umaki

Umaki is grilled unagi (eel) that is wrapped (maku) with an omelette.

The umaki at Hitsumabushi Nagoya Bincho is so fluffy and delicious.

Satoshi wanted to go to try the unagi here after I told him about the lunch I had with V & K.

On weekends though, the lines were krazy!

We waited about 30 minutes for a table, but it was worth it.

kaneko unagi

Yesterday, I walked twenty minutes to Sakurai intending to shop at Daiei.

I didn't realize (until I got there) they were renovating and were closed...boo!

This was the perfect chance to try Kaneko Unagi, a tiny shop that sells unagi kabayaki (grilled eel with a sweet-salty sauce).

While I appreciated that they only sell unagi raised/caught in Japan, they are pricey.

For the one unagi that I bought, it was 2470 yen (tax included), and that was the most inexpensive one...

Satoshi and I shared it for dinner.

It was good, the flesh of the unagi was very moist, the skin quite crispy.

I may be back, but not too often.

Kaneko Unagi
2-1-14 Sakurai
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.721.4057
Closed Sundays
Hours: n/a

doyo no ushi no hi

Today is Doyo no Ushi no hi, the day when we all eat unagi (eel) for stamina to withstand the heat of summer. I've written about this in the past here.

The price of unagi, especially on this day, tends to be quite pricey.

So, I was happy to find 2 good-sized unagi for 1680 yen (plus tax).

Just before dinner, I'm going to make my own kabayaki sauce using this recipe.

If you can't find unagi where you live or don't like it, you could also follow the recipe above to make an eggplant version.

I hope it is cooler where you are, we're melting over here!

Have a nice weekend.

trying to save the planet

With the price of food items and gasoline at premium prices, we've been trying to cut corners here are there, while trying to do our part to save the planet.

Last Saturday, Satoshi went to sell some books for me at Book-Off. They used to take English books, but not anymore. (insert pouty face) I think Book-Off still has a location in Hawaii. The books I gave him to sell were Japanese books that were burdening my book shelf.

Selling 11 books, we got 650 yen (about US$6.50), not much, but at least the books will go to new homes and we have a little less clutter.

Another thing we have started doing is bringing our own water wherever we go. These bottles made by SIGG, a Swiss brand, are durable. Can you believe I saw someone actually throw one of these bottles out in their trash because the paint was a little nicked! How wasteful was that?

We've gotten our burnable garbage down to 20 liters per pick up day. Our burnable garbage gets picked up twice a week. Each person is allowed 10 liters per pick up.

I think they should do something about this dude though...he may be saving gasoline by not riding around in a car and shouting his issues, but he is noise pollution. I didn't think it was election time around here...

Anyway, we may not be totally "saving the planet", but doing a little is better than not at all.

Are you doing something to save the planet?

p.s. Remember I told you about making vanilla? Well, if you live in a place where the inside gets hotter or as hot as outside, like here, please put your vanilla into the refrig. I surfed the net and found out it should be kept in a dark, cool place. During the day, when we aren't at home, our apartment gets to about 36C (95F)!

p.p.s. Yesterday was Doyo no Ushi no Hi, the day when Japan eats unagi (eel) as a way to build stamina for the hot summer. This year, I put the kabayaki sauce on the rice, put the sliced unagi on top, some sliced tamagoyaki (rolled egg) & some sliced okra on top of that...it was good!

Hope you have a great weekend!

unagi dokoro kishi

Monday night we had some of Satoshi's friends and their families over for dinner. (We always get together with these families for Christmas.)

Usually when we have parties, we like to start them around lunch time, so that the children have time to run around outside while the adults chatter away, but this time, the party started late because everyone had things during the day, on top of that, Satoshi had to work until 18:30. By the time we started eating it was 19:30.

I made bulgogi, szechuan salt & pepper shrimp, spicy poke and apple crisp.

The other wives brought cake, and pork wrapped around bainiku (ume paste) and shiso (perilla leaves)--The recipe is easy so I'll be making this soon and share it with you!

It was a loud gathering (6 adults and 5 children) filled with lots of chatting, laughing, drinking and eating. I hope we didn't bother the neighbors too much.

Yesterday was the last day of the Golden Week. For lunch, we went to Hibarigaoka Hanayashiki, this is 3 stops from where we live. In Japan, there are many guide books for finding eating places, dessert places, just about all topics not just food--if you can be featured in one of these guide books you are almost guaranteed a boost in business. We have a book that is filled with all kinds of eating places around our area. As Satoshi was flipping through it to get an idea of where to go for lunch, he came across an unagi (eel) restaurant. This restaurant has a 230 year history dating back to the Edo period (actually we realized that the owner's family's restaurant in Wakayama, has the history).

The restaurant is very tiny, only 10 seats at the counter and 6 in back in a little room. The place was almost to capacity when we got there, but we were able to get seats at the counter, we looked over the menu and the owner explained the size differences of the unagi don (eel bowl).

Satoshi ordered the unagi teishoku (2940 yen about US$29.40) this comes with an unagi don (eel bowl), unagi cream croquette, kimo sui (broth with the liver of the eel), tsukemono, unagi jelly (terrine of unagi, yuzu (citron) and other herbs).

I don't really like unagi, but will eat it, so I ordered the small order of unagi don (1470 yen about $14.70).

After Satoshi ate his terrine and some broiled eel liver (both quite teeny), our orders of donburi came.

The eel was very tender and the sauce was light tasting. I love sauce on my rice, but to tell you the truth, my chopsticks skills suck and for me to eat rice that has sauce on it is hard because the rice doesn't stick together, so I "balance" rice onto the chopsticks and scoop it into my mouth...disgrace being of Japanese ancestry, but true. I think when I was staying with my host-family, my host-mom felt sorry for my chopstick skills because she would almost immediately bring out a fork or spoon for me during meals.

Still, the una don (short for unagi donburi) was delicious!

By the time I had "balanced" all my rice onto my chopsticks, Satoshi was finished.

Then I asked him, "aren't you supposed to get a croquette too?" He said, "it must be coming soon." Then he asked the owner, "doesn't the teishoku come with a croquette?" She replied, "I thought I mentioned that we aren't serving croquette today." So then Satoshi said, "uh, so what about the liver broth and tsukemono?" The owner's face turned white as a ghost and she began apologizing profusely.

She/her staff had forgotten to give us the tsukemono and broth to eat with our meal.

We ate our tsukemono and drank the broth. I didn't care for the broth, it was quite fishy and bitter too.

I thought they would comp our meal or at least discount it, but they didn't. Satoshi was upset that they didn't explain the menu clearer and do more to change the bad feelings. Still, the price he paid was too expensive for the amount that was served.

We both decided that even though it was delicious, we won't be going back.

doyo no ushi no hi

Yesterday was doyo no ushi no hi (literally mid-summer day of the ox. It is believed that each part of the day follows the 12 zodiac signs, e.g. 1 o'clock to 3 o'clock is the ox, or something like this.), it is the day to eat unagi (eel) to build stamina to last the summer. You should have seen the shopping arcade and supermarket, unagi everywhere! (The fishmonger in the shopping arcade actually had part-timers come in to help grill the unagi!)

I was a bit leery about buying unagi though, there have been news articles in which the ones being imported from China are being raised inappropriately. I hope the Japanese supermarkets and vendors are labeling products properly, there have been incidents in the past where they change the label in order to sell items.

For example, when the B.S.E. (mad-cow) thingy was going on here, some supermarkets switched the labels for beef coming from the U.S. and labeled them as Australian or Japanese to get rebates from the government and also to make a sale. Another scary thing about this is that products, like cows and such can be imported as babies then raised on farms and as long as they have been in Japan for a year, they can be called "Made in Japan". And even though you are choosing local (Japan), the restaurants and bars may not.

Another scary thing that is going on here is that Japan is now exporting rice to China. With fears of reika (cool summer) this year, I hope the government has an ample stash for us in Japan, since part of reika comes shortages of rice. (Apparently, the last time for reika was 1993 and they had to import rice from Thailand)...I have a feeling though that they are just looking to make a quick buck and aren't thinking that far ahead.

Sorry, I got sidetracked...back to unagi, I personally don't like unagi. I think the first time I tried it, there were bones in it and the unagi was kind of oily tasting, not a good first experience.

Still, I try to eat it at least once during the summer, just to go through the motions, in hopes that it helps me survive the summer (believe me, I need all the luck I can get especially with Japan summers). Satoshi, on the other hand, loves unagi and every time we go to his parent's house they order this dish for us to eat. He always tells his mother, "Kat doesn't like unagi", but she always forgets and orders it and I force myself to eat it because I don't want to be rude.

So, I bought unagi yesterday. Cut off the tail and the head-like area and throw them out, they are too hard to eat. (The first time I bought unagi, I served Satoshi the head-like area and tail and he told me that I'm supposed to throw it out, who knew?)



Slice up the body of the unagi and put it into an omlette and serve on rice. Sprinkle some sansho (Japanese pepper) on top.

I feel more powerful already...

chanpi beef salad + extras...

Last night, I re-tried making nasudengaku. This time, I cut the eggplant, soaked it in water and then "pan fried" it in a non-stick pan. Then I drizzled the dengaku miso sauce onto the eggplant and put it into the oven for 10 minutes. It was good and at least the eggplant was juicy this time.

Satoshi's mom gave us this umaki (unagi (eel) wrapped (maki) around gobo (burdock)). I don't particularly like unagi, but it is one of Satoshi's favorite foods. I was quite surprised that it didn't taste too much like eel, I think the smoky flavor helped.

Tonight's dinner was a recipe that I've been wanting to try called "chanpinyurou" or beef salad flavored with orange peel. There is a Szechuan restaurant in Tokyo called Tenyu that makes this dish. The owner/chef, Shima Norio has a cookbook, it shows how to make most Szechuan sauces from scratch. I have never eaten here, but the photos in the book sure look delicious! I didn't have a lot of the Chinese ingredients, so I used what I had and tried it. I think it came out pretty good. Although the sesame flavor is quite strong, you can also taste some orange and there is a little kick from the chilies.

Beef salad flavored with orange peel from "Tenyu" by Shima Norio
Serves 2 or 3
100g thinly sliced beef roast cut
1/4 lettuce
20g mizuna (potherb mustard greens)
10g carrot

Sauce
2 T chanpijan *
100cc soup or hot water
2 chili peppers
1 T Shao Hsing (chinese cooking wine)
1 T sugar
1 T vinegar
1.5 T shoyu (soy sauce)
1 grind of pepper
1 T cornstarch

1. Cut the lettuce to 1 cm pieces, mizuna to 5 cm pieces and julienne the carrots.
Place all veggies into cold water to crispen them up.
2. Put all the sauce ingredients into the pan and heat.
3. Add the beef and cook for about 3-4 minutes.
4. Lastly, add the cornstarch mixed with some water to thicken sauce.
5. Put veggies onto a plate and then the beef onto the veggies.

* to make Chanpijan
50g chanpi (orange peel)
100cc white sesame oil

Soak the dried orange peel in water for 6 hours to rehydrate.
Scrape the white part of the peel so that there is hardly any (this is to take away the bitterness), julienne the peel.
Add the peel to the sesame oil and steam for 30 minutes.
This sauce makes 120g and will last for 2 weeks in an airtight container.

the last day of june

It is the last day of June and as I dread Japan's summer, it is coming at lightning speed...along with sour things to eat such as ume (pickled plums) and things made with vinegar, another food to beat natsubate (suffering from summer's heat) is unagi (eel).

In Japan, there are several types of eels which we consume. I only know of three: unagi (anguilla japonica), anago (conger eel) and hamo (pike conger or sea eel).

Unagi is usually prepared kabayaki style. This is where the eel is split down the middle then skewered and grilled. In Eastern Japan, they grill the eel, then steam it, then grill it again. Western Japan just grills it until crispy to get rid of some of the fats and oils. Unagi is also a very popular dish in Nagoya, they have a layered dish with rice and unagi in a huge lacquered serving bowl called hitsumabushi.

Hamo has lots of bones, so it takes a really skilled chef with a razor sharp knife to prepare the hamo for consumption. When eating in Kyoto, you usually find hamo in a clear soup called o-suimono.

Anago is usually found on top of sushi and sometimes fried as tempura. Did you know that the word tempura comes from the Portugese word "tempero" (meaning seasoning)?

A big producer of unagi is Lake Hamana (Hamanako), in Shizuoka. They usually can their unagi and it is what we find in our stores in Hawaii.

Changing the subject, here are some pics taken from around the neighborhood on my walk this morning.

A camera-shy sunflower, which was actually taller than me.

It is gardenia season here, the smell reminds me of home. Gardenia is called kuchinashi (literally means no mouth) here.

A duck trying to keep cool in the Minoo river.

I've started eating the bar on the right, Domori's Barrique. It is a 75% cacao combined with pink peppercorns, mace, cinnamon & ginger. I was a bit disappointed with this one as it sort of tasted like wine.

Hope you enjoy the weekend and keep cool!