Boiled Edamame

We usually boil Edamame (green soy beans) in a salted water, and drain water off it.
And cool it with air. ( If we cool it in water, it will loose rich taste.)
And push beans out of pods with finger to mouth.

Nowaday's, we can buy frozen Edamame all season.
But I like to Eat it with beer in summer.

Phto above is frozen Edamame ( alredy boiled) in supermarket.

Photo above is Edamame fresh from farm.

Shoyu Ramen (Tokyo style)

Shoyu ramen is a ramen which ramen noodles are in soy sauce flavored hot soup.
"Shoyu" means soy sauce.
Ramen in these photos are Tokyo style shoyu ramen.

Usually, the soup is made by adding soy sauce based sauce (Tare) to clear stock (Dashi) which is made from chiken, some dried fish, and various vegetables.
The soup is clear, light brown, and not oily but not thin taste.
Usually, curly noodles used rather than straigt one.
Because curly noodles are match to such light taste soup.

In the photo above, topping is thinly sliced pork, Menme (fermented banboo shoot), finely sliced green onion, thinly sliced Narutomaki (a type of Kamaboko), and Wakame (seeweed).
In the photo below, topping is thinly sliced pork, Menma, finely sliced green onion, Nori (dried seaweed), boiled egg, and boild spinach.

Hiyayakko (cold tofu)

Hiyayakko is a simplest tofu dish.
If you want to enjoy the taste of tofu ,you should try it. and it's good for summer.
We usually wash tofu in water but lightly. Then put it into bowl with water and chill it in the refregirator in a few hours.
After that we drain off the water, and cut it to big dice, and serve on the plate.
Topping is variously. finely sliced green onion, shaved dry bonito, grated ginger, shiso leaves, sliced myoga, and so on.
In this photo, topping is sliced myoga and shiso leaves.
We usually put soysauce on top, and eat.

Tofu is an exellent health food. It is low in calorie, but rich in high quality protein.
Tofu is a food that digest absorption easily, because tofu is made of soy milk.

Hiyayakko is also popular dish in Izakaya(Japanese pub). It is also good for sake or beer.

Sake no Shioyaki (Grilled Salmon)

In Japan, we call salmon as "Sake or Shake".
Salmon is sold in two types in every fish shop and supermarket.
One type is raw salmon, and another is salted salmon.
If we prefer to buy salted salmon, we just Grill it.
And we prefer to buy raw salmon, we first sprinkle salt on it, and grill it.
We usually serve grilled salmon with grated radish to tast more tastfull, and eat it with rice.
It is often prepare as ingredient of carry out meals(Bento), because it is still good tast, if it got cold.

Salmon is rich in vitamin A,B1,D,E, and high quality protein.
Some Japanese don't eat the salmon's skin, but in fact, salmon's skin is rich in collagen.
Ofcourse, I eat it.

Kabuki in Tokyo

July 22, 2006 (Saturday)

I am seated along the hanamichi. On the other side are six geisha lined up like China dolls in a toy store. Their hair is up in a large bun, very round on the side like a proper brioche.

On stage there are cherry blossoms falling down from the sky. There are butterflies flittering around on sticks. The gorgeous Ichikawa Ebizo comes out wearing a falcon kimono and he drips with sex appeal. There are fireflies that fly around on stage as well. The beauty of kabuki is not only in the actors but in the whole stage and setting.

Later for the lion dance you can see the energy that is bound within Ichikawa Ebizo.

Diana Vreeland on Kyoto

from Diana Vreeland's book:

"God was fair to the Japanese. He gave them no oil, no coal, no diamonds, no gold, no natural resources, nothing! What God gave the Japanese was a sense of style."

"I love new potatoes, with their skins all taut and shiny like Chinese ivories."

Sobalier Gathering

I was invited to attend a gathering of "sobaliers". Not wine sommeliers, but experts on soba. The event took place at a temple on the outskirts of Tokyo in Nerima-ku. In the morning we watched as soba was made from scratch using a blend of buckwheat from Hokkaido, Tochigi and Yamagata. Kobayashi Sensei was from a soba restaurant, Oji. Mixing about 10% water to 90% buckwheat flour and carefully rolling it out to then be cut with a special soba knife.

The temple bells began to ring and we all gathered in front of the jizo in front of the temple. In the background you could hear the chanting by the temple's priest.

We all offered up senko incense to the jizo, lined up to give our thanks as we placed the senko in the ashes and retreated to inside the temple. The street is actually lined with 11 temples on this side street.

A rakugo artist offered up a talk of soba, the history, its health benefits, the art of making soba and of famous shops around Tokyo. It is a large group of about 50-60 people and at 40 years old, I am on the young side. Most of them are elderly men with a few spouses tagging along. The event is quite serious.

In the Buddhist tradition we should attain to be happy. 

The rakugo artist uses his sensu fan as chopsticks to pretend to be eating soba.

Soba no koshi (texture)

tsuyu (the dipping sauce)

1. taste the soba

2. taste the tsuyu

3. add yakumi (negi)

4. only dip 1/3 of the soba into the tsuyu

5. slurp with force

6. soba-yu

We are invited to move into the dining area where we can try the handmade soba. It is a serious time and much like sommeliers discussing the merits of wine, I am surrounded with sobaliers who are deconstructing the soba. It is so serious it lacks the joie de vivre I came looking for.

Soba comes from Canada, Australia and China.

The soba-yu added to the tsuyu at the end helps to bring out the umami in the sauce of katsuo, soy sauce and mirin.

Shochu in Manhattan

There are a few places in New York City for shochu. The selections are impressive, and better than some izakaya of Tokyo.

My favorite place to go for shochu, a distilled spirit native to Japan, is En Japanese Brasserie in the West Village.

435 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

212-647-9196

www.enjb.com

Ask for Taka or Miki and they will help guide you through the selection. Also, be sure to find out what they have for infused shochu. The food is great here with amazing presentations on dishes brought in from Japan. If you are not too hungry, then sit in the bar and get the cabbage and miso crudite platter as well as their signature homemade tofu.

Also worth checking out is Umi no Ie in the East Village. The feel is very casual in this subterranean tiny bar. Lots of shochu with a limited menu.

86 East 3rd Street

New York, NY 10003

646-654-1122

I have not been yet, but have been told by a few Japanese friends that Hacchan Shochu Bar also has a nice selection of shochu.

210 East 44th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues)

212-68705075

Gyudon

It is called "Beef bowl" in some country.
"Gyu" means beef, and "don" means a bowl rice topped with some ingredients.
Gyudon is a bowl rice topped with thinly sliced beef and onion, simmered in mildly sweet flavored, soy sause based broth.
We usually put BeniSyoga(pickled ginger) on it, befor we eat it.
Gyudon is also popular as a dish of fast food restaurant.

Iwashi furai (deep-fried sardine)

This is a deep-fried sardine with butter(wheat flour and cranb).
It is a helathy food.
Especially, sardine is rich in DHA and EPA.

If you don't like to eat sardine,because it is fishy, you should have to try this dish.
If you eat this while it is fresh from cooked, it is not fishy.

We usually squeeze lemon on it. and put worcester sauce or mustard on it, befor we eat.
This is a delicious and health food which we can buy or cook at good price and non-affordable price.

Kake udon

Udon is Japanese thick noodle made from wheat flour.
There are variously kind of udon noodles by region.
Usually we kead wheat flour with salt water and roll out them , and cut it into narrow stripe.

Kake udon is simplest hot type udon dish.
Boiled udon is put into bowl and poured soysauce based mild flavor hot broth.
And topped on finelly sliced green onion.
We usually sprinkle a little of red pepper on it, before eat it.

Kake udon is aloso called "Su udon".
"su" means "nothing" in this case.

Tsukemono

Tsukemono is Japanese pickles.
Pickling is not only keeping ingredients for long time, but aloso for making them good flavor.
Tsukemono is a important side dish of Japanese food.

There are various type of Tsukemono.
We usually put vegetables( sometime fish or meat) into salt, soysauce, miso(fermeted soybeans paste), vinega,Nuka(rice bram) or Sake lees.
I will introduce various kind of Tsukemono in my blog.

Bento

Bento is a portable meal.
There are two type of Bento,One is home made and another is selling.
Traditional Bento is made up of rice, fish or meat, and tsukemono(Japanese pickles).
For especially, Umeboshi(dried ume) is popular ingredient of traditional Bento, because it has strong sterilizing.
As for home made Bento, we select the foods which is still delicious if it get cold.
If you visit Japan, you can buy Bento easyly in convenience store, supermarket, railway station.
Combination of integrents are various.
I will show you lot of delicious bento this blog .

Natto

Natto is an very very healty food.
It is Japanese traditional food made from fermented soybeans.
It is rich in protein.

We usually put natto into small bowl.
Add mustard and soysauce a little.
Stir it in the bowl. and put it on the rice.
I like this simple way to eat natto.

Natto is full of nutrients.
But it has a strong smell and it is sticky.
I suppose you need a time to be able to eat this.

Natto is not popular in western part of Japan.

Kake soba

Soba is a Japanese thin noodle made from buckwheat.

Kake soba is the simplest hot type soba dish.
Boiled soba is drained. and put into bowl. Poured soysauce based hot broth.
"kake" means "pour" in English in this case.
And topped with finely sliced green onion.
We usually sprincle a little of red peper on it.

The broth is made from soysauce, sweet sake, and dried bonito.
It is mild flavor.