Gorgeous Sushi

Here are a few impressive sushi we had last time we went to our favorite place in Kanda (Tokyo).
They are reeeeally delicious, and as H puts it, we would probably be ruined if this restaurant were close to our place.


Firefly squid ("encornet luciole", si on traduit literalement).



Monkfish liver (foie de baudroie). Tastes like foie gras.



Sea urchin (oursin)

Kappabashi

Tokyo is a huge city but one can quite easily divide it into distinctive areas, into
small (well, not that small) towns scattered inside the metropolis, each of them having its own characterisitcs.





Some areas are a thick concentration of specialized shops in neighboring streets. You'll find a town for used books, one for electronics, one for musical instruments, one for sportswear etc, to name only a few.
Last weekend we walked around Kappabashi "kitchenware town", where they have absolutely everything you need (or think you need) for cooking. And by everything I mean everything.





Needless to say, we loved it. Fortunately we were on foot, so that there was a limited number of items that we could buy and carry.
But...as this was a sort of special 1 year wedding anniversary weekend, we thought that we could indulge in a treat or two, "from us to us".
So this is what we came home with: cake springforms, ramekins, serving spoon, fancy pasta plates, and a tajine!
Very happy with our shopping.





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Edit du 28/03/08

En effet on l'a bien remplie cette tajine. Un peu trop peut-être?
Résultat après une heure de cuisson: ingrédients encore crus mais brûlés au fond, liquide de cuisson qui s'est échappé sur toute la gazinière! Grrrr..... trop déçus.
Le tout a aterri dans une bonne vieille casserole, voilà!


Avant:



















Apres:

Taguée

Ca y est, j'ai été taguée! Un événement, vu que c'est la première fois en deux ans et demi de "bloguerie" que quelqu'un me tague. Je commençais à désespérer.....
:-)
Merci donc à Anne-Laure, qui me demande 3 petits plaisirs qui me remontent le moral en cas de coup dur.
Allons-y:

- Faire un gâteau ou des muffins. Faire de la pâtisserie a un effet calmant ("very therapeutic", comme dirait Nigella Lawson) et surtout gratifiant, du tout bon pour le moral. Ensuite je peux déguster avec un thé ou un café, qui ont l'effet réconfortant des boissons chaudes.

- Faire une partie de scrable, avec iTunes réglé sur "party shuffle" et H. qui chante l'accompagnement des chansons à voix particulièrement élevée (!). Je sais pas si il fait ça pour me faire rire ou pour me déconcentrer et me faire perdre. Je pencherais pour la seconde option....

- Aller au lit tôt avec un bon livre au style pas trop lourd. Si le livre est trop sérieux je le remplace par l'ordinateur et je regarde une comédie British. C'est le rire assuré.

Voila voila, le problème c'est que maintenant je sais pas à qui refiler la question...y a-t-il des intéressés?

Keskecé - le retour!

Vous avez aimé le premier Keskecé il y a quelques mois; voici pour votre plus grand plaisir, le tout nouveau Keskecé.
Trop facile?

What is this?...

A glimpse of spring

A few pictures of the delicate plum blossom

Yanaka

The other day I took advantage of a mid-week holiday to walk around the Yanaka neighbourhood downtown Tokyo.

The Yanaka area is a historical part of Tokyo, developed as a temple town in the Edo period (1603-1867). Because of the policy of the Tokugawa Shogunate to relocate temples (after a big fire in 1657) to the then rural Yanaka, nearly a hundred temples and their cemeteries are found in that area of Tokyo.



Those are not flashy temples like Asakusa or those one can admire in Kyoto for instance. This is a very simple neighbourhood with no specific attractions. One can simply walk around and enjoy the atmosphere, traditional wooden houses, small old-stlyle Izakayas (pubs), away of the Tokyo anthill.





The Yanaka area still retains a certain atmosphere of the old time, as it survived the earthquake in 1923 as well al the air raids in 1944 and 1945.


















A few footsteps from Yanaka towards Ueno, you will find another WWII survivor, the Nezu shrine.
Nezu is one of the three only shrines of Tokyo with the original, Edo period construction.
I really liked the alignment of countless portable gates (Torii) painted in the flashy orange colour that is characteristic of Shinto.





You'll find more pictures of Yanaka and the Nezu shrine in "My Pictures".