sartoric

Food at the market, shuffling while eating one giant oyster and salmon sashimi. Kanazawa is known for jibu-ni a duck and root vegetable stew cooked in dashi. Here’s a lousy photo, the dish was delicious. Also here we had tempura sweet potato, rice and sake. I love these isakaya restaurants. Sometimes you just want to have cheesecake and a glass of wine. There are a lot of Italian style restaurants and cafes. The bento box ! We arranged a goodwill guide to see Kanazawa Castle and Kenrokuen gardens. This is a free service run by Japan tourism board and on both occasions was excellent. Our guide T suggests we buy our lunch before starting the walk. In the basement of department stores are food halls, fantastic food halls. First choose your box with various goodies Then choose from a selection of several rice dishes It will be beautifully wrapped And look like this when you finally stop for lunch I chose a box with space for three kinds of rice. Loved the one with chestnuts.

I’ve been lurking at the Japanese supermarket here. Last night was ginger garlic chicken wings, spinach dressed with sesame, pickles (well, kimchi) rice, miso soup with egg and sake. I even made my own dashi. It’s not Japan, but I’m happy with this.

From Tokyo we bulleted to Kanazawa for more delicious food, sake and sights. The Nihishi fish market has much more than fish, one could almost live there. Two little stools to sit and enjoy your fresh seafood. Not inexpensive. Bamboo shoots and forest vegetables were in season. A walk through sashimi bar where you pay first, then eat standing, moving along as necessary. We had salmon sashimi and a giant oyster. Shrimp, salmon roe, pickled fish and others, oh my. The market was surrounded by restaurants, a basement brimming with food options and a feeling of safety not common in other Asian countries. We returned here several times in our 3 day stay. It was crowded at times.

We got back from Japan last week and I’m trying to keep it alive, what an amazing country, go if you can. There’s a few more details over on the Japan dining page. Here’s a simple bowl of noodles with vegetables. Then I lapsed, comfort food beckoned, chicken with fenugreek, dal, rice and chapatti. In the country place, chicken and sage sausages with roasted vegetables. That’s a brazier for warmth in the background, brrr, it’s cold. Tamil eggplant and chickpea curry with dal, cucumber raita, rice and paratha.

Ha ha, I meant to put a warning sign there for you.

The good news is, we had sushi for lunch today from our local place. Not as good as in Japan, but we’re not totally ruined. One of the two pizzas we had in our two weeks. Pizza is big in Japan. This one with corn, chilli, cheese and chilli sauce. More teppanyaki, rolled chicken with leek, shiitake mushrooms, quail eggs and peppers. The pickles are like a cover charge, you sit down and they come automatically. There is a small cost. An elderly couple next to us keep they’re own big bottle of sake at the restaurant, it’s cheaper that way he explained with a wink. Another meal at a trendy warehouse styled joint - soba noodles with five vegetables. Served with a bowl of sesame dipping sauce and a beer, plus a pleasant Pinot Gris. Another isakaya meal near to Korean town in Ginza. Braised eggplant, obligatory pickles, stir fried mushrooms, omelette and chicken Yakitori. Every meal comes with a damp towel. You can see how close we are to the neighbouring table. Sometimes that is quite fun.

We are lucky to live here with a relatively large Japanese population. Today I went to a shopping centre where I know there is a Fuji mart. Pleasantly surprised to see a new fresh seafood and sushi joint has opened in the same centre. It looked really good (and really expensive) they had a large selection of fresh seafood for sale, some I’d never heard of. All Japanese staff too

When you have a relatively small land mass with 125 million people I guess it makes sense that there are SO many eating places. It particularly struck me that everywhere the food was so fresh, beautifully prepared and delicious. These hand cut thick noodles were slurpalicious in a tasty broth with vegetables. They’re a specialty of some region, unfortunately my shot of the menu is missing the all important first word. Mark had the spicy pork one in the top right hand corner. My kitchen shot missed the all important hand slicing board, sorry. Ordering was easy in this large restaurant, pictures and numbers, yay. Sushi time. Beer with tomato juice is a thing...not my thing, this is someone else’s thing.

We’re home now @kayb, but train station food was had, and bento boxes. All coming up soon.

We love Japan ! I don’t know why it hasn’t been on my travel radar until recently. The people, the places, the culture and history, and especially the FOOD. There will be no Michelin stars in this report, nor will there be names of restaurants. We ate mainly at isakaya, (local restaurants where there were often only four or five seats), markets (including supermarkets) with a few larger restaurants for balance. There is food available anywhere and anytime if you know where to look. Rather than large meals we tended to snack our way through the day. Some of the best things we ate at “standing bars” no chairs provided. Karaage chicken with salad and miso was first up. The window displays are amazing, you can walk many city blocks underground through various shopping malls, handy when it rained our first day. At a local place. Chicken teriyaki, grilled peppers, potato salad, pickles. Charcoal hibachi. Grew to love sake.

Don’t know how I missed this, especially given we’ve just returned from Japan and it would have been useful. Thanks for posting @chefmd.

Japan is brilliant. Here’s a few dinners...

Yakitori in Tokyo with potato salad, and there might have been some sake...

Dinner last night was a “What’s left in the fridge” frittata. There was potato, onion, baby spinach, chopped up broccoli cheese, feta and cheddar, oh and eggs. Served with salad. Dinner tonight will be in Tokyo !!

Just curious, is this a weeks worth of eggs, two, three ? They look yummy.

I will certainly take photos of whatever we eat, it’s a habit now, there’ll probably be words too

The countdown is on, so it’s leftovers and using up whatever else is in the fridge. A few potatoes cooked with turmeric and curry leaves, leftover runny dal, leftover rice and freshly made chapattis. Served with mango and ginger chutney. One more sleep to Japan !

I roasted some kipflers with swede, baby carrots and garlic, plus made a broccoli in cheese sauce. Served with a couple of chicken and sage snags, and a fat dollop of hot English mustard.

Dinner last night was south Asian. Paneer cooked with tomato and onion, cabbage mallung, dal, rice and raita. Mallung is a Sri Lankan dish, served at nearly every meal. You can use basically any leafy green vegetable, the one below is cabbage and carrot tops. It’s so easy and very good for you with no oil. Chop an onion finely, throw in pan with washed and finely shredded leaves, a chopped green chilli or two, a spoon of ground Maldive fish flakes, salt, pepper and lemon juice then simmer with a lid on until the leaves are tender. Add desiccated coconut to absorb any remaining moisture.

Hot roast chicken, asparagus and gravy rolls, flat chips and slightly wilted salad. Still in the country cottage with limited facilities, eating like kings

Down at the cottage for Easter with limited cooking capacity, and eating a la lap. I pan fried chicken, feta and tomato sausages, then served them with reheated potato bake/veg and roasted asparagus. Tomato sauce and hot English mustard on the side. Crumb catcher at the ready.

A really simple spinach omelette with a piece of toast. Thanks for the basil ideas, I gave a bunch away and puréed the rest, then popped it into ice cube trays in the freezer.

I was given a big bag of organic basil....pesto was my first thought. Served on a bowl of minestrone dragged from the freezer alongside some toasties made with a smear of tomato chilli jam and smoked havarti. There’s hardly a dent in the bag of basil - ideas ?

I roasted a small chicken along with baby carrots and parsnips. Served it with a gravy from pan juices, creamy cheesy potato bake and garlic spinach. Hit the spot.

A favourite chicken curry with fenugreek, kale subzi (kale with besan crumbles) eggplant bharta, rice. Bharta means to smash or mash. These eggplants get roasted in the oven first, then skinned, chopped and sautéed with onions, garlic, ginger and various spices including fennel seeds.