The Best of Tokyo, According to Lynn

Having lived in Tokyo for almost six years, I get approached a lot by friends and cyber-acquaintances for recommendations on sights to see and places to eat when they visit Japan. While I am by no means an expert on either subject, I do have a list of favorites. After typing out more or less the same responses at least half a dozen times in the past year, I finally got smart and decided to write it down in my blog so that the next time I’m asked I could easily attach a link instead of digging up all the information from the depth of my drawer and computer files all over again. So here it goes, in no particular order and highly subjective:

Asakusa:
You will see kaminarimon when you get out of the Asakusa subway station. It is the gateway with the giant red lantern that’s on all the tourist information brochures and post cards. Walk through it to find yourself in a little covered street lined with souvenir stores selling everything from snacks to key chains to doggie outfits. Most of them are quite cheesy but there are a few gems tucked in between, such as the store selling antique hair ornaments and combs and a paper store with endless varieties of Japanese paper. At the end of this street, just before you reach the Kanon temple, you will probably see some people waiting in line on the right side of the street. This is a must-stop for me every time I go to Asakusa, a little store selling Age-manjus, which are little deep fried buns with different fillings. My favorites are sesame and pumpkins.

Take a stroll in the kanon temple after your snack of Age-manju. Work up an appetite by seeing how ravenous the pigeons are, and find your way back up the market street. On one of the side streets on your right is a famous tempura restaurant. I can’t remember which street it is, but a fail-proof way to find it is to take a short walk down any street and look for a line of people waiting outside. I’ve personally never tried it because I haven’t had much luck with that place, but if you must eat lunch in Asakusa I suggest you eat there. Otherwise you’re likely to end up in one of the many many tourist trap restaurants in the area and be hugely disappointed. After lunch you can walk across the red bridge and take a look at infamous “golden turd” perched on top of the Asahi building.

Kappabashi:
If you have even the slightest interest in cooking or kitchen appliances, you must not skip this stop. It is on the Tawaramachi stop on Ginza line, within walking distance to Asakusa. Most shops are closed on Sundays and Public holidays and are crowded on Saturdays so the best time to go is on a weekday, during the day. I can go on and on about the things you will find on this street, but suffice to say, if it has anything to do with food, you’ll find it here. For dessert enthusiasts who don’t have a lot of time to check out all the stores, go straight to Okashinomori (it’s on the second floor with a small street entrance). You’ll find most of everything here, although prices tend to be slightly higher.

Meiji Jingu aka Meiji Shrine
Subway station Jingumae on Chiyoda subway line or Harajuku on the JR Yamanote line.
Right smack in the middle of lively Harajuku, yet as soon as you step through the first gigantic torii only tranquility and utter peacefulness awaits you.

Place a 100yen coin in a slot and shake out a stick from a metal can. Find the drawer with the corresponding number on the stick and get your fortune (it’s in English too). If it’s good fortune, keep it with you so it can come true. If you don’t like it, tie it on a tree branch so it can be taken away with the wind. Or purchase a wooden plaque and write your wish on it, then tie it to the designated racks where thousands of others have done the same.

If you are lucky you might catch a glimpse of the Crown Prince or the Prime Minister at the shrine or a wedding procession all decked out in traditional kimonos, led by a priest under a big red umbrella.

Wear appropriate shoes because you’ll be walking on tiny pebbles the entire way in, no short cuts.

Harajuku – Omotesando
After visiting the shrine, take a left and walk towards Harajuku station. Walk past the first station entrance and at the next, smaller entrance cross the street at the traffic light. You are now at the entrance of Takeshita-dori, home to the mega 100yen shop and cos-play costume stores. Walk down this street and you’ll come out on Meiji-dori. Take a right and walk to the intersection marked by La Foret on your right and Gap on your left. Here you can eigher continue on Meiji-dori to go to Shibuya, or take a left and walk down Omotesando-dori, dubbed the Champs-Élysées of Tokyo, it is home to luxury brand boutiques and the super chic Omotesando Hills. You'll also love the unique architecture of some of the flagship stores. My favorite is the bubble-like Prada store on the other side of Aoyama-dori, the Japan Nurses Association HQ, which houses Burberry, and Dior, whose silvery curtain can change color.

If you get hungry while on Omotesando, there are a few places to grab a quick bite:
Jangara Ramen, 1-13-21 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Get the “all-in” (zenbu iri) or, if you don’t like mentaiko, ask for mentaiko-nuki. The ramen is Kyushu styled, with a very rich broth. Best to avoid in summer.

Harajuku Gyoza, Jingumae 6-2-4, Shibuya-ku, behind Kiddie Land toy store
They have four types of dumplings: boiled with chive, boiled without chive, fried with chive, fried without chive. Get one of each, it’s very cheap. The chili dipping oil in jars placed on the table is not to be missed. I also like to order their cucumber salad with a very nice peanut dressing.

Azabu Juban – Roppongi Hills
Take exit 5a (Shin-Ichinobashi intersection) of Azabujuban station on the Oedo line, turn left and walk towards Roppongi Hills, turn left again at Jomo gas station. On the left side of the street is a little store called Naniwaya selling nothing but taiyaki. Unlike other taiyaki’s spongy shell, theirs is crispy and thin. They only have one type of filling too: red bean paste. On most days you’ll have to wait for at least 20 minutes but if you are lucky and go on a rainy day you may not have to wait. It’s best to eat it right there on the stop when the skin is still crunchy and the filling piping hot.

Continue walking down the street and you will hit Azabu Juban’s main street. Turn right and shortly afterwards you’ll see a store on a street corner selling mostly snacks made of peanuts. The store is called Mamegen. My favorites are the umeshiso and green tea covered peanuts.

Follow the main street to the end to find yourself at TV Asahi’s new modern headquarter. Check out the Mori garden and explore Roppongi Hills. Don’t miss the spider sculpture and the observation deck in Mori Tower.

Restaurants:
The restaurant that we visited the most was probably Teyandei, our neighborhood Izakaya. We’d show up on a Sunday night with no reservation and it would be ok. Weekdays are little more tricky so it’s best to call ahead. Our favorite dishes there are chirimen cabbage salad with jakko (ask the manager to make it for you if it’s not on the menu); unagi tamago atsuyaki; deep fried yamaimo (mountain yam); gomadofu (sesame tofu); buta-no-kakuni (braised pork); and ochatsuke (rice with dashi poured on top).

One word of warning, the restaurant’s entrance is not very conspicuous. From the outside it looks like someone’s house and the sign is a wooden board no bigger than a name card nailed to the wall. Walk upstairs, however, you’ll see an unmarked wooden door. This is the entrance to Teyandei.

While in Roppongi Hills area, there are two nice restaurants in the neighborhood:
L’Atelier de Joel Robouchon (5772-7500) and Aburiya Fudo Azabu-Juban 1-8-6 (3568-6224). It goes without saying that Robouchon needs no further intro, and the food is excellent. However, they only take reservation for the 6:30pm seating and the place only has counter seats. Aburiya Fudo is an Izakaya type of restaurant specializing in slow grilled food. From the freshest of mountain vegetables to the fattiest cut of meat, they do everything perfectly.

Daiwa Sushi in Tsukiji fish market is worth a visit if you don’t mind waiting. (there is ALWAYS a line) You can get up early, catch the tuna auction and head over to Daiwa before 6:30am or some sushi breakfast. The Omakase set contains the freshest catch and varies from day to day. We always order that plus a few pieces of uni and ootoro to finish. Hurry up and go before the entire Tsukiji market is torn down and moved to its new locations.
Tsukiji Market Central Building 65-2-1

If you are in the mood for some fine dining while in Tokyo, Sens & Seveurs atop the Marunochi Building will never disappoint. The food is always fantastic, the staff always attentive and the view is amazing too.

Patisseries
My favorite subject. First, let me just say that if you go to the basement of Mitsukoshi or Isetan or any major department store you will be spoiled for choices and most of them are really good. But if that’s not enough to satisfy your very discerning taste buds, I have the following recommendations. They are, in my opinion, crème de lacrème. I hope you enjoy them too.

Idemi
3-6-17 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku 3538-6780
Get there early (before 9:30am) to avoid disappointment, as most items will be sold out by lunch hour. Many cakes cannot be taken out of the shop so be prepared to eat everything there.

Patisserie Paris S’eveille
2-14-5 Jiyugaoka, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 5731- 3230

Sadaharu Aoki
3-4-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Shin-Kokusai Bldg 1F 5293-2800

La Maison du Chocolat, next door to Sadaharu Aoki, so you might as well. Their chocolate tart is very good.

Patissier Chocolatier Frederic Scailteur
1-11-10 Azabudai, Minato-Ku

Pierre Hermé
La Porte Aoyama (5-51-3 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku) next to the UN building.

My “To-Visit” list:
Mont St. Clair
2-22-4 Jiyugaoka, Meguro-ku, Tokyo

Toshi Yoroizuka
Midtown, Tokyo

Halloween Bakes

Without a question, my favorite holiday is Christmas. Even though it’s becoming more and more over-commercialized, I still enjoy seeing all the Christmas decorations and hearing the carols, not to mention the sweet aroma of gingerbread cookies baking in the oven.

My second favorite holiday, also without a question, is Halloween. It is probably not a coincidence that it happens in the peak of autumn when all the leaves are the deepest shade of gold and the air is crisp with just the hint of the approaching winter. The fact that autumn is the season of harvest with no shortage of ciders, caramel apples, chestnuts and pumpkins among other yummy things, also does not hurt. The most fun part of Halloween, of course, is trick or treat. You never really outgrow it. Mind you, I’m not saying I want to dress up in silly costumes and go knocking on doors for candy, but buying candies and waiting anxiously by the door to see what/who turns up shouting “Trick or Treat” is something I never get tired of. Outside of the US, trick or treat is rare. While we were in Tokyo, the Americans in our neighborhood organized trick or treat for kids. Knowing exactly whose kids will turn up at your doorstep takes a little bit of fun out of it, but I still looked forward to seeing the kids in cute costumes. And if you know me, you’d know I must really love Halloween to want to see kids at my door!

This year, I decided to celebrate and introduce Halloween to Singaporeans by holding a Halloween baking class on Oct 14th from 11am to 2pm at Palate Sensations. We’ll be making chocolate spider web cupcakes and witch’s broomstick cookies. The cupcakes are soft and fluffy, topped with a chocolate sauce. It is NOT overly sweet but full of chocolate flavors. Although Jason teased me that the cookies don’t really look like broomsticks, I think they’re cute. They also taste great too, not to mention tons of fun to make. It was nice to let the kid inside me out to create something less perfect and more fun, instead of my usual elaborate cakes.

Long overdue

Yes, I know it’s been a VERY LONG time since my last post. Long story short, the minute I came back to Singapore from Provence I was swamped with work, both pastry and a big photo assignment, leaving me with little time to sleep, let alone blogging. I did manage to sift through the thousands of photos I took in Provence and sent them off to friends and family, but even that took almost a month to do, which misled some people into thinking that I was in Provence for a month! Ha! Don’t I wish.

Anyway, what brought me out of blogging hibernation is the strong desire to share with everyone the single most awe-inspiring experience out of my entire Provence trip. That one thing that inspired me. Ladies and gentlemen. (drum rolls) Is. Lavender.

Granted, I’ve always been a huge fan of lavenders. My body lotion and handwash are both lavender scented. I have sachets of lavender in my sock drawers. I have bought up just about every lavender product that Loccitane carries, including a linen water that I never use. To sum it up, as long as it’s lavender and purple, I want it. However, self-proclaimed lavender fan that I was, I was not prepared for the lavenders that I would encounter in Provence. Everywhere you turn, there are giant fuzzy purple balls greeting you. A single lavender stalk is pretty enough to look at but an entire field of rows upon rows of purple poof balls were simply mesmerizing. Not to mention they smelled heavenly too. I was falling in love with lavender all over again. I simply had to take a photo of every lavender field we encountered and went to villages for the sole reason of lavender viewing. No matter how many times I saw the same farm-house-in-the-middle-of-lavender-field view, I just would not get tired of it.

During our two-week stay in Provence we cooked more than half of the food that we ate. Our friends were in charge of food, since they are French and know more about French food, and I was in charge of desserts. Given the constraints of equipment in the kitchen, I mostly made tarts: strawberry, apple, apricot, cheese, cherry, etc. One night though, I made lavender ice cream, without an ice cream machine. Out of all the desserts I made in the little house in Murs, that ice cream was, in my mind, the one thing that summed up the essence of Provencal life the best. Granted, I used local fruits for all the tarts but I went into the garden and picked out the plumpest lavender blossom for the ice cream myself. Somehow that act of touching the blossoms and inhaling the fragrance amongst the bees busy collecting nectar made me feel like somewhat like a provencal farmer. Then there’s the hand churning of ice cream, which is the ultimate testament of my infatuation with lavender. I stayed up until midnight taking the custard out of the freezer every 15 minutes or so to give it a stir, at first with a wooden spoon and later on with a hand-held blender on low speed. We didn’t get to eat the ice cream until the next day but it was worth the wait. The freshly harvested flowers gave the ice cream a strong but not overwhelming lavender flavor that was so refreshing and intoxicating at the same time. All that churning made an old wrist injury flare up but there was no doubt in my mind that it was absolutely a necessary sacrifice.

Without further delay, here’s the recipe for the ice cream:


250ml milk
250ml cream
generous handful of lavender flower, plus extra for sprinkling
6 egg yolks
90g caster sugar

Provence, here I come

I never thought I’d be so depressed going to Provence. We’ve been talking going with our friends Albin and Agnes for years and finally made the booking in February. Both Albin and Agnes are food lovers and avid cooks so the idea is to go for two weeks, rent a villa, go to the market in the morning, lay by the pool during the day and cook and eat and be merry. Agnes is bringing all her food recipes and I am in charge of desserts. We have also talked our friends Gaurang and Christine into joining us for the first week. It promises to be a great vacation for all.

Then three days ago something happened at work and Jason had to cancel. My first reaction was to cancel my trip too, but we have two other couples expecting us there and it just wouldn’t be nice to not show up. So now I’m going solo. While poor Jason’s stuck at work, I have to figure out how to get myself from CDG airport to Gare Lyod, use the rail pass to catch the TGV to Avignon, find the rental car office and drive myself to our villa in a little village called Murs, which is 30km away. I feel like I’m in a nightmare where I’m a contestant in the Amazing Race, except I don’t have a partner to read the map while I drive. Albin and Agnes are nice enough to come and meet me at the train station so I can just follow their car back to Murs. I hope I can remember the roads because two days later I am going back to pick up Gaurang and Christine.

We are hoping that Jason can come and join me for the second week, but there’s a chance that he might not make it at all. So there I was, going to the supermarket before I leave to stock up for Jason, and somehow I found myself shopping for clothes. This is what I do when I get depressed, I shop. A shirt, a pair of pants, a skirt, a necklace and a pair of earrings later, I don’t feel any better. That’s the thing about depression shopping, it rarely makes you feel better but you just can’t help yourself. I’m hoping the beautiful scenery in Provence and the company of good friends will do the trick.

Provence, here I come, alone =o(

Aurum - Pure Gold

A while ago my friend Lisa asked me if I had ever heard of this restaurant in Spain where they do crazy stuff with food. She was referring to molecular gastronomy by Ferran Adrià at his restaurant El Bulli, which is only open half the year. Ferran Adrià spends the rest of the year in his “lab” developing new recipes. She said it sounded really interesting and wondered if there was any place in Singapore where they serve up food that way. To be perfectly honest, I go through some pretty elaborate steps sometimes to make my desserts look pretty but I’ve always preferred my food to look like food. That said, being the open-minded person that I am (tee-hee), I’m always up to trying new things, especially when it comes to food. As luck would have it, there is a restaurant in Singapore called in Aurum that does this type of avant-grade food and Palate Sensations has convinced the executive chef to do a demonstration class. I thought seeing how the food was made would be a perfect way to get to know what the big fuss is all about, and I can make up my mind about the food after actually tasting it. I promptly signed us up for the class, and even though it was a month in advance, the class was almost full!

A month flew by quickly and today was the day of the demonstration. Even though I didn’t know where Aurum was in Clark Quay, the place was hard to miss. The reception area downstairs looks like a morgue, with a secret passageway that leads upstairs hidden behind one of the panel of stainless steel “body drawers.” After making my way up the narrow spiral staircase, I find myself inside a dark room fitted to look like a disco bar, except one side of the wall is a stainless steel lined kitchen space. The bar tables and stools are shaped like scored medine pills and the overhead lamps in the kitchen resemble surgical lamps in OR’s.

Being Singapore, even though the class was supposed to start at 10am, some particpants arrived fashionably late and it wasn’t until 10:30am that the lesson finally got on its way. Executive chef Edward Voon introduced his whole team to us at the beginning of the class. A lot of them have represented Singapore in international competitions and most came from large hotels. The team is young and energetic and you get a sense that these guys are all really passionate about the food they make and there is good comraderee among the team members.

The first item on the menu was Sicilian Green Olives, but of course there is a twist. The olives are blended to a thick emulsion with olive oils and calcium chloride. This is left to settle overnight and scooped up in rounded tablespoonfuls and dropped into a solution of sodium alginate, which is a seaweed extract and helps the liquid olive emulsion to solidify into spheres resembling olives. The “olives” are given a final rinse in clear water before being placed in a spoon to serve. Chef Edward warned us not to bite it open but to eat the whole thing and sure enough, as soon as you bite into one, the entire “olive” bursts open to release the intensely flavored olive emulsion inside. The experience was quite awe inspiring, especially after seeing how it was made right in front of our eyes.

The next item was Parmesan cheese on toast, except parmesan was parmesan water (paremesan cheese with the oily part taken out, cooked and piped out in a siphon). It was light as air in texture and had all the cheesy flavors without the heaviness.

The third item was carrot cotton candy. Carrots were blended in a thermomixer (which blends and heats up the mixture at the time, allowing some water to evaporate) into a thick paste. It was then rolled into a thin piece (think fruit roll-ups) between parchment paper and let out to dry over night. The carrot “paper” is then torn into small pieces, and threaded onto skewers. It was then to the cotton candy machine where they were coated in cotton candy. It brought back memories of carnivals and summer fairs and the carrot flavor combined surprisinly well with the sweet candy taste.

We moved onto the appetizer of Confit and Cured Atlantic Salmon, Broccoli Couscous Salad, Verjus Apple Emulsions and Mango Relish after the snacks. This was the dish that won Chef Edward a gold metal at an international competition and let me tell you it was well deserved. The salmon was cured in sugar and salt for two hours before being sealed in a vaccum bag with lemon peel, peppercorn, bay leaf, lemon thyme and olive oil. It was then poached in a 60C waterbath for 20 minutes. After tasting this, I’ve decided that this is how I am going to cook my salmon from now on. The texture was amazingly smooth and the flesh maintains the vibrant deep red color without ever turning into the yucky milky pink color that you normally associate with cooked salmon. This beautiful piece of fish is plated with Broccoli Couscous Salad, Verjus Apple Emulsions and Mango Relish.

The soup course followed and I have to admit that at this point all I could think about was how hungry I was getting watching all that cooking so I wasn’t paying as much attention to the cooking method. Luckily, the Pea Soup with lemon compote, spinach and nutty langoustine was pretty straight forward. The pea soup consists of peas only with only a little bit of water added to assist blending. The taste was pure and refreshing and played off so well with the slightly tart citrusy lemon compote and the fragrant langoustine. Another course that can be done at home, yay!

The main dish came next, which was a Crackling Suckling Pig with Citrus Puree, Ratte Potato Terrine, Gin & Juniper Sauce. The pig was cured in salt and juniper berries for one hour, poached in a vaccum bag for 14 hours, baked at 180C for half and hour, and then deep fried! Definitely not doing this at home! The surprise of this dish for me was the citrus puree. The pith part of the lemon peel was used, but because of the blanching process, which was repeated six times, and the overnight soaking in syrup, the resulting puree had none of the bitterness but all the fragrant citrus taste. I just might try this at home one of these days when I make lemonade and don’t want to waste all that lemon skin, maybe.

We finally make to the dessert dish: Vanilla Ice cream served with Nitro Green Tea & Olive Oil and raspberry petals. What’s raspberry petals you say? They are the individual segments of a raspberry. To separate them, liquid nitrogen was poured over raspberries in a tray. This has a similar effect of freeze drying the fruits, allowing the berries to be smashed into individual components withouth crushing them. The other topping was made by blending green tea powder into olive oil and whisking into a pool of liquid nitrogen. This process makes the mixture into little millet-sized particles. I first had my doubts about how a green tea olive oil concoction would go with vanilla ice cream but the resulting combo was surprisingly good.

I had to rush out at this point because I have scheduled a macaron class at home, but Chef Edward had one more surprise in store for us. It’s called “where’s my cappuccino.” The technique involved was apparently top secret as Chef Edward kept on blocking my field of version so I couldn’t see how it was made. The little cup was served upside down on a saucer. When you pick it up, you think there’s nothing inside, and you only see the foamy mixture after you flip over the cup. Whimsical? Yes! Creative? Definitely! Yummilicious? You bet!

Needless to say, Lisa and I are now converts and we are plotting to bring our husbands back for a degustation dinner.

Aurum, Block 3C, The Cannery, Clark Quay
** Aurum is moving at the end of July to another location within the Cannery, at which time it will be closed for two weeks.

Cherry Millefeuille

Just a very short post to report that I finally found a way to use up the bad griottes. Following some blogger’s suggestions, I removed the griottes from the alcohol syrup and soaked them in syrup instead, hoping the strong alcohol taste would leech out. That didn’t work.

Along came Cherry, who virtually put me on house arrest because I had to watch her constantly, sneaking to a different room only when she’s taking a nap. During one such long day at home I found a recipe for cherry millefeuille using both fresh American cherry and alcohol soaked griotte. The griotte is chopped and cooked and reduced to a semi-confit. This is then made into a griotte cream for the bottom layer. The top layer is standard pastry cream with cut fresh cherry halves embedded inside. I thought it was fitting to make a dessert with cherries, to honor Cherry’s arrival into our family, plus I had a whole day to kill.

The feuilletage inverse came out pretty well, after I turned the AC way down and used a tray of ice water to cool the marble counter. I was worried about shrinkage during baking since I needed the entire surface of my 30x40cm baking sheet to get three slices large enough to fill my long rectangular mold. Luckily the shrinkage was minimal and I managed to cut out three pieces with only a few slivers of cut-offs left. Cooking the griottes turned out to be the magic trick as it mellowed the harsh alcohol taste, allowing all the layers to pull together harmoniously. Unfortunately, since it took me the whole day to make it, we didn’t get to eat it until the next day. By that time, the feuilletage layers have soaked up some moisture and were a little soggy. If cherries are still decent when we come back from France I’m going to make this again, and this time we’ll eat it right away.

Meet Cherry Garcia!

We spent the last five or six years wanting a second dog to keep Princess Libby company. She indicated earlier on that she’s partial to golden retrievers and border collies. Since border collies usually require plenty of outdoor space for exercise we decided that a golden retriever is more suitable for our city lifestyle. The plan was to get a golden retriever puppy after we come back from France at the end of July. Her name was to start with the letter “J”, after Jason, since Libby has my initials. Well, so much for planning.

Last week, when I was browsing through photos on flickr, I saw a cute puppy in one of my contacts’ photo stream. It’s a four-month old mongrel puppy waiting to be adopted. I fell in love instantly, not only because she’s cute, but also because she reminds me of Libby when she was a pup. We drove out to meet her the very next day with Libby in tow. She seems to be a happy and healthy puppy so we decided to take her home for a one-week trial, mainly to see if Libby would accept her as a second dog.

One week later, things are looking good for the puppy. Libby has been, for the most part, tolerant of the new addition to her pack. Wrinkled lips and growling does occur every now and then, but it’s all in the necessary education of the new pup. For a pup that was paper-trained, she’s only had three accidents in the house in the past week.(update, she had two more accidents on the day I wrote this post, sigh) I’ve been taking her out every time she wakes up from a nap and every time she eats, which amounts to every 2-3 hours. The aim was to not give her any chance to do her business inside. Today, she came up with a way to tell me that she wants to go out by going to the hallway door and wait. What a smart little girl! We changed her name from Cherish to Cherry, short for Cherry Garcia. And she is here to stay!

On the non-toilet related fronts however, she’s not such a good girl. When she first arrived she had the bad habit of mouthing people when she plays. I am a firm believer that under no circumstances are a dog’s teeth ever to touch human flesh, except during teeth brushing so I have my work cut out for me. She still chews things that she shouldn’t (just today her sharp puppy teeth cut through the power cord to our cordless phone in 2 seconds) but she’s getting much better with people. She needs constant supervision and either doesn’t understand the meaning of “NO” or is too stubborn to listen. She tests her limits constantly and is not discouraged if her attempt fails the first time. We have to remind ourselves constantly that she’s only four months old and can’t be compared to Libby, who’s just about the most perfect dog one can hope for. It is frustrating training a puppy but I do know that if we are strict at the beginning our lives and hers will be much easier later on. We can always spoil her later, when she’s grown up to be a well-mannered adult, but for now I’m sounding like a broken record: “NO Cherry!” “Ouch Cherry!” “Off Cherry!” “BAD DOG, Cherry!”

See more of Cherry's photos here.

BBBB, aka, Beer Braised Beef Brisket

When I saw the one off event Cook and Eat Meat hosted by Home Mades to raise awareness of iron deficient anemia, and to get more women to eat meat, I thought, why not? I haven’t been anemic since adolescence, but I’m a woman, and I do crave a big hunk of nicely cooked meat once in a while. Although I enjoy a nicely grilled medium-rare wagyu steak, I usually leave Jason to order that and take a few slices from his plate. Don’t get me wrong, I normally like dishes where you can actually taste the food, and nothing epitomize this better than a well executed steak, but somehow when I think of meat, more hearty dishes such as cassoulet, braised pig trotters, oxtail soup and beef briskets come to mind. I could almost never pass them up whenever they’re on the menu, especially beef briskets, be it a steamy bowl of beef brisket noodles or a beef brisket clay pot. I like the gelatinous tendons cooked to soft, melt in your mouth perfection, and the multitude of flavors soaked up in the meat.

While I was in Shanghai recently I stumbled upon a food magazine called Betty’s Kitchen. It is just a normal glossy filled with recipes and cooking tips, but the magazine also runs a website which updates regularly with more recipes and feedbacks from readers. When I finally got around to type in the url, the first page that popped up contained a beef brisket recipe cooked in beer. I’ve always stayed away from Chinese dishes with complex flavors because the recipes never really tell you how much of the ingredients to add, but Betty’s recipe was very detailed and contained none of the cryptic descriptions so common to Chinese recipes. The addition of beer to the cooking stock also piqued my interest, for I really enjoy the taste of alcohol in my food.

Chinese braised meat dishes usually involve hours of slow simmering and watching the pot to make sure it doesn’t boil over. I usually circumvent this by using my slow cooker, but now that we’ve moved to Singapore where the voltage is 220V, my Cuisinart 110-volt slow cooker had been put into storage. Not wanting to be tied to the stove for half a day I decided use my Le Creuset dutch oven. I did the prep work before noon, place it everything in the Le Creuset and brought it to a simmer. I then slid everything in the oven set to 80 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the stock is barely bubbling, just below the boiling point, and it’s heated from all the directions, much like a slow cooker. Cooking it this way allowed me to go out for lunch and tea with friends and come home to a kitchen smelling of wonderful braised beef brisket, just in time for dinner.

That night we ate the beef with a bowl of white rice and some roasted baby carrots. The next day, I boiled some eggs, cut a few slits into the surface and cooked them in the meat stock until the eggs turned brown. We then had beef brisket noodle soup with the eggs. The flavors were so robust and multifaceted that it was quite possibly the best beef brisket I’ve ever had.

Here is the recipe with some modifications: (I increased the amount of rock sugar because I like some sweetness in my braised meat)

1.2kg Beef brisket
8 dried red chili pepper
80g ginger, minced
3 carrots, roughly chopped
15 white button mushrooms
10 cloves garlic
3 whole star anise
3 bay leaves
15 whole Sichuan peppercorn
1 tsp anise seed
3 tbsp rock sugar
250ml light soy sauce (Sheng Chou)
18 oz beer
1 tbsp vegetable oil

1. Cut brisket into large pieces
2. Heat vegetable oil over medium heat. Add rock sugar and stir fry until golden
3. Add Sichuan peppercorn, chili pepper, ginger and garlic
4. Turn heat on high, add beef brisket and stir fry until most of the liquid is gone
5. Add beer and the same amount of warm water. Bring to a boil and skim top
6. Add light soy sauce, star anise, bay leaves, and anis seed. Bring to a boil
7. Cover and simmer for 2.5 hours, until meat is tender
8. Add carrots and mushrooms. Cover and simmer for another half an hour