JasonTrue

It's more of a snack than a side dish, but in Japan, and I believe also in Korea, it's common to foil-wrap whole sweet potatoes and cook them close to the coals of a fire. It does take some time, but it's hard to beat, and needs little-to-no assistance from additional seasonings. I have frequently oven-roasted sweet potato wedges (see this photo, upper left, with white-fleshed ones) coated in olive oil and a little salt, but they do have lots of sugars and can become quite dark very quickly if you don't watch carefully. Sometimes the nice caramelized flesh just wants to stick to the grill or baking sheet, which can be frustrating. Sweet potatoes can brown quickly (not in the good way) when exposed to air, so it's common to keep the sweet potatoes in water as you're slicing them. That's probably where the soaking comes in.

About 200 g Japanese eggplant 1 bulb of myouga (left unsaid: you probably can't find myouga everywhere in the US. consider using 1 or 2 teaspoons of freshly grated ginger in substitution.) 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon ume-su (Japanese apricot (aka plum) vinegar, which is often quite salty, and is very red) 1) slice the eggplant in 5mm slices. 2) remove aku by soaking the eggplant in water for about 30 minutes. You can weigh down the eggplants in the bowl using a plate or something heavy. 3) drain well; gently rub the eggplant slices with the teaspoon of salt. 4) slice myouga thinly and rub with a little more salt. (alternatively, grate the ginger now... salt probably not needed in that case). 5) mix your eggplant and myouga (or ginger) together. 6) Carefully squeeze the moisture out of the firmed up ingredients (discard that liquid) 7) Add the tablespoon of ume-su. You can adjust this to taste. Not really explained: this will probably taste best after two or three days, from what I can see. As the text indicated, the shelf life will not be extraordinarily long, but it doesn't seem to be an instant pickle, as some of the compounds that make the color blue will work over time.

I have no exact duplicates of rice bowls in my personal collection... I think I have two that vary only in color. I have one that's pretty small, and one that's pretty big, and the rest are somewhere in between. Matching sets are actually historically not the norm in Japan... For tori-zara (small plates for picking up shared items), yunomi (teacups), kozara (small plates for tsukemono or similar items) and kobachi (small bowls), it's common, but certainly not obligatory (and sometimes not possible), to get them in sets of 5. Actually most people collect dishes over time; one of my friends in west Japan would buy one or two things every time she took a trip somewhere. Thirty or forty years later she amassed quite a collection, and kept a number of them in a house she rented out to another family next door. The shape pretty much distinguishes rice bowls from other types of "o-wan". One of my potters distinguished a "rice bowl" and a "cafe au lait bowl" primarily by size. I think it's pretty common, if not the norm, to have different styles (sizes) of rice bowls for each person. In our household (two adults and two kids aged 5 and 8), each person eats a different amount of rice so we each have a different size of rice bowl. The concept is the same as chopsticks, where each person has their own set. OTOH, we have a set of uniform rice bowls that we reserve for guests. ←

Alton used to be pretty good about finding cheap alternatives or clever repurposing of equipment... I suppose there's a bit more product placement these days. I didn't know there's a big taboo about garlic presses, but I've found it almost as fast to mince use a cutting board, a knife, and a bit of salt, with less cleanup work. Or just chop coarsely, since most dishes seem to get more from coarse garlic.

When the chlorophyl is gone (as it often is in many steamed monstrosities), along with the texture, I imagine much of the nutritional value is pretty much lost too... When steaming became popular it was contrasted with the way Americans usually boiled green vegetables, which was far too long. Steaming too long is probably better for nutritional value than boiling too long, but I suspect a comparison of blanching to steaming would favor blanching. When the cell walls break down enough to lose color, the nutrients will start leaching into the water bath below...

It's tough to render chchch in Japanese

I've made sunomono with daikon and carrot before... that's pretty and tastes nice.

Usually fairly minimalist... negi and nattou, soup stock and miso. One CookPad recipe suggests adding slightly poached egg.

It just occurred to me that blanched spinach "aemono" is also one of the most popular Japanese vegetable side dishes I've served people not already accustomed to Japanese side dishes. Basically, blanch and ice-shock spinach, squeeze out the water, as you would for ohitashi; take ground sesame seeds, a little mirin, sugar, and salt, (try 3 tbsp sesame, 1 tbsp mirin, 1 tbsp sugar, one half teaspoon salt, adjust to taste), mix it into a paste, then stir in the chopped blanched spinach.

Misoshiru is still almost always a daily dinner feature when Hiromi and I cook Japanese food at home, but I also like suimono at dinner... However, I don't think chicken or beef teriyaki is very Japanese. To me it's a Korean American thing, in spite of the name, or sometimes Hawaiian... it's quite unusual that you'd find it served in Japan, since teriyaki as a technique is primarily used for red fish. The mirin-shouyu combination is used pervasively, however. However, perhaps if you grill it with skewers over charcoal and coat it with a mirin-shouyu based "sauce" you could call it "yakitori" or "yakiniku". Ohitashi (blanched spinach with splash of soy sauce, with ginger or katsuobushi on top) would be a good idea, and some Japanese pickles, perhaps just a couple of slices of shibazuke, sliced takuan, or a single umeboshi, are nice. You can also make a simple sunomono (sweet vinegared dish) with salt-rubbed cucumber slices, rested a few minuts, and splashed with sweetened vinegar; let it sit in the refrigerator an hour or two before serving. Since you're serving "stamina" food, perhaps a little raw cabbage with some slightly sweetened miso paste to nibble on... that seems to be all the rage in izakaya the last couple of years, as heads of cabbage became expensive.

I actually like natto misoshiru, which also mellows out the natto aroma.

If that's true, Japan is probably the right place to do it. Getting simple things right goes a long way in Japan. One of my biggest complaints about US restaurants is usually lack of focus or coherence of vision.

Nashi and Yali pears are fantastic raw, perhaps suited for sorbets and such, but generally that fantastic crisp texture does not translate well to baking. I think the flavor and aroma would get beaten up by cooking, as well.

For the last 15 years or so it seems to be an unwritten rule that steamed vegetables are better than boiled. Since I started cooking Japanese foods frequently around 13 years ago, I've learned that's often not the case... it's harder to steam vegetables for the right amount of time than it is to boil them for the right amount of time... My blanched (boiled and ice shocked) vegetables turn out prettier, crispier, and tastier than most "steamed vegetable" plates I've seen.

try モロヘイヤ, though I suspect there are alternate renderings, since there are about 12 in English.

Tofu quality is tied very closely to speed of distribution and transit conditions, since it's so perishable, so US brand information probably isn't so helpful... quality depends on where you are. (I don't really count the shelf-stable oddities like mori-nu tofu which doesn't taste quite right to me anyway). When possible, I buy it from local producers, or at least regionally close ones... There's a great Vietnamese family tofu manufacturing company in Seattle that sells tofu so fresh it's still hot. If it's a brand name that's easily recognized (Sun Luck, for example) it's likely not very good. And the expiration dates on widely distributed brands are wildly optimistic by Japanese standards. In my area, I've had good luck with a Korean-labeled brand from northern California, a few local producers like Tacoma Tofu (usually), and best luck by buying from one of the in-town manufacturers directly or at one of two supermarkets. Molokhiya became very trendy in Japan about 4 or 5 years ago... It's easier to find in Japan than in the US, though I can find it at specialty markets and Middle Eastern and some African groceries. MELOKHIYA!! Is that what I think it is ? Talk about international cuisine Kris. How did that taste? BTW, any particular brand of Tofu you'd recommend here in the US? I love tofu when done right and am trying to cook it (or not I guess) more often. My go to preparation and guilty pleasure is the spicy szichuanese recipe with lots of chile and pepper and pork. I am dying to try one of these cold, quick varaitions now though. ←

Most of the time, preparations in Japanese cuisine are meant to be simple, which makes ingredients important. Even "fancy" presentations are often quite minimalist... restaurants let the plate do most of the work, rather than drizzling with some squeeze bottle or paintbrush or sprinkling of herbs like Western restaurants do. Maybe a little hi-no-me or some small garnish will be used to make a simple plating look a touch more elegant. Since I'm usually spending only a few weeks a year in Japan, I tend to prefer to spend the small premium on better-quality... I suppose if I had children to feed I'd spend more time at chains to save a little... 20% premiums times four or five people is still like doubling the price, after all. I am curious whether the fussy European presentations on boring white plates would be ranked higher by Michelin than Kyoto-style minimalism, however...

Foreigners won't influence the prices in restaurants in Japan nearly as much as the multi-layered distribution system and high rents Actually I might be wrong about this, because I haven't really eaten in many truly extravagant restaurants in Tokyo, but I've found that price differentials on similar items with similar quality ingredients are not terribly high... a fantastic soba place isn't necessarily dramatically more expensive than a bad one. Chain, laminated-photo-menu izakaya are usually within 10-20% of the prices of similar items at fancier places, unless some ingredient comes from some particular farm with some kind of special soil or whatever. On the other hand, the price of coffee at an old-school kissaten or even soft drinks at a restaurant varies depending on the decor and the perceived cachet of a neighborhood... the range seems to be 400-1200 yen for most drinks, with the venue impacting the price more than the item ordered.

Ah, good point... I lived in Germany through two Christmases, though... maybe it was too expensive for my student budget and blocked it out of my memory Jason, you're right about it being easier to find in Japan than Germany, but the reason, I suspect, is not that you were in the wrong city, but that you were there at the wrong time of year. Baumkuchen is usually sold only in the 6 weeks or so leading up to Christmas. At that time, it's pretty much everywhere. ←

Actually rice cookers, and even pots with lids, both steam and boil the rice. In Japan, all sorts of culinary folklore about keeping the lid on the rice throughout the cooking process abounds. If you let the steam out, you're only boiling, and that produces very sad rice indeed. In fact, most of the time the water is only boiling for about 10-15 minutes of the 40-60 minute process of cooking rice... the rest of the time, the temperature is being held to allow the steam to do the rest of the work. http://www.issendai.com/lifeskills/Miso%20...nese-rice.shtml ←

I don't really appreciate firm tofu (give me fresh custardy oborodoufu with some yuzu-koshou and a splash of soy sauce any day and I'll be happy), but I think it's misleading when people talk about tofu "absorbing" sauces. The only time tofu sucks up sauces is when it's freeze-dried (koyadoufu) or frozen and hit with boiling water, both of which make the tofu spongy. Age puffs absorb flavors pretty well too, but they aren't quite tofu anymore. The spongy texture can be quite interesting, and works particularly well with soupy things, but otherwise, I don't thing tofu's osmotic pressure is quite right to absorb sauces. Firmer tofu may absorb some flavors in the outer couple of millimeters if marinated, and aromatics like onion, garlic, and nira will probably permeate the rest. Fried tofu also has more surface area to absorb sauces. Good tofu dishes contrast the mild, slightly creamy texture and gentle bitterness of fresh tofu against more intense flavors. Unless the tofu is past its prime or just poor quality, it's not necessary to cover up the texture. So I think this kind of contrast (warm tofu with hot sauce) is well-balanced (even though I'd probably use softer tofu than hzrt82 ) but I don't think the tofu will "absorb" the sauce... the sauce should coat the tofu.

Matcha's pretty easy to find these days. Most Japanese markets carry some, and almost every tea company these days offers something that uses matcha, including companies like Remedy. It's not primarily marketed in health food stores, but by tea companies, because it's meant for drinking, not as a supplement. My web store offers cooking matcha, a green tea latte mix, and ceremonial grades from a Seattle-based tea company, Three Tree Tea. One of my other tea vendors, MyGreenTea, also produced matcha-iri genmaicha, which is brewed tea with toasted rice and added matcha for flavor. I personally like mine infused in gin. I've check Vitamin Cottage (the local chain of health food stores) and searched online. Looks like Matcha is pretty hard to come by -- I was only able to find VitaLife offering it and/or some Japanese brand of tea. Anybody know where to get matcha? ←

The larger ones tend to be labeled "pea vines" in my area. I'm think they're taken from pea plants fully grown. The small pea sprouts are also available... I suppose they could be sprouted in water, but I'm decidedly not a gardener.

Considering restaurant reviewers in my area (Seattle) still start reviews of Japanese restaurants with "the standards like California rolls, spicy tuna rolls, and spider rolls tasted..." and half of the average US sushi menu involves inside-out makimono or odd sculptures of caterpillars, I don't feel the same way about that. (I suppose most nigiri aren't too strange except perhaps proportionally). Sushi is also a relatively small aspect of Japanese cuisine and not terribly frequently consumed by most people in Japan, and aside from that, what's popular here bears little resemblence to what would be appreciated in Japan. The scale also changes here. There are a few exceptions, of course... but they are exceptional. I haven't traveled well enough in Europe to know better (only an exchange program in Germany and short trips to Austria, Luxembourg, Holland, England, and Ireland), but there seem to be fair examples of Italian and French food in the urban US if you look in the right places, even though the Olive Garden experience is more typical and proportions are generally too big even at more artisanal places. I've also found a few Korean restaurants that were not terribly off-cue from what I've experienced in Seoul, though the range of culinary vocabulary is much smaller... Japanese and Chinese food in the US tend to be very different from my experiences in Japan, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The words "authentic" and "corrupted" are not terribly useful for me. If you look at French cuisine in the US, the techniques and the values of French cooking often remain intact even with different ingredients available. I'm not impressed that a restaurant uses "authentic" imported canned mushrooms from Italy as I am when a restaurant realizes that a local producer offers a fresh cheese that serves as an excellent alternative to something that doesn't travel so well from back home. Most of the Japanese restaurants I've seen here, even the better ones, at least sometimes abandon the Japanese sense of balance in pursuit of dramatic, strong flavors that are perceived to appeal to American customers, and too often their cooks aren't terribly good at execution of things that require more subtlety. I find that shocking, or at least disappointing, because simplicity is really a core feature of most Japanese dishes, and it just seems strange to me when something incredibly simple is done badly. Though a Murakami Haruki novel said that finding people who can truly excel at cooking simple food is one of the hardest things to do when opening a restaurant... Almost anytime a restaurant featuring the food of another country opens in the US it's a kind of Disneyland experience... I rarely see "Japanese" restaurants in Japan, I see places that serve soba, places that serve okonomiyaki, places that serve ramen, places that serve sushi, places that serve tempura, places that serve drinking food... choose any one. Restaurants doing more than one of those things are usually "family restaurants" and aren't remarkable; and yet, people rave over unspecialized Japanese restaurants in the US that serve all of those. The same thing happens for many other cuisines... In Korea you generally go to a binddaeddeok restaurant, a naengmyun restaurant, a ssam bap restaurant, a bulgogi restaurant, an imperial cuisine restaurant, a dwaenjang jjigae restaurant, etc, although there are certainly those places that serve various categories of home-style food in a restaurant setting. What I hope for when eat at restaurants in the US is places that have a coherent set of values and vision around their food and emphasize good ingredients. Most of the time, if they come from a particular culinary tradition, they do that best when they transfer the vocabulary of techniques and balance of flavor from that cuisine. When I see a restaurant in Japan sneak a bit of camembert or butter into a dish, I don't find that "unauthentic" as long as it fits into the culinary vision of the chef. However, in the US, I most often see such fusions done haphazardly, more for shock value than for quality. There's no coherence...

Alum used to be regularly used in American pickle recipes... you might also try average supermarkets where salt, spices, or baking ingredients are sold. In Japanese markets this is called yaki-myouban.