tokyo food file

L'Osier reborn Part II: a first few tastes

"Would you like to see the kitchen?" Chef Olivier Chaignon asks me. What he really means is, "You have to come and see the kitchen they've created for me!" When you get there you understand his excitement.

It's huge, and feels even more so because it's so gleaming and spotless. The pastry kitchen is at the back, all part of the same space instead of being banished to a separate floor, as it was in the old building.

 

Chaignon introduces me to Head Chef Izumi Yamashita. He's a veteran not just from the previous team, under Bruno Menard, but from the time of the legendary Jacques Borie, who took over at L'Osier in 1986 and established its heavyweight credentials.

 

But Chaignon is in charge now. And he's keen to give us all a taste of his cuisine. It turns out to be a 7-course meal in miniature: perfect with all that bubbly...

 

 

Starting with a simple little number involving tuna wrapped in blanched lettuce leaf, topped on a bed of bouillon gelée and topped with a generous blob of sturgeon roe.

So good it demands a close-up.

 

Then a smooth, warm mousse that is rich with the woodsy aroma of cep.

 

Followed by a wonderful risotto with scallops and Alba white truffles…

 

Sea bass served with a sauce of oursin (uni), concealing a wheat grain "risotto".

 

Then duck (from Challans, bien sûr) with poireau leek, on creamed potato…

 

And finally a cube of Hokkaido wagyu filet with classic sauce Bordelaise.

 

Time to explore the desserts: dark chocolate with a delicate shred of gold leaf…

 

…concealing a core of pistachio and butterscotch creams.

 

And finally, just in case we had not been sweetened up enough, there were nice little trays of mignardises and macarons…

 

L'Osier officially reopened from today (Friday). But if all the above has whetted your appetite, I'm sorry: L'Osier is already fully booked through the end of the year.

But if it's this popular now, imagine what it will be like after the Michelin inspectors have paid their visits and awarded their stars. At least that won't happen until next year.

The L'Osier web site is here…

And my previous post gives a sneak peek of what the new restaurant looks like.

 

Foodies turn to zombies: #summer #Tokyo #dining

 

Trapped in the furnace of a Tokyo summer, even the most ardent foodies turn to zombies. We skulk inside, out of sight of the sun, emerging only after dark has fallen to roam in search of sustenance.

Instead of elaborate full-course meals, we seek out casual places close to home. Anywhere will do as long as we can nibble and graze, ordering a dish or two at a time, and interspersing food with drink and conversation till late into the night. 

Thankfully Tokyo has more and more restaurants expressly intended for that purpose. Here are four new favorites that have arrived over the past half year or so.

 

Kitchen Nakamura is one of those hip, quietly stylish places so tucked away from sight you’d never find it unaided. Mere minutes from Omotesando subway station, in the basement of the swish La Porte Aoyama building, this unobtrusive basement oasis of late-night dining is still much of an insiders’ secret.

Not that it will stay that way long. As the newest offshoot — it opened late May — of Namikibashi Nakamura, the classy-casual Japanese dining restaurant on the Ebisu end of Shibuya, word is spreading fast.

Like its parent operation, Kitchen Nakamura revolves around a large open kitchen and focuses on ingredients sourced almost entirely within Japan. Where it differs is that it serves no sake and little shochu. The food here is crossover Western and wine is the libation of choice.

Standout starters range from the kabocha squash croquettes and lightly salted mizu-nasu eggplant to the excellent stem ginger wrapped in pork. The pasta dishes are good, and the homemade sausages great. But at the heart of the (Japanese-only) menu is the charcoal grill there are kushiyaki skewers of Yambaru pork, jidori chicken, Edomae anago conger eel and more.

 

Gar Eden is another new place with a strong presence and a hybrid sensibility. Housed in a compact, free-standing two-story house that was custom-built earlier this year (it also opened in May), it has a simple, uncluttered feel that puts you immediately at ease.

The inspiration for the kitchen here is Italian. The antipasti list is brief, but there’s a good range of pasta with several made fresh in-house each day. But these are mere preliminaries for the main event: pork (spare ribs or shoulder butt), chicken or beef, scampi or tuna, even spit-roasted lamb, all served straight from the charcoal grill.

It’s the kind of food that demands good beer more than wine. Gar Eden obliges with 10 varieties on tap, ranging from what it calls “standard” (Asahi SuperDry) to “new standards”, which is its terminology for craft ales. The joker in the pack here is the Italian beer. not the usual Moretti or Peroni but one of the new generation of microbrews (currently Birra del Borgo) that are now booming off there. 

Manager Kenzo Kobayashi used to be in charge at Craft Beer Market in Jimbocho, so he not only knows his ales and IPAs, he understands the right price point. At ¥580 a glass or ¥880 per pint, he gets it spot on.

 

You’ll never guess what’s on the menu at Butcher Brothers. Or, rather, you will. But you won’t believe how good it is — or how affordable. 

Thick rashers of smoky bacon, soft-stewed tripe, juicy homemade sausages and sizzling steaks, all served up from the busy, smoky open kitchen that occupies the heart of this buzzy new (February) restaurant close by Kanda JR station. 

Butcher Brothers is as cheap as it is cheerful, with generous steaks from as little as Y840 for the beef rump or ¥1,250 for rib. As for the wine, it’s ¥450 by the glass, and just about no bottles over ¥3,500. 

For the longest time, this part of Kanda has been down-at the heel, with no shortage of sleazy salaryman dives and sake bars. Butcher Brothers is tangible evidence that there is new blood coursing through this old-school neighborhood.

 

World Breakfast All Day also has a name that says it all. This brilliant, whimsical little café/diner has not only come up with an idea that is totally original, it is doing it in a way that feels more Brooklyn or Camden Town than anything you’d expect to find on Gaien-Nishi-dori in Gaienmae.

Every two months, the menu changes to focus on the cuisine — specifically the breakfast — of a single country. Currently it’s Mexico. That means you get a generous plate of chilaguilles, fried egg with fresh tortilla, avocado, cream cheese and cilantro salad. There’s coffee, lightly sweetened horchata or Tecate lager to go with that, depending on your whim and the time of day. 

Alternatively, there is a simpler muesli bowl. Or you can go for the full English brekkers with egg and sausage, fried bread, baked beans, mushrooms and more. Then in the evening (from 5 p.m.), a rather more substantial dinner menu of Mexican specials comes into play.

The narrow dining room has only very basic décor, and everyone (maximum 14 people) sits at one long communal table. The walls are decorated with folksy Mexican artifacts and the menu has cute explanations (in Japanese) about the culture. But what makes this place so special is that at the end of the month everything will be overhauled and the featured cuisine will be Vietnamese.

Kitchen Nakamura: ameblo.jp/kitchennakamura/

Gar Eden: www.facebook.com/gareden.kv

Butcher Brothers: http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1310/A131002/13152432/

World Breakfast All Day: world-breakfast-allday.com

This is the unredacted version of my column in the Japan Times this week. More details (address, opening times, etc.) are at the bottom of the column

Chef Thierry Marx: fine modernist cuisine @ K'shiki

Thierry Marx is in town. And he's brought his chopsticks with him.

This week — through Sunday (the 23rd)  — the Parisian chef is preparing a selection of the dishes that have propelled his double-Michelin-starred restaurant, Sur Mesure inside the Mandarin Oriental Paris, to the centre of the gastronomic map of the French capital.

Despite his long connection with Japan — first through his life-long practice of judo, then through his deep passion for Japanese cuisine — Marx is not a well known name here. That deserves to change. He is one of the new generation of chefs who have brought modernist techniques and an acceptance of other countries' cuisines into the Michelin mainstream. Not without attracting criticism from the old guard, but effectively silencing the naysayers through the quality of his cooking.

Since I'm not planning to be in Paris for the foreseeable future — though actually, these days the foreseeable is never too distant — this was far too good an opportunity to miss. So I made my way up to Restaurant K'shiki, on the 38th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Nihonbashi, intrigued to see how dinner was.

The answer: very good indeed. This was how it unfolded…

 

• The setting: K'shiki is nice, serious but not too plush, with a great view out of those floor-to-ceiling windows towards the evening light over the western hills.

 

• The appetizer: a light mousse of nishin (herring) blended with fine-diced apple and onion and lightly crunchy pink tobiko roe, topped with a sorbet of smoked herring (kunsei), served with a "crouton" wafer.

This was a great way to open dinner, with just enough umami and saltiness to prime the taste buds. Really good.

 

• The starter: "tube pizza" w/ stalk caper 

 A crisp roll of pie crust filled with diced fresh tomato and parmesan-infused cream, with a sprinkle of tapenade powder. Simple and yet complex, with all the flavors combining beautifully. The caper with its long tail made a nice sharp closing counterpoint.

 

• The 2nd starter: yari-ika (squid) and asparagus.

The centerpiece was the croustillant, a  battered/deep-fried cube of creamy squid mousse, served with white asparagus coated with squid ink; a line of yari-ika powder reminiscent (in flavour) of the cuttlefish snacks served with beer at Japanese seaside resorts; with yari-ika emulsion; foam of the same squid with lemon zest; and a dainty blob of red chili sauce providing a counterpoint of both colour and flavour.

 

• The fish course: hirame (turbot / flounder); caramelized onion; cauliflower puree; and citron sauce.

The fillet of flounder, landed in Aomori, was perfectly tender but firm, with none of the flabbiness I associate with sous-vide cooking. The sheet of caramelized onion had a vinegar tartness to balance the sweetness; the cauliflower also had a tartness, but from citrus; and the sauce was introduced as being made with natsu-mikan, but I'd go with the French description, citron cédrat.

Unfortunately, the light was fading badly by now. And while the semi-darkness of the K'shiki dining room makes for intimacy, it does not favour photography. My photo just doesn't do the dish justice, so underneath I've added one of the press release pictures.

 

• The meat course: boeuf charbon; chickpea; aubergine gnocchi; chard emulsion; chickpea purée; aka-miso sauce.

The centerpiece of the final main dish was Kagoshima wagyu, cooked (again sous vide; again with expertise) to a perfect texture and coated with a black "char" of eggplant and squid ink. Inside the crisp exterior of the chickpea croquettes there was a delectable puree that was aromatic with cumin and coriander. The gnocchi were prepared from pureed aubergine/eggplant encased in a skin of membrane thinness. And the red-miso sauce had a depth of umami richness, with just the slightest hint of fermentation, that was outstanding.

 

• The first dessert: Saint-Honoré with caramelized profiteroles so sweet they could not be balanced by the citrus ice cream. (another "official" photo as mine were too washed out…

 

• The 2nd dessert: miroir cassis.

This one really hit the spot and left all the right lingering notes in the mouth: dark rich cassis on a bed of pannacotta; a blackcurrant milk chocolate ball; spheroids of liquid cassis; lemongrass foam. 

 

And that — apart from the coffee and petit fours (which were not from Paris) — was it. Not a major tasting menu of complexity, but skillfully woven classic yet modernist gastronomy accented with subtle surprises.  

As I said before, very good indeed. In fact, highly recommended.

Full details of the menu are on the K'shiki website here…

 

tomato sukiyaki: lunch at Kyobashi Basara

Basara, the "casual" offshoot of the well-renowned old-school ryoriya Aoyagi (Tokushima and Tokyo), has spawned a new branch, on the ground floor of the massive, freshly-opened Tokyo Square Garden development in Kyobashi.

As mentioned in my recent Japan Times column, Basara's specialty is its tomato sukiyaki. Even at midday, the full kaiseki banquet is an extensive investment — both of time and (at ¥6,090 or ¥10,500) and money. Thankfully, there is an abbreviated version that is not just more affordable but also quite feasible within a standard one-hour lunch break.

What you ask for is the Akebono course (¥2,940) with the meat option. Strictly speaking it's not really sukiyaki, as it's not cooked at the table in front of you. Instead, the official name is gyu shigure-ni tomato-sukiyaki shu-tate: beef lightly simmered (like "autumn rain"), prepared in the tomato sukiyaki style. Same difference, really.

The course opens with the impressive kuruma hassun starter tray (as introduced in this earlier post).

 

Next, a small cube of firm/soft tamago-dofu, bathed in a lightly sweetened dashi and adorned with a slice of sudachi.

 

And then the main course: the beef. It's made with wagyu — though not from a name-brand provenance — from Shizuoka.

 

… accompanied by rice, akadashi (ie dark Hatcho miso blended with a lighter rice-koji miso) miso-shiru, pickles and tea.

 

Lest that sound too traditional, dessert was impeccably non-Japanese: a custard pudding with rich caramel sauce, topped with a very booze-infused raisin.

 

The main branch of Basara is in Shiba, about halfway between Tokyo Tower and Tamachi. It also has an outpost in Jakarta. 

So far, the new Kyobashi branch does not feature on the official website. But the site for Tokyo Square Garden is here…

 

 

beer and boar: the 2nd anniversary Bashamichi bash

 

The Bashamichi Taproom marked its second anniversary this weekend with two days of celebrations. And having been there from the very first day it opened, I was definitely up for joining in the jubilations.

But it wasn't the live music that drew me in to Yokohama. Nor even the promise of beer at "Numazu prices" — that is, a good few yen cheaper than usual.

 

It was the special food menu…

 

I'd managed to try the BBQ wild boar the last (first?) time Chuck prepared it and it was outstanding — especially when paired with the delicious Wild Boar Porter, brewed specially for the occasion and pulled from the hand pump.

So I was keen to repeat that pleasure. Luckily I got to the Taproom just in time to get a seat at the bar — and minutes before Chuck carved the very last serving..

 

It was even better than I'd remembered. So good I almost forgot to get a photo of the beer (you can just see it in this next pic), a lovely smooth-drinking brown ale.

 

I would have ordered a second helping on the spot, if there had been any left. So instead went with an order of the brisket, which is never less than excellent. And (if my memory serves me at all) that was the anniversary Black Belgian IPA in the glass next to it. Another fine brew.

 

As always a fun evening and the joint was jumping, with plenty of people down from Tokyo.

Cheers and congratulations to everyone. And many thanks, Chuck, great job — as always! 

 

There are plenty more photos of the great BBQ meats on an earlier post here…

 

And my Japan Times review from two years back is here…