spent the afternoon with hands in the clay and shaping our creations. It was tough work but it was great to work side by side and tease each other and I can’t wait to see the results after they will be out of the oven in a few weeks and we can work on them again. I also thought about the so many things I want to make and that it may finally happen! It makes me really happy!

February 26, 2018

Kitte

When we first arrived in Japan there was a huge post office close to Tokyo station. Quite convenient at the time for tourists because post offices where the only places or so where you could withdraw cash from an ATM with a foreign credit card. But the building didn’t resist the whole tide of renewals in the Marunouchi area, the construction of the Shin Marunouchi building, the opening of brick town and the revamping of the station. Opened since 2013, Kitte (which means “post stamp” in Japanese) is the shopping mall in that very former post office in front of Tokyo Station (Marunouchi south). They basically kept the facade and some of the inside such as the old postmaster office. Otherwise it is a shopping mall like many others, with a flair for Japanese brands and local products. I’ve been visiting it a few times and I find it nice to stroll in because it is usually little crowded. There are two places I like there:

北麓草水 Hokuroku souui, a brand that sells mainly soaps and body soaps and a few cosmetics and skin cares made in Japan with simple ingredients. They have two main fragrances for their body soaps and most of their products, so it’s quite limited but it’s just enough because both smell super delicious: hinoki and yuzu. I find hinoki perfect for every situations, it is both stimulating and soothing at the same time. It smells our first trips to Japan, when we were bringing back charcoal soaps with hinoki fragrance as souvenir. It smells a long time ago!!!

Intermediatheque is the other place worth seeing at Kitte. It is a giant “cabinet de curiosities”, a museum (linked to the University of Tokyo museum) with free access that is worth the detour and spending 30 to 90min in or even more. There are many inspiring things on display of various biology, anthropology, physics, engineering… the organization is such that it gives the impression to wander in the attic of a museum with all these treasures kept secret. Yet a very sleek one!! The top pictures was taken there, but no spoilers, go and check out yourself!

February 17, 2018

Long weekend

After a series of very rainy weekends, so many that I don’t even count them anymore, a perfect autumn weekend was more than welcome, and even better: it was a long weekend. We spent sometime in Tokyo and most of the time in Ohara with D. and C.. The planning was simple: outdoor activities and delicious healthy local food. And it was easy with such a weather, the garden providing persimmons and herbs, and the farmers market full of autumn vegetables. So basically ocean swimming and hikes, drives and cooking together was our agenda. Among the many things we cooked were black wheat bread, whole wheat fougasse, muesli pancakes, hot pot veggies with snapper for girls and pork filet for guys, and a thin crust mushrooms quiche, vegan and gluten free. Now it’s time to get back to work, with a busy week ahead! Have a beautiful one!

From all we cookedI loved the quiche quite a lot so here is the recipe.

Mushrooms quiche:

– 1.5 cup buckwheat flour

– 1.5 cup rice flour

– 4tbs olive oil

– about 1/2 cup water

– plenty of different types of mushrooms of your choice (enough to generously cover your pie dish

– rosemary

– salt and pepper

Mix the buckwheat flour and rice flour, add the olive oil and stir. Add the water little by little while continuing stirring. Stop addind water when the dough is crumbly dry. Since there is no gluten in both flour it is better to keep the dough drier. Knead briefly to obtain a silky dough.

Roll it thinly and set in a pie dish. Wash and cut thinely the different mushrooms. Toss them in the pie crust, add a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh rosemary branches. Bake at 180deg in the oven for 30min.

November 6, 2017