韓国家庭料理アレンモク (Arenmoku)

Posted on October 11, 07 by seat

海鮮ネギチヂミ、￥１５００。
Chijimi: Korean pancake with seafood and spring onion.

Free appetizers.

ポッサム（小）、￥３０００。チャプチェ、￥２０００。
Possamu: Pickles and pork wrapped in cabbage.
Chapuche: Stir-fried bean-starch vermicelli and vegetables

ユッケ。アンコウチム、￥３０００。
Yukke: Korean tartare beef served with sweet soy sauce and egg yolk.
Anko-chimu: Anko(Angler-fish/Monkfish) with spicy sauce.

Chijimi was delicious, Yukke and Chapuche were good but nothing special, the most expensive Possamu and Anko-chimu – both recommended by the restaurant staff – were no good. 3 of us shared all the food, 2 beers, 1 tea and 1 makkori(Korean rice wine), it came up to 5000yen per person…quite expensive!
アレンモク (Arenmoku)
Add: 2-2-8 Ueno, Taito-ku
Tel: 03-3839-1472

Goutte d’or et Crattini (グットドール・クラッティーニ)

Posted on October 3, 07 by seat

ナポリのモツッレラとくじらのタルタル。
Mozzarella and whale Tartare.
Tomato cream soup(I think…can’t remember exactly…).

阿波尾鶏レバーのパテ、マンゴー添え。
冷たい桃のスパゲッティーニ。
Chicken liver pate and mango. This is quite nice.
Chillled peach spaghetti. The spaghetti is hidden underneath. Nothing special except the peach is very sweet.

江戸前穴子と夏きのこのタリアテッレ、からすみがけ。
とっておき、生うにのスパゲッティ。
Tagliatelle with anago and summer mushroom and karasumi. Nice but quite spicy, especially after I accidentally ate a chilli.
Uni spaghetti. The same overly salty and spicy taste as last time(see tag).

赤茶豚リブロースのソテー。
Grapefruit and wasabi sorbet. Interesting combination… quite like it actually.
Saute of Akacha(?) pork Riburosu(don’t know how to translate, it is this part). The pork itself is juicy and tender, though it would have haven nicer if it were grilled a bit longer. The veggy on the side were quite salty.

ココナッツのビアンコマンジャーレ、アプリコット添え。
マンゴープリンとパッションフルーツ。
Coconut blanc manger with apricot. Not much coconut taste…
Mango pudding and passion fruit.

ジャスミンティーのカタラーナ。
Jasmine creme brulee. Fresh herb tea. The desserts are pretty normal. The fresh herb tea was 840yen and I totally expected a pot, yet it came in a small cup and no refill…

I have to say my impression of this place doesn’t get better on my third visit. The chef seems to like his food very salty and very spicy. Couldn’t eat it without gulping red wine by the gallons. As a final blow, the service is rather bad…no smiles, sloppy response, and the champagne was not chilled properly – unforgivable!!
Menu(J) here.
Goutte d’or et Crattini
Add: 2-2-3 Marunouchi, Chiyada-ku
Tel: 03-6212-6882

RISTORANTE SICILIANO MASSHU GINZA（リストランテシチリアーノマッシュー銀座）

Posted on August 11, 07 by seat

5000yen prefix dinner course. There is only one course and no a la carte menu.
Maguro’s chin meat Tartare, grilled aubergine, endive and white truffle oil.
Kinmedai(a kind of bream) carpaccio, with water buffalo mozzarella cheese, zucchini, turnip etc.

Steamed octopus with potato.
Soramame(broad bean) chilled potage with ricotta cheese.

Homemade thin pasta(forgot name) with bream and basil.
Grilled pork with pistachio paste spread on top. Sauce is maguro karasumi sauce.
Simple spaghetti with tomato sauce. You can choose how many grams you want. I had 30g.

I’ve come here before(see tag) and was very impressed with the food. Second visit was no less satisfying. Nuts(almond, pistachio etc.) and herbs and olive oil are used abundantly in almost every dish but I like the strong and rich flavour. Some dishes are the same as last time like the maguro tartare and octopus. Everything is delicious except the pork which is a bit too salty. The course doesn’t include dessert and coffee. We were really full so we just ordered coffee and herb tea which turned out to be 800yen each.

The service is friendly. The manager remembers me from last time…err. ^^;;; Definitely will go back.

RISTORANTE SICILIANO (リストランテ・シチリアーノ)
Add: Ginza Stella Bldg. 2F, 6-2-12 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061
Tel: 03-3572-8623
Open: 18:00-02:00

RISTORANTE SICILIANO MASSHU GINZA（リストランテシチリアーノマッシュー銀座）

Posted on January 3, 07 by seat

おまかせコースは５０００円。
マグロの顎肉のタルタル、焼き茄子、アンディーブ。
ヒラスズキのカルパッチョ、天然舞茸のソテー、ルッコラ。
5000yen dinner. Everything is included in the course for one person.
Maguro(tuna)’s chin meat Tartare, with grilled aubergine and endive.
Hirasuzuki(a kind of seabass) carpaccio, maitake mushroom saute, rucola salad, very sweet tomato sauce, and pistachio sprinkled on top.
Both are absolutely divine!! I never had Hirasuzuki before, it is so nice. Very generous portion of my autumn favourite maitake. A good start and it only gets better.

コルクで蒸し上げた蛸のモンデッロ風インウミド。
Steamed octopus with potato. I am actually not a big fan of octopus but this is so soft so delicious. Even the simple potato tastes amazing.
Two kinds of bread – sesame and cheese. Both so good that even though we knew we should control as we were only on our third course, we couldn’t resist finishing them all and asking for more.

蕪のピュレとサフランと魚のスープ、キターラとマグロのカラスミ入り。
乳飲み仔羊、ポルチーニとトリュフオイルの手打ちフェットチーネ。
Fish base soup with turnip purée, saffron, Chitarra(pasta), topped with maguro karasumi. Wow amazing depth of taste just as the many ingredients have promised. The karasumi is salty to eat alone but very nice with the soup.
Homemade fettuccine with baby lamb, porcini mushroom and truffle oil. The fettuccine is not overcooked like in so many Italian restaurants(even the expensive ones). The ragu sauce with such generous amount of porcini and lamb would never go wrong, especially the truffle oil gives off an appetizing fragrance that you simply forget you already had 4 plates of food.

鹿肉のオーソブッコ：鹿のスネ肉の赤ワイン煮。焼き栗のペーストと砂糖漬けの洋梨添え。
シンプルなトマトソースのスパゲッティ。
Vension knuckle simmered in red wine, with grilled chestnut paste and glaced pear and a slice of truffle on top. The tender meat just slid off the bone. So yummy. The sauce, the chestnut, the pear are all sweet.
Simple spaghetti with tomato sauce. In case you are still hungry, you can ask for any grams you want. The standard is 60g, I was greedy and had 80g. ^^;; The tomato sauce is thick but just so good that I finished every drop.

Dessert and coffee are not included in the dinner course, and we were just too full to even ask for the dessert menu. The course itself is 5000yen, I ordered a glass of champagne and a glass of BIO white wine that the staff recommended, plus a coffee at the end, the bill came up to 9000yen. For the amount and the quality of the food, a great deal I think. Though my friend, who likes mild taste and can’t quite take rich food, said this place is a bit too salty for her.

This restaurant is on the second floor of a shabby building with a sign almost impossible to spot. We simply walked straight past it the first time. Very small place and crowded with customers even on a rainy weekday evening. We booked 2 weeks before but all tables were full and only the counter seats were available.

Very very friendly people working here. All guys. The chef who came out and explained the dishes to us, was so sweet and looked like he was in his twenties that I didn’t realise he was the chef himself at first and thought he was just a waiter. ^^;;
RISTORANTE SICILIANO

七厘＠三ノ輪 (Shichi Rin)

Posted on December 11, 06 by seat

A rather local yakiniku restaurant recommended by a friend who is living nearby and is sort of a regular. We got to order stuff that are not on the menu(e.g. cow tongue sashimi and beef sashimi), and enjoy an incredible omakase course which allowed us to try almost everything on the menu. It is however an impossible task to translate the menu…in fact I can’t even match the name with the right picture cos they all look the same. ^^;; Basically we tried various parts of cow, both the meat and the horumon.

キムチ盛り合わせ。牛アキレス腱ポン酢。にんにく焼き。
Assorted kimchi. Achilles tendon in ponzu. Grilled garlic.

センマイ刺し。レバー刺し。
Cow stomach sashimi. Liver sashimi.

牛タン刺し。牛刺し。
Cow tongue sashimi. Beef sashimi.

幻のタン塩(ゲタ)。
From here, the meat are to be grilled. The pic on the left is some fancy cow tongue. The rest…sorry, don’t really remember.

The umeshu here is very nice with a variety of choices – nihonshu based, shochu based, white wine based, red wine based, and house blend. I like the house blend and nihonshu based of umeshu the most. The one in the picture is just nihonshu.

シビレ。
My favourite horumon “shibire”, it tastes like foie gras~ Takes a while to grill until it is smooth and creamy.

The steak is nice too. The waitor cut it into pieces for us. But I prefer the fatty thin slices of beef which are just much more juicy.

We had some additional orders which I didn’t take pictures of…btw, there were 5 of us, 4 girls and 1 guy. ^^;;;

ユッケ。豚トロ。
Yukke – Korean version of Steak Tartare. Tontoro – fatty pork.

Horumon also, forgot name. Hard and chewy texture.

On the right is Kimchi fried rice.

The usual stomach-filling carbs(though we were already very full…): Korean beef soup rice, chilled buckwheat noodles, and ramen in a hot stone bowl. I think we paid about 12,000yen each. Considering how much we ate and drank, and how amazing the quality of the meat was, not a bad deal.
My friend actually remembered the menu in Japanese and kindly sent it to me, so I just copied here.
・キムチ盛り合わせ・牛アキレス腱ポン酢・にんにく焼き
・センマイ刺し・レバー刺し・牛タン刺し・牛刺し
・幻のタン塩(ゲタ) ・カイノミ・シンシン・ホルモン・コブクロ
・ギアラ・コプチャン・シビレ・ヒレ・トモ三角・ザブトン・ツラミ
・ユッケ・豚トロ・ウルテ・ハツモト・子袋
・キムチチャーハン・石焼ユッケジャンラーメン・冷麺・カルビクッパ
七厘

桜なべ中江＠三ノ輪 (Sakura-nabe Nakae)

Posted on December 4, 06 by seat

Dinner party at a traditional Japanese restaurant more than 100 years old. Speciality is horse meat, also called “sakura meat” in Japan.

馬肉の佃煮。
Horse meat Tsukudani.

馬刺し：霜降りとロース。タルタルステーキ。
Two kinds of horse meat sashimi – more expensive shimofuri(meat marbled with fat), and loin meat. Somehow the cheaper loin meat is actually nicer. Both are sweet and tender.
Tartar steak – ground raw horse meat, with sesame oil, and a raw egg yolk. Very good. The sesame oil and the egg yolk combined to give the lean meat a smoother texture and a nice fragrance.

馬刺しにぎり寿司。馬肉串焼き。
Horse meat sushi is incredible, while the grilled horse meat skewer is no good – the meat is too hard.

桜鍋。ザク：ねぎ、しらたき、麩。
Sakura nabe: horse meat sukiyaki. Tender and juicy, no need to cook too long, dip into a bowl of raw egg before you eat. Also added to the nabe are leek, shirataki and fu. The warishita is miso and soy sauce and zarame sugar.

ステーキ。お新香。
Steak. Thick cut and tender. Homemade pickles are so good you can eat them alone.

Eggs are added to the leftover soup, and you are supposed to scoop the sweet full-of-meat-flavour egg and add onto the rice. It is so yummy!
Dessert is Matcha ice-cream.
中江