Tag: Tokyo

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! 

Vie de France
Vie de France

Hanami in Tokyo

Here we are, this is the 2015´s week for hanami in Tokyo. Yes, it usually don’t last much then a week because at some point it rains and the delicate flowers fade. Right now the cherry trees are in full bloom, every place is crowded and Japanese people heads are spinning with flowers, sake, and spring. There is something extremely beautiful and poetic in the air, these trees, these flowers, that moment that will be very short, it is certainly a good reflection on the shortness of life and the natural cycles.
But this has turned out as being such a business, of blue plastic sheets, potato chips and cheap alcohol, and people are taking this opportunity to get massively drunk, that I found celebrating hanami almost disgusting now. Hopefully there are still a few placed where you can enjoy the calmness and beauty of spring, without getting lost in crowds of drunkards. So avoid Ueno park, Yasukuni shrine, Naka-meguro… Instead, stroll in Yanaka cemetery, in Tokyo University botanical garden, or on some universities campus (Todai, ICU, TIT, TUAT…), or walk around the imperial palace at night. But please, do it in style!

Empty alley in Yanaka cemetery at night
Empty alley in Yanaka cemetery at night
TUAT koganei campus
TUAT koganei campus

Kappabashi dori – 河童橋通り

If you like cooking and tableware, Kappabashi dori is a must go when visiting Tokyo. This street between Ueno and Asakusa is the home of many shops selling cooking gear and tableware for professionals. Most of the shops sell also to individuals (but it’s better to ask before being disappointed). There, you can find pretty much anything from metal sakura shapes to amazing laqueware bowls. Crazy knives and delicates bamboo baskets. With Prunellia we spent a few hours there the other day, and got plenty of new things to cook with!

Who are the Tokyo-Paris sisters?

We are two real sisters Prunellia, the eldest and Gentiane (me!).

We’re both French and we were raised in the South of France at the foot of Paul Cezanne most famous mountain: the Sainte Victoire. We both like interior design, cooking and fooding and beautiful things,

Prunellia is an architect-interior designer-web designer based in Paris. She has been interested in Japanese architecture and Japanese culture for more than 25 years now and visiting Japan quite often since the early 1990’s. 
Gentiane is a roboticist in Tokyo. Being much younger she has been introduced to Japan as a teenager when Prunellia was meeting Japanese students studying in Aix. (I really enjoyed our parties with our Japanese friends Shotaro, Tomoko, Kotomi etc…)
Though being completely different we do share a lot, probably from our upbringings. That’s how the idea of a journal four-hand started.

Flea market in Tokyo

There are several flea market in Tokyo selling pretty much everything, many for refurbish clothing and shoes. But if you’re looking for some Japanese old stuff and some antic my two best picks are Monzen Nakacho flea market and Yasukuni shrine flea market. The latter is my top favorite.

It’s every Sunday morning in the side alley going to the shrine. The number of people depends highly on the weather, and it might not take place during the special festival of the shrine. Every time I go I find something!!
A few years ago I found this beautiful iron lion head that I’ve offered to my sister for her Parisian-Japanese interior.

This time I found some bamboo baskets used as flower vase, but I’m thinking of using them as lamp shade for the country house… We’ll see…

Alternative greengrocery shopping in Tokyo

There is something really amazing in Japan, and I believe it is what we could call “trust” (or may be laziness!). For example in many places you can book without paying in advance (hotels, car rentals…), you can shop and pay later (it may not work everywhere though, and this also happens elsewhere)… Yet there’s something like Japan got stucked in the 50’s or the 60’s. And what I love most it’s when it comes to fresh vegetables and fruit shopping!

It is not unusual in the country to see stands by the road with freshly picked fruits and vegetables and no one there. It’s not that it is closed… There is a box someplace: you pick-up what pleases you and put the money in the box. The deal is simple: super fresh resources for a super price!

I have the chance to have such a system on my way to the lab, close to Higashi Koganei station in Tokyo. When there are crops on the shelf there is a red flag floating and you just have to help yourself. Depending on the season they have daikon, cabbage, cucumber, potatoes, etc… Usually for 100yen. It’s grown on the plot behind, and they use no chemical or whatsoever. It’s fresh, natural and local! You just have to be quick to catch something, first in first served! 

The most difficult moment…

It’s really a heart breaking moment for me to leave the house and the garden on a sunny morning and to go back to Tokyo (top picture). It’s silly, because the drive by the sea-side is really beautiful and the view of mount Fuji from our apartment is quite amazing (bottom picture)… Yet I can’t resolve myself to go…

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