Restaurant Evaluation

Once a month, my father comes to Tokyo from my hometown Hiroshima.
Every time he is looking forward to have dinner with me, and he reserves restaurants a month beforehand.
Today, I'll introduce one of my favorite French restaurant I've visited with my dad.
He found this restaurant when he was flicking through a gourmet magazin.

Restaurant name: DOMINIQUE BOUCHET TOKYO

Type: French restaurant

Place: Ginza (This restaurant is near Ginza station, so the access was good. It took only about 5 minutes from the station.)

 

I scored dishes as follows: 0=did not meet my expectations, 1=met or exceeded your expectations.

	Course Item	Taste	Quality	Originality	Temp	Appear	Total
1	Appetizer1	1	1	1	1	1	5
2	Appetizer2	1	1	1	1	1	5
3	baguette	1	1	0	1	1	4
4	Ravioli	1	1	1	1	1	5
5	Main dish (Fish)	1	1	1	1	1	5
6	Main dish (Dear)	1	1	1	1	1	5
7	Desert1	1	1	1	1	1	5
8	Desert2	1	1	1	1	1	5
Total Points Earned		8	8	7	8	8	39
Possible Points		8	8	8	8	8	40
Percent Earned Score		100%	100%	87.5%	100%	100%	97.5%

 

Comments

As for the building, it was clean and the location was good, however, it was pity that I couldn’t see nice night view from the window. I could see only other buildings.

But the interior decoration and tableware was nice.

Next I’ll write about some my favorite dishes. The second appetizer was cauliflower mousse with Japanese king crab and Cephalopod ink. This original dish was good appearance and tasted good. Secondly, a chef used dear’s meat for the main dish. It was rare, so I was looking forward to eat it. The appearance and texture was similar to beef, but it was tenderer than beef. The sauce matched with the meat. Finally the dish I was astonished the most was the former desert. It was Mont Blanc, but the shape was a sphere. Vanilla ice cream was in it, and it was also a good match with chestnut’s cream. I thought its design was cute.

The waiters served well and all dishes tasted good, so I want to visit this restaurant again.

the first appetizer(cheeze)

the second appetizer(cauliflower mousse with Japanese king crab and Cephalopod ink)

baguette with butter

chestnut's ravioli which includes foie gras

soup de poison(this fish was grouper)

main dish

Mont Blanc

 

The final report of my food-related book

“Share with us the part(s) of the book you liked best and reasons for it”, and “Tell us how it met (or defied) your expectations”

My food-related book’s title is “The Globalization of Chinese Food”, and finally I read the final chapter. It was my favorite part of this book.  It was about how ethnic Chinese cuisine was developed in Beijing. In this chapter, the author discusses the historical relationship of the re-construction of the Xinjiand Road in Beijing. The street was filled up with traditional Chinese restaurants. Of course, even now, some Chinese restaurants have long history there, however, more and more other ethnic restaurants appear these days. The development of the cuisine business in Xinjiang Road and the process of the creation of the menus (how menus were created) reflect the history, and also they have adopted different cultures. The story was interesting for me, because I thought Chinese cuisine is unchanged dish. It has quite long history and Chinese food is well known all over the world. I like Chinese food, and I often go to its restaurants in Japan. There are not big differences depending on the restaurants, so I thought Chinese food is universal. However after I read this book, I realized that it has adopted Japanese culture. So I was shocked what I have eaten regarded as Chinese traditional food varies from original one.

 

“Overview of the entire book”

Each chapter is written by different authors, so the topics are various. But all chapters are related to the globalization of Chinese food. I like to eat Chinese food, so what I liked best about the book was that I could know its history and how spread internationally. On the other hand,  some graphs are too detail and I couldn’t understand them, so it should be easier, I think.

 

“Tell us what foods you might want to try or absolutely avoid as a result of reading the book”

I don’t want to try the nest. The bird’s nest is sometimes used in Chinese food. Through this book, I found there was a conflict between a tribe who believe the bird’s nest should not be eaten and a group who sell it for business. The tribe believes it is sacred, so I don’t want it, and I think there is no need to eat it

Sammy's Cafe In-Restaurant Review

This video is about a café, “Sammy’s”. It is located in America, and two men appear on the video, the reviewer and Sammy. Sammy is the owner of the café. This café offers burgers, fries and pie shakes. Although the written review (please check Miki’s food blog) criticized the restaurant severely on the blog, the reviewer introduced this café positively on this video. He seemed to be a partisan. First the video showed the outward appearance, and then the interior decoration. In this café, there are a lot of portraits of Sammy and his customers on the wall. The reviewer praised the originality and Sammy’s community. And next, he tried a burger and potato fries. Before he ate them, he spoke highly of the smell and the appearance. After he tried them, he told how delicious they are excessively. In the same way, he praised a pie shake. The interview style is rough, and the reviewer talked to Sammy like a friend. He performed too much, for example he pretended to cry or sweat. His English is too fast for me, and his intonatin was difficult to understand. However I could feel like he exaggrated his words. Also I felt the quality of the interview was bad, because he said only positive words and not neutral. Therefore, though the review was biased I think, I enjoyed his funny report. If I film my own video review, I would like to make it attractive with a homey atmosphere like this video, but I want to review a restaurant from the neutral position and tell the only truth.

Apple pie

I searched the apple pies. The apple itself is originally from Central Asia, such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Pies have been made throughout history all over the world. The apple pies in America are deeply related to American history. They were brought to America for the first time by the first English Puritan colonists in the early 17^th century. So, the first apple pie arrived in America was British style one. After the colonists came to America, they began to colonize the state. The local people rebelled against their rule, and American Revolutionary War was occurred. At the same time, the Pennsylvanian Dutch made the apple pies. They were from Germany, and the pies took to the hearts of the American people. By 1775, the Pennsylvanian Dutch accounted for about half of the total population in the state.

There are two significant points why American people get so much familiar with the apple pies. The one point is industrialising. America was changing into an industrial and urban country in the period of the first three presidents. The industrialization was proceeded, leaving rural and small towns. Since then, the apple pie had become a symble of the heritage of what was being left over. Another point is immigration. The immigrants from European countries brought their cultures, so the apple pie became popular as a cuisine which identifies American culture.

Apple pie is popular all over the world. For example, in France, the tarte Tatin, which is similar to apple pie, is very famous. This is a dessert of caramelized upside-down apple tart.

Also, in Sweden, breadcrumbs are used instead of flour, and sometimes rolled oats. It is usually flavored with cinnamon and served with vanilla custard or ice cream.

In Japan, apple pie is also very popular. There are restaurants specializing in apple pies. In Omotesando, there is my favorite apple pie store, called Granny Smith. I’ve been to there twice. The restaurant serves about six kinds of apple pie, and all of them are attractive. Why don’t you visit??

Americanized Chinese Food vs. Authentic Chinese Food

My food-related book

My food-related book's title is "The globalization of Chinese food". This is edited by David Y.H. Wu and Sidney C.H. Cheung. This book is divided into several parts, and each part is written by different authors. From putting them together, the editor makes clear how Chinese food relates to its culture and other country, and how internationally that cuisine was created. The first chapter is about "food culture and overseas trade". The history of food trading by China is described in very detail in this part. Some graphs are shown in this part. The second chapter is written about "sacred food from the ancestors". There was a conflict among Chinese tribes. One group earn money by taking specific bird's nest for food, however another group objected the act, because destroying it was regarded as a bad behave in their creed. It shows religious food conflict.