tokyo food file

wineterroirs.com on François Dumas, pioneer of French natural wine in Japan

There's an extensive post in the excellent blog www.wineterroirs.com on bio wine importer/pioneer (and also longtime Tokyo resident) François Dumas.

We had the chance recently to meet François Dumas, who is possibly the first to have set up a wine-import business in Japan centered around French natural wines : his company Le Vin Nature is entirely centered on the distribution of (mostly French) natural wines. His story is passionating because more than business, his career is about passion and intuition moves. First, he is a trained architect in France, then he organized music shows in Japan and ended up setting up a wine import business... François came to Japan first 1979, he was a trained architect and he came for a one-year study on traditional Japanese houses, from the far north to the Japanese south. Back in France in 1981 he worked for the newly independant radio network Radio Nova, this was the time the World-Music was very strong in France and the new freedom in the radio waves was very exciting. Then he went back to Japan and organized music shows there with African musicians as well as people like Gainsbourg, Charles Trenet, Jane Birkin, Marianne Faithful, Maceo Parker and others. Serge Gainsbourg was not known in Japan then and he has become sort of a cult singer since. When the techno-music era began, he decided to stop this job, leave the business to his associates and begin do something with wine, even though he remained the president of this concert business (Highlife international) until 2006. So, in 1997, he decided to explore another field and gather a list of organic and biodynamic wineries and import their wines here. There weren't any specialized import of natural wines here then, the wine lansdcape was almost limited to Bordeaux which he felt was boring. From the start he had the wines of Overnoy, Chateau Le Puy (before it turned organic and discovered how not to use SO2, he adds) and many others...

             The full post is over at  www.wineterroirs.com

Good to see the word is spreading about natural wines. Kudos is also due to Katsuyama-san, who besides being the master of Shonzui (and Grape Gumbo) is a legend in the Tokyo wine world.

A few years ago I wrote up Shonzui in the Japan Times... I don't make it into Roppongi so often. You're more likely to find me in another favourite bar that specialises in natural wines, Ahiru Store.

Aramasa Yamayu horizontal sake tasting at Kamozou, Kagurazaka

Now this is what I call a sake line-up.

Four bottles, all from the same brewery: Aramasa in Akita; 

all produced in the same season: 2011/12; 

all brewed and bottled exactly the same way: as junmai ginjo nama arabashiri;

all identical except each was brewed with different sakamai rice.

From right to left: Misato-nishiki (green); Miyama-nishiki (blue); Sake-komachi (white); and Kairyo-shinko (pink, but actually called momo "peach"). The last of those is a strain of rice that — to the best of my knowledge — I've never come across before. 

And presented side by side (literally) like this, you can really taste the difference. And the similarities. All have plenty of rich umami, but varying positions on the sweet/sharp range. 

Quite a line-up indeed. 

But I'd expect nothing less at Kamozou in Kagurazaka. Kudos to manager Yamashita-san !

In case you missed it, this was my write-up in my Japan Times column...

another compelling reason for lunch at Yoshihashi

One more reason — should any be needed over and above the substantial premium on your lunch bill — for sitting at the counter at Yoshihashi, rather than in one of the private tatami rooms. You get to admire this impressive artwork: one of Hiroshi Senju's trademark waterfalls.

Here's another of his paintings, from the Senju Museum in Karuizawa (as featured in the excellent Spoon and Tamago blog)...

photo by Daici Ano

Yoshihashi sukiyaki lunch: the anatomy of a veritable rarefied bargain

Yoshihashi, as introduced in my Japan Times column yesterday, is a high class kind of place. You can tell from the architecture, both inside and out, and from the hushed ambiance that pervades the premises.

And from the premium quality sukiyaki that's served within those august wooden walls.

So good it deserves a lingering close-up of the way it is offered for that great-value lunch...

As mentioned, the sukiyaki is prepared in the kitchen – at dinner it's cooked in front of you at the table – so you don't get to see the beef in its raw sliced state. At lunchtime a lean cut of Japanese beef is used. By contrast, in the evening you get richly marbled premium Grade A wagyu, hence the premium on the price.

It's served sizzling hot in its gleaming copper pan...

 

On the side you are given a single raw egg, simply broken into a shallow saucer. This is your dip.

No need for any further seasoning, since the beef and other ingredients have been cooked in the rich warishita, the savoury-sweet sauce that sukiyaki is simmered down in.

You simply beat the egg roughly, using your chopsticks and swish the beef in it. The residual heat is enough to coat the meat with a fine layer of egg...

 

Along with this, you get the standard trimmings: miso-shiru; white rice; and tsuemono pickles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that, apart from green tea at the end, is it. Nothing else is needed.

Full details on Yoshihashi in my column...

And there's a map link here...

taking it traditional in Akasaka

Up tomorrow in The Japan Times, the Tokyo Food File goes traditional.

A historic neighbourhood...

Traditional architecture...

And an old-school kitchen...

Much more in the morning...

...and now (March 16) it's up here...