Tag Archives: World Cuisines

Wagashi/Japanese Cakes at Mochi No Ie in Shizuoka City

October 1, 2011 dragonlife 6 Comments

If you happen to visit the Toro Ruins or the magnificent Serizawa Keisuke Art Gallery in Shizuoka City take the time to visit Mochi No Ie just inside the Toro Ruins Park!

You are in for a time slip!

The whole 180-year old farm house was brought piece by piece from Okkaizu/奥会津 City in Fukushima Prefecture some time ago!

It harbors a traditional Japanese restaurant serving local o-mochi/rice cakes and soba/buckwheat noodles at hours coinciding with the opening hours of the Serizawa Keisuke Art Gallery.

The watermill wheel was also brought all the way!

This is Japan!
Can you see the goldfish?

Beautiful noren representing a rabbit pounding rice cakes on the moon!
They have another shop inside Shizuoka City JR Station with the same noren!

Of course inside is all wood!

Traditional Japanese fireplace!
The whole house is a microcosm of country life in 19th Century Japan!

Green tea is served in cups with the design of the place!

The small shop inside the house where you can buy o-mochi and soba to take back home!

One can either sit at tables or on tatami straw mats.

They also serve soba (for another report) but they are famous for teir mochi/soft rice cake of various kinds.
The above is Karamimochi/からみもち, an appetizer version served with grated daikon and freshly grated wasabi!

You break the whole thing with your chopsticks and mix it before savoring it. Great with beer!
Moreover, it is vegan as they use only rice flour to make them!

A combination of two true Shizuoka wagashi/Japanese rice cakes: Abekawa mochi/安倍川もち made of rice flour covered with sweatmeats/anko/餡子, and Kinako mochi/きなこもち rice flour cakes served with dry soy beans flour.
Again these cakes are vegan!

For a closer view! A great healthy dessert!

The owners always kindly invite newcomers to visit the upper floor!

Up the wooden stairs…

A cute noren/curtain!

Upstairs is a real museum but you can eat there upon reservation and make it a wholy non-smoking private room!

Beautiful overview of the entrance garden!

Farm crop baskets!

Original drawings by Serizawa Keisuke!

I’d love to possess this fan painted by the same artist!

Many things to discover in dark corners…

I’m planning to visit their shop at Shizuoka Station soon, but I must come back here again soon to enjoy their soba!

To be followed…

MOCHI NO IE
Shizuoka Shi, Suruga Ku, Toro, 5-15-13 (Just inside the Toro Ruins Park)
Tel.: 054-263-1663
Opening hours: 10:30~17:00
Closed on Mondays

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Must-see tasting websites:

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-Wine: Palate To Pen, Warren Bobrow, Cellar Tours, Ancient Fire Wines Blog
-Beer: Good Beer & Country Boys, Another Pint, Please!
-Japanese Pottery to enjoy your favourite drinks: Yellin Yakimono Gallery

観光, Gastronomy, Japanese Gastronomy, Shizuoka, Tourism

Gastronomy and Art at Serizawa Art Gallery of Shizuoka City!

September 30, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

Serizawa Keisuke/芹沢桂介 was born in Shizuoka City in 1895. In 1956 he was certified as a Living National Treasure (Official title for an intangible Cultural Property Holder) on KATAEZOME dying works.
The City of Shizuoka completed the Keisuke Serizawa Art Gallery of Shizuoka City in 1981 3 years before the artist left this world.

Serizawa Keisuke was only a genius artist but an unbelievable collector of folk art. The Museum can show only one tenth of its whole collection at a time. I visited it yesterday again and found some interesting relations between gastronomy and art among his creations and collection!

The Japanese have always loved their crabs!

For a closer view!

Now, what is printed on this Edo Period noren (Shop entrance curtain)?

Isei ebi/伊勢海老/spiny lobster! Which just that the Japanese had appreciated it a long time before some other parts of the world!

Food and Spices in an Okinawan market of old!

It looks like a kirie/きりえ/japanese cut paper Art!

A stylized view of a dining room!

Again from Okinawa!

What were these Edo Period boxes used for!

The staff explained me these boxes were used to carry along the whole sake drinking set!

Enormous sake tokkuri/酒徳利/sake flasks!

What were all this lacquer ware from the Tohoku Region dating back to the Edo Period for?

This utensil was used to pour sake to very thirsty guests!

Hip flask to carry along water or sake!

Box to preserve ground chili pepper! The Japanese had been using growing the fiery condiment for quite some time!

Looking forward to the next exhibition!

Serizawa Art Gallery of Shizuoka City
Shizuoka Shi, Suruga Ku, Toro, 5-10-15
Tel.: 054-282-5522
Opening hours: 9:00~16:00
Closed on Mondays (except National Holidays)
HOMEPAGE

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Japanese Gastronomy: Katsuo Tataki at Waga!

September 29, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

Service: Very friendly and easy-going! Slow food!
Facilities: Very clean overall. Large and clean washroom.
Prices: Reasonable
Strong points: Great list of sake and shochu. Typical izakaya gastronomy with a personal touch!

Shizuoka Prefecture, thanks to its long shores along the Suruga Bay, the richest Bay in Japan, and around the Izu Peninsula is replete with fish and seafood all year round. Comparatively little fish is imported from other shores and people here keep to seasonal fish.
Katsuo/鰹/Bonito, also called skipjack tuna, is a very popular fish in Japan and probably the only sustainable tuna species these days. It is also extensively eaten in the Maldives, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, France and Spain.
At the beginning of the Fall large schools swim across the Suruga Bay and the quality of the fish in Shizuoka supermarkets, sushi restaurants and Izakaya is simply extraordinary!

Naturally, it is delicious consumed raw as sashimi or cooked as “nimono”, “teriyaki” or in curries, but my preferred cuisine is tataki!
Although the method is simple enough, timing is crucial!

Freshness is also crucial.
Instead of preparing it beforehand, the chef at Waga, upon receiving the order, will cut out a large chunk from a fresh skipjack filet and grill it directly over the flame just long enough to sear the fish a few mm deep. He will then plunge it into icy water to stop the cooking and wipe it dry. Simple? Yes, but try it, and you will find out a lot of little details have to be taken into account!
The chef will then cut the katsuo in large slices and serve them artfully arranged on a plate with a light cold sauce/dressing.

For a perfectly balanced and beautiful dish he will prop the fish atop plenty of lettuce and decorate it with finely cut white leek and a quartered large plum tomato, all grown in Shizuoka Prefecture!
Of course, the dressing is a secret but it is based on soy sauce, ponzu and lime juice with soft spices!

WAGA
Shizuoka City, Aoi Ku, takajyo, 2-1-20, Kuroyanagi Bldg. 1F
Tel.: 054-271-7121
Business hours: 17:30~23:30, 17:30~26:00 (on Fridays, Saturdays and National Holidays)
Closed on Mondays
HOMEPAGE (Japanese)

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Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/50): Tuna Meat Balls Bento!

September 28, 2011 dragonlife 4 Comments

I found myself in a hell of a hurry this morning and did not have the time to look at the Missus preparing my bento!
She was kind enough to bring it to my office before she went to work herself!

She was also kind enough to send me the pictures for my report!
Very colorful, isn’t it?

She tries to use only local ingredients whenever possible!
The rice is “Koshihikari” grown in Suntoh Gun, Shizuoka Prefecture!
After steaming it, she decorated it with fresh okra and home-made umeboshi! Italian bento?

She kept things colorful as usual but she did not include dessert…
She will probably reply that she has to keep in mind my expanding waist…

The vegetables consisted of boiled broccoli and carrot seasoned with gomadare/sesame dressing.
She added her specialty: onsen tamago/soft-boiled egg marinated in soy sauce and sprinkled with black sesame seeds.

The meat balls were made of fresh tuna surimi (tuna flesh grated from insde the skin, probably an albacore tuna) and minced shiso/perilla leaves. She pan-fried them in sauce. Beautiful and lighter than one might expect!
She included more vegetables with lettuce and home-pickled burdock root with chili pepper!

Very satisfying, tasty and colorful!

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Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/49): Gomoku Takigohan Bento!

September 27, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

The recent typhoon has created havoc in the local supermarkets with less vegetables available and at steep prices! This might continue for some time unfortunately!
“Gomoku Takigohan/五目炊きご飯” means a steamed rice (takigohan) cooked together with 5 ingredients (gomoku)!

So the Missus steamed the rice with two kinds of mushrooms, shiitake and enokitake, carrot and chicken and their juices as well as a little soy sauce and whatsnot. That accounts for 4 ingredients!

As a fifth ingredients she decorated the rice with boliled black beans!

As the rice box was quite copious she kept the side dish to the strict minimum!

The missus’ specialty: Tamagoyaki with parsley and cheese accompanied by some lettuce!

For the fibers and vitamin C: mini-tomatoes, lettuce, violet cabbage and marinated cucumber with fresh ginger and golden sesame seeds!

A very healthy and tasty bento considering the weather and the availability!

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Shizuoka Ekiben/Railway Station Bento:　Aki Chisen

September 26, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

Aki Chisen/秋千扇 measn the “Thousand Fans of Autumn”.
This is the third ekiben of a year-long limited series I already have introduced in Spring and Summer. I can’t wait for the Winter edition!

The ekiben as it was sold to me this morning at Shizuoka City Railway Station!

As usual Tokaiken has clearly written the contents on their wrap!

Some collectors will want this box!

As usual a film of rigid transparent paper protects the contents!

Now, what do we have?

Rice steamed with the juices of shiitake, shiitake mushroom, chestnuts and carrots. The Japanese love chestnuts with rice!

Chinese-style sweet and sour cashew nuts, chicken and red and green pepper. A small bottle of soy sauce and a small cup of wasabizuke/wasabi leaves and stems pickled in sake white lees.

Cucumber, fresh ginger and wakame seaweed marinade. Deep-fried sakura shrimps.

Taro/sato imo boiled and cut in the shape of a mushroom, tofu flower, steamed shiitake mushroom, Carrot, konnyaku jelly and gobo/burdock root.

Salmon deep-fried in cornstarch and lettuce.
Dessert consisted of a goma dango/sesame ball containing sweatmeat and mochi rice and rolled into sesame seeds before being deep-fried and a slice of kiwi fruit!

Nice way to learn about Autumn food!

Bento, 美食, Gastronomy, Japan, Japanese Gastronomy, 弁当

Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/48): “What a pickle!” Bento!

September 21, 2011 dragonlife 6 Comments

No, for all the frightening Missus I was not in a pickle! LOL
It is just that we had been offered a batch of Kyoto pickles and the MOTH (Mistress Of The House) decided to combine them with her own home-made pickles!

They certainly made for great colors!
The Missus prepared the rice as sushi rice and mixed it with chopped shiso leaves, golden sesame seeds and her own home-pickled Japanese pepper/sansho seeds.

The white and dark daikon pickles are Kyoto pickles.
The pickled ginger sticks are the Missus’.

The pickled cucumber, myoga ginger and eggplant/aubergine are all from Kyoto.
They make for beautiful design and are very beneficial to health!

The side dish is more Shizuoka-like although some of it comes from Hokkaido!

The half-boiled egg was produced by Mr. Shimizu in Shizuoka-City. The celery leaves and tomato are also from Shizuoka prefecture, but the smoked salmon is from Hokkaido while the capers and avocado came from very distant shores!

The dessert was all from Shhizuoka Prefecture: Japanese “Nashi” pear and plum!

Very healthy bento typical of early Autumn/Fall when the typhoons are crashing around our necks!
Naturally very colorful and yummy!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’11/47): Talk of the Day Bento!

September 14, 2011 dragonlife 4 Comments

Why “Talk of the Day Bento”?
I actually did not eat it in my own office but at the office of a company I do work with!
And I was certainly asked many questions by the (Japanese) ladies present!

When I opened the box, the first comment was “I want some of this lotus root!”.
Quite understandable as it looked appetizing…

After having steamed plain rice the Missus mixed it with “chirimenjako”, deep-fried sardine whiting and home-pickled Japanese pepper/sansho/参照. This sansho actually adds a great zip to the plain rice.

As for the vegetables the Missus proceeded in two steps:
She pan-fried the sliced lotus root with plenty of chopped red chili pepper and other ingredients she agreed to reveal to the ladies at the office but not on this blog!
The other vegetables, eggplants/aubergines, red and green peppers were also pan-fried in olive oil and other “secret” spices separately as the lotus root took a lot longer!

The side dish included the only meat (there was some fish, too) in this bento and the Missus had not forgotten my dessert!

Simple, tasty and cute pan-fried bacon rolls containing okra or black pepper cheese with some celery leaves and French pickles.

Lightly boiled goya/bitter melon mayonnaise salad and freshly sliced fig!

Great balance again and yummy!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’11/46): Deep-fried Tuna & Avocado Bento!

September 13, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

Bentoes can become a great way to acoommodate some “errors”!
The Missus having cut an avocado which was not ripe enough and couldn’t be appreciated raw simply deep-fried them (my suggestion!)!

But when it came to preparing the rice she didn’t bother much about my suggestions, then!

She steamed the rice with finely chopped carrots and once cooked mixed the lot with freshly steamed edamame.
An Irish rice?

But for the side dish we did share suggestions!

She deep-fried the avocado as it was, cut into small bites.
As for the tuna she deep-fried cubes of it dipped into cornstarch. She later seasoned them in tonmato sauce.
She laid the lot on a bed of celery leaves.

She added her specialty, soft-boiled egg marinated in soy sauce and seasoned with black sesame seeds. She added freshly cut plum tomatoes for the vitamins C and completed the lot with a Japanese marinated salad of cucumber and fresh ginger.

Perfect for the ongoing heat, healthy and yummy!

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Uncategorized

French Bistro: Ninosa in Shizuoka City!

September 11, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

Service: excellent and very friendly
Facilities: excellent overall cleanliness
Prices: reasonable to slightly expensive, good value.
Strong points: Bistro-style gastronomy

For all the great restaurants, especially French and Italian, serving exquisite modern gastronomy in Shizuoka Prefecture there are still a few (very good) establishments creating and serving unpretentious food along more traditional/classic lines.
I recently had the occasion to sample dinner in such a restaurant, namely Ninosa, a French-style bistro located away from the bustling center of Shizuoka City.

As unpretentious it might be, they still have a very appropriate and reasonably-priced wine list. This riesling wine called Andlau from French Alsace certainly married well with the food of the day!

You can choose whether to eat the French way or the Japanese way!

The menu is easy enough to read but you might need bring a Japanese-speaking friend along!

An appetizer graciously offered with the wine!

A French bistro classic: “Fromage de Tete”!

“Fromage de Tete” in French means “Head Cheese”, and is a jelly-based terrine made with different parts of the head of a pig, notably the nose, cheeks and ears!

A dish that brought back memories from my native France!

Yummy-looking, isn’t it?

The French love North African cuisine and Ninosa has come up with a dish combining Moroccan and Japanese gastronomies:
Scallops and Snow Crab Pastilla!

It certainly looked very appetizing lying on its bed of julienned vegetables!

A great use of local vegetables!

Tender and delicate seafood inside a light and crusty pie!

Another French Bistro classic: Young Duck Roast served with Porto Wine sauce!

Cooked to perfection!

Another great use of local vegetables!

If I may allow myself a single reproach I would say that they could have served a bit more of this succulent mashed potato!

If I had to find a single reason to visit Ninosa, it would be their desserts!
Peach Compote!

The peach is served atop its own jelly!
Frankly speaking, there were too many things to taste inside this dessert! LOL

Not to mention the tantalizing home-made vanilla ice-cream!

Home-made jelly sweets with coffee for the finishing touch!

To be followed…. of course! LOL

NINOSA
Shizuoka Shi, Aoi Ku, Shintori, 1-10-11
Tel.: 054-251-3502
Business hours: 11:30~13:30, 18:00~21:00
Closed on Wednesdays and 3rd Tuesday
Credit Cards OK

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French Gastronomy: Summer Desserts at Pissenlit in Shizuoka City!

September 10, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

Service: excellent and very friendly
Facilities: great washroom, great cleanliness overall
Prices: reasonable to slightly expensive, good value.
Strong points: Interesting wine list. Great use of local products.
Entirely non-smoking!

As promised let me introduce you to the desserts I shared with my good friend the other day at Restaurant Pissenlit in Shizuoka City!

The title for this superb dessert was “Chilled Musk Melon Soup with Paris School” Cognac Sorbet!

The soup was conceived with white wine and musk melon from Fukuroi City, the major musk melon producing city in Japan.
The sorbet was made with French Cognac.
The two together exploded inside the palate with all kinds of flavors happily fighting with each other for supremacy!
Not a dessert to be handled by children!

The title for the second dessert was purposefully kept vague: “Today’s three-Sorbet Assortment”…

It certainly became a tantalizing dilemma to find the right order to sample the sorbets!
Watermelon…
or Cognac…
or Tropical Fruit…!?
For once, I kept my instincts in check and savored them slowly one by one!

I belatedly realized that the accompanying fruit were in direct relation with the sorbets!
Watermelon…watermelon sorbet!
Mango…tropical fruit sorbet!
Grapes…Cognac sorbet!

Alright, the organic mint is only there for the finishing touch! LOL

PISSENLIT
420-0839 Shizuoka City, Aoi Ku, Takajo, 2-3-4
Tel.: 054-270-8768
Fax: 054-627-3868
Business hours: 11:30~14:30; 17:00~22:00
Closed on Tuesdays and Sunday evening
HOMEPAGE (Japanese)
Credit Cards OK

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French Gastronomy: Suruga Beef at Pissenlit in Shizuoka City!

September 9, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

One does not have to explain how good, and why for that matter, Japanese beef is.
Recently, beef produced in the Western part of Shizuoka Prefecture has attracted a lot of attention under the name of Suruga Beef!
Suruga is the name of the large Bay off Shizuoka Prefecture!
I took the occasion of a recent visit to Pissenlit in the company of a good friend to sample two parts of the same animal!

The bavette (above two pictures) is the part covering the bottom of the throat and the top of the breast.
Its texture is halfway that of a filet and of a stew.
Chef Touru Arima first fried the piece of bavette then roasted it before seasoning it with a Madeira wine sauce.
The vegetables were all organically grown at Shizen No Chikara Garden in Shizuoka City.
They included butternut squash, “mizunasu” aubergine/eggplants and buckwheat seeds.

For a closer look of the buckwheat seeds which married so well with the sauce!

My friend had an even better part, actually the best part of the animal, namely the filet!
It was prepared with a heady red wine sauce after being first fried on a hot fire and being finished in the oven.

The organic vegetables were also butternut squash and “mizunasu” aubergine/eggplant while the buckwheat seeds were replaced by Inca Mezame potato!

But the buckwheat seeds were concealed under the filet where they made a beautiful combination again with the sauce and meat!

To be followed (great desserts coming soon!)…

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’11/46): Deep-fried Prawn and Pork Rolls Bento!

September 8, 2011 dragonlife 4 Comments

The weather is still very hot although the humidity has somewhat abated. It is when people tend to drink more than they eat, forgetting that the human body needs as many calories in hot summers as in cold winters. Since bentoes are served cold or lukewarm at best they are perfect for the summer, although you do have to be careful about preserving the quality and safety of the food. The latter conditions add another reason for bentoes to be made at home unless you want to feed yourself with preservatives!

The Missus had some large prawns handy in the fridge. She rolled them in thin pork belly strips and deep-fried them with coarse panko/breadcrumbs. Once cooked, she let them rest on a grill to cool down and give out any extra fat.

She lined the bento box with plenty of rice topped with shredded vegetables. The latter will soak in any extra juice and sauce and add taste to the whole.
She then placed the prawns on top and seasoned them with sweet sesame and miso barbecue sauce. She added a small cornichon for the last touch.

Plenty of vegetables must balance the meat and the rice (the latter providing only carbohydrates and fibers).
The Missus served them both cooked and raw.

As for the cooked vegetables she stir-fried aubergines/eggplants, green and red peppers, all cut roughly to the same size for even cooking, in a piquant sauce. She put the finishing touch by sprinkling black sesame seeds on top.

As for the raw vegetables, and the color touch, she placed cut yellow plum tomatoes on a bed of cress.
Lastly dessert was provided with red grapes.

Healthy, plentiful and savory!

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Tamagoyaki/Japanese Omelet: Basic Recipe & Presentations

September 7, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

Tamagoyaki: basic recipe

I’ve been asked of late about the basic recipe for “Tamagoyaki”, or Japanese traditional omelette.
There are two ways of making it:
1) the slightly difficult one with chopsticks I’m going to explain today.
2) the easier one, but not traditional way, using European/American tools.

For the traditional recipe,you will need a long pair of chopsticks and a non-stick frypan. Traditional or not, the fry pan will have to be rectangular or square and of a size adapted to the number of eggs used.

Ingredients:
Eggs: 10
Dashi/Japanese stock: 180ml (9 tenths of a cup- A cup is 200ml)
Cooking sugar: 45g
Soy sauce: half a teaspoon
Salt: a pinch
Salad oil for frying

Recipe:

Pour in a bowl all the eggs, dashi, sugar and salt. Mix with a whisker. Do not mix to perfection. This will leave some beautiful white patterns in the omelette.

First heat frypan well. Pour in a little oil and wait until it starts “smoking”. Do not forget the whole process is done over a strong fire!
Get a piece of kitchen paper impregnated with oil handy for the next step.
First pour in half of the eggs.
As the omelette cooks burst any air bubbles open with chopsticks to obtain a uniform cooking.

Fold in eggs from the far end towards you little by little, bursting bubbles open at the same time.
Do not worry too much at this stage if you miss some of them. Try and proceed as quickly as possible.

Keep folding in at your pace until all eggs are rolled in.

Away from the fire, wipe the vacant space wit the oild paper, pour in a little egg.From now on the new egg layer should kept thin. Burst bubbles open as the eggs cook.

Fold each layer around the omelette by turning it aver towards you, let it slip away from you, brush some oil in, add a new layer of eggs, cook and fold, and continue until all eggs are used.

Remember that all should be done over a high fire. It would be easier to do over a low fire, but then the eggs will not be as light and “fluffy”.

Eat hot or cold. Can be cut in all kind of shapes for presentation, salads, or maki.

The Japanese also mix the eggs with raw shrimp of fish paste to attain an even lighter and thinner omelette.

Tamagoyaki: Presentations

As promised to Bill in Japanese Omellete/Tamagoyaki: Basic recipe 1 posting, here are some examples of presentation:
Above is a very popular way of cutting and serving cold, especially at sushi restaurants.

The accent here is not so much on the regularity, but on the colour, making it very home-style.

A very “clean and regular” presentation. Served with grated daikon and soy sauce.

Another example of home-made style served with shiitake mushrooms.

A “classical and professional” presentation!

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French Gastronomy: Early Autumn Appetizers at Pissenlit in Shizuoka City!

September 7, 2011 dragonlife 4 Comments

Autumn is the season of plenty for gastronomic restaurants. This is a time when high quality fruits, vegetables, meat and fish seem to arrive from everywhere at the same time!
Chef Touru Arima at Pissenlit in Shizuoka City has the knack and talent of combining seasonal products of the land and sea from Shizuoka, Japan and abroad all the same time for the utter happiness of his customers!

For example the above amuse-bouche is a typical Shizuoka offering: organic vegetable pound cake and goya/bitter gourd (also organic). Incidentally all the vegetables introduced in this article ar organic and grown by Chizen No Chikara Farm in Shizuoka City!

On the other hand, this Landes Duck Foie Gras Terrine is a completely French concept except for the local orange marmalade.
Have you ever tried combining foie gras with orange marmalade and coarse black pepper? If not, you are missing something!

That terrine will make a sinner of anyone whatever Arnie might argue!
So simple in presentation! After all, who needs to conceal good products behind forests of vegetables or under lakes of sauce?

This saumon fume/smoked salmon mousse with fresh cream dressing and chilled steamed/baked tougan/冬瓜/Winter melon-white gourd-ash gourd is a marriage between a fish caught in the Atlantic Ocean and an organic vegetable grown in Shizuoka City!