So, Yuki and I took a few days to visit some of the early temples and castles in the Kansai region of Japan. Most of the structures we saw date back to the 8th century and are truly amazing! Besides the structures there were also tons of great sculptures from the same time period. However, as you all know, this blog isn’t about architecture, it’s about food. This post is to let you know about the incredible Kaiseki we ate our last night in Nara at the Ryokan (traditional Japanese Inn) we stayed at, Yoshino.

Kaiseki is the classic multi-course meal that progresses through various cooking techniques using regional, seasonal ingredients. It’s the highest art form you can find in food anywhere in the world. Focus on the subtleties of each ingredient to draw out natural flavors and not cover then with heavy sauces (sorry Frenchies, but the Japanese have your asses kicked in food culture!).

It started with that dish in the middle of the picture above. From left to right was a little fish grilled in a sweet soy marinade, a roasted chestnut, ama ebi (sweet shrimp), some sort of seafood that had a jellyfish-like texture in a miso sauce (I have absolutely no idea what it was, but it sure tasted good!), then a three-colored fish cake.

After that they brought out this dish. It was obviously a shrimp, but I’m not quite sure what else there was. I think it was a gratin made with the roe of the shrimp. Also on the plate as a macaroni salad and some lettuce with a tomato.

Then we moved on to the sashimi plate. It had some fantastic Chu-Toro (tuna), Tai (snapper), and the star of the plate….Ika (squid). In the States when you order Ika it’s usually very thin and a little rubbery. Not these two slices. They were about a half centimeter thick, squid steaks! Rubbery? Hell no! Each chew and the squid literally melted away in our mouths. Hands down the best squid I’ve ever eaten.

Then they brought us a plate of steamed Ayu (sweet fish). It’s a river fish that eats moss attached to stones giving it a really fresh and clean taste. It was served with a light ginger sauce. The thing that makes Ayu special is that it’s eaten when the belly is full of fish roe. There isn’t much meat, so it’s like dipping chopsticks into a bowl of fresh water caviar.

Being the meatavore that I am, the next plate was what I was most looking forward to….Beef Tataki. Lightly seared beef to give a little texture to the soft raw meat laden with mouth-watering fat. The dipping sauce is a soy-dashi mix. You see the little mound of reddish gew on the side of the dish? That’s a mix of togarahsi (Japanese red pepper) and yuzu (a small citrus fruit). You mix that into the sauce like you would wasabi for sushi, along with thinly sliced chives. With the tataki there was a small dish of sliced cucumber and I think seaweed in a vinegar sauce that cleansed the palette from the fatty beef.

Then we ate the Shabu-shabu. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of the individual hotpots we used, but here’s the ingredients. The broth was a light sake base, in it we added cabbage, enoki mushrooms, and shimeji mushrooms. Once they were cooked, we sloshed the thinly sliced beef around to cook it and then dipped it all in a light soy with more of the togarashi yuzu and chives.

After that we got two different preparations of Unagi. To be honest, I have absolutely no clue what the difference was. One was served on top of rice, the other with rice on the side. All I can tell you is that you will never find eel of that quality anywhere in the States. It tasted like they just caught it that morning. Best eel ever! Both came with a little dish of Japanese pickles. They were probably damn good pickles, but I don’t like pickles so I let Yuki eat mine.

After the Unagi was a clear broth soup with an ingredient we couldn’t figure out. At first, we thought it was some sort of mushroom. It wasn’t. Then we thought it might be shiroko, fish sperm sack. It wasn’t that either. We finally found out that it was eel liver, probably from the Unagi we just ate. It had kind of a crunchy yet soft texture. Not something you’ll find on any old menu.

Finally, to finish things off was a plate with fresh persimmons and grapes. persimmons are in season right now and are everywhere while Japanese grapes are absolutely huge compared to what we get.

All in all this was my 5th Kaiseki. I wish I could afford to eat like this every night as there is always something unusual and strange to the western palette. If any of you get to Japan I highly recommend splurging at least once to experience the delicate yet sophisticated Japanese cuisine at it’s finest.

Tarama au caviar

Je m’étais pourtant promis de ne pas parler de Noël avant le 1er Décembre (cette ambiance Jingle Bells au Monoprix depuis le mois d’Octobre me tapant sacrément sur les nerfs), mais ça y est ça m’a repris. Mon envie de caviar.

Et donc ma frustration. Parce que le caviar, c’est vraiment trop cher, non ?

Les truffes ne sont pas données non plus, me direz vous, mais au moins, avec une truffe, on parfume un plat tout entier, on fait frissonner une poularde. On couronne une vingtaine de toasts au foie gras. On se fait plaisir.

Alors que le caviar…

70 € pour une cuillère à café, ça n’a pas de sens …

Je souffre donc en silence, en attendant un hypothétique et généreux donateur. Et pour me consoler, je chasse en périphérie du caviar : produits dérivés, œufs de poisson divers… vous savez ce qu’on dit à propos des grives et des merles.

Vous voulez savoir si je suis tombée sur du sérieux  ? Je vous fais partager mes découvertes ?

On commence par le Tarama au caviar de chez Pétrossian.

On a envie d'y revenir ...

Donc donc donc, petite promenade au Lafayette Gourmet cette semaine, en quête de coeurs de canards et de ventrèche roulée, je caresse toujours un peu du regard le comptoir de Pétrossian. Certaines filles rêvent devant les vitrines de Louboutin, moi c’est le comptoir de Pétrossian, chacun sa névrose.

Et pof ça me saute dessus : du tarama au caviar. Ni une ni deux, c’est emballé. C’est cher mais ça passe encore, et de toutes les façons, le tarama de Pétrossian* est si excellent que je n’aurais pas complétement perdu mes sous.

Me voila donc à la maison, pendant que mon cher et tendre se lamente au Stade de France. J’ai sorti la baguette croustillante, le citron à portée de main, les yeux écarquillés…

Bon, on goûte…

J'adore les couvercles chez Pétrossian

… ben c’est du tarama Pétrossian quoi. Avec quelques grains noirs isolés, qui apportent  certes quelque chose, même si c’est plus de l’ordre de la texture que du goût. On approche un petit peu du grand frisson. Ce n’est pas vraiment le bain de Beluga, mais allez, c’est sans doute le meilleur tarama du monde alors c’est déjà quelque chose ….

Tarama au caviar Pétrossian : 15 €le pot de 50g.

A accompagner d’un Champagne Jaquesson blanc de blanc.

*Le tarama de Pétrossian a ses adorateurs … et ses détracteurs. Iodé, fumé, légèrement amer et relevé : j’en suis folle – mais certains palais préféreront la douceur et le gras des taramas de l’école grecque.

So we all know the J.M. Smucker Co. If you were a child in America between 1980-2000 and your parents didn’t feed you fois gras with beluga whale caviar* you most likely experienced the American institution that is the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and the jelly on that sandwich most likely at some point was Smuckers.

Now through the wonders of Wikipedia I managed to stumble across the J.M. Smucker Co. page (Willard Scott -> McDonalds -> Ronald McDonald -> Willard Scott -> Smucker’s) and was struck by a list of slogans on the page. Apparently Smucker’s hires most of it’s marketing people from it’s target demographic, as some of the slogans sound like they’ve come from the mouth of a two year old.

Diana Fuller, head of advertising.

Here are some gems:

“With a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good!”

Okay Smucker’s, I grew up on this one. I don’t know why the Smucker’s name has to be good but perhaps there’s something I’m missing. Maybe “smuck” is the Igbo word for excellence. Maybe it’s all just lies.

“Smucker will make you pucker!”

A rhyme scheme! Good job. I have certainly puckered after jamming two spoonfuls of delicious raspberry jam in my mouth.

“Smucker Company, the brand you can trust”

You know when you were a kid and you tied your brother to a rock and left him in the woods overnight? And when your Mom called you in for dinner you blurted out “I DIDN’T TIE KEVIN TO A ROCK!” just to make sure your innocence in the matter was clear? Yeah. I kind of feel like this is something along these lines. Should I not trust other jams? Is Welch’s planning some sinister coup? Are they communists? IS THAT WHY ALL THEIR JAMS ARE RED?!?!

Trust no one but Smucker’s.

“There ain’t no place like Smucker’s!”

How does this sell jelly? This makes me want to travel. Is Smucker’s offering an extra three nights stay if I book a four day vacation?

“The only brand of jams that can make a piece of bread lively!”

I once left a slice of toast with jam on it out on the counter and then went on vacation for three weeks. When I got back I was confronted by the most lively piece of bread I have ever seen.

“Smucker’s may be yummy, your tummy may be too, but your grocer’s freezer, is not far from you!“

How can my tummy be yummy? Unless… wait… Smucker’s may be yummy, yes. My stomach, steeped as it is in high fructose corn syrup and strawberry chunks may be yummy as well, but only to cannibals… And what was that about a freezer? Not to far from me? As in not to far ahead in my future? Wait a second, jams don’t need to be frozen… The only thing that needs to be frozen are peas, corn, ice cream and… and…

And flesh…

Oh my God…

“Bread, jam and jelly, in your belly, lick your spoon and cut your bread, then you will be Smucker’s well fed”

Yes. Yes. I get it now… You think you’re clever, Smucker’s. You think you can hide in plain sight, flaunting it to everyone through your seemingly “innocent” ads but you’re fattening us. You’re fattening us on sweets. Fattening us until the time is right. When we’re to bloated with corn-syrup to move. Then you’ll strike. The pendulum will swing back and you’ll take each pound you’ve put into us with your precious jellies. But not me. I know the truth. I know that each one of you, down to the last canner on the last production line, each one of you are bloody cannibals… Cannibals that won’t stop until you’ve eaten us all…

There is no hope.

- Stay tuned for next month’s installment where I investigate the secret history of the Spirograph!

*Only really rich people know that Beluga whales have caviar. The idea that they are mammals and therefore don’t produce roe is a lie to keep the lower classes from rising up.

So how long will it be before all the Gansta Rappers, Race Hustlers and Community Activists call Obama on his Race marker? They have heard the Shuck-N-Jive, but where is the BLING Mo Fo? Where’s that free Gas, No Mo Mortgage Payment, Caviar, Courvoisier with a Coke Back and Mutha Fokkin’ Cristal? WTF? Can’t you help a Brutha out? You got your BLING, where is ours, Bro?

Today we kicked off the national fundraising campaign for the Flemish Suicide Prevention Hotline. (www.zelfmoordlijn.be)

About a year ago we were thinking about a new way to appeal to people. We were putting a lot of effort in lowering the threshold to call the suicide prevention hotline, or to log on to our chatbox.
So why not also lower the threshold to help our cause, and work with micro-donations. Thus we came up wit the idea to start an SMS campaign. You can send an SMS with the keyword “Steun” to 6630 and 1 euro is donated to our account.

When promoting fundraising for suicide prevention it is very important to promote the awareness too. Otherwise we are running the risk public perception will see this as a cheap way to gather money, on the back of people who are in misery and distress. Reminding people at the same time about the staggering suicide numbers in Belgium, makes it clearer to everybody that funding is very necessary, if we want to be able to keep answering the phone, for an ever rising number of people.

So, how do you engage people in your message, when they are often not too keen on being associated with your brand?
Fundraising is an ideal way to maximize the number of people who can actively participate in the distribution of our message. Supporting suicide prevention trough funding does not carry the risk of people thinking, that you are not all too happy about yourself. It does not bear the same taboo like telling people you support suicide prevention, just as a service to the public. Because that could mean you are speaking from a personal experience, and not just your objective opinion.

All communication keeps focus on these to objectives:
- lower threshold to participate
- make people aware of the suicide rates in Belgium

Early this year we were very happy with the news from SBS. We won a contest called “Beter in Beeld”. The first price was the production of a tv-spot and 100.000 euro campaign-value. The spot was produced by Caviar, with the great work of Bram Coppens and Ingrid Maes, who did a very good job. The concept was created by 5 graduate students Celine, Ken, Nina, Roxanne & Pieter from Sint Lucas Brussels. I checked the project stayed on brief, on a regular basis. That didn’t seem much of a problem, most of the time. Today this spot was presented to the press. It will be aired in the last weeks of the year, on VT4 and Vijf TV. Read the press release here.

Click the image below to watch the movie.

The second spot, I created, is only for online use, and focuses completely on numbers.

Click the image below to watch the movie.

Finally there is also a campaign site, where more info is provided on funding the Suicide Prevention Line.

We will now try to expand this campaign to as much media as possible. Suggestions are off course very welcome.

Place: Momofuku Ko
Location: 163 1st Avenue, between 10th and 11th Street
Website:  http://www.momofuku.com/ko/default.asp

This is a great way to surprise the girlfriend – a girlfriend who knows what you have to go through to get reservations (Reservation instructions are on the website).  After we had gotten off the cab, blocks away from our friend’s birthday party to pick up drinks, Gene told me to change out of my havaianas and into my stilettos and I couldn’t figure out why he would want me to be uncomfortable before I had to.  I was confused and complained but when he directed me towards an entrance I realized he surprised me with Ko when I saw the glorious orange peach.

I think David Chang set this up right.  He wanted to really showcase his talent by minimizing limitations; his reservation style and set menus portray this.  An already sort of exclusive nature complements Ko’s upscale experience.  By the way, pictures are not allowed.  However, Chang’s persona is very evident through his no VIP reservation policy and the way his chefs ended the night with drinking beer in the kitchen (the kitchen is in front of you).

The food?  Ko says it’s American cuisine but I would categorize it as Momofuku’s take on fusion.  We went through 10 courses of beautifully created food.  Part of the experience is watching the chefs prepare each course for you and you can tell that every dish was treated with such value.  My favorite of the 10 was a dish that included an egg topped with caviar, homemade potato chips, and cooked onions.  A common favorite is the frozen foie gras served over lychee, which is served both during lunch (17 course meal) and dinner.  I think the forte of the overall experience was impeccable balance, which can be reflected by the dish I described above.  I felt that every small dish had an amazing combination of tastes and every ingredient played a critical role.

It was a very enjoyable, palate challenging, pleasantly surprising experience.  And considering the price of a great dinner in New York these days, I’d say the experience was worth its value.  Not sure what the boyfriend thinks but I distinctly remember him saying during our dinner, “this is fun.”

Ingredientes:

• 300 g de robalo (2 filés de 150 g);
• 01 colher (sopa) de manteiga;
• 01 colher (sopa) de cebola ralada;
• 01 taça de champanhe seco;
• 02 xícaras (chá) de creme de leite fresco;
• 02 colheres (sopa) de caviar de mujol;
• 01 colher (sopa) de azeite de oliva extravirgem;
• 04 colheres (sopa) de purê de batata pronto;
• 01 colher (sopa) de ovas de salmão;
• Sal e pimenta-do-reino a gosto.

Modo de Preparar:

• Temperar o robalo com sal e pimenta e reservar.
• Aquecer a manteiga e refogar a cebola.
• Adicionar o champanhe e cozinhar por três minutos.
• Juntar o creme de leite, deixar reduzir por cinco minutos e coar.
• Acrescentar ½ colher de caviar mujol.
• Mexer e reservar.
• Aquecer o azeite e grelhar o robalo.
• No fundo do prato colocar duas colheres de purê de batata.
• Arrumar o peixe por cima do purê de batata.
• Regar com molho e decorar com o restante do caviar e as ovas de salmão.

Fonte: Chef Allan Vila Espejo – http://www.destaquesp.com

Sounds fancy, right?  But this dip is a cinch to put together and makes a nice hors d’oeuvres with some champagne or prosecco before a holiday dinner.  It plays off the classic combination of caviar and crème fraîche, swapping out the traditional blini base for root vegetable chips.  Salty, creamy, slightly decadent…what’s not to like?

Although there has been a lot of (justified) talk about saving money and scaling back expenses this holiday season, the tiny bit of caviar in this recipe is worth the splurge.  Not sure where to find it in stores? Look for little jars near the seafood section (often with the smoked fish).  Whole Paycheck…er…Whole Foods almost certainly carries it.

What possessed the first person to eat caviar?

-3/4 c. crème fraîche
-1/2 c. sour cream
-4 tsp. caviar (I used generic German black caviar, but whatever suits your fancy/wallet), plus a little extra for garnish*
-1 small bunch chives (about 3 Tbsp. total when snipped)
-1 1/2 tsp. minced shallot
-1 tsp. minced red onion
-salt and pepper, to taste

To serve:  1 bag of root vegetable chips, such as Terra Chips, or kettle-cooked potato chips

1.  In a medium bowl, snip most of the chives, reserving a few for garnish.

2. Add the shallots and red onion.

3.  Stir in the sour cream and crème fraîche.

4.  Add the caviar.  Stir well.  Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.  Refrigerate approx. an hour to let the flavors meld.

5.  Scrape the dip into a serving bowl, and garnish the center with a dollop of caviar and lots of snipped chives.  Serve with root vegetable or kettle-cooked potato chips.

*A Martha Stewart recipe I posted a while ago without testing calls for significantly more caviar.  I actually prefer to keep the fishy element subtle.  In fact, I added more caviar to leftovers and served it again the next day, and didn’t like it as well.  To each her own.

This Season: Party Planners ….

Who Will Be Renee Ashley Baker’s Teacher ?

WHY LADY ELIZABETH ANSON OF COURSE….

Lady Elizabeth Anson gives private lessons in Protocol, Etiquette and Good Manners. But….for those who can’t schedule private lessons (in New York or London) with Lady Anson you can catch her “party tips in “The Party Planners Book”….(check Amazon.com)

ABOUT RENEE ASHLEY BAKER

Renee Ashley Baker's Christofle Tea Service

TEA: I, Renee Ashley Baker, hate coffee. I don’t go to coffee shops (where the coffee is too strong–furniture polish strong….) So, I, Renee Ashley Baker, am a tea drinker and my favorite is Earl Grey.

FORD MODELS: Yes–I, Renee Ashley Baker, will sign a contract with Ford Modeling Agency for representation to 21 Companies (which include: Chanel, Chanel Cosmetics–Renee Perfume By Chanel”–Jimmy Choo, AT&T, IBM, Yahoo (not Google) and Swarovski for a line of jewelry boxes to be designed by Renee Ashley Baker called, “Pandora’s Box”….

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