Café Frosch blog in archives - January 2010 -
2009.1.30
 Luca's Italian Ryori Kitchen
I would never if pressed try to qualify any of my personal cooking as "authentic", as most of it ends up more resembling a random assortment of ingredients based around a somewhat general idea of a recipe. However, that is not to say that I wouldn't appreciate a little push towards such territory, especially if it produced delicious results. This is where Luca comes in. As a staff member here I have blessed with the opportunity to taste a number of his delicious dishes, and they are most certainly authentic. Having missed his first cooking lesson last month I was excited when my schedule freed up and I was able to attend this time around.
For this month we focused on a couple of pasta dishes, one the perenially popular carbonara, and one a more original pumpkin squash variety. With the carbonara we learned that the authentic Italian preparation style is not to use fresh cream with the egg yolk as is often done in Japan, but rather to use some of the boiling water from the pasta. The freshness it provided to the dish was most certainly welcome.
The squash pasta was also delicious as well as versatile. After you've softened the squash with the onions in white wine, you mash it up and then have the option of using it as a pasta sauce, a side dish, a risotto addition, etc... Your imagination is the limit. I've since already had great success recreating the dish at home and am looking forward to experimenting with it further.
Definitely make a point of attending this month's lesson if you have the opportunity.
2009.1.20
Upcoming - Movie Night with Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train
Coming up this January 29th we will be continuing our monthly movie night with a showing of Jim Jarmusch's classic film Mystery Train. If you are familiar with the work of Jim Jarmusch then you are aware of the way that he is able to create his own little cinematic worlds in which his eccentric and yet deceptively normal characters go about their business. In this particular film we find a young Japanese couple on a trip to Memphis in search of the origins of the classic 1950s rock n' roll that the young man has come to take as his personal stylistic bible. Along the way we also encounter a grieving Italian widow making her way home with her husbands body and a down on his luck English ex-pat played by the legendary Joe Strummer of The Clash. Over the course of the night the three storylines converge on the rundown Arcade Motel with a somewhat chaotic finale (for a Jarmusch film that is). This movie has both artistic merit and is also rather entertaining and even downright funny at times. So come on down to the cafe this January 29th. Admission is FREE so long as you at least purchase a beverage. See details on the flier above.
-Andrew
2010(!).1.1
A Rocky Horror New Year!
 Well another decade has bitten the dust. We're officially living in the future now people. Crazy... Now where's my darn hover car?!?! Sigh... Well even if we aren't jetting around on energy efficient space machines quite yet we still have cause to celebrate the dawning of this new era. And so came about this month's special edition of our monthly movie night here at the cafe, with a showing of pretty much the greatest,  weirdest, most fabulous musical to grace the silver screen or stage, Rocky Horror Picture Show. I could go on forever about how much I love this film and how much the songs are still stuck in my head now as I go about my life. Anyway, to make a long diatribe short it was a great way to ring in the New Year amongst friends.
After the screening, we headed over to nearby  Kitanotenmangu shrine to join the throngs of mostly hopeful students in our first shrine visit of the year (Hatsumode). We patiently waited in the mass line made our humble prayers and then drew our Omikuji. Everyone faired decently with chukichis all around except of course for myself who was the sole unlucky chap with a mere shokichi. Oh well... Then it was back to the cafe for a little amazake/zenzai before heading out once more into the frigid, snowy night.
 While most I'm sure made the wise decision to head home to their waiting beds, my companion and I managed to be coerced by a seperate group of friends to join them for an early morning (or late late night if you will) climb of Daimonji-yama to view the lunar eclipse. Looking up in the sky to see the majestic moon in all its glory was too much to pass up and so with a thermos full of hot beverage we began the trek. This of course was just around the time when the clouds rolled in and covered up any hint of the moon, but once we reached the platform of the 大 the night view of the city below mixed with the beauty of the falling snow made it all worthwhile. As we descended the mountain we met the next groups of brave souls heading up the mountain for the first sunrise of the year. I'm sure it was quite a sight, but that point I was thankfully and warmly tucked away in bed. Happy 2010 everybody. Hope to see you soon at one of our events or just around town.
|
