[Vegetables... Garnish]
It's almost too good to be called a "side dish."
Garnishes in a bistro.
In Japanese, it's translated as "side dish," but personally, I feel that this word makes its role sound a little too minor.
For example, beets.
Wrap the whole thing in foil and cook it slowly in the oven for about 2 hours.
For example, onions.
Sear one side thoroughly to bring out the sweetness and aroma, add vermouth for fragrance, and then roast the other side slowly as well.
Both are ingredients that are served alongside meat.
The time spent on that is not much different from that spent on the main course.
Why go to such lengths?
Because a dish isn't complete with just meat.
I believe this approach is especially important when it comes to game meat.
Wild game meats such as deer, wild boar, and bear each have their own distinct characteristics.
The lean venison is complemented by the sweetness of roasted beets and an earthy aroma.
The powerful flavors of wild boar and bear are complemented by the sweetness and charring of onions that have been slowly cooked.
Wild mushrooms, root vegetables, fermented cabbage, and the acidity of fruit.
None of them are added simply because they "want some color."
I take a bite of the meat.
Next, eat the vegetables.
Then, I want to eat meat again.
Create this small back-and-forth motion within a single dish.
That's also an important part of the garnisher's job.
And it gets even more interesting when wine is added.
While meat and wine alone might seem a little distant, the earthy aroma of beets, the sweet, slightly burnt flavor of onions, and the herbaceous notes of vermouth can seamlessly connect the flavors.
Garnishes are not merely supporting players to the meat,
It also serves as a link between the meat, the sauce, and the wine.
That's why, in a bistro, the interesting thing isn't lining up lots of expensive ingredients, but rather seeing how much care you can put into a single onion, a single beet, or a single head of cabbage.
The beets, which took two hours to cook, are casually placed next to the meat. But those two hours are invisible.
Eating together makes perfect sense.
Instead of making meat the main ingredient, we cook the entire dish.
We want even the small side dishes, often called "accompaniments," to be delicious.
I believe that the accumulation of all that unseen work is also part of the enjoyment of bistro cuisine.