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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Monday 28 January 2008

French @ L'Atelier, Tokyo



Since I first walked past L'Atelier in Roppongi Hills, I knew we would soon dine at this restaurant by the world's most-starred (by Michelin) chef Joël Robuchon. I was delighted to discover that this restaurant was also recently awarded 2 stars by Michelin, one of 25 Tokyo restaurants to receive this honour (my favourite restaurant to date received only 1 star!). Robuchon's other restaurant in Tokyo received the highest Michelin honour of 3 stars. I hear that it is almost impossible to make a booking at a 3-star restaurant anywhere in the world, and I had a taste of this impossibility when I tried to book Thomas Keller's Per Se restaurant in New York without success. I'm quite happy to settle for 2 stars at the moment.

Like most high end restaurants, L'Atelier require reservations in advanced, even for lunchtime. The menu at lunch time is quite reasonably priced, and it gave us a taste of what to expect should we ever have the opportunity to dine at Robuchon's 3 star restaurant. The menu, by the way, was in French and Japanese, and not a word of English was on it. It certainly forced me to remember all that forgotten French vocabulary I learnt many years ago in high school. The restaurant was already quite full when we arrived for our 12pm booking, and since L'Atelier opens its door at 11:30am, I presume that almost all the diners present were enjoying a late brunch. I was happy when we were seated at the bar because I love watching the hustle and bustle of the kitchen as I eat. The interior decor was beautifully earthy with mainly red tones, which added a warmth to the ambience. Service was, of course, excellent and courteous, and the waitstaff were friendly and informative. One of them was kind enough to honour my request for a copy of a menu, even going to the trouble of printing a beautifully presented copy. There were a few options for lunch dining. There was a basic course offered for 2900yen (AU$29), a 4-course Menu de Jour (Today's Menu) for 5250yen (AU$52), or a-la-carte. We both went for Menu de Jour most probably because we were hungry and didn't want to spend too much time deciphering all the French and Japanese on the menu.



Amuse bouche was a tasty pork paste spread on a slice of crispy baguette. Soon after enjoying this tiny appetiser, our basket of fresh-baked bread was served. This basket was filled with buttery soft brioche and several types of crusty bread, which we enjoyed a lot. Much to our delight, the basket was promptly refilled when it neared empty.

Amuse bouche and bread basket


First course was named Le Crabe, which was a refreshing crab cake made with fresh vegetables and served with a fruit salsa of mango and papaya. This was delicious in a light subtle way, and the fruit salsa was a good accompaniment. The next course was La Chataigne, a delicious bouillon of marron (chestnuts), bacon and celery. We thought it was a strange combination, but the soup was delicious! The fresh aromatics of celery went well with the smokiness of bacon, and the chunks of chestnuts added the extra body and texture to the soup.

Le Crabe and La Chataigne


For the main course, we could choose from three choices: L'Ainame (fish), La Joue de Boeuf (beef) or Le Foie Gras (foie gras for an extra 1600yen). Naturally, I chose fish and Rob chose the foie gras, despite the fact, that he'd already indulged in foie gras two nights before at his company's dinner. The fish was pan-fried perfectly with a crispy skin and served on top of mashed potatoes. The jus vinaigre lended a lovely subtle flavour to the dish. The foie gras was simply served on top of parmesan risotto, and the simplicity of this dish allowed us to savour the fattened liver in all its indulgent, smooth, rich and fatty goodness. It was so good, but oh-so-rich that I could only handle three tiny morsels of foie gras before it felt a bit overwhelming. So three tiny bites was all I had of this utterly indulgent food.

L'Ainame and Le Foie Gras


Dessert course was Le Caramel, a caramel mousse with compote of pear and chocolate ice cream. The mousse was light and surprisingly not overly sweet like caramels usually are, and the ice cream was very chocolatey and its bitterness was perfect to cut the sweetness of the caramel mousse and pear compote. It was an indulgent end to a delicious meal. We were then served tea, and we think they forgot to serve us petits fours because my copy of the menu indicates that petits fours were included. It didn't matter too much to us since we'd already indulged too much at that point.



Our favourite course? Well, Rob declared that the soup was his favourite course. I think I agree with him. This was a wonderful experience topped with fantastic service, but we both think that our experience at Yonemura was a bit better than this experience. Oh, how I love the array of excellent restaurants in Tokyo :)

Yet another great thing about this restaurant is the patisserie - lots of goodies to choose from and take home with you:

Friday 18 January 2008

Orange Chiffon Cake



I love the lightness of sponge and chiffon cakes (= eat a lot of them cakes without getting sick), but making these cakes are quite difficult. My first attempt using an electric mixer and a tube pan yielded a bouffant sponge cake but with a coarse texture, but my second attempt was a total flop. I took it all in my stride as experiences to learn from, and my third attempt produced a chiffon cake that I am quite satisfied with. Light and fluffy with a fine texture and a subtle taste from the orange juice. I decided to make a chiffon cake rather than a sponge cake because chiffon cakes are moister and great to eat as is, whereas sponge cakes require some dressing up with cream, fruits, etc. Like most of the recipes I post to my online journal, I can't attribute this recipe to anyone in particular since I looked at several recipes to come up with this one.

Some notes about the recipe:
- Type of oil: I used extra light olive oil, although there are many who will tell you to avoid using olive oil for making chiffon cakes. Extra light olive oil is fine because it doesn't have a very strong aroma. EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) on the other hand is better for bread, salad dressing and pastas. Corn oil and canola oil are also quite odourless and would be good options to use in this recipe.
- Cream of tartar: So little of it is used in this recipe, yet it makes such a big difference when beating the egg whites to soft peaks. It stabilises and prevents the whites from drying out and collapsing prematurely. It is possible to do without cream of tartar, but your chance of succeeding improves a lot with it. Take it from a girl who has had many flops.
- Flour: I used 50:50 flour and cornflour (ie cornstarch, not the yellow stuff), but it's fine to use only flour. Cornflour gives a finer texture to the cake. Next time I might try using all cornflour.
- Technique: Mixing a quarter of the beaten egg white meringue to the flour/yolk batter lightens the batter considerably, which makes incorporating the two quicker and easier. It's something I picked it up from reading this book.
- Do not grease the tube pan! The batter needs to cling to the sides as it rises during the baking process in the oven.
- Quantity: I have an 18cm (7in) diameter tube pan (most recipes online use a 25cm (10in)), so the quantities listed here are for an 18cm pan - simply double the quantities for a 25cm pan, and increase the cooking time around 7-10minutes.
- Oven type: Convection (aka fan-forced) ovens are hotter than conventional ovens, so adjust the temperature and cooking time accordingly. My oven is convection.
- Cooling: Upon removing from the oven, this cake should be cooled upside down to maintain its height (some shrinkage will inevitably occur due to temperature difference), and this is where the tube pan comes in handy - the raised centre tube provides a good platform to stand on. This is also where leaving the pan ungreased comes in handy - the cake will not fall out of the pan while cooling upside down!

I'm now more confident and not so afraid of making these cakes. I'll keep on trying new techniques to improve the recipe, and I will definitely dabble with different flavours.

Ingredients
75g (~0.75 cup) flour, equal mix of all-purpose flour and cornflour
0.5 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
60mL (0.25 cup)orange juice
30mL (2 tablespoons) oil
80g (~0.75 cup) castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 egg whites
0.25 teaspoon cream of tartar

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160degC (convection).
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, and combine with 65g of the sugar and the salt. Stir with a whisk until well combined.
3. In another bowl, combine the egg yolks, orange juice, oil and vanilla extract and whisk lightly to combine ingredients.
4. Add the wet mix to the flour mix and stir well until a smooth batter is obtained.
5. Place the egg whites in a large bowl and beat at high speed until foamy. At this point, add the cream of tartar, and continue beating whilst gradually adding the remaining sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form (when you pull out the whisk, the beaten egg whites should hold their shape and not droop - see here for a more detailed tutorial). Be careful not to overbeat or the whites will dry out and separate into two phases.
5. Add about 1/4 of the beaten egg whites to the egg yolk batter and stir well. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites to the batter, working lightly and slowly with a spatula until just blended (be careful not to deflate the mixture too much!)
6. Pour the batter into an ungreased 18cm (7in) tube pan and spread it out evenly.
7. Bake in the oven until golden brown, which took about 38 minutes for me. A good check is when the cake springs back when lightly touched.
8. Remove from the oven and invert pan until the cake is completely cooled (between 30mins and 1hr depending on the room temperature).
9. When it has cooled, use a thin knife to loosen the sides of the cake from the pan, and gently remove the cake from the pan;

First shot: the cake still attached to the middle tube of the pan; second shot: the underside of the cake looks nicer than its top!

Wednesday 16 January 2008

New Year's reading



Over the new year, I bought myself a book to read - On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by the talented food scientist Harold McGee. It's a brilliant book and has received many raving reviews. I'm not even 1/8th through and I've learnt so much already. It's a good reference book for our bookshelf.

Sunday 6 January 2008

Tokyo Disneyland

Rob and I both catch the two train lines that go pass Tokyo Disneyland everyday to and from work. Judging from the demographics of commuters that gets off and on at this particular train station, Disneyland (and the adjacent Disney Sea) is a very popular destination for young and old alike. Frankly, Disneyland holds no appeal to me - the place seems rather juvenile and the cutesy-ness seems overwhelming. However, it suits the kawaii (cute) culture of Japan very well, hence its popularity day in and day out. I've never felt the urge to visit Disneyland but when my friend Kim found out I'd never been there, she suggested we make a day trip there during her visit to Tokyo during the New Year's holiday.

So early Wednesday morning, we, like so many others on the train, got off at Maihama station and spent the day at Disneyland with Kim and her friend. Sure enough, everything at Disneyland was saturated with the cuteness of Disney "magic". However, we appreciated the fact that the attractions were really well done and the rides were well executed. Being a holiday period, it was packed with people, and the lines to the popular attractions and rides were of course very long. We were there from 10am until 8pm and we went on no more than 5 or 6 rides/attractions because of the long wait for each of them. Thanks to Kim's knowledge of Disney rides and attractions from previously working at Florida's Disney World, we went only for the best rides in Disneyland, which were unfortunately the most popular with the longest lines. After it got dark around 5pm, waiting in line for a couple of hours for just one ride was not so pleasant in the 6degC temperature.

Can you see Rob and me in the first photo? The shot on the right was taken whilst waiting in (the long) line to buy the tickets (l-r: Rob, Kim's friend, Kim).


One of Disney's many castles around the world. The one in Tokyo Disneyland is Cinderella's Castle:


A shot of the milling crowd below us while waiting in (the long) line for the Big Thunder Mountain ride


We went to a bakery and a waffle cafe, and most of the food were in the shape of Mickey Mouse's head. It's supposed to be cute, but I must admit I felt a certain level of satisfaction dissecting and munching on Mickey Mouse's head by parts..

Baked goods included two Mickey-shaped muffins, a sweet potato pastry, an orange custard bun and a coffee jelly purin (pudding). The waffle was drizzled with berry sauce (tasted suspiciously like jam) and actually looked kinda scary with all the red:


The verdict? Well, it was quite fun, but it was a pretty expensive outing. Entrance tickets for adults cost 5800yen !~AU$60) each. Food and drinks were also quite pricey, and the time lost waiting in line cannot be measured. Great for kids who love anything Disney, not so great for their parents' wallets. At least the weather was great that day, and the company was good (I enjoyed Kim's tales about working behind-the-scenes for Disney World in Florida, the measures taken to ensure that the illusion of the "magic of Disney" was not broken).

Tuesday 1 January 2008

A party animal at 25?


(courtesy of Pat's Graphics)

Ask anyone who knows me well, and they'll tell you that I've never been much of a party-goer or clubber. The occasions that I did go clubbing, it's usually for Rob to get his electronic/techno dance music fix, but I rarely last beyond 3am in the morning. For the record, being non-drinkers and non-smokers, we don't go clubbing for the alcoholic/smoking/drug scene - it's purely for the enjoyment of dancing and music appreciation.

Last night I surprised myself my pulling off my first all-nighter! I didn't even do that for my studies in my far-off student days (I had a bad first (and only) experience with an all-nighter for Year 12 exams). Being New Year's Eve, we headed into Shibuya and I had my first Tokyo clubbing experience at Club Asia, which was very popular and hence quite uncomfortably crowded last night. But we stayed from before midnight for the countdown up until 5am when the first train services started running, and I was still quite genki (full of energy). Could it be that half can of Red Bull I drank at 2am? I'd never drunk Red Bull before, so perhaps the caffeine/taurine content in this energy drink had a strong effect on my usually non-caffeinated body.

How was the clubbing scene? Music was only so-so (much to Rob's disappointment especially since he had a great time the last time he was at Club Asia a few months ago), and the number of drunk people and sleazy guys - mostly the gaijins (foreigners) - were off-putting but I had a good time. Clubbing is so expensive in Tokyo (much more for drinkers!), and I doubt that we will do this very often. The entrance fee of 3500yen (~$35) per person makes me feel like that's a couple of good meals we could have had!