Category Archives: French

MACCARINA

by Bianca

A recent ski trip to Niseko in Hokkaido allowed me to stumble upon a few lovely restaurants that I simply have to share with you in my next few posts. The abundance of excellent food around tiny Niseko has always amazed me, so let me start by sharing a post about Maccarina.

Maccarina is a French-Japanese restaurant with one michelin star. Its located in a tiny town called Makkari, about 30 minutes drive from Hirafu village where all the main hotels are.

Housed in a small wooden building, Maccarina’s interior is a little outdated yet somehow still manages to ooze some coziness.

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There are two choices of set menus. We chose the more extensive one which cost around 11.000 yen per person and here is what we had.

The first course was a mixture of tiny appetizers beautifully arranged on one plate. Grilled abalone, breadcrumbed beef tongue, roasted duck cooked in red wine, foie gras apple tart and a mixture of vegetables of the season.

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I’m not sure I liked the concept of having all the appetizers mixed together in one plate but each of them tasted delicious and the presentation was amazing.

Next came an interesting dish. Poached lily bulbs in a most delicately light cream sauce. I loved this dish.

A mini traditional French onion soup followed. I love onion soup and I found this one to be particularly delectable. It was light and had the perfect amount of cheese in it.

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A pleasant seafood risotto came after. It was light and absolutely delicious.

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You had a choice of roasted beef steak or roasted venison for your main course. I chose the beef.

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It was accompanied by the most delicious roasted potatoes. I was disappointed by the fact that I was so full I could not bring myself to finish them.

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I always have a soft spot for all things sweet, especially caramel so I loved the hot pumpkin tart dessert with caramel ice cream. The mixture of hot and cold can never go wrong in my opinion.

The food at Maccarina was delicious in a more classic French kind of style, but were I a michelin star judge, I don’t think I would have given them a star simply due to the fact that they didn’t really have a sommelier and the service really wasn’t up to michelin star standards. But then again, I am not a judge and what’s most important in my book is excellent food and Maccarina certainly has this. So I believe it is well worth the 30 minute drive.

Prize : $$$

MACCARINA

172-3 Midorioka, Makkari, Abuta District, Hokkaido Prefecture 048-1615, Japan
+81 136-48-2100

 

Joel Robuchon Tokyo : Hail to one of the best French restaurants in the world.

by Bianca

Housed inside a French style mansion in the middle of Ebisu with Swarovski crystals neatly adorning its white walls, Joel Robuchon is one upscale french restaurant in Tokyo that never fails. Everything from the moment you enter its French doors greeted by their waiters in crisp black suits until you sit down at their black tables and gulp down their exquisite food, is perfection. It doesn’t matter what season the menu is celebrating, whether its truffle, summer, autumn, winter or spring, sitting in their dining room on the 2nd floor and relishing their impeccably prepared meals is always a treat.

A few days ago we celebrated my husbands birthday and sampled their wonderfully assembled summer menu, here is what we had :

Amuse-Bouche Le Mais : Fresh corn chilled veloute with sea urchin

Le Crabe : Crab meat and caviar with an advocado fondant

La Langoustine : Dublin Bay Prawn with a lemongrass emulsion and stewed leeks

La Foie Gras de Canard : Sauteed Duck Liver with caramelized pineapple, vanilla, rum and coconut meringue

Le Turbot de Breatgne : Gratinated Brittany Halibut with seaweed crust accompanied with tarragon scented broad beans

L’Epaule d’Agneau : Braised Lamb shoulder with buttered turnip and tomato basil juice

Dessert was La Tarte au Chocolat : Chocolate Tart filled with raspberry served with coffee and milk ice cream

And of course my most favorite part of the whole meal :

The dessert tray

Needless to say, every single bite was pure perfection.

Another reason I love this restaurant is that even though it is a 3 michelin star French restaurant, the atmosphere is far from stuffy. The waiters are friendly and cheerful and unlike a lot of Japanese restaurants who frown when you take out your camera or simply forbid you to take pictures, they actually look proud if you frantically take pictures of their food.

Also note that Joel Robuchon has three establishments in Tokyo. Two are housed in Ebisu which is this restaurant and La Table de Joel Robuchon which is sort of the third line, cheaper version of Joel Robuchon and housed on the first floor. Their second line is the L’atelier de Joel Robuchon in Roppongi Hills.

Of course this impeccable feast comes at a steep price, but it is definitely worth a visit especially if you have something majestic to celebrate.

I’ve been around, tried many French restaurants around the world and I have to admit that a touch of Japanese makes this the best French restaurant in the world.

Price : $$$

JOEL ROBOUCHON : 1-13-1 Mita, Meguro-ku, Tokyo. Phone : 03-5424-1347

 

KAMIMURA, a rare jewel in the middle of nowhere.

by Bianca

Ok, this restaurant I’m going to write about is not in Tokyo. It is way out in the middle of Hokkaido. I’m going to stray a little from this blogs theme just because I am so excited and simply have to share this with you. If you’ve been to Tokyo or lived in Japan for a while, you will realize that food in this country can only be divided into three categories : good, very good and excellent. It is not that often that a restaurant will surprise you with its excellence, because there is an abundance of excellence here. That is probably why Tokyo has more Michelin stars than any other city in the world including France.

Once in a while though, you not only get a nice surprise, you actually get pleasantly shocked. It happened to me last weekend. If you read my other blog you’ll know that I just came back from a ski trip to a little village called Niseko in Hokkaido. Having never been to Niseko, I turned to my trusted friend Mr. Google for information on restaurants to visit. Somehow the first page I opened had three restaurants on their list and the first one was Kamimura. I just decided to go with it without doing too much research and made a reservation.

I really did not expect to find this intimate fine dining restaurant in the first floor of an apartment building in Niseko. Seeing its red hued walls warmly glowing amidst the abundance of white snow and the wine glasses expertly placed on white tablecloths, I immediately felt under dressed, until I reminded myself that I was in a ski resort. Of course everybody was casual.

We had a choice of a 7, 9 and 11 course menu. When I saw some truffles listed in the 11 course menu, I chose it without a moment’s hesitation. And boy was I glad I did so.

Have you ever taken a bite of something so good, you can still remember the taste until years later. It happened to me here, on the first bite. And we had not even gotten to the course menu yet.

Compliments of the chef

This small bite of pure deliciousness was the best canapé I have ever tasted. I wish I could cook so I could explain to you exactly what was in it, but it was a crispy piece of toast with some cheese and according to the waiter topped with some herringbone roe (not caviar). It was so delicious I could have eaten another ten. Now it was time to start our course. I will let the pictures do all the writing.

The first course was some deep-fried Hokkaido mozzarella …

Hokkaido mozzarella

Then came a very simple dish of bread with truffled butter. The truffle was shaved on top of the butter and I ended up putting a mountain of butter on my bread it could no longer be called bread with truffled butter, but more like truffled butter with bread.

The truffled butter with bread

The third course was a small cup of duck and veal consommé with a teeny tiny foie gras ravioli inside that tasted so heavenly I dreaded its size.

Next is the fourth course :

'Botan' king prawn and tiger prawn with tomato sorbet and celeriac

The fifth course was another absolutely delectable one :

Niseko potato puree with lily bulb and black olive

The sixth course :

Seared Hokkaido scallop with "Kaibashira" cream and black truffle

The seventh course :

Grilled market fish with puttanesca sauce

The eight course :

Takikawa duck roast with buckwheat risotto

The ninth course :

Roasted Hokkaido wagyu veal with shitake and hokkaido wasabi

Now the tenth course is a sorbet to clean your palate before dessert. However, it was actually a highlight in its self. The apple jelly topping tasted so delicious, it is fair to say that it is the best sorbet I have ever tried.

Apple sorbet with sweet wine jelly from Yoichi

And the dessert :

Bitter chocolate and kumquat with French meringue

Oh and how delicious the dessert was. I loved how the meringue melted in your mouth.

And last but not least some coconuts kuzu to accompany your tea or coffee.

The coconut kuzu

There you go, one of my most delicious meals ever. When chef Kamimura who had accumulated his skills at the famed Sydney establishment Tetsuya came to our table, we gave him a round of applause. An applause very well deserved. Forget michelin stars, this restaurant is a rare jewel and I’d award it with diamonds.

http://www.kamimura-niseko.com

Kamimura Restaurant
1st Floor Yamashizen West
185-8 Aza-Yamada
Kutchan-cho, Hokkaido
044-0081, Japan
Telephone: +81 (0)136-21-2288
Fax: +81 (0)136-21-2288