tokyo food file

sakura — or is it suckerer? — season

The cherry blossom is out everywhere at the moment — and Tokyo's food stores are no exception. There's no escaping all that pink marketing. Here are just a few items...

There's sakura tea in sachets...

and cherry flavoured green tea at Mariage Frères.

The sake breweries are getting in on the seasonal action.  This one from Tamanohikari.

And so are the wine makers: this Italian frizzante has even been named Sacra.

Of course the champagne houses are getting involved with their pink bubbly...

The Robuchon bakery has a special seasonal sakura (and azuki) bread...

...and here's a sakura scone, served at one of Tokyo's British tea houses.  Besides the salted cherry blossom on top, it also had flakes of cherry leaf in the scone itself.

There's a sakura anpan fair going on at Ginza's famous Kimuraya:

And here's a delectable slice of vegan Sakura roll cake from Chaya Macrobi. Along with the square of cherry jelly in the centre, it also contains black beans (sweetened only with maple syrup).

Now if only the weather would cooperate and allow us a proper hanami without fear of frostbite.

Pierre Gagnaire Tokyo

 

Lunch at the new Pierre Gagnaire Tokyo with Mme. Food File...  The cuisine was outstanding, just as we expected it to be, intensely flavourful and intricate, and arranged exquisitely.

The setting is plush but a bit bland (it is in a hotel after all).  The view over the Roppongi skyline holds little excitement by day — but evenings promise sunset views towards Mt.Fuji, the magic glitter of the city nightscape, plus Tokyo Tower in all its glory.

Service was smooth but still very tense.  We enjoyed the handsome uniforms of the waiting staff (designed by Junko Koshino).  But for the moment they're still finding their feet.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect is that you can eat there for as little ¥3,800 (plus plus). It's called the Express Gourmet, it's offered only on weekdays, and it consists of just amuse(s) and main plate (no choice).  Pierre Gagnaire at those prices — incroyable!

Here are just a few elements from the three-course (plus numerous extras) ¥6,000 'Saison' lunch, starting with the colourful opening amuses...

 

The hors d'oeuvres comprised five separate small dishes (including a very powerful, restorative soup).  The most visual was this: a crudité selection served with a dip of ground almond mixed with matcha...

 

The main course: pan-fried snapper topped with spring cabbage and maitake mushroom, with a lovely rich, lingering saffron sauce...

 

Before the double dessert course, this colourful four-part amuse arrived...

 

dessert #1 paired grapefruit 'marmalade' with caramel... 

 

#2 was an intense matching of different chocolates...

 

And, even after those two intensely rich desserts, there was another dainty sweet to go with our closing coffee/tea !

Formidable!

 

A rolling boil...

I just love watching the way noodles — my favourite soba in this case — swirl and roll as they cook in the pan.

 

your toast

Back in the old days, toast meant a doorstep of fluffy white igirusu-pan ("English bread") lightly toasted to a crisp, appetizing golden-brown, and with a blob of butter melted into it. 

If you were lucky you might get some strawberry jam with it — or even (at our favourite local) some honey and a sprinkle of cinnamon — but you were more more likely to find it came with a slice of suspiciously pink "ham" and a blob of "potato salad' on a small leaf of coarse lettuce. 

Now, though, toast has gone all fancy. Shrimp and lemon tartare sauce... Meat sauce and spinach... Tomato, mozzarella and basil... What's it all coming to? Well, at least they still make the toast as thick and aerated as ever.

menus

A lot of the kind of places I enjoy most don't bother with menus — not the kind that you peruse at table, anyway.  Half of the fun is craning your neck, exercising your retinas, and decyphering all those kanji characters ;–)

If you're lucky, there may be a blackboard outside so you'll have had a chance to work some things out before you go in...