Cooktellsastory

Category: Japan

Something "Kawaii" - Japanese Egg Mold

Posted on April 10, 2010 at 5:48 AM Comments comments (0)

I keep finding things in Japan that makes me say, Wahhh Kawaii!  This basically means "Oh, how cute!" but it can also mean "I like it." Japanese use this word in almost any context. Kawaii rhymes with Hawaii so it is easy to remember. Here is what I found today while shopping at SUPER VIVA HOME, a gigantic store that reminds me of HOME DEPOT, only it's got tons of fun and Kawaii merchandise.  Take a look at this egg mold.  It molds a hard boiled egg into the following  Kawaii shape.   


Car shape egg mold. This one didn't work very well. The

design was too complicated for the delicate egg.  The egg fell apart

when I closed the mold.


The fish shape egg mold worked much better.


The egg is beige because it has been marinated in

a dipping sauce for noodles. 

It was Kawaii and delicious.


Marinated soft boiled egg recipe


2 peeled soft boiled eggs

1 cup Basic Dipping sauce (see below)

 

Marinate the peeled soft boiled eggs in dipping sauce for four hours or overnight.

Put it in the egg mold and lightly press to make your favorite shape. Keeps in the

fridge for 4-5 days.


Basic Dipping Sauce

 This is an all purpose basic dipping sauce that I use for dipping Tempura, Soba, Somen noodles. You can use this as a basic recipe and make some adjustments with the seasonings to suit your palate. The sauce is sweetened with Mirin, sweet sake, which unlike sugar has more depth in flavor.


1 cup of Dashi (see Basics for Dashi broth recipe)

1/6 cup - light color soy sauce (Usukuchi-shoyu) or regular soysauce. (I prefer light color soysauce)

1/6 cup - Mirin, sweet sake

1/2 cup - bonito flakes


Bring the Dashi broth, soysauce and Mirin, sweet sake in a medium size pot and bring to a boil. Turn off heat. Add the bonito flakes and let the flakes sink to the bottom. Strain broth. Discard bonito flakes. Let the broth cool down to room temperature. Refrigerate.

 

Makes about 11/4 cups of dipping sauce.

Keeps in the fridge for 3-4 days.

 

 

More Flower viewing in Tokyo - Myogadani

Posted on April 4, 2010 at 5:48 AM Comments comments (2)


Myogadani - Tokyo - Flower viewing festival

 

During this time of year, almost every body in Japan will make time to view the cherry blossoms. The weather in Tokyo has been particularly kind to the cherries. The necessary cold spell came a few days before the cherries bloomed and once that spell passed, we've moved right into good spring weather. Not too windy. Not wet. Warm enough to allow the blooms to open slowly and surely. In Japan, cherry blossoms are known for their fragility and transient nature. The blooms last for about a week.  Some of us think that life is like that: ephermeral. We might as well enjoy it while they last.


  Spectacular blooms



  The cherry blossoms blanket the sky


  People have picnics under the cherry trees.  

 

I was in Myogadani with my sister Fuyuko. We went to Ikoan, an artisinal pastry shop that I blogged about last year. They make a pastry called "Mitarashi dango" during the flower viewing season. The tiny shop was crowded with people who came to buy the dango and Sakura Mochi (Pastries wrapped in pickled cherry leaves). The Sakura mochi was sold out.


  Fuyuko takes a bite of the mitarashi dango


  Mitarashi dango is made with rice flour. It is

served with a sweet soy sauce.

 

The shape of Mitarashi dango was inspired by droplets of water. These little balls are soft and chewy like mochi. What makes them special is the soy based sauce. It is traditional these rice balls during the flower viewing season.

 

I have to say, this was one of the best spring I have ever experienced.


Minori - Handmade Soba Restaurant in Tokyo

Posted on April 1, 2010 at 7:27 AM Comments comments (0)




Kakoshi - Soba Master

One of the first people to ever teach me how to make soba by hand was Kakoshi.  Although he ls still in his early thirties, he has been making soba for nearly 10 years. Three years ago, he went back to school to polish his techinques in artisinal soba making at the Tsukiji Soba Academy.  When I met Kakoshi last summer, he was working as an Assistant/Apprentice there. I spent a half day at the Academy where I got to watch Akila Inouye's soba demonstration. Then when it came to hands-on soba making, Kakoshi stood by my side and showed me how. Even though my noodles looked more like Udon than Soba in width, he assured me that my soba will taste good, and they did.  Before leaving the Academy that day, Kakoshi told me that he would soon be leaving the Academy to open Minori, an artisinal soba restaurant in his hometown Akishima.   

Akishima is in the outskirts of Tokyo, bordering Yamanashi prefecture. It took about an hour and fifteen minutes to get there from Shinjuku.  For that reason, I had been putting off the visit but I really wanted to see Kakoshi's dream restaurant but I finally found some time to make the trip. 


The interior of Minori

All the sake is "Junmai-shu" - made of 100% rice and water

As expected, Minori was an impressive looking restaurant. The facade reminded me of soba boxes stacked together, only they were white boxes. It is a pretty modern structure in a semi rural city b ut it works. Kakoshi lives upstairs. It was close to 2pm when I got there. Several couples and ladies were having lunch.

Kneading and Milling room  

What you see when you enter the restaurant is the little glassed room that is used for making Soba. The milling machine is also in this room. This is where everything begins for a soba maker.  I dream of having such a space someday.  Kakoshi kneads about 6 kilos of dough every day to service his customers; he mills the flour himself.  This is what makes his soba restaurant special. Most soba restaurants in Japan rely on machines to knead and cut soba, and use more wheat than buckwheat flour. As a result, the flavor and texture of the soba are flat.   The artisinal style of making soba is incredibly respectful in handling the soba. The soba maker tries to make soba with premium quality flour, stone-milled, hand cut and cooked immediately before it has a chance to go limp.  Anyone who dares to go into artisinal soba making has to have lots of passion and discipline. Kakoshi brings all these qualities to his soba making.

The menu was varietal. It had everything from classic cold soba with Tororo, grated yamaimo potato, and to hot and soupy, Kake-soba. There were a couple of fusion soba dishes with Italian influences, with such names as Carbonara and Pepperoncini soba. I opted for the traditional course and ordered the lunch special. It was 1200 Yen, which included a dessert and coffee. The appetizer plate came with three items: tamago, a crispy fried soba and Mitsuba salad with Umeboshi dressing, and Tofu made with soba flour. I enjoyed quite liked the soba tofu. It is heavier than soybean based tofu but the fragrance of soba comes through nicely in the custard.  The main course was cold soba and Maitake tempura. Ground salt was served on the side.  

Flat handwoven baskets for serving Zaru-Soba drying on
the wooden lid of the big pot.

I believe the best way to taste artisinal handmade soba is to eat it cold. Kakoshi uses a 9 to 1 ratio of buckwheat and wheat to make the soba. He adds about 42% water in the dry wintertime.  Less when it's more humid. I asked Kakoshi if there was something else I should order from the menu.  He suggested I try the Age -grilled tofu pouches with Negi miso. The age was quite thick than I am used to. The miso was seasoned with Negi, sesame oil and a little sugar.  Kakoshi told me that this particular age came from Niigata prefecture.  I noticed he had other foods of Niigata origin.  it turns out that his father is from Niigata so he wanted to introduce foods from this region. I liked that idea. 
Soba appetizers: Soba tofu, Mizuna and crispy Soba noodles
served with Umeboshi dressing, Tamago

Cold soba with dipping sauce and condiments of grated daikon,
sliced negi and grated wasabi - all fresh.

As I sat at the beautiful wooden counter, I couldn't wait to try the soba. 
Kakoshi's soba was long. Very long with good al dente texture. He said some customers complain that the length makes it difficult to pick up the noodles and dip them in the little cup containing the sauce, but he likes  it long.  I found myself struggling with this length too but it's nice to see someone make long and thin noodles as such.  Believe me, if you ever try making soba, you will soon find out how skillful you have to be to get them thin and long, particularly if it is made mostly from buckwheat flour, which contains no gluten and therefore by nature does not like to stick together like wheat flour.

Maitake mushrooms taste great as tempura.

I loved the lunch, especially the soba and the Maitake tempura. The Soba pudding was also very good. I could eat more.  Kakoshi gave me a tour of the kitchen. It's realy an efficient place.  The milling machine was turning. The hulled buckwheat was filled to the top.  Kakoshi was getting ready for the evening. 

Milling machine 

Kakoshi uses a traditional tin-lined tea box to 
store the fresh milled flour.

I headed back to the train station. The waitress at Kakoshi's restaurant said that the cherry trees in Akishima need a few more days to be in full bloom.  But I got lucky. I found one tree that was in full bloom.



Flower viewing in Tokyo

Posted on March 31, 2010 at 12:14 AM Comments comments (1)


Kaido in our garden

       Flower viewing lunch with my Father


Today was the first day of the year that felt warm enough to eat outdoors, and timely because the Kaido tree in our garden is blooming. My father suggest we eat lunch outside, and have a have a glass of wine with it.  The Japanese have a name for such flower viewing, sake drinking practice. It's called Hanami.  The occasion is devoted mainly for viewing cherry blossoms but our charming pink Kaido deserves a similar attention.

I made pasta with spring vegetables - fava beans, eggplant, carrots, and onions. Japanese vegetables are amazingly delicious. With the pasta, I brought out the bottle of wine, a Pinot Noir made in Tanba, Kyoto that my sister Fuyuko gave me as a birthday present. It was the first  Japanese Pinot  I ever tasted. It was a surprisingly decent red wine.  My father was so happy to have me back in Tokyo.  Wine with Hanami paired well.  Pasta was delicious!

Sleeping Beauty - Santa Monica

Posted on February 22, 2010 at 12:27 AM Comments comments (1)









Zensai with Mochi

Posted on February 1, 2010 at 2:20 AM Comments comments (1)


Sweet azuki beans soup with Toasted Mochi

I realized that during my first year of blogging, I only made six dessert entries.  This is very little for someone who loves sweets.  There is a reason.  At home in Santa Monica, noone cares for sweets but me.  So making desserts is not on my priority list. But here in Tokyo, I practically live in my sister Fuyuko's pastry atelier. Everyone takes desserts seriously so if I make a batch of something, there are plenty of people willing to taste my creations. 

One of my favorite winter dessert or snack food is a warm Japanese sweet bean soup called Zensai.  Since I had some leftover mochi from New Years, I decided to make Zensai and top it with some toasted mochi.   Zensai is a perfect cold weather soup that is made with Azuki beans, water, and sugar.   When you go to a Anmitsuya (a Japanese style dessert shop), Zensai is usually served with grilled mochi on top, and pickles on the side.  Kinozen in Kagurazaka, Tokyo makes a killer Zensai. I visit Kinozen at least once or twice during my stay in Tokyo to get my Zenzai fix and some.  Kinozen serves Zensai with moch; they also serve it with sweetened chestnuts, Kuri zensai, and Millet gruel, Awa zensai.  Awa like mochi is also gooey in texture. The Japanese find this texture very comforting.   

 

Mochi- it has long shelf life if you keep it in the package. 
Grilled they soften and pop up like popcorn.  It's great with
soysauce,  and in soups like Zensai.

Simmer the beans  gently


ZENSAI 

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

300 grams azuki beans  

300 grams white granulated sugar  or more

1 Tbs soy sauce  

4 pieces of Mochi, cut in half

 

Rinse the beans in cold water several times. Soak overnight in plenty of cold water to soften.  If the beans are very fresh, no soaking is necessary.


Discard soaking water, rinse and cover beans with fresh cold water.  In a heavy saucepan, bring the beans and water to a boil.  Drain.  Start again with fresh water and bring to a boil and then turn heat to a gentle simmer until the beans are cooked throughly, being careful not to overcook or burn them. The beans should be submerged in the cooking liquid and never exposed. It will take about 90 minutes to two hours to cook the beans. Test one bean and squash it with your finger.  If it squashes easily, it is ready.

 

When the beans are cooked, pour off the excess cooking water leaving just enough to cover the beans. Add 1/2 the white sugar and the soy sauce. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat to a simmer for about 15 minutes.  Add the remaining sugar and cook for another 15 minutes. Taste and make adjustments.  If more sugar is needed it can be added at this point.  Simmer for a few more minutes and turn heat off.  The azuki beans are ready to be served but it's best if you let them rest in the saucepan overnight. 

 

When ready to serve, cut the mochi pieces in half and grill under a broiler or a toaster oven until they pop. Heat the zenzai until very hot. Place a piece of grilled mochi in individual serving bowls. Ladle the hot zenzai on top. Serve immediately.

 

This recipe makes about 8-12  servings.   


Note: If the soup is too thick, you can dilute it with a  little water.  If it is too thin, you can

cook it and thicken the soup. This is a matter of preference.  It should have the consistency of a thick soup.

 


Two Japanese Pastas - Wafu Style

Posted on January 24, 2010 at 2:47 AM Comments comments (0)



Natto pasta with scallions


When it comes to fusion cusine, Japanese often do things that I find quite daring mixing native ingredients with foreign imports.  Take pasta, for example. The most popular Wafu, Japanese style pastas are Tarako, salted cod roe and Natto, fermented soybeans. Both ingredients have strong flavors.  Tarako is salty, some are spiced with chili, in which case they are called Mentaiko.  Natto is smelly like cheese and slimy like okra. It is an acquired taste.  Fusing Tarako with Pasta is understandable because Tararko is similar to Bottarga, the dried and cured roe, which is used in Italian pasta.  But there is nothing I can think of that comes close to Natto in Italy. The Japanese figured, if Natto works on top of rice, it can also work on top of pasta, and it does, more or less. 



Pasta Carbonara with Bacon, Mentaiko (salted cod roe) and Chives


When my son Sakae and his girlfriend Bina were in Tokyo during the winter holidays, I took them to an inexpensive neighborhood pasta place in Shibuya that's been here since the early fifities called Kabe no Ana, Hole in the Wall.


We ordered the two quintessential Wafu style pastas. The Natto spaghetti came with a generous mound of whipped natto (fermented soybeans) seasoned with raw egg, soysauce and mustard and served over buttered spaghetti. It was slimy as Natto  should be. People either love Natto or hate it. My son loves natto but he was not crazy about this dish. He said he prefers Natto over rice and not pasta.  I feel the same but many Japanese eat Natto this way and love it.


Bina ordered the Mentaiko pasta, carbonara style.  It was your basic egg pasta with bacon which was coated with spicy Tarako, salted cod roe. She ordered the large plate. Compared to the Natto spaghetti, this one was a winner. I orderedTarako, salted cod roe, and with Squid and Shiso.   Bina's dish tasted better. We all ended up taking a bite or two of her pasta. 


Both Natto and Tarako pasta can be easily made at home. WIth natto, you just take it out of the container, mix it with whipped raw egg, a teaspoon or two of soy sauce and mustard and pour it over hot buttered spaghetti.  Not much to it really.  Sesame oil works instead of butter, too. WIth the Mentaiko pasta, you take the cod eggs out of the egg sac with a spoon, or slice it in half, and mix the loose roe into the hot pasta. Toppings such as chopped shiso, scallions, nori seaweed, roasted sesema seeds, daikon sprouts work for both pasta dishes.

 


L'atelier du Gout - a French Pastry Chef in Tokyo

Posted on January 9, 2010 at 8:56 PM Comments comments (0)
Fuyuko's Gateau du Voyage, fruit cakes

L'atlier du gout is very busy today.  A new customer called to place a large order of Gateau du Voyage, fruit cakes. L'Atlier du Gout  is my sister Fuyuko Kondo's French pastry shop and pastry school. It is located on the ground floor of my parents house in Shibuya. When she is baking, the whole house smells of butter burning. That makes coming home to Tokyo, a unique kind of a French experience.


Fuyuko's day starts at six in the morning.  She changes into her neatly pressed, spotless white uniform.  When I come downstairs with my morning coffee, Fuyuko is talking on the phone to the new customer who placed the big order of fruitcakes. Fuyuko assures her that the cakes will arrive in Osaka before noon tomorrow. The cakes still need one final touch up - dried pineapples rings, pistachios, goji berries and orange peel go on top. Fuyuko slices an end piece and asks me for an opinion. For these fruitcakes, she used a new butter from Hokkaido. I am always tasting her creations. I can never refuse her offer.

Fuyuko did her culinary training with Wittamer in Brussells and Ecole Le Notre in Paris in the eighties. Back then, there were only a handful of Japanese studying european pastries abroad. During Fuyuko's apprenticeship, I visited her in Paris a couple of times. I remember her tiny one-room apartment crowded with pastry equipment and  pulled sugar flowers. She was practicing even at home. These glossy sugar flowers had a way of brightening her modest room. That year, Fuyuko won a prize in the pulled sugar contest in Paris.  

Today, French pastry chefs like my sister have multiplied in numbers.  So have the number of pastry shops in Japan. You can find some of the finest French pastries. I always feel at home when I eat Fuyuko's fruitcake in Tokyo. On this visit, I am going to take some lessons in French pastries. Being able to do this in Tokyo is a unique kind of French experience.

Fuyuko decoratees the cakes.

Gauteau du Voyage


You can order Fuyuko Kondo's cake by visiting the website: http://www.la-chouette.jp
She offers pastry classes and sells pastries on-line.  She can ship anywhere in Japan.
The website is in Japanese but you can e mail Fuyuko in French or English. 

11-17 Nampeidai-cho
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0036
Tel 03-3461-6551




Japanese Produce - Chiba

Posted on January 6, 2010 at 7:49 PM Comments comments (0)

Japanese cabbage 

Every time I go grocery shopping in the Depa-chika (the basement of a department store where they sell food) in Tokyo,  I am astounded by how expensive the produce is, especially since I am used to prices in California.  A single stalk of celery can cost $3, a stalk of broccoli $8, a mango grown in Japan can be as high as $100, and that is not for a tree but for a single fruit!  A Brazilian friend who saw what can cost for such fruit cried, "But that's what we feed the pigs!."  People in Tokyo can find the finest fruit and vegetables of every kind but they can come with a hefty price tag. You have to be a smart shopper to live in this city.  My cousin takes regular trips outside of Tokyo to buy produce directly from the farmers. You can also have farm fresh products shipped to you but that's not cheap.  

Satuma-imo and Sato-imo potatoes

A visit to the family grave gave us a chance to leave Tokyo and be in the countryside. With my son, Sakae, we went to Chiba, which is about an hour train ride from Tokyo. The famiy grave is in the middle of a pear farm near Matsudo in Chiba. This prefecture is the leading producer of vegetables in Japan. 

Red daikon radish

In the old days, the farm women from Chiba, Chiba no Obasan, would come out from Chiba to Tokyo to sell vegetables and other farm products.  They carried big handwoven baskets of produce on their backs.  I loved the Obasan that regularly came to our house in Kamakura.  What she produced out of the basket was amazing -  fresh farm eggs wrapped in newspaper, daikon radish, spinach, carrots, potatoes, fermented soybeans,natto, bean cakes, even rice. She was like a magician. You don't see these traveling farm women anymore but the farms are still around, though much less than when I was a girl.  

 
Japanese cucumbers
I left Shibuya at nine in the morning. It was past rush hour traffic but the trains were still packed with shoppers. As the train moved away from central Tokyo, we could sit and look at the view outside the window. We began to see less highrises, more single unit homes and patches of farm land.

  Tokyo Negi

We arrived in Chiba earlier than expected so we decided to explore the nearby market in Matsudo. As expected, the quality of the local produce was incredible. There were blushing pink fat daikon radishes and gigantic turnips with dirt clinging to their roots. They were probably just picked a few hours ago. I could smell the earth.  Compared to Tokyo, everything was reasonably priced.  Sakae saw many unfamiliar vegetables, including slimy mushrooms like nameko.  If we didn't have any family commitments, I would have bought the beautiful cabbage, burdock, negi, and more.  Oh well, it will have to wait till next time. At least, it was nice to get out of the city and breathe some fresh country air.  I now understand why my cousin makes the weekly trips to Chiba to buy produce.

Onions

Gobo - Budock

Hoshigaki - Dried Persimmons

Posted on January 3, 2010 at 8:22 PM Comments comments (0)
Gozen Shirogaki 


Every new year, a beautiful wooden box containing Gozen Hoshigaki -  dried persimmons arrive from Tsuchiya - the two hundred year old artisanal pastry shop in Ogaki, Gifu.  It is a New Year's gift, Onenga, from Keiko Tsuchiya, the owner of the shop whom my family has known for more than forty years. Keiko was my Japanese tutor when I was living in Mexico city as a girl. When her family moved back to Japan, she married Tsuchiya, and has lived in Ogaki ever since.  I have not seen her since my Mexico days but I spoke to her on the phone this year.  She was full of nostalgia. She said my family is her connection to Mexico. My connection to both Japan and Mexico is this hoshigaki. 


The persimmons used to make Gozen Shirogaki are the cream of the crop. The chosen fruit is carefully peeled, strung and hung on bamboo poles to dry for forty days. My father likes to take trips to Ogaki during the fall when hundreds of these bright orange persimmons are hanging out in the open air to dry.  It inspires him to write haiku.

They say the cost and labor of making one Gozen Shirogaki compares to producing a bushel of rice. The persimmon makers sleep in the storage room to attend to the persimmons during the production season. Each persimmon is massaged by hand with a special  brush - a process that creates a fine crystalized white coating on the fruit.  These hoshigaki have tender skin with a very moist inner meat. They taste heavenly.  I feel lucky if I can eat one in the new year. I am off to a good start. 


Hoshi-gaki goes very well with tea. The tea master, Senno Rikyu, wrote about the hoshi-gaki of this region in his chronicles. 

To obtain Gozen Shirogaki, you must special order them from Tsuchiya in the fall.  

39 Tawaracho
Ogaki-shi
Tel 0584-78-2111



A Visit to Kaneiji Temple - old Tokyo

Posted on January 2, 2010 at 11:43 PM Comments comments (0)


                 My 86 year old father waiting for the incense and the flowers.

The old Okame sculpture greets us.

The occasional haikus that I post on my blog are mostly written by my 86 year old father, Toshio Kondo.  He asked me if I would go to Kaneiji temple to visit our ancestor's grave this morning. The temple is in Yanaka, the old section of downtown Tokyo.  My father drove. He knows all the back streets and shortcuts.  Considering his age, I wondered when he was going to stop driving. He said he planned to drive until his license expired. That's in two years!   

Whenever I come to Yanaka, I feel my old roots. The area is also known for artisanal shops and cherry trees. The buds are still tight but the old trees are elegant and beautiful even during their dormant period. Our routine visit to the family grave site includes stopping and saying hello to the lady who manages the gravesite.  My father always calls her in advance of the visit.  

When we arrived to her house, the lady who manages the gravesite served us tea at the entrance of her house. We talked about the weather, how good it has been in Tokyo.  She prepared a bucket of water, some incense and flowers to take to the grave.  As we got up to go to the family gravesite, I noticed my father was walking slower than he did last year.  He said he was pacing himself so as not to tire himself.  I slowed down, myself, too.  I am always in a hurry to go somewhere. To do just the opposite is a good exercise.

The family head stones stood tall. They felt ancient but solid.  My father traced the engraved names on the headstone with his old hands and recounted stories of my grandparents. On this occasion, I noticed the construction of three new high rise buildings since I was Iast here. I found their presence rather intrusive. There was also construction to remove some of the old graves to make room for the new. My father said we were lucky we still have our family grave. I felt fortunate to have a father who can still drive, show me around when I am Tokyo and remind me of the things that matter.

Hatsumode - New Year's Prayer Visit to Hie Shrine

Posted on January 2, 2010 at 5:05 PM Comments comments (0)


On the second day of the new year, we went to the Hiei shrine in Akasaka to do hatsumode - a Japanese tradiiton to visit a shrine or temple to make the first prayer of the year. The shrine was packed with hundreds of worshipers.  We chose the Hiei shrine because we knew it would be much less crowded than the Meiji shrine, which receives more than three million worshipers during the New Years holiday.  We still had to get into a queue and wait forty five minutes for our turn.  There were many colorful snack stands that sold beer, sake, tako-yaki, okonomiyaki - Japanese style pancakes filled with cabbage, meat and octopus. We bought some tea to keep ourselves warm.  After the worship,  my nine year old nephew Hayato wanted to get an o-mikuji, a written oracle that predicts your luck. We each bought one.  My sister Fuyuko got "Kichi" which means good luck. Hayato got "Chukichi" which is one notch luckier than good luck.  I pulled a "Daikichi" which is the highest luck you can get with an omikuji.  I don't really count on charms and amulets but I didn't mind improving my odds of making this year a good luck year. The omikuji had a lot written on it, starting with an old poem which insinuated how things will go for me. Old and young branches will both give plenty of blooms, it said, but it also warned what can go wrong if I didn't act with modesty.  I folded the oracle and put it in my wallet.

Cat Hot Pots - Neko Nabe

Posted on October 11, 2009 at 3:00 PM Comments comments (2)




I found a funny side bar about Cat Hot Pots in Japanese Hot Pots, the wonderful new Japanese cookbook I blogged about.  No, Cat Hot Pots are not recipes for cooking cats.  Japanese felines have their own clever ideas about repurposing old pots. Here are some on-line Cat Hot Pots "Neko-Nabe" images taken by Japanese cat lovers.  


  


   !                                    


  

 

 

Green Tea with Higashi

Posted on August 17, 2009 at 2:47 AM Comments comments (0)
I treated myself to an afternoon tea of Sencha with Higashi.  The Higashi sweets come from Ikkoan, the artisinal Japanese pastry shop in Myogadani, Tokyo.



Higashi is a sweet made of a fine sugar called Wasanbon.  I can't  compare Higashi to any other sweet because it is neither a hard candy nor a cookie. Higashi is made in a variety of molds which are chosen according to season and occasion.  Mr. Mizukami, the Owner chef, took us to his kitchen studio to show us how these sweets and bean cakes were made.  Some of the Higashi molds were very old.  When you put a Higashi in your mouth and gently bite into it, it crumbles and dissolves on your tongue like melting snow.  Higashi is served with tea to complement the flavor of the beverage but never to overwhelm it. That's a challenge for the pastry chef. 
 



Higashi molds at Ikkoan.  Some of the molds are very old.


 


Higashi - Molded Sugar Sweets

Posted on August 17, 2009 at 2:46 AM Comments comments (0)


 The beautiful box of Higashi from Ikkoan.












Higashi -molded sugar sweets





Ikkoan
5-5-15 Koishikawa
Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
Tel. 5884-6591

Making Soba by Hand, Tsukiji, Tokyo

Posted on August 15, 2009 at 12:56 PM Comments comments (3)






I love soba.  It's food I can eat everyday and never get tired of.  I was on a soba marathon for the last few weeks while in Tokyo, visiting one artisinal soba restaurant to another and cooking it at my parents' home in Shibuya.  I also did something I have been wanting to do for the longest time: Take a cooking class in handmade soba.

 

The search for a school started whlle I was still in Los Angeles. I came upon several listings on the web. I chose Tsukiji Soba Academy because I liked the description of the classes and the location, which is near the Tsukiji Fish market. They offered classes for beginners to a full on soba chef training course that can last anywhere from a week to a month. I decided to sign up for the day class for beginners.  I had no idea what to expect but I had high hopes that when I come out of the class, I will get to eat my own handmade soba.

 

The school was on the third floor of a building just a few blocks off the fish market.  It was equipped with all kinds of tools and state-of-the-art machinery.  The place was spotlessly clean and had a feeling that you entered a dojo.  I was greeted by Akila Inouye, Master chef and President of the Academy, and his apprentice chef.  The apprentice chef asked me to take my shoes off and change into slippers.  My name tag and soba making tools, including a mixing bowl, knife, cutting board and a couple rolling pins were waiting for me at the work table.  Two more students had signed up for the class so we waited for a few minutes but they were a no show.  I ended up having a two-on-one class. I felt lucky but slightly nervous.


One of the first questions the Master chef asked me was how serious I was about soba. I said in my registration form that I was considering becoming a noodle maker one day. Ha. I said it.   I love working in movies but I can't do it forever. Even if I did, I want to make soba.  It would be wonderful if I can have a tiny handmade soba bar. Ideally somewhere not far from where I will grow my own buckwheat.  Pretty ambitious dream for an urban girl. The dream started when I was making the film SILK in a small village in Nagano prefecture near Matsumoto, Japan, which is famous for good soba. The man who built the film set invited me over to his house to eat his 85 year old mother's handmade soba. The old lady grows the buckwheat, mills the flour herself and makes the soba noodles - all by hand.That is when I thought,  If she can do it, maybe I could.  She has been making soba for more than 50 years so I will have to live a long time but I have good genes for that.  The handmade soba the old woman made was one of the best meals I ever had. I still think about  her and her family who went out of their way to treat me. That lunch was the inspiration for my dream.   I have been dreaming ever since.


I could turn out a soba that looks like a rubbery and inedible mass of flour but I decided to relax and give it a try.  When I revealed my dream to Akila Inouye, he said it was very realizable.   That he's had many people who attend his school with the same dream in mind.  I told him that I even tried growing buckwheat flowers in my backyard as a fun experiment.  He warned me that Buckwheat should not be grown for pleasure as it is a precious food.  Whoops, I failed him already. I washed my hands, put my cap and apron on and so the lesson began.  He demonstrated first.


Ingredients for making soba noodles:  

80 grams All purpose flour (churiki ko)   

320 grams Buckwheat flour

160 grams water - approx 40% of the flour weight plus additional water 2-8% of the flour, as needed during kneading.  


The ingredients are measured on an electric scale.  Soba making is quite a science.  The extra water (2-8% of the flour) indicated in the recipe will be used to make adjustments to the flour mixture according to the level of humidity, season, quality of the flour and soba maker's skill.



Once the measured water is added to the flour mixture, Akila Inouye works very fast, using all ten fingers (see how they are spread open) and the entire space of the mixing bowl. What you get is a sandy flaky mixture.



Now he rolls the dough into one oblong mass.




Notice how clean the bowl looks.  He wastes no flour.



The ends are gathered into one. The opening looks like belly button.  At this point, the dough is smooth as a baby's skin and has a nice shine.



He turns the dough out and we have an upside down Kiss chocolate.




He flattens the dough, using both hands and turns it into a disc. The kneading is complete. At this point, Akila Inouye  takes a break to wash his hands and wipes the bowl clean.  

The soba dough does not require drying like Italian pasta.

He uses his hands to flatten the disc to an even thickness.



Then begins rolling.





He takes a pinch of buckwheat flour and sprinkles it vertically across the dough in three areas.  To roll, he applies the most pressure at the center of the dough and eases the pressure as he rolls outward. The hands move across the dough like a pair of  window wipers.  I tried to do this but this window wiping motion takes practice on a piece of dough.





The dough eventually turns into an oval shape.  He then shapes it further into a rectangle shape.  This is easier said than done.  My dough was missing two corners and had wrinkles in the middle. No panic though.  You stretch the wrinkles gently so as not to tear the dough and leave the missing corners as is.  Any attempt to patchwork like we do with apple pie crusts will affect the texture of soba.  


This rolling is done rather quickly to prevent the dough from drying out.  The ideal thickness of the dough is a uniform 1.5mm  The dough in its final stage of rolling is smooth, long and flexible. These three elements are essential for making that slurpable long soba noodles.   






He uses the smaller rolling pin to roll out the corners.






He spreads buckwheat flour. Look at the generous amount of flour he uses!  

Now the dough is ready to be folded and cut.





He uses a special soba cutting knife, which is rather big.  Move over Freddie and Jason!






See how holds the knife.  He uses a forward motion to cut the noodles. Then tilts the knife at a 1.5 degree angle (very slight) to cut the next noodle.  It takes a lot of practice to make thin, even noodles.  Mine started out thin but as my hands grew tired, the noodles began to grow in size.  Some of my noodles were as wide as 2 mm to 2.5mm (some even 3mm!!!) , instead of the ideal 1.5mm.  I wanted to hide my noodles.  The apprentice chef told me not to worry, that when cooked they will still taste good.





The right hand and the left hand need to work in unison to make the perfect cut.





So this is the finished soba. Thinly sliced and ready to be cooked.  Talk about perfection!







Comments about the soba making class.  A three hour class was just a brief glimpse into this artful world of soba making.  Akila Inouye did a thorough and beautiful demonstration that really helped me appreciate the craft and tradition.  I know that in order to replicate the same soba at home, it will take a lot of practice, skill, and some soba making tools and equipment.  I think a beginner could modify the tools and use what they have at home but the end result will be quite different.  I am willing to take the lesson a step further and go for the longer commitment.  That soba cutting knife will be a commitment.  Not sure if I can even get it across customs!   I don't want to wait too long to take the next class.  At the end of the class, the apprentice chef cooked the soba made by Akila Inouye and served it with a dipping sauce, wasabi and chopped green onions.  It tasted heavenly.   I also got to take home my soba in my Tupperware. I cooked the soba that very night for my family who were all waiting to be the guinea pigs of my creation.  My father, sister and nephew thought my soba was very tasty even though the noodles were a bit uneven in width. I got the texture right.  When I shared my dream about someday becoming a soba maker, they didn't discourage me. They were so busy slurping, all they could do was nod.  Did I pass the slurpability test?  Not bad for a first try.   I am hooked!

What's Fast food in Tsukiji Fish Market?

Posted on July 31, 2009 at 8:23 PM Comments comments (0)



If I were to have an office in Tokyo, I would without doubt  like to be near the Tsukiji Fish Market.  It so happens that one film organization I work with have this ideal location and they invited me to have lunch at one of their favorite restaurants in Tsukiji called Itadori. It has 7 locations right in Tsukiji, so it must be a popular place. Itadori specializes in Kaisen chirashi  (Seafood sushi rice) and curry noodles.  I couldn't  imagine a more unsual and strange combination of dishes but I can see how it could happen in Tsukiji where busy people need something quick, filling and fast to eat.  Curry is perfect for that.  Seafood and Sushi are already a given at the fish market.  


The restaurant was tucked away in the back of a fish shop. You have to go down a very dark narrow walk way.  It would take a bit of courage to go there alone.  It may have been a storage space in its previous life but when you go inside, it was surprisingly clean and well lit. Naked bulbs were used to light the place.  There were several communal tables.


It felt humid inside the restaurant but it felt that way everywhere.  Temperatures reached a high of 35 degrees centigrade. I could not possibly order their famous hot curry udon, though curry is always good in hot weather.  We unanimously chose the cold Chinese ramen noodles dipped in a mild curry sauce and ordered one seafood chirashi zushi to share amongst us. 


The Seafood chirashi sushi was sushi rice with a variety of toppings.  It had sea urchin, salmon eggs, water eel, tuna and snapper, all cut into small pieces. You can have it with braised shitake topping, wasabi and pickled ginger.  The seafood was fresh and the sushi rice had just the right amount of rice vinegar.  It made a nice appetizer for the five of us.


The curry was served with cold ramen noodles, a poached egg, chopped mizuna and shredded chicken breast. You break the soft egg into the noodles and mix the combination together.  Then with a pair of chopsticks, you pick up a mouthful, dip the noodles into the curry sauce and eat them. I thought the swirl of white was yogurt but it turned out to be cream.  The waiter gives you a paper bib to wear to keep the curry sauce off your clothes.  The yolky noodles with the creamy curry tasted surprisingly good.   



Seafood Chirashi Sushi being served in rice bowls.

It was an adventure to say the least, though I am still a traditionalist when it comes to curry. I prefer eating curry with rice.  I liked the Seafood chirashi.  The price of these dishes were reasonable.  The curry noodles dish was 850 Yen.  The Seafood Sushi rice was  2100 yen, which can easily serve two people or make appetizer portions for four.  

Itadori - Tsukiji Itadori Uraten
4-9-10 Tsukiji 
Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Tel 03 5566 4002

Not your run-of-the-mill soba restaurant - Tokyo

Posted on July 28, 2009 at 11:18 AM Comments comments (0)



Today, I had lunch at Sobazen in Yotsuya, Tokyo - an artisinal soba restaurant where the noodles are hand made on the premises.   I had googled the place this morning to get directions.  Restaurant websites in Tokyo always provide a good map but street signs are not clear so you always end up having to ask someone for directions. While looking for Sobazen, I saw an older couple standing at the corner light looking at a book about noodle shops. Great, I thought.  They must be soba eaters making a pilgrimage to Sobazen just like me.  I was right.  Together, we wandered around for a few minutes and we finally found the restaurant.  It was so low key and small that we had walked right passed it a couple of times.  Sobazen has about 20 seats. On one side, there is a long communal table.  On the other side, there is a few small tables that seats two people in each.  It is minimalist in decor.  A single piece of old textile hangs from the wall.  My lunch guest was already waiting for me so I did not have to wait for a table.  There was only one person waiting the tables so the service was slow but you can't  complain about the service.  It's all in the quality of the soba.  It's not a run of the mill soba place.


The master soba noodle chef mills his own buckwheat flour which he gets from Ibaragi prefecture.  He mills it on the coarse side to give soba noodles good texture and flavor.  For $12 -15 dollars, we each ordered a nice bowl of cold soba.  Instead of dipping the sauce into the soba, the sauce was poured over the soba.  I see this informal all-in-one bowl style more often than not.  Here, they called this way of serving Bukkake-soba, which means (sauce) splashed onto the soba.  It came with plenty of toppings such as sliced shiso, wasabi, and grated daikon radish. The soba noodles  were cut on the thin side. The sauce was tasty and dense.  As an accompaniment,  I tried the kakiage tempura of Sakura-ebi (baby size shrimp).  My guest tried shirasu tempura (baby sardines). Sobazen is known for their crispy seafood kakiage tempura, so do try it if you visit this place.  Kakiage is a style of tempura of either sliced vegetables mixed with seafood and batter or in this case, only seafood. I could taste the natural sweetness of the buckwheat in the soba. The portion was just right for lunch.  I would like to come back for dinner sometime and try the buchwheat sashimi.  As we were leaving, the master came out. to get more buchwheat flour from the storage room near the cash register.  I thanked him for a good meal.





Sobazen

Address: 1-22-12  Yotsuya, KR Building 1st floor. Tel 03 3355-8576.

2 minutes walk from Yotsuya JR train station.



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