The Seed, a vegan event (August 9th and 10th 2014) in New York, NY

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Yeah, I know: you are probably wondering what the heck I was doing at The Seed, a two day event currently going on in the city. The goal is to have people who embrace a vegan diet, vegan curious and vegan skeptic to meet and discover what being vegan means, either via listening to over 30 speakers or trying some food. 

So, I got invited to that event, and went, decided to explore some of the food presented there. People often think that vegan food is tasteless and boring and, coming from a country where butter is widely used in cuisine, I was in that mindset few years ago, until I tried some vegetarian restaurants that served vegan dishes, like the regretted Table Verte that had this fantastic chocolate tart, completely vegan and gluten-free, made with rice flour and avocado instead of butter. Or Café Blossom on Carmine where I was invited recently. I will be honest: this event did not convert me, but convinced me more that, if some food was served to people without mentioning that it was vegan, they would love it, like these delicious bean and rice chips (my favorite was the ranch one) or the Love Beans chocolate spread.

If you are interested in going, you can get a 50% discount if you enter the code seed50 when ordering your entrance ticket on the ticketing site.

Here is some of the things we saw and tried:

Ortaggi - dairy free and organic frozen snacks made with vegetables, herbs and fruit juice.

Red pepper and peach:

Avocado and cucumber:

Whole Foods - Basil, Kale and walnut crostini:

Arty - Artichoke water:

Nicobella Organics:

Dark chocolate, maple coated pecans and sea salt:

Ginger and green tea dark chocolate:

This Pie Is Nuts - various pies:

Vegan Divas - Brownie:

Fairy Bites - Chocolate chip cookies:

Beanfield - Bean and rice chips:

Nacho:

Ranch:

Treeline cheese:

Love Bean - Chocolate spread:

The Regal Vegan - Faux Gras:

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Nipponista event at Maison O in Soho, NYC, New York

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Last Wednesday, I was invited to Nipponista, an event organized by Tabélog US, the largest Japanese restaurant review website and hosted by Isetan, the largest department store in Japan at Maison O in Soho. The purpose is to showcase Japanese fashion, art, food, lifestyle and craftsmanship. 

The dinner, prepared for the occasion by Chef Tadashi Ono, the former executive chef of Matsuri (above) was paired with Mizubasho sake presented by Mr Shoichi Nagai (below), the chairman of Nagai Sake Inc. who made each sake presentation interesting.

He greeted us with a glass of Mizubasho Sparkling Sake:

I never had sparkling sake before and did not even know it existed! 

The evening continued with a presentation by Kanso groceries of dashi and an explanation about umami,  the fifth taste sensation after sweet, sour, bitter and salty. To show us how dashi enhances flavors, they made us taste some miso with water (left) and some miso with dashi (right).

We could definitely taste the difference, the first one being tasteless and the second one being flavorful. They proceeded to explain to us how to make it, using dried bonito:

and Hana-Kombu (kelp):

You let both elements infuse like you would make tea, et voila! 

Then, we had some amuse bouche. The first one was Dashikarikori-kan with black truffle:

And the second one Kumamoto Oysters:

They were served with ponzu ice:

Then, we go a black cod:

It was steamed with sake and served with a dash-kanten gravy. In the bottom was some daikon. This was a great dish: the fish was perfectly cooked, flaky with a delicate taste. 

It was paired with a Mizubashojunmaidai-ginjo premiere sake:

They served it in a silver cup that is suppose to give a smoother taste to the sake. 

In fact, we event tried in a regular sake glass and definitely tasted the difference.

They came a dish that I really wanted to try as soon as I read the menu: a ribeye steak with caramelized onions and a grilled rice ball:

The presentation was beautiful and this dish delicious. First of all, the ribeye was perfectly cooked medium. Then, there was this rice ball that was crunchy on the outside and not dry at all on the inside, pairing perfectly with the steak and even with the caramelized onions that added a nice sweetness to the dish.

With the steak, we had a glass of Mizubasho vintage 2004 sake:

I truly appreciated it with my steak and even ranked this sake my favorite of the evening. I admit that I never thought about drinking sake with a ribeye, going usually for a bold red wine like pinot noir.

Last was dessert. 

It was a dish composed of a coconut panna cotta with a melon compote.

This was very light and refreshing and we could definitely taste that it was made with coconut milk.

The second dessert was a Green Tea tiramisu:

This was also very good: light, it was interesting to see how green tea and coffee pair well together.

As it was a sake tasting, it was served with a dessert sake:

The packaging was beautiful and looked a bit like a perfume bottle in a way.

We had a wonderful time at Maison O, enjoying the evening with our friend Malini, The Restaurant Fairy, and talking with other bloggers, especially Chubby Chinese Girl Eats, Johnny Prime Steaks and The Cake Dealer as well as the organizers and hosts. It is always interesting to discover other cuisines, other flavors

Thanks to Tabélog, Isetan, Nagai Sake, Inc and Maison O for this great event that was covered by NHK TV:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20140213/k10015216531000.html

Enjoy (I did)!

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Tabélog US event at Jukai, Japanese restaurant Midtown East, NYC, New York

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Last week, I went to an event hosted by Tabélog US, the largest Japanese restaurant review website, to celebrate their new design. 

Courtesy of Tabélog

The statistics are new and can give you an idea of the different cuisines the user on Tabélog US experiments. 

 

The event took place at Jukai, a Japanese restaurant located Midtown East. The name of the restaurant comes from the deep forrest in the bottom of Mt Fuji.

Clearly, to find that place, you need the address as it is below street level, like an hidden gem. As this was an event, I cannot describe its atmosphere or service, although the latter was perfect considering the place was full of bloggers trying to take pictures as dishes from Chef and owner Hirofumi Watanabe were served. Know that the dishes you will see below were prepared specifically for this event.

Present at the event were Takehiro Miyajima, CEO of Tabélog Inc. as well as Taku Niida, Assistant Sales Manager New York Branch of Asahi Beer USA, Inc., who sponsored the event.

The beer presented was the Asahi super dry beer that I drank with my meal.

The first plate served to us was an assortment of dishes beautifully put together:

Going from the left to the right, there was:

Squid with sea urchin:

Pickled mushrooms and egg omelette with spinach:

Pickled onion:

Smoked duck:

Iberico ham and persimmon fruit:

This was a perfect mise en bouche! My favorite was the duck that was fantastically smokey. Then the squid with its slightly crunchy texture (it was raw). Also, pairing the persimmon with the Iberico ham was a nice Asian interpretation of the cantaloupe - ham traditional pairing, delicately merging the sweet taste of the fruit to the saltiness of the ham.

The next dish was beef carpaccio:

I believe that the beef was Wagyu, later used in the shabu shabu they proposed. It had a nice marbling and was perfectly seasoned. 

After that, was served one of my favorite dishes of the event: Salmon marinated in sake.

The salmon was grilled, perfectly cooked and moist with a fantastic char taste. It was served with a grilled Shishito pepper that is a green pepper similar to serrano peppers.

After the salmon, came another fish: Spanish Mackerel with ground radish.

It was ok for me, the fish having a quite strong flavor.

Then came something unexpected:

This was a Jumbo Pacific oyster from Washington State. I guess the "jumbo" preceding the name was quite appropriate considering that it was the largest I ever see, the shell being the size of my hand! Just compare it to the slice of lemon to give you an idea! It was a bit of a challenge to eat, especially with chopsticks, but the taste was fabulous and you could definitely taste that it was fresh. I knew jumbo shrimp, now I know jumbo oysters...

To drink with the oyster, I chose a glass of Hanaabi Junmai Daiginjo sake that left, surprisingly a strawberry aftertaste that was sweet and acted like a palate cleanser.

The last dish served was shabu shabu, a Japanese dish where vegetables and beef are cooked in a broth. They first brought the vegetables:

And the Wagyu beef that had a nice marbling:

Then, they started to cooked the vegetables:

When they were ready, they added the beef:

Once the beef and vegetables were cooked, they put them in a bowl and added a sauce made with oil, sesame, balsamic vinegar that added some flavors to the dish. Et voilà!

I liked it, although few pieces of beef were overcooked. It was very flavorful and comforting.

Then it was time for dessert, or shall I say desserts!

 There were three of them. A Crème brûlée that was perfectly made, with a crispy caramelized crust on top and a well set vanilla cream:

A white sesame blanc-mange that was similar to a custard:

This was my favorite dessert: nice texture, light with the sesame taste coming through, it was not too sweet. In fact none of the desserts were.

The last dessert was chocolate truffles:

These were nice and soft, similar to the truffles you would find in France. Although there, people like to put a bit of alcohol and here, at Jukai, I did not taste any alcohol.

It was a great event! Thanks to Tabélog, Asahi and the Jukai team for hosting us!

Enjoy (I did)!



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Please note that this meal was complimentary. However, the opinions expressed in my blog are 100% my own!

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