Nice Roadside Lunch

I know Dana will want to get something to eat while we're driving down to Bonifacio and I have found just the right place in the guidebook. The Bergerie D'Acciola is reputed to be a stop for gourmands so how can I say no. I just have to convince her to keep driving long enough to reach the place which is 8 km from the town of Sartene. I just don't know which side of Sartene it's on. 

Sartene turns out to be an old walled town perched thousands of feet above the Golfe de Valinco. It seems really pretty and is highly recommended but we want to get to Bonifacio as soon as possible so we will have to give it a miss. 

We do find the Bergerie D'Acciola not long after passing Sartene and I'm surprised to find that it too is perched high above a valley with a beautiful view all the way down to the sea. 

We both order version of the house speciality the Galette de Chataigne which is pretty much a thick crepe made with chestnut flour (chestnuts being one of Corsica's most abundant products. It's as if they grow on trees). 

Dana orders the regular one with Jambon (which is very prosciutto like) and goat cheese. I order the same but with tomatoes and fresh basil thrown in. 

Both are excellent. Dana's is definitely saltier since it doesn't have the tomato and sweet basil to take the edge off the ham but they are both really good in their own distinct way. 

If you're ever in the neighborhood I highly recommend the place.  In fact I recommended it to complete strangers later on that day. What can I say, when I like a place I want others to know about it. 

Isle of Beauty

I was going to start my new trip with a post about the good and bad that always comes with any long journey. I was going to provide a full explanation (cogently argued) as to why Air Transat sucks but then I realized that everyone already knows this and on top of that, I'll continue to fly Transat if I can save a few hundred bucks. No, I'm now in Corsica and it's time to get to the good stuff. and it truly is the Isle of beauty.It's not just a name that the Corsicans gave themselves. 

Flying over the Mediterranean, the island first appears out of the clouds as a series of sharp jagged mountains. As you get closer a rough and unruly coastline becomes visible. Even closer and you can make out thrilling hiking trails along the ridges of low lying mountains near the coast. It's all quite spectacular. 

We landed in Ajaccio, one of Corsica's two main towns but immediately picked up our rental car for the ride down to Bonifacio on the southern tip of the island. I know most of you will have never heard of Bonifacio but it is on the cover of last month's National Geographic 100 Secret Journeys (we're trendsetters I tell ya). 

This first morning we would be driving about 125 kilometers which in theory should only take around an hour but in Corsica could take as much as 3 hours thanks to the mountain roads that we will have to take. 

We notice an abundance of runners who have come to run on the roads leading to and from the airport. Clearly there is very little flat terrain here. 

The road we will be traveling on is actually one of Corsica's main routes designated with the letter N but it's only two lanes for the most part. Sometimes in a particular steep mountain area there will be an extra lane for passing cars. On the other hand some of the smaller hillside villages we pass through only have a single lane for traffic so cars must wait until its their side's turn to go through. 

Regardless of the specifics, the road is a stunning drive at all times with beautiful mountain and coastal views while passing through centuries old villages perched precariously in the sky. This looks like a great spot for a vacation. 

Sketch

Sketch by Francois Schuiten

Thought I'd post something just to make sure the blog still works. I'm going to be providing running commentary to my new trip to Corsica and London (with short visits to Nice and Brussels).

You probably won't see any updates until Friday but they should be more frequent after that.

This first post actually provides a nice link from my trip to Japan (which you can read about below) to the new trip.

I never finished blogging about the last few days in Japan but one of the highlights was getting a sketch in a book from Francois Schuiten, one of my favorite artists. He and his writing partner Benoit Peeters were guests at the big manga festival I attended and they very generously agreed to sign a 20 year old paperback of one of their first works together after having spent over two hours signing and sketching in books for their Japanese fans.

While Schuiten was drawing I spoke with Peeters and we discussed Brussels and my appreciation for the architecture of Art Nouveau pioneer Victor Horta. Peeters suggested that the next time I am in Brussels I should check out the Maison Autrique, a Horta designed house which he and Schuiten had been restoring for years and which has featured prominently in some of their recent work. I hope to visit there on the last day of my vacation when I will take a day trip to Brussels.

Thus we have a connection from the end of my Japan trip to the end of my Europe trip. I'm looking forward to closing the loop.

The strange mind of Aida Makoto

After lunch I headed over to Roppongi Hills, a large indoor shopping mall in a slightly less easily accessible part of Tokyo. Only one train line runs idirectly to the building and I'm not on that one. Instead, it looks like I'm going to have to walk a few blocks in what has become a crazy downpour.

Once at the mall I wander around checking out some of the stores. I pass a Joel Robuchon bakery but I don't stop for snacks (a missed opportunity). Instead I opt for a shot of whiskey at a special tasting and then I head downstairs for a Green Macha Latte at Starbucks. I feel like I owed Starbucks at least one purchase while in Tokyo given that I had been taking advantage of their free wifi for a week now.

It also gave me the opportunity to sit peacefully for about an hour while browsing the Internet and catching up on things that had happened in the previous week.

After the coffee I headed up to the 53rd floor of the Mori Tower (still in Roppongi Hills) to visit the Mori Art Museum which had just opened an exhibit to the Japanese conceptual artist Aida Makoto.

I had never heard of Aida prior to this week but it seemed I would appreciate his bizarre and somewhat disturbing sense of humor.

His work covers all kinds of styles, multimedia, sculpture, collage, regular canvas. Some of the pieces brilliantly satirize the Japanese military culture as well as some of the seedier sides ofJapanese society. A large canvas with a blender full of beautiful women being pureed into a red slurry is set next to a canvas showing an ashen landscape where all that is visible are mountains of dead businessmen and salarymen dressed in suits.

A lot of his work also has a sexual or scatological edge to it. A manga parody of WWII called Mutant Hanako was completely demented and perverted but you had to admire Aida for being willing to go so completely over the top in telling his story.

Aida was actually speaking there that night but 1) it was sold out 2) I had other places to be and 3) I don't understand Japanese.

Instead I bought a large overview of his work in an expensive art book. This wasn't the exhibit catalogue since that wasn't available for another month or two. However since Aida had been on site he had signed several copies of this art book and I snagged the last autographed one.

I'm definitely a fan now.

Kaiseki Cuisine

Nov 17, 2012

Saturday morning I woke up much later than the last few days. This is a direct result of having gone to bed after 3AM.

There's a party affiliated with the Kaigai Manga Festival in a Roppongi nightclub later this evening but I have the day to myself until then.

I realize that this is the perfect opportunity to check off the last of the restaurants that I've been planning to visit.

Minase is a kaiseki restaurant located near the trendy shops of Ometosando Dori. Kaiseki cuisine is a traditional Japanese style where a meal is served in multiple courses with each course designed to be a perfect synergy of taste, texture and appearance. My brother and I had been for a meal like this in Kyoto 8 years earlier and I was eager to repeat the experience.

I learned about this place from a blogger who had done a one week dining tour of Tokyo and had highly recommended it (particularly for the very affordable lunches). One thing he and other recommenders had indicated was how difficult it was to find the restaurant. Several people wrote of almost giving up in frustration before stumbling upon the hidden location.

I was not going to be caught in the same trap. Before leaving I mapped out the location on Google Maps. I even went so far as to do a street view search so that I would know what building to look for. Fortunately I had passed by the nearby intersection of Ometosando Dori and Aoyama Dori several times by now so I was relatively familiar with my surroundings.

In the end it was no trouble at all to get to the right location which was fortunate since when I climbed the steps to the second landing I was presented with three separate restaurant entrances, none of which were Minase. Since I was absolutely certain I had come to the right place I didn't leave and instead looked more closely at a white curtain to the side that was concealing a dark staircase. The curtain had some Japanese characters on it but no obvious sign that it was a restaurant entrance. Still with no other options at hand I decided to head up and see what I could see.

Sure enough I had found the concealed entrance to Minase. I was quickly shown to a seat at a counter with a large picture window looking out at a pleasant rock garden.

The staff brought the menu with pictures but I already knew what I was there for, the 8 course lunch for 3900 Yen (about $50).

Course 1- 2 small marinated salads flavored with flower petals. One had some marinated fish and the other some Japanese vegetables
Course 2 - an Osuimono broth with fish cake and a soft tofu cube filled with seaweed. As the tofu broke apart in the soup the seaweed was released to provide more texture to the broth. A brilliantly creative and tasty dish.
Course 3- small sashimi plate with two kinds of tuna. A special sauce was provided for one of the types of tuna.
Course 4- a seafood custard served in a small covered wooden pot.
Course 5- cooked Japanese eggplant and tofu in a light broth served in a beautiful covered lacquer bowl.
Course 6- small tempura plate with shrimp, snow pea and some assorted grilled seafood including a snail and some fish.
Course 7- served with course 6 this was the traditional pickles, rice and miso soup. The rice was made more interesting by being topped with tiny baby sardines
Course 8- small scoop of Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.

Truly a feast for the eyes as much as for the mouth.

What's more Japanese than Karaoke

Nov 16, 2012

Despite having woken up this morning at around 530 I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to go to a real Japanese Karaoke club even if it's already nearly midnight before we get started.

There really isn't a lot of difference between Karaoke clubs in Canada and Japan except that there are more English language songs in Canada. It's really more about actually doing Karaoke in its place of origin.

We end up going for the all you can drink pop and water (instead of beer) as some of our group are not the biggest drinkers (myself included). They've got my green melon sola so everything is just right. Except of course for my voice.

Maybe getting beyond 40 has taken a toll on my once energetic vocals or maybe I'm just worn down by all the running around but whatever's to blame I'm not making it through most of these songs cleanly. Oh well, I'm still having fun.

Fortunately the other members of our group are stepping up. David Namisato, a Toronto based artist who has also done a fair bit of teaching in Japan actually knows some of the AKB48 songs. Meanwhile the girls from Love Love Hill can do Japanese anime theme songs as well as other recent Japanese pop songs. It makes for a very multicultural evening of music.

I bail at around 230 AM but a bunch of them are still at it when I leave. I heard that they stayed until around 4 AM.

Chicken parts for dinner

Nov 16, 2012

After leaving the embassy our group of 20 was faced with the difficult decision of where to go for food. How to pick a place that works for a broad group that includes a number of Vegans, Vegetarians and people allergic to seafood.

The area we were in is more offices than shopping and restaurants so there wasn't a lot to choose from. We found a location that had three separate restaurants. One Indian, one Italian sandwiches and one sushi/noodles. It was decided that the group would split up so that everyone could get what they wanted.

I had just eaten an amazing Sushi breakfast I didn't need that again. Indian and Italian were against my principles of only eating Japanese cuisine of some kind. What to do?

Fortunately I realized that two of my group, Rupert Bottenberg and Jeff Ellis had noticed a yakitori (grilled meat on sticks) restaurant on the 2nd floor of the adjoining building and had headed over to check it out. This made my decision pretty easy. I caught up to them just as they were sitting down.

This particular yakitori restaurant specialized in grilled chicken parts and was clearly popular with Japanese workers out for an evening after a long day at the office as several tables were full of these groups.

An amuse bouche was offered. A raw egg in one little bowl and some chopped octopus with wasabi in another little bowl. We didn't know if what we were doing was right but we added the octopus mix to the egg and then drank the mixture. Pretty good texture and taste although I wouldn't recommend this to everyone.

Jeff had taught English in Japan and was pretty good in Japanese so we were able to communicate with the waiter and place out order. We had ordered some chicken yakitori at the Izakaya on our first night and what they had provided was both dodgy looking and dodgy tasting. Tonight would be a definite improvement.

We ordered a number of different kinds of yakitori including, mushrooms, minced chicken with Green onions, chicken wings and a Chef's Choice which would include 5 skewers selected by the chef. We knew that the choice of the chef would lean towards some of the less popular parts of the chicken but we decided to take our chances.

The charcoal grilled skewers began arriving to great appreciation from our table. The charcoal had perfectly flavored the chicken and the unusual textures of some of the odder skewers like Chicken hearts, livers and backs made the meal even more interesting.

The food was further improved by the addition of some good Japanese beers.

I think we were definitely the happiest of the four restaurant groups