Monday, February 20, 2006

Ludens in February

We had a dinner at a Japanese restaurant,"Toufu-ya Ukai", in Saganuma, Kawasaki on the Sunday night. Mainly, There were Toufu dishs served. We ate Yuba. It's soy milk skin. We ate it with ponzu sauce. This restaurant is also a nice place to see Sakura, Japanese cherry blossom, in Spring.






a break at spain bar

I've happened to find a good place to have a break with espresso.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Dégustasion février

This time, We've tasted 4 bottles of Italian wine because of the Torino olympic.

Soave 1997. Usually, It's said that people drink Soave casually, as daily wine. But the organizer has dared to keep it for ages. Very nice smell, marvelous. little acidy, flower, fruit, and little acerbity and little toasted bread? I liked this.


Barolo 1992. It seems like that this winary's Barolo was very popular in Japan before. I didn't know that though. about the smell, it's interesting. At the first, It smelt like Ume(Japanese plum) and Katsuobushi(it's a Japanese traditional ingredient, boiled and dried bonito flesh), After minutes, it smelt like Japanese brown sugar lump(it's made in Okinawa. it's a little unique and different with common sugar.), then I could smell Chinese rice wine(we call "Shoukoushu"). some people said that it's too aged. but A interesting thing happened. After the tasting, we ate the some foods whose the organizer's mother had cooked. She cooks some Japanese foods every time, This is the other fun to us. There was a Japanese seafood dish, boiled sardine and turnip, it's a "Nimono". We ate the Nimono with this Barolo. They went togeter! We had an interesting combination of the dish and red wine. you know, people hardly eat fish dishes with red wine. The people who didn't like this wine was enjoying this combination. it's very interesting! We've found another possibility of red aged wine. I wanna try this again, "Japanese seafood with little too aged red wine". this wine made me fun much.

Chianti Classico 1997. It smelt like Japanese distilled spirit, "Shouchu".




This wine was made with Robert Mondavi. I've heard of his name here or there, but don't know his wines, well, it will be expensive.. It's nice wine, very balanced. this wine was the second bottle. there is the other one, and it's expensive, the organizer has said.


This is walnut oil made in Anjou, Loire, the north of France. it's very tasty.

butterbur sprout

I don't know people in the other countires eat butterbur sprout, we call "Fukinotou", but this is one of popular wild vegetable in Japan. we eat them by frying them to a
crisp or another way. you can smell the scent of spring. So that's why I cooked pasta with fukinotou at today's lunch.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

North marine drive

This is only solo album of Ben Watt who is the partner of Tracey Thorn, Everything But The Girl. Robert wyatt was in this solo album. it was recorded in 1982 just before they had started as the Band, EBTG. It's old, but still viridity. I don't know exactly why, But I like thier solo album on thier albums the most.. I haven't heard about the new album yet. It's likely that they don't release a new album for a long while.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Tomato sauce with herb crumb.

Tonight, I cooked a pasta with tomato sauce after a while. anchovy fillet, caper, chili pepper in it. at this time, I tossed pasta with the sauce and added roasted bread crumb, the crumb was toased with pan and added finely-chopped garlic and oregano in it.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Kamakula stroll.

I took a walk to Kamakula with my friends. We took a look at Daibutsu and went by an unique liquor shop, Mitome Shouten on the way to back to the sutation. In the shop, there are lots interesting ingredient, spices, solt, pasta, chocolate, vinegar, olive oil, beverage and blah, blah, blah. We enjoyed seeing them.






I took my friends to a cozy cafe and went by a Jam shop before leave Kamakula. We ended up having dinner in our favorite Italian restaurant bar. and chatted till midnight. It's a cozy day. I like that.






All I got is this below. jam, honey, An-pan(it's a traditional Japanese sweet bun that bean-paste in it, a vinegar with Yuzu flavor(the shop original), O-su(Japanese vineger), Chocolate.







Saturday, February 11, 2006

Domaine Jacky Preys 2004

This is one of my favorite wines, Domaine Jacky Preys. Valencay Appellation, it's located in Loire, The north side of France. I like his pino noir. I sometimes enjoy his wine since I've tasted his 2000 wine. This wine is perfect as a daily wine. I recommend you.

Recently, Some of the cork change to be made with silicon. Because the lack of natural cork.I've heard of that it takes long time to get the natural cork skin. The cork is the outer layer of The cork oak tree. It's getting harder to make quality cork, so that some winaries use the silicon cork .

It's rough-textured paste. very tasty!

Saturday, February 04, 2006

a new neighbor

I introduce a new neighbor here. I don't know the name yet. In fact, There is the other fellow who is similar, might be twin or mother. he/she is a little shy, but has curious eyes.

Friday, February 03, 2006

Duvel

I had a Belgian beer tonight, "Duvel", I sometimes like to sip this beer. Somehow, each time I get a different tast of it. Sometimes very exotic, sometimes it's simple. I'm never bored of it.

it's been returned...

I've asked that it's defective goods. and the shop replied that it happens rarely, and they send it from Italy, She is a Japanese who lives in Italy, so that they ask us to fix it by yourself when it happens. NO WAY!! Why do I have to fix it even though it's brand-new!? I've asked that I insist change new one or return it. Then, The shop replied that they can change, but they refund my order in case that it will be possible to happen the same again. I've sent it back.. that's sorry.. I have to look for it again.