Monthly Archives: February 2012

An anniversary (and Valentine’s) dinner at Ogasawara Haku Shaku Tei

by Bianca

Yes, I know it’s a little corny getting married on Valentine’s day but I guess it’s too late to make any changes so Valentine’s day will forever be our anniversary. That being the case, it is never easy getting a restaurant on short notice. Our first choice was the Michelin 3 star restaurant Quintessence but they were booked from months ago, so I looked around for another option.

The spanish are excellent cooks. El Bulli in Spain (now closed) used to be the best restaurant in the world. One of the best and most memorable dinners we’ve ever had was in Barcelona, so I decided that on this anniversary, we’d do it the Spanish way. I found Ogasawara browsing through the Michelin book and decided that this one michelin star restaurant would be the prefect venue for our anniversary dinner.

Ogasawara is located in a charming old Spanish style house in Shinjuku which belonged to a man called count Ogasawara. Upon arrival, you are greeted at the door by men in tuxedos and then ushered through this beautiful house still intact with original Moorish influenced design and furniture. The spacious dining room is in the back after passing through a bar and beautiful cigar room. On this particular day it was packed.

My first impression of the place was that the lighting in the dining room was a little too bright for a fine dining restaurant. I guess I’ll be able to take better pictures.

There was only one seven course menu and this was it :

The first course was a small soup of young leek, black olive and oil of saffron curry, with a brioche of “Pisto Manchego”. Unfortunately my picture of this dish turned out blurred but whatever it was, it was delicious.

The next course :

TARABA crab and SHOUGOIN radish with SUDACHI and lemongrass accent

I really liked the third course which was a simple cooked egg in a parsley consomme

Cooked egg with a temperature of 63 degrees with consommé essence of parsley, served with chickpeas

The fourth course was a risotto :

Risotto of galeeny and romanescu with mussel falovered sauce and airy foam of Mejorana

The fifth course was fish :

Placha of alfonsino served with a variation of spinach assorted with bambon of Piquillo pepper

And then, the wonderful beef :

Beef sirloin with winter truffle, sweet potato and Albarracin cheese served with Melaza of Malaga

Pre desert was a warm white chocolate soup :

Warm white chocolate soup layered with avocado cream and jelly of passion fruits

And the heavenly dessert :

Whipped cream rice with an aroma of dandelion, chocolate and yuzu with coal

And of course, a very nice touch for our anniversary, some extra dessert :

My conclusion : The Spanish definitely are good chefs. Food was good and actually fast for a fine dining restaurant. It may not have been a Joel Robouchon, Alain Ducasse or Thomas Keller experience but it was good.

 

OGASAWARA-HAKUSYAKU-TEI
Address ： 10-10 Kawata-cho Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
TEL ： +81-3-3359-5830

 

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

A Brooklyn Parlor in Tokyo

by Bianca

Once in a blue moon, I’d walk into a place and immediately fall in love with it. Then I’d sit down and fall in love with it even more. Such was the case with Brooklyn Parlor, a cafe and bar located in the basement of the Marui Annex in Shinjuku.

People say it is supposed to be a bar because of their famous Brooklyn Lager beer. To me it feels more like a cozy cafe. The interior is spacious and warm with brick walls, high ceilings for Japanese standards and lines of bookshelves. You really feel like you are in a cafe somewhere in New York, or Brooklyn for that matter. The waiters speak english and there is an english menu.

We were given seats at a set of outworn leather sofas in the middle of the establishment. Nice and comfy.

It was in the middle of the afternoon when we visited, but I was hungry so we ordered some buffalo wings, the sandwich of the day which they called the French dip sandwich and the Quiche. The food was really good and I will definitely come back to try their more extensive dinner menu.

What I loved was their coffee menu. I’m a latte girl and the more options in the coffee menu, the happier I am. I tried their coconut latte which tasted unique and was simply delightful.

What I found most pleasant about Brooklyn Parlor was the room temperature. Most restaurants and cafes in Tokyo have the heat blasting so high you feel you’re in a sauna after 15 minutes and can’t wait to leave. Here, the temperature was just right, I could have sat there for hours ( which I did ).

I would definitely recommend this cafe to anyone who needed a place to chill in Shinjuku.

Brooklyn Parlor : B1 Shinjuku Marui Annex, 3-1-26 Shinjuku. Tel: 03-6457-7763

 

 

IMAHAN

by Bianca

This would be the restaurant to go to if you are looking for some excellent sukiyaki. Established well over a hundred years ago in 1895, Imahan has about 10 restaurants serving sukiyaki, shabu-shabu and steak courses specializing in Imahan beef.

Imahan Ginza facade

I have personally tried two of their branches in Yurakucho and Ginza. The one in Ginza is on the 5th floor of the Barneys New York building and a little more luxurious. Although they have shabu-shabu and steak courses which are all good, their sukiyaki is the best. Their way of eating sukiyaki here is different from what I am used to back home in Indonesia, where we have plenty of Japanese restaurants. Sukiyaki back home comes in a hot-pot with all the meat and vegetables swimming inside the sauce and a raw egg on the side. I would throw the raw egg into my sauce until it was half done and then eat it. I had no idea we were supposed to dip the meat and vegetables in the raw egg before eating it. They taught me how to eat it the Japanese way here in Imahan, and it was absolutely delicious.

The Imahan wagyu

Dipping the beef in a bowl of raw egg

The staff at Imahan usually asks foreigners if you mind eating raw eggs. My suggestion is to go for it. It really is delicious.

When you are not in the mood for some sukiyaki then I would go for the steak course which comes in a box and it is really juicy and flavorful.

The steak course

For desert there is an option of fruits like the famous Japanese melon or some ice cream.

IMAHAN GINZA

Kojun Building 5F, 6-8-7 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
TEL: 81-3-3571-5333
Hours 11:30am to 10:00pm

Website : http://www.imahan.com/e-guide