How to taste sushi - this is not as stupid as it sounds !

How to taste sushi? "Just put it in your mouth !" most of you think.
Easy right?

Well, there is a difference between simply eating sushi and knowing how to enjoy it properly.

As I said in my previous post, sushi is an art. Japanese people are dead serious about it. When they eat bad sushi, they feel the same way a French person reacts when they taste a "pain au chocolat" made with margarine:
"Yuk".

So today I am going to try to give you a few tips so that you are sure to know how to recognize what makes good sushi.

1. Try the tamago yaki (a slightly sweet omelet).

This is a simple and pretty radical way to know how the rest of your meal is going to be when entering a sushi restaurant. In Japan this simple sushi is considered one of the most delicate ones and it requires great skill to be perfected. If it is soggy and too sweet, either run out of the restaurant or be prepared to even more disapointed by the rest of the meal.


2. The second easiest way to know if you are facing a good Itamae is to focus on the rice: 

How does it taste? How does it feel? The rice should not be too soft nor too firm, and the balance of seasonings should be just right. If it’s too sweet or tastes of vinegar, you are screwed. Sometimes the simplest things are the most difficult to cook.
Rice the very foundation of sushi (by the way sushi litteraly means rice in Japanese), so you should be sure to watch out for it when eating out at a Japanese place.

3. Sushi is like wine: it is about balance. 

Inspect your nigiri-sushi (not the maki roll, the one with a little clump of rice and fish over it). In a quality establishment, you shoul not find huge hunks of fish on top of three grains of rice. Although this might seem like good value for money, it will destroy the proper balance of the meal. Japanese food is about discipline and craft, it is not about supersizing your food. For that there is McDonald's. 


4. Look for fresh wasabi. 

You know that green mustard? If you are lucky what you have in your plate is just plain horseradish with food coloring. If you're unlucky... who knows. 
Real wasabi - the fresh sort - is immensly rare. If your restaurant is a real deal, you should have a waiter come and grate you a little bit of the wasabi rhizome in your plate. I know it doesn't sound very appetizing when I say it like that but trust me, the taste is entirely different. Not nearly as harsh and strong, it almost has a nutty flavor. It's like comparing real parmesan and the canned thing you buy at your supermarket. It's just not the sae product. 


5. Look for interesting seasonal items. 


This is not really necessary but it may indicate that the sushi chef pays extra attention to the particulars of the foods he offers, and seeks out something when it is available and fresh. It will mean your food has not be stuck in a freezer for the past 6 months. 




These 5 little tips should help you out to know if the restaurant you are eating at is a true Japanese establishement.
Of course, I don't expect these requirements to be met in all the restaurants I go to but for the ones that I anticipate to be good, I make sure to look out for them.
But what a joy when I find the real gem that complies with all these elements!

A taste of France in Mumbai - Le 15 Pâtisserie

I’ve recently fallen in love.


I’ve been swept off my feet by the most unlikely little fellow.
Not Shahrukh khan or any other Bollywood star.
Not my cute 15 year old Indian pantry boy who takes pictures of himself in the mirror with my camera while I'm at work.
Not even the lovely little white dog that sleeps night and day on my door step and doesn’t budge when I step over him.



I’m a talking about love at first sight.
Or at first taste should I say.
The real deal.

I am talking about le 15 Pâtisserie.

Le 15 is a little shop in a hair salon right next to my house in Mumbai

I noticed it for the first time at the beginning of June and was very intrigued to see heavenly looking Lemon tarts and Macaroons on their stall.


It took me a few days to finally decide to try one of their products out – I think I was influence by the ^ on Pâtisserie. So French. So authentic.

And then it happened ; as if I lightening had struck me


Crisp and light, zweet and tangy, crunchy yet smooth.


It was the French culinary arts epitomized in a small unpretencious lemon tart.

It felt too good. 
So my boyfriend – who incidently is addicted to chocolat and has devoured no less than 5 le 15 Patisserie macaroons since I have started writing this article ("I'm just trying out the products honey", "yeah right") – said to me :
‘Pauline, we need to meet these people. 
I don’t know who they are, why they are here in Mumbai and if they are mean, ugly and stupid but I need to understand how it is possible to create such perfection. Here in India !’



So we wrote an email to le 15 and got to meet both Chef Mukul and Pastry Chef Pooja.


My boyfriend’s fears were unfounded though ;


They were even sweeter than their macaroons.

I really encourage anyone in Mumbai to try anything at le 15 Pâtisserie.


You cannot be disappointed. The only thing that might happen is that you develop a severe addiction.


Like me.

Le15 Patisserie,
Shama Hair and Skin Boutique,
 Krishna Building, Near Podar Hospital, 
JN Palkar Road, Worli

Piece of cake - my moist orange/cranberry feast

Dear Readers I must admit that sometimes I try to be careful about what I eat. 
Like most young women, I'm a little self conscious about calories in food and I usually skip dessert when I am at a restaurant (all the more so as I certainly DON'T skip the wine !)
Only if I'm really starving or invited at a friends'house do I have a bite of dessert but I obviously feel so guilty the following morning that I immediately hit the gym for a week.
Sometimes it sucks to be a woman. 
Sometimes I wish I could gulp down waffles without putting on a pound. 


And then there's the perfect cake. 
The cake I always indulge in, because : 
1) I made it and I know it is not THAT ridiculously fattening
2) It is insanely moist and good and delicious so I just couldn't care less about the calories anyway. 


This is my secret weapon against crappy weeks and low spirits. It's a cake that will stay moist and soft for a week (although to tell you the truth I never actually got to verify this because it's always finished after a day).
And it is so easy you just can't get it wrong. It's almost magic. 
This cake should seriously be taught in school. 


Go ahead, bake it and tell me what you think, I'm interested ! 

The ultimate Moist Orange Cranberry cake

Ingredients

190 g all-purpose flour
3 g baking soda
2 g baking powder
120 g vanilla sugar
55 ml orange juice
1-1/3 eggs
160 ml buttermilk
120 ml vegetable oil
175 g fresh cranberries
8 g grated orange zest


1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a tube pan.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 cup the vanilla sugar, the orange juice, the eggs, the buttermilk, and the vegetable oil using an electric mixer. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until moistened. If you judge the mixture is too moist, add a little bit of flour.

3. Fold in the cranberries and orange zest. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.

4. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour (depending on your oven) until a knife inserted into the crown of the cake comes out clean.



Notes:

Regarding the egg, I know it sucks to have 1 egg and 1/3 but it really makes a perfect mixture whereas only 1 egg makes it too hard and 2 eggs to moist.

If you don't have buttermilk you can always make some yourself : place one tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar in a one cup measure. Fill to one cup mark with regular milk and let sit for five minutes.

As for your wine pairing,

cranberry wine could of course do the trick.
You may also go for champagne or white dry wine like Riesling. The lime and acidity will perfectly counterbalance the tartness of the cranberry.
 

The Loire's sweethearts

Most people don't really enjoy dessert wines.

They think they are too sweet, too heavy, too powerful. And a part from foie gras nobody really knows what to pair them with.

So they usually end up being stacked in a cellar, waiting for New Years Eve or at least for you to let go of your diet for one evening.

Yet I think this is a grave mistake.

Dessert wines in spite of their ridiculous name, should not only be kept for dessert. They can magnify a whole meal if you accept to let go of your cultural prejudices.

Dessert wines contain a high level of sugar and alcohol. This characteristic comes from the fact that they are made from mouldy grapes.

I know this does not sound very appetizing.

Yet in fact this mould is not just any mould: it is a noble mould, called Botrytis Cinerea, also dubbed "noble rot".

Wine makers can really be poets.

This idiosyncrasy is only possible when the weather is sufficiently moist during the autumn.

Therefore only a few regions in the world have the adequate climate to produce dessert wines.

In France, Sauternes, in the Bordeaux region is the most famous of them all. Just check out the price of a bottle of Château d'Yquem.

But there is also great noble rot wines in Alsace (some Gewürztraminer for example) or, as my main title suggests it, in the Loire Valley.

Chenin, (the Loire's main white grape) is the variety that produces these great dessert wines. There are 3 dessert wines in the Loire Valley:

- Coteaux-du-Layon

- Bonnezeaux

- Quart de Chaume

As they are much less known then their counterparts from Sauternes, these amazing wines also have the great advantage of being much cheaper.

But this is not their only asset! Also their general acidity (typical of Chenin) gives them the ability to age easily and provides them with an overall impression of aerial lightness which is a plus when you want to pair them with non dessert foods.

So you see these wines are magical with the appropriate pairing.

For instance, try to taste a Coteaux-du-Layon with a veal medallion and mushroom sauce.

Or dare and pair a Bonnezeaux with an Orange glazed duck.

Prunes or raisins go well with these wines too. Try it out, you'll be surprised.

Anything with a little honey, dried fruits or foie gras will do the trick.

It's not very complicated and I assure you having one of those at your table will make a huge difference.

Here is a Coteaux-du-Layon I tasted last week and paired with chicken stuffed with dried prunes. It was absolutely delicious.

Coteaux-du-Layon, Saint Lambert du Lattay, 2005

Michel Robineau

Selection grains nobles

Nose: very subtle, fresh peonies, apricot

Mouth: an explosion. Dried apricot, honey, a very well balanced acidity and a round attack. Very long lasting taste.

This wine is just a drop of gold diluted in your veins. It's powerful yet soft, fragrant yet delicate, sweet yet elegant. Overall you really feel there's something different about this wine, something noble and pure.

How to drink wine, recognize aromas ... and impress your friends !

It was a few years ago, in a fancy restaurant in Paris. The sommelier delicately poured a crimson colored wine in my glass. The moment was tantalizing. The beauty of terroir. I leaned forward to taste the wine and tell him it was great. Everyone was looking. Waiting. Expecting me to sigh with ecstasy. So I did, of course.


But it was corked.
And I thought it was just a very heavy smell of mushroom. Or someone's bad cologne. Or my nose. Hell, I didn't have a clue.

Now I'm pretty sure this could happen to anyone who doesn't have any experience in wine tasting. And it's ok. It happens. It would just be a shame for you to spend 200$ on cork juice for your wedding day.
That's why I decided to deliver my experience of and show you with a little "how to" post, precisely HOW TO drink wine, recognize aromas... and impress your friends !

1. The first and most important thing you need to do is train your nostrils.
Nowadays our noses have just about all their core functions. They are meant to smell, whiff, sniff, snivel, inhale, and mostly identify. But that last action takes practice. You need to learn what a food or flower smells like and memorize this scent. It should be a game really. Each time you go out in a garden or stand in your kitchen (or someone elses !) just try to deeply inhale and sniff everything you can get your hands on.
Ok so you may look a little dumb if your friend stumbles upon you with your nose stuck in a jar of mushroom.
But remember one thing, it is for the greater good: you may have lost your dignity, but next time you drink a 10 year-old Burgundy, you'll know there's truffle in there.


2. The second thing you should consider is, well, cheating.
Fumbling around your friends kitchen may be fun once or twice, but what will happen if people start thinking your a kleptomaniac, or a utensil fetishist? There must be another solution.
Well, there is my friends, and I, in my immense generosity, will promptly deliver it to you. It is a well kept secret. The secret to learning quickly how to recognize different scents without loosing all your friends.
Here is my secret weapon to shine in society and impress my friends with my super smelling skills (I know it sounds very sexy):
Le Nez du Vin, by Jean Lenoir.
A kit of 54 aromas captured in little flasks (the basic fragrances you can find in wine)so that you can train your nostrils until they die. I do not work for Mr Lenoir, nor do I have shares in his business, but I still really recommend anyone who wants to learn how to taste wine to buy it.






3. Drink and taste as much as you can.
But mostly don't just drink, take the time to reflect and think about what you are drinking. Why do you like it ? or not ? What aromas are predominant. Do you smell fruits, flowers ?



So next time you sit in a fancy restaurant, and the sommelier comes up to you and asks you to taste, don't be scared, if the wine is corked, you're allowed to say so. Just think about your little flask and try hard to remember if it corresponds to the same smell. Before you know it, it'll come naturally and you won't even have to think about your magic kit !

Sunday afternoon tea

A little bit of sweetness in my world of Chicken and wine.
It can't hurt, and with the dreadful weather we've been having in Paris today, I just felt like hanging around home with a couple of friends.
Hanging around with food of course.

So here's a little improvisation that comes from the Kumquats I found at my local market this morning. I don't usually cook them, there are lovely just like that.

Easy chicken recipe - my chicken run

Everyone eats chicken.
It's easy to make, tasty and not too expensive.
Actually, I'm lying.
It's not always tasty. In fact, more often then not, it's either cardboard hard, burnt or totally bland.

Independent Wine Makers Fair

Twice a year the Independent Wine Makers Fair (Salon des Vignerons Indépendants) takes place in Paris.

It's quite an event, and the occasion for amateur wine connoisseurs like me to discover small estates that are hardly sold on the mainstream wine market.

I went there with a couple of friends to experience the frenzy of tasting wines from 9am to 5 pm in a gigantic garage-like hall that held approximately 1000 wine makers.

We started out spitting our wine, but by 2pm we had completely forgotten all about our spitting cups. So I'm not sure my judgment on the last wines we tasted is totally accurate...

In fact, I realized the following morning that I had bought 3 times as much wine past that time.

Unfortunately, I don't think this is because we got lucky and found the best estates towards the end.

Chinese Sushi

I’m a big fan of sushis.

I love their scrumptious texture, the oily sensation they distil on your tongue, their melt-in-the mouth quality.

That’s when they are good of course. And fresh. Which is scarcely the case.

I don’t know if this is so in the US or England – I’m sure it’s not in Japan – but in France, or in Paris at least, Sushi restaurant are more often than not managed by Chinese people.

I discovered this a few years ago, when I was having lunch at a little sushi place and I heard the sushichef speaking Cantonese to one of his waiters.

Oh, and they had ha-kao on the menu. And spring rolls.

I know. I’m quite sagacious aren’t I ?

Armenia's finest

Dear Readers, I have a confession to make.

Half of my crazy family is Armenian.

We are all spread out around the world and almost none of us speak Armenian any more.

As for me, I haven't even been to Armenia.

Yet there is something that keeps us together. Something that seems to be intrinsicly linked to Armenian people and makes them stand out in a crowd.

I'm not talking about Armenian's way of wearing leopard print all the time. I'm not even referring to their overwhelming Christian faith. Or their so-called hatred of the Turks.

No, my friends, there is something much greater, that every Armenian will relate to and shares.

Love for food.