soba

Made soba, thinking of that very first soba soup I had that was sooooo tasty - I have been to the same restaurant again, but it is not quite as tasty - I was getting a cold that first time and it must have added to the heavenly-ness of that bowl of soba soup.

This turned out quite well, complete with this Japanese chilli-pepper seasoning which is apparently a mix of 8 different things and is super spicy (in Japanese standards). The first time I made soba, a few months ago it was disgusting - I had no idea you had to treat it like a baby. Cook and then wash them under cold running water until all starch is washed away and the water runs clear... It was well worth the effort though, for once in a while...

cars in Japan

For a month now, I drove the worst car ever. Today, driving the new car I was just given, I could not help but miss the clunky old car - the F1 noise it made at only 70km/h, the fact that I had to stomp on the brake to have it stop, the ease of navigating small Japanese alleys, rolling down windows and adjusting mirrors by hand... ah I miss the Scrum... This is me driving the good ol' Scrum as reflected off the truck ahead of me...

Self-service

So growing up poor, it is kind of hard for me to have servants; i.e., I feel like if I am capable of making a mess, I must also be capable of cleaning it; if I am capable of driving, I must be able to pump gas etc. North America's present unpretentious ways have only re-inforced this idea (I am not talking about North America's slavery days, which also can be traced back to, well, let's just say out of North America). So in North America, most gas stations will be self-service.

In Japan though, most gas stations are full service. I drive in to this station on my way to work once a week (yes, I drive a gas-guzzler, unfortunately this is what's given to me y our institution: apparent;y it helps transport large numbers of people) and these two employees come out running, squat and pump gas, run around the vehicle and wash all the windows etc, all the while, as I am squirming in the car, bowing and arigato-ing every which way. Pumping gas by yourself in Japan is also a complicated business, so I am not feeling guilty enough to find a rare full service station, now I just have to say 'konbawa, regular man tan des, sumimasen' and I have a full tank of regular gas afterwards... Still I wish they didn't come out running, like every second of my time is so valuable, cos it obviously is not...

ol' acquaintances

It is nice to be here in Japan, I feel less suffocated than I am in Vancouver. Maybe it is the general composition of people, maybe, and I hate to get on the bash American band wagon, but all the Americans in Vancouver bother me in one way or the other, so maybe it is larger non-American presence, or maybe, it is because I have some familiar friends from my previous experiment.

Yes, I know, I am all kicking and screaming about being dragged out of Vancouver and having to live out of a suitcase, but now that I am here and loving it, I am wishing I could stay here longer.

But back to my old friends - it is always fun to see people I haven't seen for a while. And this is the first time that we are meeting outside of the scope of a collaboration meeting where we don't have to hang out with people from our own institutions. To celebrate, we went out and had shabu-shabu. The three of us are all about six to eight years older than when we first met, and four since we last met. We (well not really me, but…) are a good deal heavier than we were back then - a heaviness reflected in the soft pant that is almost unnoticeable, unless you are actually standing close to each other. We are all less shy and more at peace with each other and are able to have adult like conversations and tease each other without freaking out of the opposite sex.

We had such a great time, talking about physics, talking about our countries, talking about our old experiment and of course about the US, where we met (none of us are American), throwing rock-paper-scissors for shitake's, trying chopstick tricks. Finished the night off at an izakaya that left us running for the last train. Friendship, is indeed a good feeling to have…

Sri Lankan beer

never had it back in Sri Lanka - I used to not be a beer drinker. Found this in Mito - who would've thought. It is marketed as a stout and I really don't like stouts at all, but had this since it was Sri Lankan and all - it was quite ok with me; I think it fails as a stout though - it doesn't have quite that full bodied maltiness that almost feels syruppy in your mouth - the very things I don't like about a stout.

Kangaroo steak

This kangaroo steak, complete with a pastry-cut, just in case you forgot what the cuteness of a kangaroo looked like, in Drunken Duck in Katsuta...

shishamo

yum yum shishamo - small fish with eggs. Apparently they catch whichever fish, male or female, and inject eggs into them - so when you buy shishamo they always have eggs - talk about equality in sexes!!! So here I just fried them - but the proper way to do them is to cook them under one of those awesome fish grills that every stove in Japan has and cook them like babies (not that you would cook babies, but...) so they don't burst out their eggs... But this was a quick fix I wanted, so... and it also reminded me of a dish we make in the coastal areas of Sri Lanka - devilled fish eggs... yumm yummmm....

gobō, burdock

It is very traditional Japanese to julienne gobō and stir fry it as an appetizer. But it kills to julienne gobō as it is hard and you have to work quickly as it stains fast when it is exposed to the air and oxidizes. So I just scrubbed it with a kitchen knife, sliced it and put them in cold water to prevent oxidation. And then I stir fried it with a bunch of other vegetables in the refrigerator and some chillie paste, garlic, ginger and onions. Gobō is this crisp (I guess it is easy not to overcook it when it sliced big like this) earthy tasting root with hints of sweet. Apparently it goes well with pork - should try it next time. I almost liked it better cooked this way than the julienned appetizer that can sometimes get a bit soggy-ish.

Kabocha Nimono - simmered squash

So, one of my Montréal friends sent me this link for Japanese recipes, a blog maintained by a Japanese expat in Montréal . It seems quite nice (but she said to use dashi powder... no no no... it has MSG and all that crap... making dashi stock is super simple, and, your kitchen will smell like a warm sunny beach in Sri Lanka - not like the cheap Febreze ocean mist or whatever it is they call it... so...). It came out quite well. But of course it was a bit affected by my inherent distaste to follow recipes to the letter. Usually, I just read up the ingredients and I know which order things go etc. But since I am new to Japanese cooking I decided to also read up on the method and follow it. This I did, but I didn't pay too much attention to the quantities... Now I think I should have used a bit less dashi stock, so the soy+mirin+sake tastes are more accentuated. It was still pretty good though.

The other is Japanses rice - you r regular sticky white sushi rice. But in Japan it is common (not all always), to add azuki beans and some grains to your rice. You can find little packets of these grain mixtures, right next to the rice in the grocery store. You just toss these with the washed rice and boil them all together. The azukian beans then impart this purplish color to the rice then.

Japanese groceries

So I am sharing the house, with a South Korean girl, also from BC, who incidentally is going to also sublet my Vancouver apartment for one month, while I am here in Japan. So, she can read Kanji, Chinese characters, - since they use some of those as well, in South Korean. And she is quite familiar with a lot of Japanese ingredients, I imagine, like I would be, if I went to India. So, I am taking the opportunity to learn what some Japanese ingredients are, so I can start cooking Japanese food, and perhaps some S. Korean as well.

Here is sesame paste

Mirin, a sweet sake used in cooking. This is all mirin

Tsu-u, soy sauce based sauce

Kombu - a thick seaweed like kelp, that gives the umami taste, which is actually identified as a new taste, in addition to sweet, sour, salty and bitter, since the 1980's. This is used to make dashi stock and when you bring the soaked kombu to near boiling point, in the process of making dashi, you get this amazing aroma of the ocean, like what you get when you are in a warm beach... Yep, you guessed it, I am going to be making a lot of this... just for the aroma...

Katsuobushi (bonito flakes) - these large flakes, 1cm*2cm, is what needs to be used for the dashi. The tiny ones that you spread over okonomiyaki won't work for the dashi - eventhough it is the same thing. I didn't realize making dashi stock was so easy, so now I don't have to worry about buying dashi powser laden with MSG.

These are sauces that you can use to marinate meat.

Okonomiyaki sauce - the stuff you slather over your okonomiyaki as you grill it.

And of course soy sauce, straight.