torakris

If you didn't get a chance to buy much at the Thai Food Festival, don't worry! Carrefour (supermarket chain) is having their Thai Fair with lots of prepared foods, products, and events, starting today and lasting the next 10 days! Check here: http://www.carrefour.co.jp/what_s_new/Frame1_1.html and check their promotion page to see this week's flyer....

words for 5/14: Sawara is one of those fish that has different names depending on it's size, so it is really only referred to as sawara if it is over about 80cm. If it is smaller than about 50cm then it is called さごち sagochi (in the Kanto area) さごし sagoshi (in the Kansai area) you find this young sawara in the fall if the fish is between 50cm and 80cm then it is called やなぎ　or 　なぎ yanagi or nagi

I love spring cabbage! One favorite way of preparing it is this thing I saw on tv a couple years back, cut it in half or a big wedge then cover it with wrap and microwave for a minute or two, then eat it dipped in a ponzu sauce. My family can devour a whole head this way and it is so simple...

5/13 Leｔ’s talk about sawara a little bit.... They tend to avaerage about 1 meter in length and can be found in waters along the whole length of Japan, actually they can be found from Hokkaido all the way down to Australia. Though it is eaten and enjoyed all over Japan it seems to be much more popular in the Western part (Osaka/Kyoto area and down). It's shun (season) is spring, and actually the character for it's name in made up of the characters for fish and spring. Having said that it is actually best eaten anytime between October to March and in the Tokyo area January and February is when you can find the kan-sawara (寒鰆) or "cold" sawara. If you remember from the post on kan-saba, this is when the fish is at it's fattiest (a good thing!) right before it lays it's eggs

I don't know if these "wandering vendors" are trying to make some sort of comeback or what but we have a new one in our neighborhood now. Two days ago my neighbors and I were outside chatting when were heard a horn, not a car horn but some one blowing on a horn in almost a song like fashion, then from around a corner comes a man, dresses head to toe like he just walked out of a history book on pre-war Japan, pulling a cart with a banner announcing him as the tofuya-san (tofu shop). An inspection of his cart showed a wealth of items from natto and soy milk to various tofus to croquettes made from okara and tofu steaks filled with a variety of vegetables, everything freshly made that morning. I picked up some yuba (tofu skins) and a couple zaru-dofus and it is going to be difficult to go back to the supermarket stuff after eating that! Depending on how sales go, he plans on walking this route (in front of my house) once a week.... I will try to get a picture next time! For now here is a picture of a similar cart: http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/kikaku/photore...u/02090901.html (they aren't dressed as fun though!) The horn he was blowing is called a rappa and has been used by tofuya-sans for ages to announce they are coming down the street, I am not quite sure what this is called in English...

I just had some incredibly fresh yuba the other night, ate it very simply with a little bit of soy and some yuzu-koshou (paste of green chiles and yuzu)....

Time to move away from saba.... word for 5/12: 鰆　さわら　サワラ sawara (sah-wah-rah) Spanish mackeral

I'm afraid that the expression "plum wine" is misleading, since ume-shu is made by putting plums and then rock sugar in a jar and then pouring white liquor in it. I'm blaming dictionaries not you, torakris. Actually I hestitated to use that word, but ended up with it because it is the word everyone outside of Japan is familiar with and because I couldn't think of anything else to call it.... EDIT: I am looking foward to the green plums coming into the markets in a couple weeks to I can make my own ume-shu this year!!

I would say it is more common to find ume-su (plum vinegar) in cooking, but there is a recent trend now of vinegar drinks (black vinegar being very popular) and it wouldn't be unusual to find it in a glass watered down with either water or some type of liquor. I have seen recipes mostly called for it in salads but also simmered dishes, rice dishes and deserts. and then there is ume-shu, the plum wine.....

Jim, I linked to this same restaurant in the yakitori thread and am still dying to go! Maybe a Tokyo egullet get together could take place here......

word for 5/11: 脂が乗っている　（乗っています） abura ga notteiru (notteimasu) This phrase is not particular to saba but also used for many fish and meats. This translates as "fatty" but in a good, delicious way. The first word abura means fat and notteiru (or notteimasu) are from the verb noru which means to get on or ride, this is the same verb you would use to say you are riding in a car. As we are learning with today's word and the discussion of assari is that words like fatty and bland that we normally think of as descriptions of food that sound quite unappetizing, have quite different meaning is Japan and are actually prized qualities in food.

WOW! Thanks for the pictures!! Now that I am feeling better I am really bummed about missing it..... I have to admit it is not cheap, most of the food was in the 500 yen range ($5) and they weren't very big portions, but since I was feeding 5 we did get to try a little bit of most things (though it did get very expensive). My favorites last year were the papaya salad, any of the grilled meats and the frozen pineapple on a stick. Looking foward to next year now!

How was it???? Did anyone make it? I spent the weekend very sick in bed and Thai food was unfortunately the last thing on my mind...... The weather on Sunday was quite bad as well....

back to saba! Let's look at a couple words or phrases that you often run across when talking about saba. word for 5/10: 三枚おろし sanmai oroshi (sahn-my oh-rhoe-she) If you remember from our talk on counters (ways to count things) the word mai 枚 refers to flat things like paper, in this case of talking about fish it referring to fillets. San means three and thus this could be called three piece filleting and it is probably the most common way you will see saba cut or else a recipe will start out by telling you to cut the whole saba this way. You are left with three pieces, two fillets and a section with the bones, here is what it looks like: http://www.tsuji.ac.jp/hp/gihou/Basic_Tech...ish/amadai2.htm

I think it is the American in me that has prevented me from eating raw chicken here in Japan for the past 14 years. I do have to admit though that it is at the top of my list of things I want to try now right next to chicken liver sashimi and I have discovered a restaurant very close to my house that is quite famous for these two dishes and hopefully we will be making a trip there soon..... This is not something I would be tempted to make at home though and I regularly see cooking magazines (here in Japan) with recipes for chicken sashimi, normally the chicken tenderloin is dropped into boiling water for about 2 seconds then given an ice water bath, leaving the piece with a very pretty white outside and pink inside.

I wish I could comment more on the flavor, unfortantely since it was matcha flavored, the matcha was all I could taste....

The best souvenir you could bring back would be yuzu-koshou! This is a wonderful paste made of green chile and yuzu (a citrus fruit), it is a wonderfully spicy condiment that can be used from anything from soups to fried chicken, to dressings and is a wonderful topping on cold tofu.

Like Hiroyuki said, I wouldn't call shin-mai (new rice) a gourmet delicacy, it is just something you look forward to in the fall....

Well I had my first Beard Papa cream puff a couple days ago (Yokohama station location), they were offering matcha(green tea) flavored ones as well as the originals so I went for one of those. It was filled with a matcha flavored custard and sprinkled with powdered matcha. It was pretty good, but like I said before I am not a huge cream puff fan and couldn't really tell the difference betwen that one or any others I have eaten..... It was a nice mid day snack at 136 yen ($1.24), the matcha ones were a little more expensive than the regular ones.

word for 5/7: さばの竜田揚げ saba no tatsuta-age (sah-bah noh tah-tsu-tah ah-gay) Though I have seen variations that vary widely, in general anything with the word tatsuta in the name will have been marinated with soy and ginger and then coated with katakuriko ( a type of potato starch) and then deep fried. I have seen recipes however that call for no ginger and one of my favorites is a chicken tatsuta that I make with a whipped egg white coating.... The name tatsuta, comes from the Tatsuta river near Nara that is famous for its red maples in Autumn, when deep fried these pieces are thought to resemble those red maple leaves... The chicken tatsuta sandwich has been a staple at McDonald's here for years. a picture and a recipe: http://www.openkitchen.net/cook/saba/saba.html

Growpower, If you are not looking for top quality, just decent priced pans of decent quality, I highly recommend Nitori (ニトリ), it is a great store with fantastic prices on anything home related. They seem to be all over and there is one right next to Carrefour at the Grandberry Mall..... Here is their homepage: http://www.nitori.co.jp/

word for 5/6: さばの味噌煮 saba no misoni (sah-bah noh me-sew-knee) This is a type of braised dish of saba and miso. This is one of my kid's favorite dishes, it can be made with whatever kind of miso you like, I normally make a mix of dark (red) miso and a light brown or white, but a week or so ago I made it with mostly white and a little brown and I really enjoyed it. I have also made it Korean style with kochujang mixed with some miso. Here is a picture: http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/jizakeya/sak...saba-misoni.htm You can also buy this product in the canned version, but I would definitely try to eat a freshly made version of this, they are of course completely different!

with the cheaper wakame it can be difficult to shred so I just leave it in bite size pieces, like the size you see floating in miso soup.

I would not eat any fish for sashimi unless it is labeled either namashokuyou (生食用) or sashimiyou (刺身用　さしみ用). They are normally all grouped together in the fish section.

He has no idea.....