May 2 - Arrival at Veggie Paradise

Friday May 2 - This morning, we ate at a lovely cafe called Le Chalet with an adjacent bakery that creates beautiful and healthful artisanal breads. The veggie plate and soup with fresh breads was wonderful and a delight to the eyes and taste. That's what I love about Japanese cuisine... the presentation is beautiful, the different elements have been prepared with care and placed on the plate carefully and mindfully no matter what it is and the tastes and textures are so different to contrast and compare... the veggie plate had small nibbles of different things like seitan, sundried daikon, greens, tahini-miso dressing, etc with an assortment of freshly baked bread and the soup was a lovely clear broth with enoki and shitake mushrooms and veggies. There's a lovely relaxed country cottage feel to the place to match the food. A definite place to return to often!

Then we headed to Yuki's restaurant called Veggie Paradise with a beautiful cafe downstairs and a cooking class upstairs. The area is lovely with a tofu maker down the street that Yuki says starts making fresh tofu each day at 4 am, fresh veggies, etc. This afternoon she has a interview and photo shoot for one of the major lifestyle magazines in Japan and I'm helping her set up for this and later she has a cooking class. Its going to be a fun whirlwind adventure running with and behind Yuki and her schedule, which is even busier and more packed then mine back home, and she is able to have an active social life too, and look fabulous too! Must be all that great raw food!