Today's breakfast and dinner were "wa", which stands for Japanese. Whenever you go out with friends and they ask you what you want to eat, they'll usually say, "wa, yo, chu". "Wa" is the shortened version of "washoku" and means as I said, Japanese, "Yo" is the shortened version of "yoshoku" and means Western food (Italian, French, etc.) and "chu" is the short version of "chuuka" and stands for Chinese food.Well, I got this idea from Blue Lotus' post. What she did was open a can of fish and stick in under the broiler. That's what I did this morning for breakfast. One can of iwashi (sardine) (left) seasoned with shoyu (soy sauce) and one can of sanma (pacific saury) kabayaki (right).
Kabayaki is a style of cooking which is usually associated with eel, you may have heard of unagi kabayaki. The eel, in this case, the saury is split and broiled over charcoals and a thick sweetened soy sauce is used to coat the fish/eel, I guess you could say it is a kind of Japanese "barbecue".
I think I could of left it under the broiler a little longer because the iwashi didn't get very brown or crispy, but the sanma had a very nice roasted flavor, next time I'll know better!
I also made some akamiso-shiru (red soy bean paste soup). There are all kinds of miso all over Japan, the key is to find something you like. It is thought that akamiso speeds up metabolism.Here's the shoga (ginger) that I mis-ordered. It is so sour! I think it was soaked with the ume (pickled plum).
Our rice is one cup of genmai (brown rice) and one cup of white plus a sprinkle of gokokumai (5-grain rice). I usually pour enough gokokumai to cover the bottom of the measuring cup (the one that comes with the rice cooker). After washing the rice, I just add the gokokumai--unwashed.
Some strawberries and sudachi-cha. Sudachi is a type of lime. It is mixed with kombu-cha (kelp tea), kind of an interesting combination of salty and sour.
Since we hardly (didn't) have any veggies with breakfast, I kind of went overboard with them for dinner...
From left to right counter-clockwise: wilted spinach with katsuobushi (shaved dried bonito), kinpira gobo (strips of burdock root and carrots cooked in sesame seed oil, shoyu (soy sauce), mirin (sweet rice wine), sugar and chili pepper), shiokombu (salted and seasoned kelp), ume (pickled plum), konnyaku (devil's tongue jelly seasoned with sesame seed oil, dashi-joyu (soy sauce mixed with stock) and chili pepper), and rice.Wow, May has flown by and June is just around the corner...
you have quite a few interesting dishes.. how do you know what to combine with what?
ReplyDeleteTell me more about the 5 grain rice.. how is that different than the normal rice we eat for dinner?
I would love to have a taste of each of those..
yum!
Debi
Hi Debi,
ReplyDeleteI usually get my ideas from what I see in recipe books. But mostly cook what I'd like to eat ;)
5-grain rice is a mixture of amaranth, quinoa, barley, red beans and millet. In Japan, there are also 10-grain and 12-grain mixtures too. These have different grain combinations.
Hope this helped.
Take care!
Kat
Unagi...mmmmmmhhhh! And kinpira! You know, I've wondered about that. Why is it spelt both kinpira and kimpira? When I was researching on the internet I came up with both versions!
ReplyDeleteOh and the warabi! When I tried to search further for names I found a recipe for warabi salad. Geez...so many things that you can find on the internet these days. ;-)
Hi Rowena,
ReplyDeleteGood question! There are 3 different types of romaji (the use of the alphabet system to phonetically write out Japanese), Hepburn, Kunrei-shiki & Nihon-shiki. Depending on what style the person is using to write something, will depend on how their "Japanese" will look.
I love how the internet broadens my world of knowledge of FOOD and of cultures :)
Take care and hope this helped you.
Kat