Sunday 3 January 2016

Zen A.M.: Why Japanese Breakfast Is the Best Way to Start Your Day

OCTOBER 12, 2015 

Poised and pretty on the plate (dare we say, Instagram-ready?), a healthy, minimalist Japanese spread might just be the new power breakfast. “My idea of a perfect breakfast involves a bowl of steamed rice, a poached or soft-boiled egg, a variety of fermented and pickled vegetables, dashi broth miso soup, and green tea,” says chef Ariane Aumont, whose Ojai, California-based pop-up, Le Picnic, starts serving Japanese breakfast today at Nocciola, with two more meals scheduled for later in the month. “It’s a breakfast that is balanced in texture, flavor, and color.” Long a staple of hotels like The Peninsula or Mandarin Oriental in New York and the Miyako Hotel in Los Angeles, Japanese breakfasts are making their way onto restaurant tables across the U.S. Here’s a sampling of our favorites.
jams restaurant
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New York City: Jams 
Jams, Jonathan Waxman’s new farm-to-table restaurant located in the 1 Hotel Central Park, just launched its breakfast menu, complete with a Japanese offering. Waxman recalls coveting the bento lunches of his Japanese classmates when he was growing up in the Bay Area, and cites the breakfast at Tokyo’s Park Hyatt as the inspiration for this spread. “I would be very happy having this breakfast every morning, and I certainly would lose weight,” he says. 

Pictured: Grilled Spanish mackerel, miso egg custard, pickled vegetables, and warm rice with black vinegar.
Photo: Courtesy of Katie Burton
le picnic pop-up restaurant
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Ojai, CA: Le Picnic’s pop-ups 
Chef Ariane Aumont and fashion designer Taiana Giefer just added a Japanese breakfast to their Le Picnic pop-up meal series, using Japanese methods on local produce (e.g., pickling eggplant from Rio Gozo Farm) and plating it wabi-sabi style on ceramics from P Space pottery. 

Pictured: Yellowtail collar; steamed rice with a medium-boiled farm egg and housemade furikake; pickles; cold, sprouted tofu with grated ginger, daikon, bonito, and ponzu; and dashi broth miso soup with young garlic stem and crispy tamari-marinated mushrooms.
Photo: Nic George
Okonomi restaurant
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Brooklyn, NY: Okonomi 
Williamsburg’s tiny Okonomi offers a daily ichiju sansai (“one soup, three sides”) breakfast incorporating regional, seasonal vegetables; rice; fresh fish; and slow-cooked onsen eggs. Chefs Tara Norvell and Yuji Haraguchi adhere to the Buddhist mottainai philosophy in which nothing is wasted—the head and bones from the fish are used to make the ramen broth for the restaurant’s nighttime incarnation, Yuji Ramen. 

Pictured: Roasted tuna belly, tamagoyaki, miso soup, brown rice, onsen tamago, corn shiraae, pole bean with soft-shell crab red miso, mustard green with sea cucumber and anise nuta, and tsukemono.
Photo: Courtesy of Okonomi
Sushi Kappo Tamura restuarant
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Seattle: Sushi Kappo Tamura 
Picking up on a need for a lighter meal earlier in the day—and requests from the local Japanese-American population and customers who’d spent time in Japan—chef and Kyoto native Taichi Kitamura created weekend-brunch gozens based on the morning meal consumed all over Japan: broiled fish, miso soup, rice, and pickled and fresh vegetables from the restaurant’s rooftop garden. “We have fans who come back almost every week,” he reports. 

Pictured: Chikuzen-ni (dashi- and soy-glazed carrots, gobo, chicken, and konnyaku), salted and broiled Fraser River sockeye salmon shioyaki, tamago yaki (soy sauce–flavored omelet), yu choy and tofu nibitashi, and dashi-simmered hijiki nimono.
Photo: Courtesy of Sushi Kappo Tamura
Ichi Sushi + Ni Bar restaurant
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San Francisco: Ichi Sushi + Ni Bar 
On a research trip to Japan in 2013, chef Tim Archuleta found himself drawn to the daily breakfast prepared by his host families in Tokyo. Back in San Francisco, he added his own version of the meal to the brunch menu at his popular Mission District sushi spot, sensing the need for a lighter option for weekend afternoons. 

Pictured: Local Japanese mackerel, onsen jidori egg, housemade Japanese pickles, and rice with green onion.
Photo: Courtesy of Ichi Sushi + Ni Bar

Friday 1 January 2016

下廚樂


2015年12月30日《信報》
劉健威 <此時此刻>

在灣仔弄了個小小工作室,做菜的機會多了。
我是party animal,最好每周都開party,宴請親友,樂人樂己,其樂無窮。還有,最好是自己動手,享受下廚樂。
這一天一手一腳做了幾道菜給親友吃,就開心得很——早一天晚上睡不着,就想着做新菜。我想,我真可以做個快樂廚師的——有了新主意,恨不得半夜三更街市仍開着,馬上買材料回來試試做。翌日就做了這幾道菜:
本來計劃煲個松茸雞湯,乾松茸不知放哪去了,正好有一包紅棗,就用紅棗來煲;哪知效果奇佳,紅棗有獨特的甜味,和雞肉的鮮味很「夾」;雞棗之外,加幾片薑就成了,沒技巧可言,大家不妨一試。牛骨髓(bone marrow)配沙律好看好吃又易做,是我近期很喜歡做的一道菜。
「山水有相逢——蟶子王和野菌的纏綿邂逅」是我早一天晚上想到的新菜。一直覺得蟶子王是很好的食材,又不甘心千篇一律的做法;夜裏忽然想到,可配油雞㙡啊。雞㙡菌在明朝被譽為「玉樹瓊枝」,香甜可口;油雞㙡是用油炸了,便於保存,微辣,我平時用以拌麵。翌日買不到蟶子王,改用迷你象拔蚌,吃起來也很和味;伴碟的是日本舞茸。雞㙡來自雲南二千公尺高地,蟶子出於海底,萬水千山,經我撮合,故有此名。
買得剛來自四川的臘腸臘肉,但怕單獨蒸烚味道都太鹹太濃,故用以煮扒齒蘿蔔,最後撒以日本柚子皮刨出來的末,又是味道完整的一道菜。蒸野生小黃魚。這是老巴剎鍾先生教我做的,魚只塗鹽,什麼都不用,但吃起來都是「蒜子肉」,嫩滑得很;無他,蒸櫃控制於九十六度,比用沸水蒸更佳。
煲仔海南雞飯又是學自鍾先生。爆香香茅黃薑等香料用以焗飯,香氣充盈口腔;我用的是柬埔寨每年只一造的茉莉香米,效果尤佳。
最後是魚湯浸碗豆苗。做完吃罷絲毫不覺其累。

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