Not Quite Nigella » » Outside of Sydney

As you’d expect with his flair for presentation, Iron Chef French Sakai’s La Rochelle restaurant in Shibuya’s Cross Tower is a stunningly gorgeous restaurant with a killer view and extremely luxurious. Named as a homage to his time in the region of La Rochelle, its furnished with heavy linens, sweeping curtains and Hermes plates (every table has a different pattern). Around the long rectangular room, there are also Tiffany lamps and a glass fronted credenza with porcelain and fine bone china figurines and collectibles.

There were a few menus to choose from and we could have ordered a la carte but the 5 course menu that we saw looked very tempting so we opted for that. We had:

Fevrier 2007 menu

¥4725 (approximately $49AUD)
Hors d’oeuvre
Rilettes de tours au porc, trois salades imaginiatives de verdina et granite de Ume (Pork rilette on toast, pickled vegetables, three imaginative salads of verdina, choux filled with pate, Ume plum granita)

Soupe
Souple gratine d l’oignon (French onion soup)

Poisson
Yuba farci Sukesoudara Ishinomaki roti jus de dorade au gingembre et Miso Japonais (Sea bream wrapped in Yuba (Tofu skin) with Miso and ginger sauce)

Viande
Ragout de joue de boeuf au vin rouge garniture pomme de terre roti et beignet de pomme (Ragout of beef burgundy with red wine with potato and apple fritter)

Corcle de coquelet sauter ravioli de duxelles sauce gremand (chicken with foie gras and duxelle mushroom ravioli )

Dessert
Le Chariot en desserts de notre patissier (chariot of desserts from the pastrycook)

Cafe ou the (coffee or tea)

The entree plate was a lovely combination of different tastes and textures, the choux filled with pate was perfectly crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, the pork rilette on toast was so tasty and very moreish as was the salads but the surprising favourite for me was the Ume granita. I am not usually a big fan of Ume (Japanese plum) flavoured items but this was artfully refreshing.

Next we had the French Onion Soup, what the waiter himself said was a bit cliched and whilst it was nice, it seems a bit out of place in this chic setting.

Then followed the mains, we decided to try one each and although I knew that my sister was having the better dish I got to try some (but not much!). My beef burgundy was so tender and soft and redolent with red wine. The apple fritter was an interesting addition but I didn’t really go for this combination. The chicken with foie gras was definitely the choice for the main though, the textures and flavours were enough to make one not share it with anyone else.

For dessert, they wheeled by the spectacular dessert cart. I haven’t seen a dessert cart for years so it was a welcome feast for my eyes. It was hard to choose which ones to have but we tried the strawberry tart, tofu ice cream, chocolate truffle cake, pistachio roulade and mille feuille. Choosing a favourite would probably be like choosing a favourite child or pair of shoes!

Coffee and tea were served and the atmosphere was so relaxing we just sat back and soaked it all in. I confess, its probably the closest I’ve come to meditating.

Our waiter was European and trilingual and he and the staff were wonderful. When we were leaving we asked for directions to an art exhibit and they photocopied a map for us and gave us detailed directions on how to get there. A truly special afternoon! I could’ve stayed there all afternoon, in fact we did.

P.S. Interestingly, a few months later we went to the Hermes store in Sydney and were looking at the plates. The Sales Assistant was fascinated to know that Sakai had their plates, she is apparently a big fan and I’m sure its a rather cool anecdote when discussing them with learned customers.

Oh and if anyone can read the recipe on the menu I’d love to know what it says!

La Rochelle

Shibuya 2-15-11, Shibuya Cross Tower 32F.
Tel: 3400-8220.
Website: www.la-rochelle.co.jp (in Japanese)

12:00-14:30 Last order 18:00-21:00 Last order. Closed Mondays.
Lunch course: 3300Yen,4500Yen, 8500Yen (approximately).
Dinner course: 8500Yen, 12000Yen, other (approximately).
Seats 70
All Credit cards accepted
Reservations recommended

For those of you who aren’t regular viewers Michiba is the Japanese Iron Chef in the blue outfit, who is the least defeated of all of the Iron Chefs. Michiba has several restaurants but we had heard that the Ginza one Restaurant Kaishoku Michiba was his signature one. Although we didn’t spot the master himself (we guessed he probably wouldn’t be there for a lunch session) we did meet his daughter. In Japan, lunch set menus are a very reasonably priced way of eating at fairly expensive restaurants. Dinner, of course, is another matter and price bracket all together!

The restaurant was very busy and since we had a last minute booking, the were able to fit us in from 12noon -1.30pm. There were two menus to choose from but since time was a factor the waiter politely suggested that the first one would be best. We had:

New Year’s Goho-zen Menu

¥3150 (about $32AUD)
Hors d’oeuvre
steamed sushi wrapped in a bamboo leaf and sprinkled with salmon eggs
(sushi rice filled with bamboo shoot, egg, shrimp and shiitake mushroom)

Main course
four individual main dishes served on a lacquered tray:
-seasonal sashimi (yellowtail)
-tender simmered daikon radish topped with glazed spanish mackerel, garnished with spinach, leek ginger and Japanese pepper leaves
-the Chef’s original version of the traditional New Year’s Zoni soup
(tomato and miso flavoured chicken broth with chicken sticky rice cake, taro and spinach)
-dish of the day (hmm counting the dishes on the plate, I wonder what this was?)

Rice and Noodle dish
your choice of:
Plain rice served with a fragrant miso soup (akadashi) and pickles
or udon (thick wheat noodles) served either hot or cold

Dessert
Yuzu Citrus Mousse

The Hors d’oeuvre was a beautifully decorated and delicately flavoured sushi rice with a generous smattering of salmon eggs (yum!). And who knew you could serve sushi hot despite all of those jokes about people mircrowaving their raw sushi?

The yellowtail sashimi was fresh as fresh could be and the New Year’s Zoni soup was an unexpected taste sensation as I don’t usually think of tomato with miso together. My favourite would have to be the simmered daikon with the spanish mackerel, perhaps because it was very cold outside, this was a very warming and soothing dish. Also the hand made udon noodles were perfectly cooked with enough spring and softness, such a simple dish but perfect.

The dessert, a Yuzu citrus mousse was apparently made out of tofu which I had seen them do on Iron Chef and it was heaven in a cup. The Yuzu, a tart citrus fruit that’s a cross between a sour mandarin and Ichang papeda it tastes like marmalade and the sharpness of the fruit combined with the creamy voluptousness of the mousse was superb.

I guess it goes without saying that it was all delicious and they treated us very well especially when they found out we were Iron Chef fans (a giveaway when you start taking photos of the food I suppose). The lovely waiter gave us all of these things including a couple of samples of his calligraphy and brochures and brought out Michiba’s daughter to meet us and we got a photo with her (she looks so much like him) and she gave us this special large card with his famous calligraphy and his hanko (stamp).

PS I looked up Yuzu on Wikipedia and found this tidbit:

Yuzu is also known for its characteristically strong aroma, and the oil from its skin is marketed as a fragrance. In Japan, bathing with yuzu on Toji (the winter solstice) is a popular custom. The whole fruits are floated in the hot water of the bath (sometimes enclosed in a cloth bag), releasing their aroma.

Haha!

Kaishoku Michiba

Kanematsu Bldg 8F 6-9-9 Ginza Chuo-ku Tokyo 104-0061

Tel: 813-5537-6300 Fax: 813-5537-6301

URL: www.michiba.com

Open: 11.30 to 23:00 (22:00 Sundays & National Holidays)

Closed on Mondays and during year-end, New Year’s and summer break (open if Monday happens to be a national holiday and closed on the following tuesday)

Lunch: choice of lunch menus from ¥3150

Dinner: Offers Kaiseki course, a selction of prix fixe dinner to satify individual preferences and various a la carte.

*applicable tax, drinks and service charge not included.