le un

Yesterday I met up with my host-mom to celebrate our birthdays.

(Our birthdays are actually in February, but her schedule was crazy last month, so we finally found some time yesterday.)

She took me to a very special place in Suma. This was actually a guest house built by a commerce trader, Nishio Ruizo in Taisho 8 (1919). In 1999, this home was deemed a historical area by the city of Kobe, so no cooking is allowed inside the building.

And in 2007, most of the property was turned into a wedding facility and restaurant, so all of the cooking is done in a building right next to the house.

The property is huge and they give you a tour of the home. The great great grandson still lives on the property and sometimes comes to eat at the restaurant.

The original property was 10,000 sq meters (about 2 acres) and was built on the hillside to take in the views of the ocean. When the Sanyo railways wanted to bring their trains through Suma, they bought some of his land, which unfortunately also allowed people to build condos and block most of the ocean view. (boo!)

I was amazed because even after the big Kobe earthquake in 1995, all of the beautiful stained glass windows and most of the structure was still intact and didn't need repairing.

So, onto lunch...we chose the "B" Dejeuner, my host-mom kindly treated me so I am not sure as to how much it was.

Our lunch started out with some appetizers--an onion soup jellee topped with tomato puree & green pea mousse, a cold miso-garbanzo bagna cauda with veggies, a piece of salmon topped with egg and green beans and a spinach chicken quiche.

The soup was a pumpkin carrot sakura potage topped with an earl grey "cappuccino" foam colored with beets.

This was delicious and unique because you would never think to pair tea with vegetables.

My fish choice was an homard lobster with americaine sauce. I was relieved that they had taken out the lobster "meat" from the shell for me, so all I had to do was eat. Nice generous pieces.

My meat choice was lamb filet with ratatouille and a balsamico sauce.

Very tender pieces with no hint of gaminess.

Dessert was a tea custard, raspberry sorbet & cheese cake.

With coffee we also received some mignardises, chocolate truffles.

This restaurant is apparently very popular and we were surprised that they were full by the time we left! I really liked this meal, the chef uses local fruits and vegetables and cooks "seasonally".

Next to the restaurant is the Suma Rikyu Park, this is also a huge botanical garden.

And the rose garden area is modeled after the Palais de Versailles. Unfortunately, since the weather has been cold, we didn't get to see many flowers.

The weather was kind of drizzly but it was still a great day, lots of catching up, lots of nice food, and it was nice to be able to spend some time with my host mom. (Thank you!)

Le Un
2-4-1 Rikyu Nishicho
Suma, Kobe
Phone: 078.739.7600
Closed on Wednesdays, call for reservations

luxe tajimaya

Saturday night, I met Satoshi in Umeda for dinner after his German class.

We had dinner at a wine bar called Luxe Tajimaya. Tajima-gyu is a brand name of beef, similar to Kobe beef.

The restaurant is actually a lounge, so we started out with some wine and some amuse bouche. Amuse bouche, in Japanese is called tsukidashi, this is something that is automatically served and charged for, though no one orders it.

The amuse bouche was a cold corn cream soup and spoonful of homemade beef tongue sausage. This sausage's flavor reminded me of the days when my mom used to make her own salami.

Since we were hungry for dinner and this place was a lounge, we ordered some pupus (appetizers).

Marinated olives. These were delicious. It was marinated in an agrodolce sauce (which I googled to mean sour-sweet in Italian).

We loved the sour yet sweet flavor plus the saltiness from the olives and crunch from the walnuts. I gotta try to re-create this, it was so good!

Bagna Cauda. True bagna cauda is an anchovy olive oil sauce, but this lounge uses dried beef as the base of their sauce.

The flavor reminded me of sukiyaki or nikujaga because it was a little sweet, different but delicious with all the different veggies to dip.

Then came our steak. A 100 grams of Ibaraki beef. I actually saw the chef drop part of the veggies on the floor then put them back onto the hot stone!! (5 second rule..sigh)

The filet steak was cooked medium rare and was so tender and juicy. Talk about melt in your mouth!

We ate it by itself, then with a squeeze of kabosu (a type of lime) and with then with freshly grated wasabi. We were amazed that the freshly grated wasabi was not hot/spicy.

Lastly we had a cheese plate. It came on a 2-tiered tray. There were so many different cheeses that I could only catch mimolette as one of the cheeses.

For the two of us, with 4 glasses of wine and 1 beer and all that food, it came out to just over 10,000 yen (about US$100).

We're not sure if we would go back regularly, maybe for a special occasion.

Luxe Tajimaya
E-ma 5F
1-12-6 Umeda
Kita-ku, Osaka
Phone: 06.6440.0029

happy belated anniversary!

What a dreary past couple of days. It's either been raining or cloudy..."Sun! come out, come out wherever you are!!"

Remember those pralines that I got on my last Foodie kind of weekend? I was a bit surprised because these were sugar coated almonds then covered with dark chocolate. I had always thought that pralines were pecans covered with a sugary coating. I then went to Wikipedia to find out what pralines actually were and was surprised. Here's the definition: Wikipedia's definition. These pralines are good! The sugary coat isn't so sticky so that it sticks all over your teeth. And because they used dark chocolate they weren't too sweet, just right.

Since this year's anniversary was sort of put on hold because of an emergency with Satoshi's work, we decided to celebrate it today. Every year on our wedding anniversary (or there abouts) we've been staying at different hotels in Osaka and having dinner at their restaurants.

This year, we stayed at the Westin Osaka. This hotel is kind of out of the way in Umeda. We enjoyed a very leisurely dinner at a restaurant called "Stella Maris". According to our waiter, who was from Poland, he said that "Stella Maris" is a place in Europe. (I looked on the web and I think it is in Spain.) This restaurant serves food from countries along the Meditteranean Sea coast such as South France, Italy and Spain. The interior was recently renovated was made to look like the insides of a ruin in Pompei. There is an open kitchen, so you can see, hear and smell your food being cooked.

The first course was an "amuse-bouche" ("tsukidashi" in Japanese), this is an appetizer which you don't order...it is just "served" to you. Ours was beef tongue on a bed of minced cucumber & onion salad. (Thank goodness it was a small piece of tongue...)(When you go to Japanese bars (izakaya) you'll notice that you are served these "tsukidashi" and it will also appear on your bill! I guess you could look at it like a cover charge...)

The real appetizer: warm vegetables with "bagna cauda" sauce. The vegetables were sauteed in the bagna cauda sauce and served with an olive tapenade and a basil sauce.

The chef's present (actually to kill time for the main dishes because Satoshi had a dish more than Kat): porcini risotto. This dish was great and a nice surprise.

The soup before the main dish: demitasse sized-corn & pumpkin potage

The main dish: grilled duck breast with spiced honey sauce and watercress. I was a bit disappointed with this dish. I thought the sauce would be a bit more sweet and spicy.

The first dessert (another type of "amuse-bouche"): a tiny wine glass filled with rhubarb gelatin layered with a vanilla ice cream sauce. This dessert was a bit tart but really tasty.

The real dessert: lavender flavored chocolate mousse with pistachio ice cream. This dessert was awesome! The lavender flavor was strong but didn't over power the chocolate flavor. I didn't care too much for the ice cream though, it didn't have much flavor, too much lavender, maybe??

The third dessert: (another type of amuse-bouche): a little plate of cookies and chocolates

The fourth dessert: (another amuse-bouche) the wagon came around and asked if we wanted a slice of either strawberry cheesecake, pear tart or chocolate cake....Satoshi had a little slice of strawberry cheesecake. I was SO stuffed after all the little extras, but my waiter COAXED me into having something from his cart, so I just had the garnishing fruits, macerated strawberry and blueberries.

I was surprised at how many extras and desserts were served (not that I'm complaining!) I guess when you order the prix fixe menu that's the extras you get...

A neat thing that you should know about when you stay at hotels or ryokan (traditional inns) in Japan. The ammenities they usually provide you with are a "yukata" (light cotton kimono) or some form of pajama to sleep in, toothbrush/toothpaste, shampoo/conditioner. But be careful because in recent years, some places have been cutting costs which means ammenities aren't always provided....be sure to ask when you make your reservations or check their website!

sunday dinner

Today is Sunday, but Satoshi had to go to work. We decided to go out for dinner. Two stations away from us, there is an Italian restaurant called Ristorante Hollyhock.

The chef is very particular about what ingredients he uses. He values organic vegetables and Slow Food. We both chose the prix fixe menu ("set menu" in Japanese).

My appetizer (in katakana) was a mini banyocaruda...(what??) on the side of the menu it said olive oil fondue. So, I went to the internet to tell me what the heck it was in English...Thank you Accidental Hedonist, you had the answer!! It is called Bagna Cauda and it is an olive oil fondue :)

The second course was a pasta with organic vegetables and a tomato sauce. My main entree was herb grilled lamb. Everything was very good. And because the chef is particular about (the Japanese call this "kodawari") the types of vegetables and meats that he uses, everything was very fresh and tasted great!

Since the areas along the Japan Sea Coast are still suffering from major snow, the price of vegetables has skyrocketed! I used to pay 98 yen (about $1) for 1/2 a cabbage; but today, I had to pay 198yen (about $2) for 1/2 a cabbage and a whole one was 380yen (about $4). It would have been a bit economical to buy a whole one, but since there is only the two of us, we wouldn't be able to finish it all...On the news they were saying that in Tokyo a head of lettuce was 500 yen!! (nearly $6)

Tomorrow is a holiday, Coming-of-Age Day (Seijin no hi). Hopefully I'll have something to write about. :)

Ristorante Hollyhock
5-1-52 Minoo Alcos (in katakana arucosu) Bldg. 2F
Phone: 072-724-2221
Closed on Tuesdays

UPDATE: this restaurant has now moved and is no longer at the above address.