粟ぜんざい（くずきり付き）。
Awa-zenzai: millet and red bean paste. Served hot. It is quite good.
Kuzukiri: strips made from Kudzu starch, served with ponzu and wasabi. Very sour and cold~~
池袋 三原堂
Monthly Archives: February 2007
中南海
四川風スペアリブ（家常排骨）、１２３９円。
At dinner. Szechuan style sparerib, 1239yen. Rice is 200yen. Hmm, the sparerib is very dry. A bit expensive for the quality.
中南海
Cote d’Or（コートドール）
赤ピーマンのムース。
冷製 季節の野菜の蒸し煮 コリアンダーの香りをつけて（野菜のエチュベ）。
Red bell pepper mousse, with tomato sauce.
Steamed vegetables with coriander.
黒トリュフのかき卵 ワインソース。
牛のしっぽの煮込み 赤ワインソース。
Scrambled egg with truffle, red wine sauce.
Braised ox tail in red wine sauce, pumpkin paste.
北海道白糠産仔羊のロースト ポテトのグラタン。
Roasted lamb with potato gratin.
桑の実シャーベット。
青森産赤いリンゴのタルト ダイスケ風。
Mulberry seed sorbet. Apple tart.
小田原ミカンのスフレ。
Mandarin orange souffle.
The chef’s 10 famous dishes are:
01 赤ピーマンのムース (Red bell pepper mousse)
02 えいとキャベツ (Ray fish with cabbage)
03 季節の野菜のエチュベ (Steamed vegetables with coriander)
04 トリュフのかき卵 (Scrambled egg with black truffle)
05 牛尾の赤ワイン煮 (Braised ox tail in red wine sauce)
06 仔羊のロースト (Roasted lamb)
07 しそのスープ (Shiso soup)
08 おこぜのポワレ (Pan-fried Stonefish)
09 ソーモンのタルタルモンブラン (Salmon Tartare Mont Blanc )
10 根セロリとリ・ド・ヴォーの煮込み (Celery root and Lamb sweetbreads)
Book here.
I have tried 1 and 2 during my first lunch visit(see tag). Came back again with a few friends and tried 3, 4, 5, 6. We basically picked from the a la carte menu, and have them arranged into a lunch course. Not cheap to order from the a la carte, but gosh the “scrambled egg with truffle” is worth everything….you can smell it miles away! So much truffle in it! Every spoon is truffle truffle truffle~~~absolutely heaven! The server said to eat it quick, at the most 5-6 minutes, otherwise the egg will harden. But it was just too mind-blowingly delicious that I was reluctant to finish the last mouthful. ^^;; Everything else is so good. You won’t go wrong in this restaurant. Though as personal preferences, I do like the Ox tail more than the lamb(pictures for the meat courses show half portion only), and I like the souffle included in the lunch course(which is the same as my last visit) more than the apple tart(which we shared) from the al la carte. In terms of value, the 4500yen lunch course is probably better, but exquisite experience comes with a price….my friend said later that she couldn’t help thinking how much each spoon of that truffle was while eating it…^^;;
A la carte menu(J): 1, 2.
Cote d’Or
HIDEMI SUGINO (イデミ スギノ＠京橋)
Fromage blanc and mascarpone mousse, thin cookie as base, whole apricot and lemon peel inside. Very light and not too sweet but with strong alcohol taste. Very nice!
Apparently this cake shop was introduced in some widely-watched TV show and became super famous. Cakes get sold out by noon cos people start queuing in the morning, even on weekdays. There is a cafe space and if you want to eat there, you also need to go in the morning, either have cakes for breakfast, or reserve your cakes and come back a few hours later. Some cakes are only for take-out and some are only for eat-in. Because of all these hassle, I simply never bothered to go. But one day my friends and I walked past at 3pm, and there were two kinds of cakes left in the showcase. My friend went “Miracle!! Miracle!!”, so even though we already had a full course French lunch, we decided to eat in. We had champagne at lunch already….but we conveniently forgot about that and had champagne again with the cakes. ^^;;;
Also bought chocolate financier with cherries, and coffee pound cake with marron. Both very good!
UPDATES! (May 2008)
エベレスト(チーズムースの中に赤いフルーツ）。ラルメ（マロンムース）。
Everest(cheese mousse) and Larme(Marron mousse)
HIDEMI SUGINO
ほていさん＠月島 (Hoteisan)
もずく酢。胡麻豆腐。刺身の盛り合わせ。
Mozuku(seaweed in vinegar) and sesame tofu. Sashimi.
あんこう鍋。雑炊。
Anko-nabe(Angler-fish/Monkfish hotpot). So good! The big pile of orange paste is Ankimo, which the madam told us to taste a bit before she put the lid on the nabe. The dashi is delicious from the start – we all drank a bowl while waiting for the ingredients to be cooked. The meat of Anko has firm texture, the skin is jelly-like and chewy(full of collagen). The rich-tasting Ankimo is of course the best part! Rice and egg are added to the soup to make zouzui. Yum!
This place is very popular during winter season when Anko is available. I had to book like 2 months ago and it was not an easy task cos the staff don’t seem to be very patient on the phone. While you are there, they are efficient and simply do everything for you – you just sit and wait for your bowl of food. You are only allowed 2 hours, which is more than enough because, before you finish the sashimi, they will start making the hotpot, and before you finish your first bowl of anko and soup, the staff will come and scoop more ingredients into your (donburi-size)bowl. We had to wait a long time for the zousui though(Maybe they forgot to cook rice? ^^;;).
The place was packed with people smoking so not exactly a comfortable place to stay long. In fact I got a massive headache because the guy at the next table(very close) was an impossible chain-smoker who didn’t quite stop even when he was eating.
We all had beer and nihonshu, about 6600yen each. Well very reasonable for the amount and quality of food you get. Taste-wise this place definitely makes it to my favourites, but the environment is a little too much for me!
ほていさん
PIERRE GAGNAIRE à Tokyo
I never thought this elevator was the main entrance and circled around the block…but this was it. ^^;;; Very lovely open terrace. Too bad it was too cold to sit outside.
The little tidbits have interesting spicy taste. Bread is from Maison Kayser.
カボチャのニョッキ パルメザンのチュイル。
ウズラの卵とトピナンプールのヴルーテ。
Amuse-bouche alone consists of 5 dishes!
Pumpkin gnocchi and parmesan feuille(I guess “feuille” is the same as mille-feuille but just one layer?).
Quail egg and topinambours(Jerusalem artichokes) in Velouté sauce.
ポロ葱とムール貝のスープ。
牛肉とカリフラワーのジュレ コリアンダー・ホウレン草 アーモンドを添えて。
Poireau leek and blue mussel soup.
Beef and cauliflower jelly, coriander and spinach, with almond.
平スズキのマリネ スモークサーモンのペースト。
Hirasuzuki(a kind of sea bass) in marinade, with smoked salmon paste.
ノイリー酒の香るフォアグラのガトー仕立て モヤシとズッキーニのクロッカン緑のソースにキノアを浮かべて。
地キンメのパヴェ 焦がしバター風味 フヌイユのママレード＜ピエロ＞サフランの香り。
Foie gras gateau(a slice of smoked duck on top), beansprout and zucchini(chopped into small bits) and quinoa in green sauce. On top is “Crystal leave”, which is some fancy laboratory invention and has a natural crispy texture and a shiny surface caused by the salt intrinsic to the leaf….quite delicious but felt like eating an experiment. ^^;;
Kinmedai(Alfonsino) “Pavé”, with burnt butter, marmelade of fenouil(fennel) in saffron sauce.
Dessert alone has 4 courses…
Raspberry soup with forgot-what ice-cream.
The cube thing is pistachio and forgot-what ice-cream.
Pear soup with forgot-what ice-cream(should have jot down some memo). The spaghetti thing is fried custard cream apparently.
Underneath the chocolate disc is chocolate paste and hazelnut and other things. The server poured hot chocolate sauce into the hole before we ate.
A 3-hour parade of dozens of dishes of food in bite size, all in trendy and stylish presentation. Each dish, no matter how small, is so complicated, that we spent a lot of time listening intently to the server’s long explanation and cross-checking with the menu that everyone got at hand. I think I am not the one who went from mildly dazed to half-confused to utterly exhausted. ^^;; The food are all fancy but I have to say taste-wise they leave very little impression. Seriously I simply didn’t know what I was eating at some point…very interesting experience though!
We had the 7000yen lunch course, which is quite cheap considering how many plates and bowls they will have to wash afterwards, but the drinks are quite expensive so better watch out.
PIERRE GAGNAIRE à Tokyo
VILAMOURA (ヴィラモウラ)
キノコのガーリックソテー卵とじ。
タラとジャガイモのコロッケ。
Portugese dinner!
Sauteed mushroom and egg with garlic.
Cod and potato croquette.
コリアンダーとパルミジャーノチーズのサラダ。
バカリャウとポテトのクリーム煮、グラタン仕立て。
Coriander and Parmigiano cheese salad.
Bacalhau and potato cream gratin.
小魚と野菜の南蛮漬け、エスカベッシュ。
アサリと豚ロースのソテー アレンテージョ風。
Pickerel and vegetables Escabeche.
Clam and sauteed pork loin meat, Alentejo style.
ココット煮込みの温野菜。
焼きたてチーズパン（ポンジケイジョ）。
Vegetables in Cocotte.
Freshly baked cheese bread – Pão de queijo.
鴨のブイヨンで炊き上げた鴨ごはん。
Duck rice cooked from duck bouillon.
ヴィラモウラ風魚介のカタプラーナ、(ワタリガ二・アサリ・ヤリイカ・エビ・タコ) トマトスープ。
残ったスープをリゾットに リゾットライス。
Seafood Cataplana(crab, clam, squid, prawn, octopus). Tomato soup based.
Risotto is added into the leftover soup.
ハーブティー。 ポルトガルプリン。
Herb tea. Pudding.
エッグタルト。 チョコレートムース。
Portugese egg tart. Chocolate mousse.
I was not too excited at first about dining in a Portugese restaurant cos the very few times I had Portugese food, they were not very memorable experience. But this place turned out to be much much better than I expected. The food is simple but very delicious. Heavy use of garlic and coriander in almost all the dishes. Cod seems to be a common ingredient. I absolutely love the “fluffy” croquette and duck rice. The pork is a bit hard but the clam and the tomato sauce are very tasty. The Cataplana is a must try. The risotto is slightly salty but very good still. The desserts are not bad but nothing special. 6 of us shared all the food and we had about 2 drinks each(champagne and wine included), came to about 4000yen each – such good value!!
VILAMOURA