SUSHI! or not sushi?

Looks pretty good? The red tuna was a bit watery, but pretty good flavor. The tamago was had a good consistency, and tasted pretty good. The Ikura (considering) was excellent! Some of the roe were small, but good outer texture, popped like it's supposed to, and the juice inside was nice and sweet. Yes, SWEET. Can you believe it, it's "make-your-own candy"



I'm going to have to make better documentation when I get another box of it. Didn't get around to recording the process since I was making it in the middle of a house party. However, there is more to this series. "The Cake Store"

...

So I initially thought I'd work on the cake store, take hot pics, and say how great it was... well, not so much. I enjoyed making the cakes, but the intricacy was nowhere near the caliber of the sushi kit so it was a bit disappointing. Then I ate one of the cakes that didn't come out right for the photo op. Never again. Sushi kit all the way!!! still, check out how cute these things came out. Do it for the creation aspect, just don't put it in your mouth ;)

Soba is not Yakisoba

Wiki says it the best: "Even though soba (noodles made from buckwheat) is part of the word, yakisoba noodles are not made from buckwheat, but are similar to ramen noodles and made from wheat flour." So there you have it. They're both delicious, but Soba is going to be the next big thing because of all the health benefits and because of the different ways of preparing it.

Most noodles are made from wheat flour and are very starchy, and stripped of over half of the nutrients in the wheat's natural state. I sometimes feel like it's a waste of eating if it weren't for the veggies, flavors, and other food enhancers around it. Now that I'm a starving student no more, I want more benefits from eating than just filler. I'm also meeting more and more people who can't eat pasta, udon, yakisoba, and other wheat and grain products. This is one "wheat" product that they might want to look into. Buckwheat are a fruit seed, not a cereal or grain. The name is just plain misleading. Health benefits include lowering cholesterol and high blood pressure, controls sugar levels, strengthens capillary walls, etc. but enough about that, now that you've heard there are benefits, let's get to ways of eating it.



The best way of eating it in the summer is COLD ZARU SOBA! No soup, but a dipping sauce with chopped green onions, and some wasabi on the side. The noodles come boiled and chilled with seaweed flakes on top. Many people enjoy this with tempura on the side. This would be called Ten Zaru. "ZARU" is the word for the bamboo dish that you see it on; it strains the water and ice the soba was chilled in.



My favorite is the Yamakake Soba which has grated Yamaimo on top with a quail egg on top. Yamaimo is a type of yam, but it's quite slimy and is only recommended for adventurous foodies. But I didn't have any Yamaimo on the ready this day, so my summery dish came to look like this. Soba with flakes of seaweed, side of sliced cucumber with miso, side of chopped green onions and wasabi for the dipping sauce. I'm missing the zaru, but when else am I going to use it?



Other delicious ways of eating soba is in a hot soup. Of course there is Tempura Soba, then Kitsune (using fried, sweet soybean curd). In various regions of Japan, they have their own way of preparing Soba. When Japanese people travel, they make sure to eat the flavor of the region. Soba is a dish that is different in many regions in the way they prepare the dish, but also the way they make the noodle. If you're traveling Japan, make sure you find out what the specialties of that region are so you can always try the best food!

Warabi Mochi

A subject of a big joke this month was Warabi Mochi, a summer treat in Japan you can't go without. Apparently there's a truck that goes around Osaka selling Warabi Mochi with the same tune of another street vendor jingle. No one else in that party heard it before, so as far as we're concerned, it's a phantom truck. But I guess according to wiki, I guess it's not uncommon? But I'll believe it when I see it.

This subject was brought up once at the izakaya, and again at a takoyaki party our friend brought as a joke and, of course, a delicious dessert. But there is nothing but love for Warabi Mochi. It's sweet, refreshing, and iconic as a summer Japanese treat. My cravings for sweets requires me to find healthier alternatives, and this is one of them. Warabi mochi being fat free and low in calories, with the kinako topping as a source of Vitamin B and protein. Naturally, I had to make some myself.



Basically, you mix the warabi mochi powder, water, and some sugar as directed on the package, and boil it till the mix is transparent, and hard enough to make balls with:







Have a large bowl of ice cold water ready, and when your mix is hard enough, take two spoons, scoop with one, and plop with the other into the ice cold water to harden and cool down. Repeat this till you've made all your balls:



Now, while your warabi mochi are cooling, get your kinako ready by mixing kinako powder, sugar, and a tiny pinch of salt. When you're ready for your snack, THEN roll your warabi mochi in the kinako to enjoy with some houjicha (my favorite).



Just a note, I took this as a snack to work WITH kinako on already, the kinako got so soggy, it wasn't the best taste...

Mitsuba and Unagi

I lied about posting the miso recipe. It hasn't happened yet. Maybe I'll do it when my eggplants are ready to eat. It's about Unaju this week.



So I found excellent Unagi on sale last week and bought tons to freeze. It's already BBQed and the sauce is included. Just that on rice is most satisfying, but even more so if you have it with a soup using the kimo (liver). But since i didn't gut the eel, instant soups - not miso, but "osui mono" which is a clearer soup using fish stock with a little bit of seaweed and chives - is the way to go. My favorite herb in that soup would be Mitsuba, though there is never enough of the flavor in the instant version.



So as a small fan of gardening and Japanese foods, I've go my basic chives and shiso of course, but this year I tried mitsuba (Cryptotaenia). They should grow like weeds, we used to have a whole bunch grow right beside the watering hose at my childhood home. It's been cold this year, but as soon as the sun came out, they sprung up in no time! Mitsuba are called Japanese parsley, and tastes somewhat similar, but it's flatter and softer, and is a good source of Vitamin C and Calcium.



So to get the maximum flavor of the mitsuba, I chopped up about 3-4 leaves including part of the stem, and left one whole for garnishing to float on top. Most satisfactory...

Japanese BBQ

Many people, including myself, want more vegetables and a variety of them at BBQ parties, but we're tired of the same old. There is such a thing as a Japanese BBQ, but not everyone has a hibachi nor a shichirin. But we can over come this, it just takes a bit of improvisation.


Okra is super simple. Brush on some oil, then sprinkle some salt on top. Little bit of crunchy on the outside, and nice and soft on the inside. Simply awesome. Now, because they do Pirouettes on you when you skewer them with just one stick, just use another as you can see in the photo below with the konnyaku.


If you're adventurous, you can also grill konnyaku with hatched cuts in it. Once you see it brown on the corners, it's ready to go. We tried it with the sweet miso; it was ok, but there was a special korean sauce someone had there, and that was really good.


Eggplant! make sure it's the long kind, the skin is softer, and they're done faster. Some people just put the whole thing on the grill; it's lovely with ponzu and some grated ginger. But ever since I had one explode on me, I'm slicing them in half (long ways). Also if sliced in half, you can enjoy it with some sweet miso sauce spread on top (I'll post the recipe for this next week). Delish.

Happy summer!


Some photos provided by American Otaku. Thanx!

Summer = Cold Tofu

Herbs are always hard to purchase at stores. Usually they sell too many in a package that are too old already, and you have no time to use them. I started growing my own chives for tofu - it's delicious with cold tofu and fresh grated ginger with a little bit of soy sauce over it... refreshing...



Now, being Japanese, the summer cold tofu just doesn't feel complete without Shiso. You may see this used as garnish on your sashimi or sushi dishes, but it is super fragrant and quite lovely to eat.



It's sometimes called Perilla in English, but it's not very common in western culture. It's a bit minty, but not tooth pastey, and the texture is somewhat like parsley, but not as prickly... hmmm... it's hard to explain.



My favorite way of using Shiso is, of course, with sushi and sashimi. But since I can't have that at home nearly enough, I have to have another way of enjoying Shiso. It worked really well in my cod-roe pasta the other day, so I'm going to have to try it with a garlic pasta and see how that goes, but always a summer favorite is on top a block of chilled tofu with chives and ginger on the side for a variety of simple but refreshing flavors!

HenoHenoMohe JA!

I remember drawing this face even before I started writing. Even after I learned how to write Hiragana, I used it to doodle, or fill a blank face if I didn't feel like giving it sparkly anime eyes. It's nothing pretty, but it's one thing every Japanese person knows how to draw. Like a stick man, as good or as bad as one may draw it, you still know that it's a stick man (unless you're my dad). I think that's how it works with "henohenomoheji" as well.

It is a face that was often used on scarecrows in Japan using the letters "he", "no", "mo", and "ji", all adding up to "henohenomoheji". Yah, unless you know what the letters look like, this still won't make sense right? Breakdown:



And for the purpose of this blog and profile picture, I just altered the "ji" to "ja" for Japa Stuff, that looks like this:



so that's how the profile pic came to be! Nice to meet you!