Anniversaire dans Ma Maison
So Tuesday was my birthday. To celebrate I went with some pals, three Americans and an Australian, to an Italian restaurant in rural Japan with a French name. Ma Maison is in Amino, other branches elsewhere, and is that rarest of rare things in Japan – a restaurant serving foreign food that is not crap.
The region that I am living in, Tango, is rural – famous for silk, beaches and . . . For a sparsly populated region there are a surprising number of restaurants here, a high proportion of which are good/excellent.
Props and love go out to Ishiin in Nodagawa, Apple Farm Café in Kaya, The Train Café also in Kaya, Ten Ten in Mineyama, Papa Shizuka in Mineyama, Karachi in Maizuru, and to all the others I have forgotten.
Of the above the latter two serve “foreign” food – the others a mix of more traditional Japanese faire. Foreign restaurants are often a let down in Japan. Papa Shizuka’s serves up delicious pizza, while Karachi supplies Indian and Pakistan curry that stands comparison with similar establishments in the UK.
Japanese food is good – but contains little by the way of spice and accompanying flavour. The sanctity of ingredients are respected in a fashion that I have not experienced in other cuisines. Taste and texture are revered uniquely. But when it comes time to complement the individual elements of a dish, as in foreign cooking, Japanese chefs can be found wanting.
Back to Ma Maison, I ate a tasty and flavoursome spaghetti Bolognese. It was good and didn’t taste of crap. Ma Maison has been around since 1964, making it 44 years old. I have yet to reach that age.
