俺のフレンチ・イタリアン青山

I've been wanting to go to 俺のフレンチ・イタリアン青山 (Ore no French Italian, Aoyama) almost the entire time I've been in Japan.

I was always a bit nervous though, since I had no experience with French food and deciphering what the katakana French menu offered seemed somewhat daunting.

Thanks to the all wonderful internet and even more awesome Dairy and Cream, I managed to compile a list of everything I wanted to try when I finally managed to make a reservation at the restaurant.

The majority of the tables are standing, but because we made a reservation the second time around, we managed to get a seated table.
Definitely much easier on the legs after walking around shopping in Omotesando all day :)

On to the food though.

A must try is the トマトのムース　雲丹とキャビアのジュレ寄せ (tomato mousse, uni and caviar gelee).


My roommate isn't actually a big uni fan, but we both were avid fans of this combo. I have to admit that I had my doubts too, since caviar and uni were such strongly flavored ingredients, but the smooth tomato mousse below really brought everything together in this dish. Plus--there were gold flakes on the caviar! Talk about luxurious!

Another dish we had was the　ズワイガニのフイヤンティーヌ〜ピスタチオとフランボワーズ (Snow crab feuillantine ~ pistachio and raspberry).


The feuillantine was a very interesting combination of tastes and textures. The crab meat and feuillantine complimented each other very well. My palate wasn't sensitive enough to pick up the raspberries though.

One of Ore no French Italian's specialties is the オマールのロースト～貴腐ワインのソース～ (Roasted lobster ~ Wine sauce).


The lobster roasted to perfection. Every bite had a piece of juicy fresh lobster, and the buttery sauce made me wish I could abandon my knife and fork.

Next is another favorite, the サーモンのテリーヌ (salmon terrine).


This one literally had me oohing and aahing. It came covered with a smoke-filled glass lid. When the lid was lifted, I had a slight recoil from the sharpness of the smoke within, but once the fog lifted (quite literally), behold the glory of this beautiful joined terrine. It definitely wasn't just a showy dish though--the taste lived up to its appearance.

The only thing about the terrine is that it's only available from 8pm onwards. The first time we visited Ore no French, many of their specialties were sold out, so we ordered this blessing in disguise.

Last, but not least is one of my Ore no French Italian favorites--the 牛フィレとフォアグラのロッシーニ トリュフソース (the beef filet and foie gras rossini with truffle sauce).


We saw this dish at nearly every table, and when we tasted ours, we knew why.

The smooth foie gras with the lean steak makes a perfect combination. Add that with the earthy truffles, and you have a beautifully composed steak dish on your hands. If it weren't for all the food that we had already stuffed into ourselves, I would have loved to have some bread to finish off the sauce.

Ore no French Italian is a must visit. There are some fees (music and the mandatory cheese price), but for the price that you pay for the food, it is most definitely worth it. If possible, do try and get a reservation, which can be made on the Ore no French Italian Aoyama website. Otherwise, you will probably be looking at around an hour to a two hour wait (still worth it though!).

Has anybody else been there before? What other dishes should I try?

Nikko and World Heritage

Well, as I blog, the rain has finally come! The weather has cooled significantly, so I'm laying low and updating the blog at the moment, which watching the landing on Mars.

Summer vacation has started, and that means that I'm taking advantage of being in Japan and exploring the local area.

And, what better way to explore than by foot!

...was what Jay, Max, Aenea and I thought...

So, in order to make this "epic" summer the definition of "epic," we decided we wanted to make a trip from Kasukabe Station to Nikko.


View Larger Map According to the map, it would have taken us about 19 hours to walk 57.5 miles.

And, if we walked it, wouldn't that be the definition of "epic"? Plus, 19 hours didn't sound too bad--we could probably walk it in two days. A walk in a very big park to an even more epic park!


Or so I thought.

The plan was to walk from Kasukabe Station, but after a "short" 5 hour detour to Kuki, we began to move North and walked for over 12 hours with some brief breaks.

Needless to say, as the day progressed, the walk got less epic and more and more annoying as we tracked our progress on a map. After a day, we "only" walked 20 miles (a centimeter on Google Maps) and my feet felt as if they would give out.

So, due to half the team feeling like utter crap at the end of the day, we ended up caving and taking an express train from Koga to Utsunomiya. This "express" train still took 45 minutes.

Upon reaching Utsunomiya, our first order of business was to get to a manga cafe--preferably ASAP so I could finally sit down and give my poor legs some relief.

At the manga cafe, we got a computer booth to ourselves and there were also showers and bathrooms available along with a drink bar. I think it would've been great to browse if I hadn't been so tired, but as it was, I fell asleep in the chair immediately after that well-appreciated shower.

The next morning, we got up and began to get ready to head to Nikko--this time by train. But, since we were in Utsunomiya, we also had to try some of their famous specialty gyoza.

My "gyoza" (to the left) was basically a stuffed tonkatsu and was absolutely delicious with a unique taste different from the dumplings we normally make at home. Max got the 12-flavor gyoza (to the right), which came with a variety of different flavors, including cheese and kimchi.

After having our late breakfast/early lunch, we readied ourselves for our journey to Nikko--this time by train.

Nikko itself is an incredibly beautiful place. When one talks about the beauties of "old" Japan, people usually think of Kyoto. Nikko, also a World Heritage Site, has its own beauty with its numerous temples nestled in the mountains.

After visiting, I might even say that I like it more than Kyoto, which was much more crowded than Nikko. Although there were still a fair share of tourists, being up in the mountains made Nikko much more tranquil than any other major temple I've visited.

Nikko is also famous for yuba. For people who have made soymilk at home (I came from a very lucky household that did), yuba is the film of soy milk that solidified at the very top as it cools. It's delicious with a fresh hot bowl of soymilk.

However, I also discovered how delicious it was in Nikko's delicious yuba ice cream.

While the pictures were unimpressive (it looked like regular vanilla soft serve), yuba ice cream is essentially a soymilk ice cream with yuba flecks. With the weather as hot as it was, it was a delicious treat to reward myself for taking on (and cheating (；´∀｀) ) this long journey.

There were several other highlights during the blog absence, one of which included a post-semester party and a local festival.

The post-semester party was at an incredible French restaurant, and it made me understand why Tokyo has as many Michelin stars as it does. It was also a good chance for me to bond with my coworkers as a few of them got amusingly drunk.

The thing I'll end with was the local 夏祭 (natsu matsuri, summer festival). This was so local that I saw several of the kids from my school (the festival was run by the local neighborhood association).

Several of them, shocked to see me, asked why I was there. I supposed it's the same anywhere you go, children will think that their teachers live at school.

I also managed to get the aerial shot of the festival because Marumi様 (see Akita trip) invited us over for a gathering. It was super fun as I got to meet a bunch of new people and also got the chance to cook in a decent kitchen.

Anyways, I will (finally) finish this post with some more pictures.

Till next time!