tokyo food file

Zinc counter; macchiato

 

Zinc counter. Macchiato. Afternoon pick-me-up.

#actuallypewter #notzinc #Viron #Marunouchi
#comptoireenetain #AtelierNectouxParis
#ピューターカウンター #コーヒー

Monna Lisa Marunouchi: haute cuisine with altitude not attitude

Following up on my JT column last Friday, a few more images culled from several visits for the Menu Leger lunch at the excellent — though idiosyncratically spelled — Monna Lisa. 

The entrance, from the top-floor lobby of the Maru Biru…

 

The corner tables: probably the best in the house, if not the entire building...

 

The welcome bubbly (Taittinger)…

 

The champagne view…

 

The menu, complete with doodle penned by chef Toru Kawano...

 

One of the starters: terrine of patate douce (sweet potato) and shrimp, chestnut with Madras curry... 

...served on glass plates double-layered with autumn leaves sandwiched in between as both decoration and seasonal accent.

 

Shiitake cap topped with autumn vegetables, with baigai clams "comme en Bourgogne"

 

Marinated Hokkaido sanma (saury) with ginger, on cubes of grilled eggplant. Brilliant in every sense...

Hinamori pork sausage with confit of onions, small inca no mezame potatoes, mushrooms, sauce Robert...

 

The dessert plate. Kawano knows who his clientele is: this was intended to be shared between two. And that kawaii little snowman — actually a whole grape, with a big blob of cream for the head — was really good!

 

And the lady who's always half smiling — the lady who inspired it all for Kawano… 

More on the Monna Lisa website here…

 

Epiphany! Sadaharu Aoki takes the (galette des rois) crown...

Today we're marking Epiphany, the Feast of the Kings. Not in any religious way, but with a definite sense of celebration, having snapped up a fabulous gift from afar — in the shape of Sadaharu Aoki's remarkable take on the traditional galette des rois. 

The standard recipe calls for a filling of frangipane, and indeed Aoki does make one like that. But his pièce de résistance is this...

The filling is made with azuki beans and matcha, and the same deep bitter powdered tea is dusted over the outer surface. 

And the fève (as pictured above) is a miniature version of one of Aoki's distinctive chocorons.

It's only been in the last decade or so that these festive galettes have been available in Tokyo — Bigot in Printemps was the first to offer them (to the best of my knowledge, and I hope my French friends correct me if that's not the case) — but it's an excellent custom.

Now most of the high-end patissiers are offering them, not just the French makers but also local specialists. For this year at least, Aoki takes the cake.

I'm not sure how much longer these will be available. But the Aoki stores are always worth a visit, if only to pick up a few of his wonderful pantone-coloured chocolate tablets.

Or a couple of his outrageous eclairs (but that's a different story)...

This will be our last big excuse for a splurge on sweets for a while — that is, until the mass choc-out orgy of Valentine's Day descends upon us.

bespoke butter boutique: Echiré in Brick Square

With two dozen restaurants, bars and cafes over three floors, Marunouchi Brick Square was a hit right from its opening last September. But the biggest buzz and the longest lines have been at one of the smallest shops in the complex: Echiré Maison de Beurre, the first specialist butter boutique in the city.

 

 

Set up by France's best-known (internationally, at least) premium butter company, this little outlet has been drawing the kind of queues usually associated with high-end chocolatiers in the run-up to Valentine's Day.

 It's not the butter itself that is in such demand; it's the baked goods they produce each morning — especially the croissants.

 

 

There are three varieties, all baked a beautiful golden brown and a delicate, light-as-air texture. First to sell out are the "traditional" croissants, but it's the other two kinds that are truly exceptional. Containing 50-percent Echire butter (either salted or unsalted), they are so rich you could almost spread them on toast.

Despite a limit of six croissants per customer, they're usually all snapped up within 90 minutes of the shop opening. But we prefer to arrive around noon, after the crowds have gone, to pick up a bag of the fragrant madeleines and financiers. If there are any finer, fresher examples of these dainty two-bite cakes in the city, we haven't found them yet. 

The large tawny-coloured butter-rich shortbread known as broyé de poitou (or broyé potevin) is another of the treats on sale at the Echiré shop. It's a specialty of the Poitou-Charentes region of western France where the village of Echiré is located.

Echire Maison du Beurre, Marunouchi Brick Square 1F, 2-6-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku; (03) 6269-9840; www.echire-shop.jp Open daily 10 a.m.-8 p.m.

Pizza and pasta in peace and quiet

 

 

Spring may not be here for real just yet, but it's never too early to celebrate the first al fresco lunch of the year. So when last week's unseasonably warm spell arrived we knew exactly where to go — into the heart of the city, to grab an outside table at A16.

We had two compelling reasons for this choice. The casual Californian-Italian cooking at this San Francisco transplant hits exactly the right note for a light, leisurely meal at any time of day. And the location is about as good as it gets in central Tokyo.

Here's the full piece in the Japan Times...