jrufusj
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She said the meat from the cheeks was the best part of the fish.
Ah! the cheeks are divine, as are the collars -- yellowtail, salmon, halibut, cod.
My favorites are yellowtail collars, cod cheeks, halibut cheeks.
What about woodcock head? I hear the brains are quite a delicacy. There is a recipe in the Roux bros. cookbook and a picture of it presented with it's head and neck split for easy access to the" tasty " bits.In yakitori joints in Japan, they often serve chicken brains. I've eaten my share of hog/cow brains, but had never tried chicken brains until a couple of months ago.
I think it's mostly a cultural thing. In some places they eat live octupi. How would you like that served up on your plate? I understand the suction on their tentacles cling to the sides and roof of your mouth as one tries to chew them or more likely gulp them down!In Korea they frequently serve live octopi -- san saebal nakji. It's a specialty of Cheolla province. They stick onto your mouth and throat with their little suckers, so the trick is to wrap them in a leaf and follow immediately with a shot of soju to make them release. Actually, pretty good with a dash of gochujang as well.
In Korea and Japan small salt-grilled fish (shioyaki in Japanese) come out with head and guts intact.
In Japan, with sanma (is this the right Japanese name, Torakris?) the insides are slathered over the flesh as a sort of sauce or relish.
Also, in Korea, the head (along with rest of carcass and guts) shows up as the main ingredient in maeun-tang, a delicious spicy fish soup often eaten after a long night of drinking to ward off a hangover.
Dwaeji mori (pork head) is a popular anju (drinking snack) in Korea, but it is just slices of meat from the head, not the whole head -- so no visual shock.
Finally, in the chamchi restaurants in Korea (basically, shops that specialize in just tuna sashimi, but where every part is served in an orgy of tuna consumption), the eyeball of the tuna is dropped into a glass of soju for prized customers to shoot.
I once worked on a shrimp boat where the captain said that ANYTHING from the sea could be eaten if prepared correctly. Don't quite agree (vis. fugu liver/ovary), but I think he's damn close to right.
Itadakimasu,
Jim
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The two new types were both fermented. "Octopus", in a red kimchee sauce and "Skate", also in a red kim chee base. We both prefered the Octopus. This seems to generate a natural "High", brought to it's summit by your timely poem, or the Korean Beers that we imbibed during the tasting. Irwin
Mmmh...skate kimchi. In Korea, skate is known as hong-eo. It is usually fermented before it is served and has a distinct ammonia smell that most people find completely offputting, but I like it. Hong-eo is a specialty of the Cheolla-do region of Korea, in the southwest.
Skate may be served in several ways -- as hong-eo hoe (which is raw fermented skate), as hong-eo jjim, or as samhyop (which is a bossam-type dish, with three components: kimchi, fermented skate, and pork). The last is the version that got me on Korean television. I was in Cheolla-do style restaurant in Seoul one night, eating samhyop, when a TV crew came in to do a feature and was so shocked to find a westerner eating it that I made the news.
One of the most sublime combinations is khat kimchee (mustard greens), makkoli (a milky Korean fermented rice beer), and hong-eo hoe. Khat kimchee and makkoli are also traditional "country" foods that many young Koreans won't go near.
Jim
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We've just returned from our brief Cambodia trip. It was a great trip in all respects.
Thanks to "ecr" for the recommendations. For lunch the first day we went to Khmer Kitchen and were thrilled. Everything is made by hand. The only electrical appliance to be seen in the kitchen was some sort of small fan that had been converted into a tool to scrape the flesh from coconuts.
We were so please that we went back the next day for lunch as well. Favorites included: amok curry, coconut and pumpkin soup with fish, a minced pork with basil dish that almost resembled a cooked laarb, and a spicy fish soup that was much like a dtom yam but perhaps a bit more gentle and just a hint minty. These were the highlights from the two meals; everything we ate there was delicious. Including fruit and coffee shakes, as well as beers, we paid a total of $21US for the two lunches (which included a total of nine dishes).
After our first lunch there, we couldn't bear to switch over to Thai food, so we tried another Khmer restaurant for dinner. We went to Bayon I. There are two Bayon (I and II, simply enough). Bayon I has Khmer music and a shadow puppet show. I am told that Bayon II has the full-bore tourist-focused "cultural" show. Fortunately, our mototricycle driver steered us to number one. The food was very good, but I would have to say I preferred Khmer Kitchen. The major highlight dish at Bayon was a green mango and smoked fish salad.
The one other thing I had read here on eGullet was that the food at the Grand Hotel was disappointing. We were pleased with breakfast, but our one foray each into the room service and bar menus proved the info right. The food was thoroughly mediocre.
We did not get to the street stalls near the central market due to the weather and the fact that we had a four-year old in tow. Next trip....
Jim
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I would agree with "ecr" that the best Thai food is not to be found in elegant surroundings. In fact, I am not a great fan (except for occasional special events) of royal Thai cuisine. Everyday food, however, is as good as any food anywhere.
There are literally thousands of great places under bridges, on the banquette, anywhere else you look. Fortunately for you, there are also some good indoor restaurants, though they are only ordinary in decor.
Saturday evening, I had dinner with friends at one of my favorite restaurants of this type. The Orient is a restaurant in Sukhumvit Soi 49 (right where the road does the S bend). It is reasonably attractive, very reasonably priced, and of excellent quality. I particularly recommend:
- soft shell crab stir-fried with garlic and black pepper (bpu nim tod gratiem prik thai)
- crabmeat in a yellow curry sauce (bpu pat pong kari)
- any soup, but especially dtom klong with bpla krob (this is a spicy sour soup with crispy fish that I like better than dtom yam)
- a crispy morning glory salad that is to die for (yam phak bung krob)
- fried crumbled catfish salad with green mango relish (yam bpla duk foo with yam mamuang priaow)
Everything I've had there has been very good.
Also, I really like Taling Pling, which is in a soi off of Silom behind the Indian temple. My favorite thing there is the stir-fried gourd leaves (pak damlung) with minced pork (moo sap).
Again, you really will eat best if you just head out into the streets, but you should be very well fed at either of these.
Oh, one other thought. By far the best Isaan/Lao food comes from the street, but for an introduction, you could do much worse than Vientiene or Baan Lao, both in Suk Soi 36 or 38 (can't remember which). Near there is Hualomphong Food Station, about which I have heard good things, but I haven't tried it. (Don't be confused and think this should be near the train station because of the name. Hualomphong train station and the restaurant are nowhere near each other.) These would be good places to try Isaan/Lao food for the first time, but only the streets will do you right.
If you haven't done it before, I would also recommend a trip out to Aw Dtaw Gaw, the major food market across the street from Chatuchak Market. Take your camera, as it's a great visual experience.
If you want more input, please let me know, but this should be a good start.
Take to the streets and enjoy,
Jim
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ecr:
We're off tomorrow morning to HK, then on to Siem Reap on Wednesday.
Thanks for the suggestions and I'll report back when we return.
Travelling with a 5 year old. I just hope we get a chance to do much interesting eating.
He's adventurous with food and a great sport, but after a long day at the temples, we'll see.
Jim
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I concur entirely with your opinion of natto, surely one of the vilest non-lethal substances ever created.
Rice, natto, soy, mustard -- the breakfast of champions. Actually, it's one of my favorites, but I'm not thrilled with the frozen natto available here in Korea (there must be fresh somewhere), so I normally only eat it when in Japan or when I smuggle natto back into Korea. That's good for four or five days of great eating.
Ordinarily, breakfast is just coffee and fruit or an egg on toast. Though I don't don't mind a big fry-up on the weekend if I am hung over.
Jim
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Boshintang / Sacheoltang / Mongmongtang, i.e. Dog Soup. O.K., I've never tried it, but it's I guess it has attained talismanic status in the guk/ tang category. As is often the case, this occured in part as a result of the efforts by PETA, Brigitte Bardot and others to have it banned. Being challenged in such a way, it now becomes an essential part of what it means to be true Korean (male).
Yes...how could I forget boshintang? Especially during the "dog days of summer" which, traditionally in Korea, are actually the dog days of summer. There are three days during the summer when it is traditional to eat dog meat.
My favorite way to eat dog, however, is tomagogi, which is stewed and sliced dog meat served on a wooden board (toma). The seasoning dip is sublime -- heavy on the gochujang, sesame oil, shiso seeds, and more.
Wait, maybe this should be a dog thread.
Jim
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The single cooking trick that has done me the most good is moving to Asia. What? Yes, really, because the following things have ensued:
(1) Being thrown into a land where finding any given ingredient for western food is a catch-as-catch-can enterprise has forced me to look more at what is in the markets and to work more with fresh, local, seasonal products.
(2) Having to improvise with ingredients has made me a much more thoughtful and -- ultimately -- creative cook.
(3) The whole concept of supermarkets versus specialty markets has sent me to the specialists the same way trips to France do. I (almost) never buy seafood anywhere but Noryangjin, where about half of it is alive when I buy it.
(4) The move itself forced me to throw out much of the useless crap that had accumulated and cluttered up my kitchen over the past decade. Having fewer tools means the genuinely useful ones are easier to find and used more frequently.
(5) Acquiring full-time, live-in help has meant that cleaning is less of a barrier to using the tools I do need. I no longer make a decision about whether to pull out item x, since I know someone else can help deal with the cleanup. At the same time, I still try to clean as I go and leave nothing but the actual tableware dirty.
All of these are things I've long known I should be doing, and have done to some extent, but there's nothing better than having them forced on oneself.
Jim
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I'll name my favorite jjigae (and probably some guk/tang I've not had time to mention right now as I'm racing off for Indian food tonight) in another note.
How could I have left out sanji guk?
Sanji guk is the hae jang guk (hangover soup) par excellence.
It is made from cubes of congealed blood, gopchang (intestines), and various vegetables.
Sounds like the last thing one needs with a hangover and I was skeptical the first time I faced it in that condition. However, it was perfect.
Also, as a summer food, I'm very fond of kongnamul guk, which is basically a soup made from pureed beans. It is served cool and is almost milky, but with more texture. Eaten with wang (king-size) mandu, it is a great summer lunch.
Jim
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I couldn't imagine making kimchi with out shiokara in it.
The Japanese also like to use it in dressed salads and to toss it in stirfries.
Here is a recipe (in Japanese) of one of the most popular shiokara, ika (squid), great picture too!
In Korea, the fermented fish product that is usually used in kimchee is called jeotgal. It can be made from shrimp (most common in general), oysters (my favorite for cabbage kimchee), small anchovy/sardine type fish, squid, or other sea products. Often, it is more heavily fermented than shiokara. Jeotgal is also often used as a dipping sauce or condiment for meats, especially pork.
Not all kimchee includes a fermented sea product. Some kimchees are very fresh and mildly seasoned. Of the two most typically seen in Japan -- cabbage and cubed radish -- only cabbage requires jeotgal. The cubed radish is often made with no seafood involved. There are hundreds of varieties of kimchee, but that's a discussion for the kimchee thread in the "Elsewhere in Asia/Pacific" forum.
My experience of shiokara is really limited to ika shiokara and to eating it as a drinking snack. I'm eager to work on adapting the ika recipe you gave to anko innards. I'll report back after I try, though it may be a few weeks before I have a chance.
By the way, if you decide to use the word jeot to try to buy the Korean product, make sure you include the full term "jeotgal". Most Koreans might only say jeot, but if you slightly mispronounce jeot alone, it is a very, very rude word.
Thanks,
Jim
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WARNING: Admission of guilty pleasure
I'm not generally a kamaboko fan. However, like Jinmo, I don't mind a bit of it as an accent or small item in a dish that is otherwise interesting. As a tidbit in udon, it's fine.
However, when I am pressed for time and eat sushi for lunch in a cheap kaitenzushi place where I can't get excited about the kind of things that I usually do (which normally require pristine freshness and close attention to detail), I do enjoy the kanikamaboko nigiri. Typically, it is very sweet and a slightly shameful guilty pleasure. I don't eat California rolls or kanikamaboko almost any other way, though.
Okay, I do eat it one other way. In Korean-Japanese restaurants, they broil corn on a sizzle plate with a little mayo and soy, as well some kanikamaboko and some other seasonings. That's actually pretty good too and is another guilty pleasure.
I don't know if it's classified as kamaboko (I doubt it), but I do like what Koreans call odaeng. This is the softer fish cake (almost a bread or soft aburage texture). This is great simply marinated and eaten alone or added to udon.
Jim
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So Jim is there any sushi/sashimi that you don't like?
We had a good ankimo thread going a while ago , look here:
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=8626
as for shiokara, my FIL makes the squid one quite regulary, I have never tried since it isn't one of my favorite food.
We purchased a katsuo-shiokara a little while ago and I remember one of the main ingredients was sake kasu (sake lees).
Aha! You've figured me out and announced it to the world. I'm simply a glutton. In fact, when I joined eGullet, I thought I was joining eGlutton.
Seriously, there is very little traditional sushi/sashimi (or other traditional Japanese food) that I do not like if it is prepared properly. I'm not wild about plain boiled ebi, boiled hamaguri, some things like that. But that's more an issue of the fact that I do not think they are as interesting or flavorful or that they play off the shari as well as other neta.
I guess what I'm not wild about of the new-style, wild roll kind of things. California roll, spicy tuna roll, spider roll, etc., etc., etc., all taste fine, but they don't match what I am looking for when I go out for sushi or take the time to prepare a full meal of it at home. Some rolls I do like -- kampyomaki, nattomaki, negitoromaki, a few other things like that. I also really like nakaochi rolled in really good nori, but with no rice.
I will admit that I break my rules and stoopa bit to make a kind of tuna salad roll to use as a quick, easy, and affordable hors d'oeuvre or picnic food, but I don't consider it serious sushi. I can get pretty good and very cheap bincho maguro here. I find that it needs a little pickin up though, so I will make a salad of tataki bincho maguro, QP mayo mixed with a little prepared wasabi and soy, aonegi, a little sesame oil, whatever else is around and hits the spot. For convenience food, I often serve it as uncut hosumaki. For a snack, as cone-shaped temaki. For hors d'oeuvres, I normally cut it and put it on a platter with attractive garnish. I've gotten good reactions from Japanese friends, but I don't think it is anything special and I consider it more convenience food than serious sushi. I think my friends are displaying that gentle kindness to typical of the culture (and so pleasing at times). I am careful about the shari prep, as I can't abide even the simplest thing made with underseasoned or badly textured rice.
I'm also not that big on chirashizushi, but -- to be fair -- I don't think I've ever had really good chirashi. I first tried it in a so-so sushiya in the US and got turned off.
That's funny about the ankimo thread, as it is how I found eGullet. About 3-4 months ago, I was learning how to prepare and cook it and did a websearch on ankimo. That thread came up and I started lurking here.
Thanks for the shiokara tip and for starting the thread. I'll follow up there.
Take care,
Jim
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When I'm in Japan and go out for a big sushi/sashimi style dinner, I normally eat mostly sushi. I love sashimi, but I can get good fresh fish many places. However, I've never had shari that even began to approach what I get in Japan anywhere else (including my own). The first time I ever ate sushi in Japan was in Kyoto and it was a revelation. The Kansai style for slightly more heavily seasoned, slightly sweeter rice made the contrast to sushi outside Japan that much more evident. The rice was sweeter, but not in a cloying way. I commented to my wife that I could still taste the shari on my lips several hours later.
Of course, in an ordinary, izakaya kind of evening, a little sashimi is usually in order.
My favorite kinds of sushi are generally things that are hard to find in top form elsewhere. In Japan, I almost always order if in season:
Akagai -- I can buy these live from the market in Korea and they're very good, but in most restaurants in Korea, they are nowhere near the same in preparation or freshness. In the US they're always frozen, at least in my experience. In Japan, they're sublime.
Himo -- Same as above, but double the enthusiasm.
Engawa -- I find cutting skills here are a huge issue. I haven't mastered proper cutting for engawa and find that many itamae in the US haven't either. Love the texture.
Ama-ebi -- The true ama-ebi, the little ones, are hard to find elsewhere. In the US, most of what is sold as ama-ebi is actually botan-ebi, because they freeze well and are available year round. Of course, if they're fresh, I don't complain when botan-ebi shows up; I smile and eat it! Props to David Lutjen from wasabi, a great Japanese food importer in Portland Oregon, for teaching me about the ama-ebi/botan-ebi thing (see www.wa-sa-bi.com).
Hikari-mono -- I have to admit that I love the shiny, sometimes more oily fish. My very favorite is good aji. I've been tipped that one of the best things in the world is live aji in Fukuoka. Gotta plan a trip there! I'm also very fond of sayori, iwashi, etc.
Tai -- Really good madai just can't be found anywhere else, though domi in Korea is pretty damn good. I prefer the tai family as sashimi, though. Nothing prettier than tai in an usuzukuri cut, except maybe fugu cut the same way.
I also really like that kazunoko on the kombu thing...can't remember the Japanese name.
Of course, there are other things that are less regional:
Gesso -- Love that texture. I'm very much a texture guy.
Maguro -- I like tuna in all its forms, but probably my favorites are nakaochi (the meat scraped from around the backbone) as gunkan-maki and plain old-fashioned toro. It's not sushi, but I also love that dish with the tataki toro and yamaimo. Then again, I'd love yamaimo eaten out of an old boot.
Uni -- Of course this is a great one...but only impeccably fresh. Unless I'm wowed by a sushiya, I often won't order it. In Seoul, I can find live sea urchins at a reasonable price and make my own.
Speaking of making one's own, I've taken to buying the ridiculously cheap and perfectly fresh ankimo available from the seafood market in Seoul (though it took me a few tries to learn to cook it right). When I buy it, it comes with the rest of the viscera attached. That viscera is such a beautiful piece of fish guts that I can't look at it without thinking shiokara. Does anyone have a recipe/method for making shiokara at home from finfish guts?
Thanks,
Jim
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They were making macaroni gratin and instead of a bechamel sauce they made a sauce of pureed tofu mixed with powdered formula (yes the stuff for babies) and powdered cheese, the dish was then baked with a little more of the powdered cheese sprinkled on top.
The entire dish had 500 less calories then the original, but I have to wonder what it tastes like.................
You know, Kristin, you don't have to wonder what it tastes like. I'd even advise not to think about it too much. You'll be too queasy to create another great series of photos for the dinner thread!!!
Yuck. If that's what it takes to be thin, I'll continue to be a mild spectacle on the streets of Asia with my 15 or so excess pounds.
Powdered dairy really is a ghastly thought.
However, I must admit that I sometimes use powdered essences of green tea, mushroom, (fake green) wasabi, and similar items mixed into an emulsified type sauce when I'm in a bit of hurry, but feeling a little experimental. Powdered dairy? Haven't been down that road. Can't imagine that trip.
Jim
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I've been meaning to try Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup -- kyesamt'ang is the closest transliteration of the name I've seen--which seems to have tons of ginger, garlic, chile and sesame in it.
I think you are probably talking about samgyetang (»ï°èÅÁ). This basically consists of an entire small chicken, stuffed with rice, jujube, and Korean ginseng (insam or Àλï), all in a good broth with vegetable. Garlic and sesame should be background elements and chile has no place in my experience.
Then again, you may be talking about something different.
My other favorite tang/guk are:
Gamjatang (°¨ÀÚÅÁ): Gamja means potato, which is combined in a spicy broth with beef backbone and its meat. Prominent seasonings in additional to gochujang (chile paste) include deulggae (µé±ú), the seeds of shiso that I was describing in another note.
Dakdoritang (´ßµµ¸®ÅÁ): Dakdoritang is a spicy stew/soup featuring chicken, along with large green onions (dae p'a or ´ëÆÄ) and a number of root vegetables. (Incidentally, the "dae" is the same as Japanese dai or O and as similar Chinese sounds--- ÓÞ)
Sundaeguk (¼ø´ë±¹): Sundaeguk is a soup made from the Korean sausage called sundae. This is a fresh sausage using pig intestine as casing. The soup is not particularly spicy. Often, it includes additional pig intestine (i.e. not just as casing). Many people find the smell of this soup unpleasant.
Mi-yeok guk (¹Ì¿ª±¹): This is the simple seaweed soup given to all mothers continuously from the time that they deliver babies until the time that they scream so loud in frustration that the doctor and mother-in-law relent. Only at that point are the mothers allowed to give up seaweed soup, emerge from under the blankets, and turn the thermostat cooler than 30 degrees C. Being a man, and not in danger of being subjected to such a regime, I find the soup delicious.
Gochuguljjampong (°íÃß±¼Â«ºÀ): Someone referred to jjampong earlier in the thread as a delicious spicy soup with seafood. Jjampong is a Chinese-derived dish that has been heavily adapted by Korea (as have jajangmyeon, mapo dubu, and others). Ordinarily it is not terribly spicy, but there is a wonderful version done by a restaurant near my office that is oyster-driven and includes lots of gochujang. The full name means "chile pepper/oyster jjampong". (I have probably screwed up the Hangul for jjampong. It is a Chinese word so the Hangul is harder to remember and I don't have any resources with me at the moment to make sure).
General Note: I'm including the Korean characters for those who may be trying to read Korean menus. I was inspired by Kristin's daily Nihongo in the Japan forum. If the characters don't come through properly, you can go to View>Encloding>More>Korean in IE. For other browsers, I apologize that I don't know.
Another Note: This thread hasn't addressed jjigae and related dishes. Often they are not much different except in name but they can also be very different. I'll name my favorite jjigae (and probably some guk/tang I've not had time to mention right now as I'm racing off for Indian food tonight) in another note.
Take care,
Jim
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During the Korean Chusok holiday, my family and I will be spending 4 days with friends in HK, then the remainder of the week in Siem Reap. HK is not an issue, but I'm looking for a little guidance in and around Angkor.
We've lived and eaten from end to end of Asia, but this is our first trip to Cambodia, so we're looking for any recommendations. We used to live in Thailand and love simple, rural Thai food. We live in Korea now and. uhm, unusual things are not a problem.
Anyone who knows the area and could give some pointers beyond the hotels and foreigner-targeted places could be a great help.
Thanks in advance,
Jim
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Favorite Korean rice dishes:
Like everyone else, my wife and I love hoe dop bap (raw fish on rice with salad greens, gochujang and whatever other garnishes are the specialty of the house).
I dearly love the bokkum bap (fried rice) that is made at the end of a night of nakji bokkum, especially at the great place in Gwanghwamun where they use saebal nakji (very small octopus from Cheolla-do). The fried rice at the end of the night is loaded with the flavor of the nakji and seasonings, but also seasoned up with kim and chamggireum (sesame oil) in its own right.
My favorite way to make bokkum bap at home is to saute manul jjong (garlic stems) slowly to mellow them, then to fry the rice with egg, manul jjong, yangpa (western onion), and a little gochujang and sesame oil. It's not a classic combination, but it is very Korean in flavor profile.
I do like good dol sot bibimbap like everyone else, though I don't eat it that often. I really like bibimbap with yukhoe (Korean raw beef similar to steak tartar) and korean pear as the main elements.
The one thing I don't like is kimbap. There's nothing wrong with it inherently, but I just can't eat what is essentially a hosumaki with unseasoned or underseasoned rice. Same reaction I have to kimuchee in Japan.
Jim
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I used to spell it kim but then realized that it was not correct because the Korean letter is a hard 'g' sound, not k. I didn't want to be incorrect but I guess I was trying to hard.
Actually, you weren't doing anything wrong to start with.
The Korean character ¤¡ changes its sound depending on its position in the word. Korean is a pretty simple
language phonetically and alphabetically, but there is still some confusion with romanization.
In the Korean word for a stray dog, which is spelled µé°³ (literally "wild dog") and pronounced deul gae, the "g" sound is close to what we would think of as a classic western hard g. This is because it is in a medial position.
(The operative character here is the same one, called 񃨦 in its full name, that I isolated above in the second paragraph. Hangul characters change shape and proportions depending on the number and shape of the other letters in the same syllable block.)
However, when the same letter begins the word for seaweed -- ±è -- it has a sound much closer to an English "k", though closer to the one in ski than to the one in kite. This sound shift is because the character is now in initial position.
So...you can continue to spell the word "kim" because when it is the initial sound the character in question yields a sound much closer to a "k" than a "g".
To bring this back a bit closer to food:
In the Korean word for shiso/perilla seeds, which is spelled µé±ú (literally "wild sesame") and pronounced deul ggae, the "k/g family" sound is much stronger and has a bit of throat clearing sound to my ears. Be careful, because it's very easy for a non-native speaker to confuse the consonant sounds in gae and ggae. Note how close the hangul spelling is. There is only a small change in one character to move from a wild dog to shiso seeds.
Ironically, deul ggae is one of the main elements in the seasoning dip for what I think is Korea's best gae (dog) dish.
Sorry to be confusing, but the commonly used spelling of kim is perfectly acceptable. It is what you will see used most frequently inside Korea in romanized food writing and labeling.
There are multiple romanization systems, so my romanization here is not gospel, but it is acceptable. My point is really to explain the sound shifts and how kim is pronounced.
Take care,
Jim
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How funny we should be talking about how/where nori is made...
Saturday night we had a cocktail party with about 25 people and, among other things, I made a huge batch of hosu maki. When we were toasting the nori, my almost 5 year-old son was going on and on asking about how nori was made and I only escaped the repetitive (you understand what I mean if you have kids that age) questioning by promising to arrange a visit to a nori "plant".
Of course, being the inquisitive, food-driven type I am, I am secretly looking forward to the field trip as well.
Any suggestions?
Also, re: flavored nori -- in Korea, except for sushi nori, almost all nori is salted and fairly heavily flavored with sesame oil. Delicious as a snack or a garnish for plain gohan, but pretty useless for most food combinations.
Thanks in advance for any "field trip" tips. Either Korea or Japan are convenient possibilities, as I kind of live back and forth between the two.
Jim
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Oh! How awful is that everlasting tofu in the box?!?! It's like the Everready bunny.
Like Kristin, I love mapodofu. I haven't had it in Japan, but eat it frequently in Taiwan and Korea. Kristin, in what kind of restaurants does it appear most frequently in Japan? Other than one really good Taiwanese-run Chinese restaurant I was taken to by my family in Asukasa, I've never been happy with Chinese food in Japan. Too many boring, bland but greasy meals in expensive hotel-based Chinese restaurants have made me prejudiced.
Ahh...silken tofu. It's pretty good in Korea (sun dubu), but nothing like Japanese tofu.
I still remember the first time I ate incredibly simple, sublimely fresh local tofu in Kyoto with nothing but a small bit of ponzu and the slightest garnish of aonegi. Sheer bliss -- I could have eaten an entire bean field worth.
Jim
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For the belacan, if you have a Japanese or a Thai market nearby, you might have a reasonable substitute -- not exact, but at least better than dried anchovies. There are small dried shrimp available that are called surume-ebi in Japanese and gung haeng in Thai. They may be a little less, uhm, assertive than the belacan, but should be a reasonable substitute. In most Asian markets, they can be bought in plastic bags and can then be ground or used whole as appropriate. If you've ever had somtam Thai, you'll know what I'm talking about.
Most Asian cuisines have a product akin to this somewhere in their repertoire.
Good luck,
Jim
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Kristin:
I've never seen akajiso used fresh in Japanese or Korean cuisine. I can't even always find it in Seoul. One of the small vegetable stands outside Noryangjin (Seoul's much smaller version of Tsukiji) carries shiso. Sometimes it is just aojiso, sometimes it is a little wrapped styrofoam tray with both ao- and akajiso. That was what he had the day I first made the kaibashira dish, so I decided to use some akajiso for visual effect.
I've had butter-tarako sauce for pasta, but never butter-mentaiko. I'll have to try that as I really like mentaiko.
Thanks for the pointer to the Korea thread(s) in the other forum and also for the mentaiko suggestion.
Jim
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Combining ichimi togarashi and mayo as a dip for surume-ika doesn't sound so strange. The common Korean condiment for mareun ojing-eo (dried squid) is gochujang (hot pepper paste) mixed with mayo. Korean mayo is similar to QP, not western mayo.
Korean sancho (a different species within the Zanthoxylum genus) is used as the main condiment for chu-eo tang (a soup made from loach, don't know Japanese name).
In Korea, we use the seeds from shiso (called deul ggae, meaning wild sesame) quite frequently. Are these used in Japan at all? Interestingly, shiso leaves are ilbon kaetnip in Korean, meaning Japanese sesame leaf.
Please slap me if I'm getting off topic by discussing Korean use of ingredients commonly considered Japanese and discussed in this thread.
Jim
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All of us have our sinful pleasures...even when they violate our principles.
I am equally disdainful of blending dairy into (almost all) Asian foods. In Korea, budae jjigae is one of my favorite fast foods, but I never like the common version with cheese. I've never been very happy with any Japanese dishes that incorporate dairy (except maybe butteryaki enokitake). However, every time I go to Japan, there are certain things that I must pick up to smuggle back to Seoul. Among these is a cheap uni-tarako paste mixture from the food shop in Narita. Eaten alone, it's way too salty, but in combination with other things (like an adornment to temaki) it's great.
So...sinful pleasure...I make this kaibashira dish with truly huge shellfish (called khi chogae in Korean, don't know name in Japanese). I slice the kaibashira 95% percent of the way through horizontally in three places, then stuff with akajiso, aojiso, and finely sliced shiitake, then grill the whole thing. To top it off, I make an emulsion of butter and the uni-tarako paste as a sauce and top off with a little aonegi.
Authentic? No.
Appropriate ingredient blending? No.
Sinfully satisfying? Yes (he says blushingly).
So what do other people do with dairy and Japanese ingredients that they shouldn't?
By the way, this is my first post to e-gullet since joining. What a great site!
Jim
Fish Heads
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
This falls into the category of foods that I enjoy in certain limited situations.
Much like ika shiokara, I can really enjoy this when it is an accompaniment to drinking or on the table with a lot of other food where it serves as a small, bitter accent item.
A plate of it all alone, with nothing but water to wash it down? No thank you!!
Jim