Archive for May, 2009

Jun-i again

May 28, 2009 at 7:00 am · Filed under dessert, fish, restaurant

It has become tradition to document our meals at Jun-i, so here’s another round of snaps. This visit was in honour of my brother’s visit to Montreal.

We started the meal with miso soup, but I forgot to take a picture, alas. The soup had enoki mushrooms, tiny cubes of tofu, wakame, and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes for spice.

Sushi special

Sushi special


Yusuke had the chef’s choice of sushi. He said “mmmmm” after every bite, so I guess this passed muster. Kudos to the waitress for knowing the names of the fish in Japanese (mostly). For some reason, she was very surprised when Yusuke said he spoke Japanese; I guess his English is good enough now that she couldn’t tell he wasn’t a native speaker.

Sashimi

Sashimi


I had the sushi and sashimi lunch special. The salmon was particularly fabulous.

Organic Pacific salmon

Organic Pacific salmon


My brother was more creative and chose organic Pacific salmon. We couldn’t determine the nature of the vegetable on top, nor the sauce—which despite the colour wasn’t sweet. But it appeared to be appreciated.

We also each ordered one of the three desserts of the day and shared samples. Yum.

Ice cream duo

Ice cream duo


Maple and vanilla ice cream with a sweet, dense cake.

Custard with raspberry

Custard with raspberry


A very light, airy custard-like dessert with raspberry purée on top (I forgot the proper name; oops). This was definitely the best of the three.

Chocolate mousse

Chocolate mousse


Incredibly rich chocolate mousse with fresh, sweet strawberries.

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Rainbow trout and veggies

May 23, 2009 at 6:44 am · Filed under fish, miso soup, stir fry ·Tagged , ,

I wasn’t sure if this meal was really blog post worthy, but the food looked so pretty on our table that I wanted to take a picture.

Rainbow trout and veggies

Rainbow trout and veggies

The rainbow trout filets were simply baked in the oven under the broiler. We ate them seasoned with soy sauce and in my case, tons of ginger. Yusuke stir fried the zucchini and bean sprouts in a fair bit of oil (omega 3 goodness?) and we added a dash of soy sauce and wasabi when we ate them. The miso soup has carrots, potatoes, and white and green onions.

Bean sprouts & zucchini

Bean sprouts & zucchini

Miso soup

Miso soup

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Simple soba

May 19, 2009 at 11:21 am · Filed under pasta & noodles ·Tagged , , , , ,

Toppings array

Toppings array

Soba is a thin noodle made from buckwheat. It’s often served with a variety of veggies, seafood, etc. From what I understand, the development of the perfect soba broth is indeed an art. The various regions of Japan each have unique soba specialities. Soba making is also a popular hobby as well, especially for retired men!

Wikipedia, Just Hungry, and Japan-guide all have more soba info.

Soba served

Soba served

For this meal, we opened a package of special, premium soba that was made with green tea in addition to the buckwheat. Yusuke made a hot soba broth with a package of soba sauce mix, along with soy sauce, mirin, and dashi. We topped the noodles with boiled veggies (spinach, carrots, mushrooms), cooked shrimp, and hard boiled eggs.

Gratuitous cat bowl pic

Gratuitous cat bowl pic

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Atwater market green beans

May 15, 2009 at 11:41 am · Filed under stir fry ·Tagged , ,

veggies display

veggies display

Berries at the market

Berries at the market

We finally got around to visiting the famous Atwater market in Montreal. We didn’t go during the peak time on Saturdays, but there was still a nice selection of wares to peruse. After much debate in front of this fruit and vegetable stand, we selected fresh, crunchy green beans.

Yusuke combined the beans with thin strips of konnyaku and carrots, all boiled in a sauce of soy sauce, mirin, dashi, and perhaps some other stuff (he can’t remember). The konnyaku really soaked up the sauce, so the saltiness nicely matched the beans’ crunchiness.

Green beans-konnyaku-carrots

Green beans-konnyaku-carrots

Spring tulips

Spring tulips


Random dog running through the market

Random dog running through the market

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Spring stir fry

May 9, 2009 at 9:08 pm · Filed under stir fry ·Tagged , ,

okra-shrimp-mushrooms

okra-shrimp-mushrooms

We had this meal on the first hot day in Montreal: in April! I was absolutely basking in my muggy office, until they turned on the air conditioning (curses).

Anyway, this nice, light, quick meal was appropriate for the day. The shrimp, okra, and mushrooms were boiled in soy sauce, lemon juice, white wine, rice wine vinegar, and dashi. I can’t say enough how good it feels to eat natural food like this, with the flavours perfectly enhanced with simple ingredients. (As a side note, okra now has a firmly established spot on my roster of favourite foods. Despite the tendency of the seeds to stick in my teeth.)

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Broccoli stir fry

May 7, 2009 at 7:00 am · Filed under stir fry ·Tagged ,

Broccoli stir fry

Broccoli stir fry

Yeah, so I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one. It’s just a typical stir fry, with carrots, broccoli, and white onions. The seasoning includes the old standbys of garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and mirin (with potato starch). But it was tasty. And the broccoli is very attractive. Fresh is so much better than frozen. That’s all.

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Tofu-enoki-daikon

May 3, 2009 at 6:51 am · Filed under tofu ·Tagged , ,

tofu-enoki-daikon

tofu-enoki-daikon

This dish is très japonais. The main component is yudofu (boiled silken tofu). Next, enoki, those funny skinny mushrooms, were boiled and mixed with green onions. The final part of the assemblage was the root veggie daikon. Yusuke was very excited to find some that looked decent at one of the grocery stores near our new apartment. It wasn’t as succulent and melty as daikon in Japan, but it wasn’t bad either. Daikon is sort of magic in that when the raw vegetable is grated, it turns into a liquidy pulp. It’s very cool and juicy, a perfect complement to the tofu. The sauce that covers everything was made with soy sauce, mirin, water, and dashi, with potato starch added to thicken it.

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