nanamoose Musings

A Beauty Unfulfilled 虛有美麗空殼的目覺三店

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I was absolutely mesmerized when I stepped into Mezamashi Kohi’s “trio” store on Jing Cheng Seventh Street in Taichung. One of the most beautiful cafes I’ve ever seen, Kohi sits nestled in the Jing Cheng Street area, a former US Army Dependants Village, amongst a small cluster of interesting cafes, restaurants, and even B&Bs. These side streets off Jing Cheng Road boasts two storey houses with red gates, green and blue tiles, huge gardens, and many still adorned with traditional details like geometrically shaped window grilles.

Mezamashi Kohi looks like something straight out of Kyoto. Concrete slabs and a mix of dark and light wood panels form the basis of this beautiful compound. Large windows, floor to ceiling glass panels and a slotted wooden screen ensure that plenty of light flows into this airy space. The main seating area is slightly raised by a low wooden platform so that their kitchen looks somewhat depressed. An eye-catching red Kitchenaid sits squarely in the middle of this showcase kitchen while everywhere else is stainless steel, white tiles, or wooden cabinets.

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On the second floor, two huge black pendant lights hang above a long wooden bench from a gabled roof, while on another table a lone green apple sits on top of a pile of neatly folded napkins. And in the backdrop, through an open window, the green tiled roof of a neighbour’s pavilion beckons.

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With a Japanese name but homegrown in Taichung, the original 目覺 (as it is more often called in Chinese) shops serve coffee, tea, simple pastries and Japanese fusion style brunch foods like mentaiko and seaweed or pickled onions and salmon on toasted baguette. Kohi’s third shop on Jing Cheng Seventh Street, still in its soft opening phase when I visited, was serving only drinks and a handful of pastries. I ordered a milk tea and pineapple and early grey ice-cream but to my dismay the milk tea arrived with bits of skin (from the heating of milk that is) floating about and a dabble of cream slopped in. Very unattractive. The ice-cream was also mediocre – we do a much better job at teakha I must say.

Despite the less than satisfactory food, 目覺三店 Mezamashi Kohi’s trio is still worth a visit, if only for its beauty and for the chance to dream upon such amazing space which we will never have in Hong Kong.

Mezamashi Kohi’s “trio” 目覺三店 is at 1 Jing Cheng Seventh Street, Taichung
台中市精誠七街1號
tel: (886) 04-23292566

Sherlock Holmes in Osaka

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Coming out of the National Museum of Art and walking towards the Okawa River I discovered a nondescript building belonging to one of Osaka’s leading creative units “graf” and their lovely café “fudo” on the second floor. Like a utilitarian version of Whiple in Taipei or a grander version of Hong Kong’s After School Café, fudo is laden with the “tools of life” that are the hear of soul of graf’s designs – function and practicality oriented designer objects that are meant to be used for a long time.

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When I came downstairs from a most satisfying lunch however, I discovered something even more interesting. It was the annual Tweed Run, a group bicycle ride first initiated in London in 2009 during which cyclists are expected to dress in traditional British cycling attire, particularly tweed plus four suits (breeches or trousers that extend 4 inches (10 cm) below the knee). Classic vintage bicycles are encouraged and any effort to recreate the spirit of a bygone era is always appreciated. Since 2009 the run has spread to more than 25 cities around the world, including Tokyo. It was Osaka’s first Tweed Run this year, and graf was one of the rest stops sponsoring tea and cakes. It was like stepping into a Sherlock Holmes movie set in the middle of Osaka, with cyclists donning pipes, bow ties, hats and all carrying their own dainty porcelain teacups.

What do you say to teakha hosting Hong Kong’s first Tweed Run?

graf is at Address:
graf bld., 4-1-18 Nakanoshima, Kita-ku, Osaka
Open: 12:00-20:00 (Closed on Mon&Except holidays)
Tel: 06-6459-2121

Favourite Tea Spots: Mado Mado in Kobe, Japan

Flipping through some of the pictures I have taken in the past year finding references for my forthcoming teashop I was delighted to find images of Mado Mado in Kobe. Perhaps it was the unpleasantness of the trip (it was not Kobe itself I assure you, rather it was the company) that had subconsciously forced memories of Kobe out of my head, but Mado Mado is in fact, thinking back, one of my favourite teashops in the world, and one that is perhaps closest in style and philosophy to my own.

A wood-laden, rustic, organic, and laid back tearoom with pages upon pages of different milk teas and chais to choose from – what were the chances of me stumbling upon this heavenly place? Moreover, their black teas are all single estate and carefully graded according to origin and quality, for example FOP/ TGFOP (flowery orange pekoe / tippy golden flowery orange pekoe), a dedication few people in this coffee & wine overloaded society would recognize and understand. Back home, I did a quick search online and found that Mado Mado is in fact only one of Mahisa’s four tearooms in Kobe all dedicated to black tea in its different shapes and forms. Perhaps Kobe is in fact the black tea lover’s lost paradise?

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Tearoom Mahisa
神戸市中央区下山手通2-1-12　エーコービルB1　
tel: 078-333-7451
open13:00〜23:00（土日祝12:00〜）

Tearoom Mahisa
神戸市東灘区本山北町3-6-9
tel: 078-451-8411
open12:00〜21:00

Tearoom Mado Mado
神戸市中央区三宮町3-2-2　伊藤ビル2F　
tel: 078-332-7590
open11:30〜21:00

Tearoom Organ
神戸市中央区三宮町2-5-11　2F　
tel: 078-333-5319
open11:30〜21:00

Tokyo Finds: Ippodo Tearoom

I have been dreaming about Ippodo teas since I left Kyoto earlier this year. I was hence super excited to hear about their first teashop opening in Tokyo from my friend Alisa, and hurried to visit first thing.

Ippodo is a teahouse more than three centuries old. However, its first tearoom outside of Kyoto, the Kaboku Tearoom in the Marunouchi district in Tokyo, aims to bring a young edge to this old traditional tea brand with cute, almost whimsical packaging and clean, sleek lines in the form of dark, solid wood. Guests choose from a small selection of three different categories of teas, matcha, gyokuro (the finest and most expensive form of Japanese tea), sencha and bancha (often referred to as common tea), all of which contains three more kinds of teas within each plus a matching dessert for guests to choose from.

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We ordered the o-buku-cha (literally, great happiness tea), a specialty tea drunk around New Year’s time, paired with a lovely, soft and fluffy dorayaki. The waitress patiently explained how to brew our tea and left us to play with the tea amongst ourselves. Ah… such fragrant tea!

I know not many of you would agree, but this was already worth my flight to Tokyo.

Ippodo Tokyo is at Kokusai Bldg. 1F 3-1-1 Marunouchi Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo 100-0005
Tel: +81-3-6212-0202
Hours:
Store: 10:00 am to 7:00 pm
Kaboku Tearoom: 10:30 am to 6:30 pm ('last call' 6:00 pm)

Tokyo Finds: Omotesando Koffee

On a quiet side street branching out from busy Omotesando lies an old Japanese style house with a peculiar brass cube structure standing in its main room. At first sight you might be tempted to think of it as a contemporary exhibition of some sort, but on closer inspection you will soon be greeted by sweet whiffs of coffee aroma and sounds of happy chatter between owner barista Eiichi Kunitomo working on his La Cimbali machine and his loyal customers, many neighbours living in the area.

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Mr. Kunitomo came to Tokyo a few years ago to open Bread and Espresso, having started his career as a barista in Osaka. He has since then moved on to become a coffee consultant, counting Tyler Brule as one of his biggest fans and now supplying Tokyo’s Monocle Café with his coffees. Omotesando Koffee was his pet project to test out new innovative ways of serving coffee. Mr. Kunitomo came across the owner of this 60 year-old house and persuaded him to let him use it as a mobile coffee kiosk.

“A kiosk is the perfect form. Not only is the space cost-effective so that I can focus my efforts on the quality of the coffee, it also allows for intimate, personalized attention to our customers. I can also easily move this kiosk to a new location from time to time,” says Mr. Kunitomo. However, this space has since proved so popular with locals and expats alike that Mr. Kunitomo has persuaded the house owner to let him stay and allow the rest of the house to be used as a museum exhibiting rare books.

Come quickly, before the Monocle fans overrun it.

OMOTESANDO KOFFEE
Address: 4-15-3 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Opening Hours: 10:00-19:00
Tel: 03-5413-9422

Bejewelled by Roselle...

I fell in love with roselle flowers earlier this year making roselle scones for sale at Taipei’s Simple Market. I have always had the flower in dried form from Thailand from which it is then made into a chilled, syrupy, sour tea reminiscent to Ribena. However, little did I know that its preserved form works wonders when incorporated into various foods. My roselle scones were a big hit, the roselle imbuing a tinge of its beautiful, bright red colour to the flaky crumbs.

I was pleasantly surprised to find fresh roselle available in the markets in Hong Kong lately. Turns out that roselle is only in season at this time of the year, for a short 3 months, from October to December. Originally grown in India and subtropical climates in Southeast Asia, roselle is a perennial woody-based shrub which flowers blossom from around July to October. As the fruit matures and when the flower wilts, the stout calyx would enlarge to become thick, fleshy and bright red in colour, a version of roselle we’ve come to know the flower as. These matured calyces have antihypertensive properties and are known to improve digestion and to regulate menstrual cycles.

I bought three catties of fresh organic roselle from the farmer’s market at Star Ferry Central the other day and immediately got down to work. I’m going to make preserved roselle to be used in making scones and roselle jam for spreading.

First, to clean the petals we need to get rid of the seed.

1. Cut open the bottom part of the calyx.
2. Push out the seed from the bottom with a chopstick.
3. Clean the outer and inner surface of the roselle with a toothbrush.

Roselle Jam

Ingredients

500g Roselle
250ml Water
500g Natural Cane Sugar

Method

1. Cut roselle into small pieces
2. Cook the cut-up roselle in non-stick frying pan over low heat, stirring continuously to make sure that it does not burn. When roselle start to ooze out a jelly-like substance, add water until roselle turns into a paste. This will take a bit of work, so be patient.
3. Add sugar and cook till completely melted.
4. Transfer into jam jar. The jam will keep in a refrigerator for 2-3 weeks.

Preserved Roselle

Ingredients

500g Roselle
6-8 tbsp Natural Cane Sugar

Method

1. Dry up the roselle with a kitchen towel.
2. Mix roselle with two tablespoons sugar in big mixing bowl so that petals are covered in sugar.
3. Layer bottom of clean jar with sugar, then alternate layers with roselle and sugar until the jar is filled. The top layer should be sprinkled with slightly more sugar.
4. Close tightly and let preserve for 3 days.

See you in three days with the results ☺

The Emperor’s New Clothes (aka Tapas 24 and Etxebarri)

Long long time ago, there lived a vain Emperor who was excessively fond of new clothes. One day two imposter weavers came to him and promised the Emperor a new suit of clothes that were invisible to those unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent. They pretended to work at their empty looms day and night, all the while pocketing the finest silks and most delicate silk threads. When the day finally came for the to Emperor to parade before his subjects in his new clothes, everyone pretended to gasp in admiration until a child on the streets cried out, "Look! The king is not wearing anything at all!"

Thus was the feeling I got when I finished my meals at Tapas 24, Etxebarri and Mugartiz in Spain. I know I am writing this risking my reputation in the foodie world. However, I can no longer ignore the big white elephant in the room. I’ll just have to say it: Look! Doesn’t this just suck?

OK. Let’s start with Tapas 24. What was Carles Abellan thinking? How did he end up with food that tasted like something my newly employed domestic helper just made reading from some random Spanish cookbook? Everything about this restaurant was off. The décor, the staff, and the food. In a spartan, fluorescent-lighted room that suggests the dissection of frogs rather than the fragrant frying of squid, busy waiters flow with stern, sad faces and air as stiff as a board. There was no Spanish or Catalan to be heard anywhere in the room. 80% of the guests were American, and our waiter looked at us with the words “I hate my job and I hate these stupid tourists” written across his forehead. He was impatient, dismissive, and very simply rude. At the end of our unsatisfactory meal, we decided to give Tapas 24 one last chance and asked for the dessert menu. Our waiter, knowing we do not speak a word of Spanish, threw down the menu, pointed at the words “Postre”, and walked off.

Etxebarri. As some of you may know, San Sebastian is a small city in the northern edge of Spain roughly the size of Hong Kong Island with a 10th of its population. Etxebarri was never given a star by Michelin, yet critics rave about this highly personalised cuisine - chef Victor Arguinzoniz, part chef and part blacksmith, grills every single one of his dishes. He even makes his own charcoal, and invented his own oven and grilling contraptions to take it to a whole other level – and the restaurant has been ranked top 50 in the world for a good many years. Some foodies claim it to be "impossible perfection".

Etxebarri was our first gourmet meal upon arrival in San Sebastian and naturally, expectations were high. This name Etxebarri, which simply means ‘new house’ in Basque, was the very definition of the phrase ‘middle of nowhere’. When a thirty-minute drive as indicated on Google Map and GPS turns out to be an hour and counting and you find yourself stuck in an unpaved road the width of your car, you know that you are literally “in the middle of nowhere”. This path took us past rugged mountain terrain so majestic yet so close I felt like I could brush the rocks off its undulating slopes with my fingers (and the pictures don’t do much justice here). And when we finally arrived in the little village of Axpe, where Etxebarri was, I thought that was surely the most beautiful place I had ever seen. With a handful of beautifully constructed stone houses dotted randomly against a dramatic mountain backdrop, skies so clear I thought I might blow away the clouds in a single puff, and everything else a lush, vivid green, the village seem to have walked out of the Sound of Music, and even prettier (because I have been to Salzburg and wasn’t too impressed).

TBC....

If you must, Tapas 24 is at 269 C/ Diputació, Barcelona, Spain
tel: 934 88 09 77

Benu: "Fusion" Reinvented

In the modern English speaking metropolises, about 80% of the population would know how to hold a chopstick, every other baby born is of mixed heritage (usually involving an Asian wife and Caucasian husband, but there are other mixes too), and one in every five person speaks a language that involves the words “qi”, “zen”, “kimchi” and “green tea”. More and more people encounter difficulty explaining where they come from and often end up with a longwinded answer that spans several different continents. The world as we know it is getting smaller.

The interesting thing is, while Eurasian babies might be seen as “exotic” in the past, they are now being treated as just any other ordinary person around us. Chinese food is no longer relegated to the culinary realm of cheap takeouts, but something that can be an integral part of people’s lives.

There is no better place to experience this phenomenon than at Benu. Ex-chef de cuisine at French Laundry and James Beard Award winner Corey Lee opened Benu last year in SOMA San Francisco as a place to showcase “what he likes to cook”. Corey prefers not to label it any specific kind of cuisine. There are no boundaries, and hence imagination runs wild. He named it “Benu” after the Egyptian mythical bird that is the correspondence to the phoenix, a bird born out of fire, as a symbol of rebirth for his team into a new and unchartered territory. The name also bears little reference for most to any specific culture, which is what Corey is trying to achieve here – a cuisine that bears no reference to any - a oneness that is at once all encompassing yet dependant on none.

The food we had here at Benu showcased exactly that. Abalone and sea cucumber appear alongside foie gras steamed in sake, while wood ear mushrooms and black beans add an edge to your usual pork ribs and duck confit. There's even oysters wrapped in a kimchi infused jelly skin that reminded me very much of a grown up version of Fruit Rollups.

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At a mere 28, Corey Lee is damn impressive.

If food were all that mattered, this would have been my favourite restaurant in the world. Unfortunately I’m also the person whose taste buds are closely associated with other forms of sensory receptors, so mood, temperature, visual and audio accompaniments all add on to or subtract from my experience. Benu misses that perfect ranking due to the stiffness of its setting, adopted through what was perhaps a failed attempt at a minimalist design. Hits from the 70s blasting through the speaker heralded an effort to liven things up, yet only called attention to the otherwise hushed, worshipful air of the place. However, to be honest, this only caused my heart to dip a little when I first stepped in. Impeccable service coupled with my first two amuse bouches and I was already walking on clouds.

So, please ignore what I just said. Benu is worth shutting those alternative receptors off, if just for one day.

BENU is at 22 Hawthorne Street San Francisco CA 94105. For reservations call +1 415. 685-4860

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Lazy Bear Kicks Up a Storm in San Francisco

It was early 2009, right after the financial crisis hit America. David Barzelay was 25 and had just graduated from Georgetown Law School. It was 8 months into his new job at Fenwick and West as litigation associate when he received news that he was being laid off. As a lawyer and occasional chef, what does he do?

What about chef and occasional lawyer? So instead of bumming around waiting for a job offer, David started hosting dinners at home. He’s always loved to cook and experiment with new ingredients and ideas, so why not make use good use of his off time, he thought? As the story goes, a dinner with a few friends turned out to be 10, 20, and now a 30-person affair. David now hosts dinners at a few rented locations in the Mission District roughly twice every 2-3 weeks, and his menu an ever evolving and changing one where every single ingredient is homemade, from the blinis down to the hoisin sauce (and yes, David’s food draws inspiration from all over the world, so expect to see kimchi and kaffir lime on the menu). Having been voted best underground restaurant in San Francisco recently David’s given up on his legal career and realigned his goals – to open his own "above-ground" restaurant.

If I have the money, I'd happily be his investor.

Fried green tomato topped with a fried egg

Caviars: paddlefish and salmon with manila clam chowder, champagne grapes, puffed blini and dill

Roast Sweet Peppers: marinated summer squash, cucumber, chevre, ash, fried parsley, croutons



Seared Ling Cod: sweet corn, kimchi puree, summer beans, little gem lettuce, kaffir lime

Peach-glazed Duck Breast: Grits, pickled peach, deep-fried duck confit, radishes, sesame seeds

Sungold Tomatoes: sun-dried and sauteed, with beef sirloin, padron peppers, Thai basil, aioli (NOTE here how the emphasis is on the tomatoes and not the beef sirloin - it was truly the most amazing tomatoes I have ever had in my life it makes me salivate just thinking about them now... at once juicy, succulent and bursting with flavours)

Black Mission Figs: Caramelized white chocolate profiteroles, aged balsamic vinegar, toasted pistachios

So what's the underground restaurant called? Barzelay's namesake, Lazy Bear!

Please visit Lazy Bear's website to check for latest dinner openings.

Whoa, What a Deli!

In an article about visiting Mono Lake, The New York Times commented, "When the desire that is the cause of all human suffering returned in the form of appetite, our editors were relieved the find the Whoa Nellie Deli, a shockingly gourmet oasis located at the local Tioga Gas Mart."

We felt exactly that. Coming back to civilization from a 5-day trek in the beautiful wilderness of Yosemite eating nothing but bagels, cheese, fruits, polenta, and various forms of nuts and grains, the idea of a gourmet oasis juxtaposed inside a gas station and dishing out pan-seared ahi salad clung to me as steadfastly as does the worst of any desire. It just wouldn’t let go. It had all the right reasons not to though, because the reward that awaited us there, by the ethereal blue hues of Mono Lake and in the Mobil gas station, was a meal to remember.

So the story goes like this. Invited by his friend to open an eatery inside his gas station near the Tioga Pass, Chef Matt Toomey, who enjoyed spending half his time chilling at Club Med in the Caribbean’s, decided to take this opportunity very seriously. He would create the restaurant of his dreams there, serving high quality food for the hikers of Yosemite and drawing inspiration from the Caribbean. For the first few months he suffered severely. His friends teased him for serving gourmet hot dogs with hollandaise sauce in the culinary wasteland that was Yosemite Valley. And one day, after another quiet night at the gas station and a couple of beers, Matt and his friend started joking about a proper name for the restaurant, which had until then been referred to simply as Tioga Toomey’s, after its location. It was then when a car skidded dangerously past another down the road towards Mono Lake.

“Whoa Nellie!” Matt exclaimed. And Whoa Nellie Deli was born.

But it was not just the name that was born. It was the crowds and the media attention and the rave reviews. Not too long after this, anyone with a fair knowledge of Yosemite knew about Matt and his crazy delicious gas station cuisine and was raving about it.

Dressed in a white chef's jacket and baseball cap, Matt is one of those manic figures whose charisma and sense of humor are reflected in his cooking, and his endless energy reflected in the amazing speed at which food is turned out from the kitchen. The apricot and wild berry glazed pork loin was cooked to a tender perfection and coated in the perfect sweet sour sauce. The seared ahi, despite its rather chunky appearance and slightly soggy sushi rice, was comparable to something you would find at Nobu. The lobster taquitos, notwithstanding the fact that we could not find any lobster, were some one of the best we’ve tasted. And if you’re still hungry after this, you’ll be able to find the likes of osso bucco sitting on the menu alongside pizzas and coke.

If you want to catch a glimpse of Chef Toomey, come during the summer. In the winters he is now often busy catering for the likes Andy Garcia and Sean White. Just so you know.

"To have one of the better meals of your life in a gas station is bizarre. It leaves you staring at your plate for a moment or two in disbelief.” The Los Angeles Times

Whoa Nellie Deli is at 22 Vista Point Road, Lee Vining, CA. 93541
Tel: + 1 760-647-1088