Hoyo de Monterrey Du Gourmet

I've puffed this long thin cigar tonight. I think I like this size.

la cantina sempre

I've had a dinner in a cozy dining place in Gotanda, la cantina sempre. I didn't take photo, but It's a nice place. You can go alone. But I wanna go with a couple of friends next time. I chose crostini(tomato, avocado, liver paste), char-grilled vegetables and quail, pasta with canard and burdock(gobo in Japanese) rague. The glass wines were jura made by Jean Rijckaert and sancerre made by Sebastien Riffault. The Jura and tomato crostini went together. Especially dill were effectively, I think.

marinated small fishes

I marinated small fishes. and ate it with beer as appetizer. after the appetizer, I ate pasta. tonight pasta was pork meat sauce with beans.

tonight dinner

I ate simmered daikon(Japanese radish) and buri(a fish). It went together with sake of course. after dinner, I bite a stick of dango(kusa dango).

cynar

cynar is a liqueur made of artichoke. I like this bitterness. I've tasted old cynar too. It gets soften. I prefer current cynar. I've tasted old cocoa liqueur too. This smells nice. I wanted to drop them on vanilla ice.

simmered sardines

Iwashi(sardines) is popular fish in Japan. and people like to simmer this kind of fishes as a nimono. I simmered them with water, sake, mirin, and umeboshi. and added a teaspoon of soy-sauce, because, umeboshi has enough saltiness. It goes together with rice. They are small and the bone are weak, so that you can eat whole. Of course, You should clean the inside and chopped the head. I think it can be nice as a marinated dish.

today's pasta

I ate pasta with rose wine as a lunch. The pasta sauce was cooked with canned tomato, caper, garlic, red pepper, harasu(which is the abdomen of salmon in Japanese, ), and Japanese onion(like welsh onion).

reduce stress with cheese

Recently, I've worked over time and feel more stress little by little. So that Eating cheese is kinda relaxations now. Tonight, I bought two kind of cheese, gruyere d'alpage and montenebro. This gruyere is stronger taste than usual, I think. it's very tasty. montenebro is also very tasty. It's a Spanish goat cheese. Both go together with wine.

sextant

I've drunk his wine after a while. It's made by Dominique Derain and his favorite disciple, Julian. It says that this wine was made for compass(sextant) of making pino noir. I'm a fan of his wine since I've tasted his unique white wine, "Mur Mur" before, the right photo is the label. Sextant is nice smell, juicy, fruity, little silky, little sweetness, acidity and nice tannin. It's easy to drink and made me feel relax.

stir fry

I've cooked stir fry with livers and ashitaba. Ashitaba is a longevity plan and you need boil them once to remove scam, for one or two minutes, the stalk should be boiled longer. Ashita-ba is named like "tomorrow leaves", which means grow up tomorrow even though you picked off them. it's said they have strong fertility.

Sunday laziness

I ate a plate of pasta with tuna tomato sauce as brunch. with listening a CD I've get today, Berry. After brunch, I ate a Japanese sweets, Kashiwa-mochi.

whisky?

Yes whisky. I've sipped some whiskeys tonight. This spring bank was nice.

a Saturday cozy dinner

I've taken to a restaurant for lunch on Saturday. We brought along a bottle of wine. The lunch went nice with wines. I liked cauliflower veloute as the first appetizer with a Champagne. The pureed califlower was wonderful with jellied golden consomme.


The wine was below, Champagne, vin blanc(no photo, but I've bought Domaine Pavelot Sous Fretille 2004), and vin rouge. I confess that I loved Domaine Pavelot's wines. Definitely!

a special rum

I've sipped two shot of rum tonight. The left picture, Trois Rivieres 1996. This brewery be burned in a fire before. There were some barrels survived in the fire. I think it's the first and last to sip this special bottle.

watashi

I stayed at home today because it's raining all day, even though today was holiday. So, I ate some Japanese sweets with tea(genmai-cha).

le rose de janot

I've drunk a rose, le rose de janot, with a plate of simmered lentils and sausage. The cheese was Mothais a la feuille.

soif de plaisir

I've enjoyed this nice red wine, soif de plaisir, which means pleasure of drinking? It's easy to open and drink. it smells fruity and has nice tannin.

shisha

We've puffed shisha tonight in a arabian restaurant, Al Ain, located Isezakichojamachi in Yokohama. It nears Kannai. The chef used to work the Kuwaiti embassy. I forgot to take photo of dinner because we've really enjoyed it. Everything was fine, cozy foods. the sweets and coffee. There are turkish coffee and arabic coffee. I choose arabian coffee. it's watery(more like tea) and include cardamom and something. It went together with dried date palm. I love this style. We've also puffed some hookah shisha, flavored mints, rose, apple, and mango. The guy in the photo, he isn't smoker, but he also enjoyed it. We've enjoyed a wonderful dinner. You shouldn't go alone. Go with many people and choose many foods, and puff shisha. If you could see belly dance. that would be divine!!

sawaya matsumoto

It's getting one of my favorite sakes, sawaya matsumoto. I love the atsukan of the junmai. This sake is genshu, stronger than usual sake. It tastes nice. I recommend it as hiya(chilled).

mekabu

mekabu is sprout of wakame(seaweed). It says mekabu has much vitamin, mineral, and fiber. Perhaps, It looks little spooky for non Asian people, but seaweed is popular. and mekabu is a nice dish with rice. I cut them into strip, and pour boiling water. See the picture, they turn to nice green. It tastes little salty and sticky. you can eat them without seasoning. This is one of Japanese foods in Spring.

Vin de table 2005

a blanc of domaine de la vieille julienne. It's dry like dry sherry. It smelt vanilla, chestnut, and something. The cheese was an Italian cheese, "BEIGUA".

it tastes nice a few days after

I've tasted the rest of P'tites vignes. I think it's also nice, as if it's nicer than Yesterday. and the cheese, Garrotxa, was also nice. It smelt like mushroom at this time. As a dinner, I ate simmered lentil beans with soup stock(with bacon bone), sausages, and some risoni pasta(shaped like rice). the big green olive was include jalapeno inside it.