saborecipe

Saw this recipe for no fry ebi tendon on the train 

The reason this post is titled “saborecipe” is because they use this word in Japanese

“Sabo” is shortened from “saboru” or “play hooky”, literally “play hooky from cooking”

Here’s the recipe if you want to try :1 serving : Suntory Kinmugi

5 shrimp, boiled

tenkasu (bits from tempura)

1 serving rice

1tablespoon mentsuyu (sauce for noodles)

1 tablespoon mayo

aonori (green laver)

Mix 1/2 teaspoon of mentsuyu with 1 tablespoon of mayo and tenkasu, put in the boiled shrimp and mix well

Drizzle 2.5 teaspoons mentsuyu on rice

Top with aonori and more tenkasu

NOTES: I didn’t use boiled shrimp, I pan fried with a little oil

I thought just shrimp was kinda not enough so I also pan fried some onion and maitake 

I don’t have mentsuyu so I used dashi shoyu instead 

I drizzled 1 teaspoon onto my rice 

I mixed the 1/2 teaspoon dashi shoyu with 1 tablespoon mayo then threw in the cooked shrimp, maitake and onion, sprinkled in some tenkasu and mixed it well

I poured the concoction onto my rice and topped it with a little juilienned shiso and also added some furikake because I didn’t have aonori

I also sprinkled a little more tenkasu

The tenkasu gets soggy fast so eat this right away

Not really tendon flavors, probably because I used dashi shoyu?, but I’m glad I tried this recipe even if I didn’t totally “play hooky” from cooking

yosenabe

Yosenabe literally means collection hot pot.

You put whatever you want into the hot pot.

I cooked half a daikon, 1 carrrot, 1 "stick" of gobo (burdock) and the outer part of some chinese cabbage.

Then I cooked the nabe set I purchased from Benny.

The price of the set was super reasonable and there was all sorts of seafood...bummer that one of the clams did not open after being cooked.

The crab was kind of slim pickings too...but the broth was flavorful

Our blog rarely had nabe on it in the past, but now that "someone" eats at home more, we can have nabe more often.

If you eat nabe (hot pot), what is your favorite ingredient?

onolicious hawai’i’s garlic shrimp

Kathy of Onolicious Hawai'i posted a garlic shrimp recipe and I finally got around to trying it.

It was simple and tasty.

• Hawaiian Garlic Shrimp from Onolicious Hawai'i
• 12 ounces shrimp (deveined, shell-on)
• 2 tablespoons mochiko
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 head garlic, minced
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• lemon

Devein the shrimp with the shell on and dry with paper towel (I used the toothpick method to devein)

Melt butter and add minced garlic and cook for about 3 minutes.

Take out of pan and set aside.

Dust the shrimp with mochiko, paprika, cayenne & salt.

Heat olive oil and place shrimp in pan in one layer and cook for 2 minutes on each side.

Add the garlic butter back to the pan and cook for another minute.

Squeeze lemon over and enjoy!

NOTES: the only hard part for me was deveining the shrimp with the shells on. The recipe comes together quickly. I would definitely make this again.

rakyo

In our area, there are quite a number of restaurants that are now doing takeout.

Wednesday, I got to try Rakyo's Inada burger.

Rakyo is a tiny shop that sells all sorts of fish that they catch.

We've eaten here a couple of times and love their food.

Their teishoku (set meals) are HUGE and are reasonably priced. 

My burger was two nice pieces of inada with a large piece of nori in between.

Inada is the name for Japanese Amberjack.

The fish was nicely coated and fried.

The bun was a bit soggy from the cabbage and wasabi mayo, but overall the sandwich was delicious.

For 400 yen (tax included), this was very reasonable.  I'll be back.

And we look forward to dining here again once Tokyo's numbers get under control.

Have a nice and safe weekend everyone.

this week

Last Wednesday, I tried making nitsuke for the first time.

Nitsuke is when you simmer a protein (mainly fish) in a sweetened shoyu based sauce.

I was surprised at how fast, tasty and easy it was to do.

If you'd like to try making this here is the recipe I adapted from the internet.

Kinmedai (splendid alfonsino) Nitsuke (simmered in sweetened shoyu sauce) : 2 servings : adapted from several recipes on the internet
2 pieces kinmedai, scaled, rinsed
1/2 cup sake (rice wine)
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
2 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 nub ginger, cleaned and sliced

Place an "X" on the the skin of the fish, be careful not to cut all the way through
In a pot or pan, put all the sauce ingredients in and bring to a boil
Add the fish and turn down the heat to medium
Cover with a drop lid and cook for 10 minutes
Remove the drop lid turn the heat down to low and spoon the sauce over the fish for 5 minutes
Serve and enjoy!

NOTES: so easy, tasty and easy! Pretty sure you can change the type of fish and also adjust the amount of sugar to your liking.
Serve this with lots of rice! I will definitely be making this again.

We ordered our first CSA (community supported agriculture) box which arrived on Friday.

I learned about Tabechoku from a television show called "7 Rule".

The television show introduces the many Japanese working women and shares their 7 rules on life and work.

On a particular episode, they introduced the owner of Tabechoku which introduces farmers to customers and cuts out the middle men (all the red tape organizations) and gives the farmers more profits.

The prices are a little higher than what you would find in the supermarkets, but the freshness of the produce cannot be beat.

The farm we ordered from, Ogawa Farm is located about an hour drive from Kumamoto city in Kyushu.

Apparently they use goats to "weed" and "fertilize" their veggies.

We ordered their medium sized veggie box and it came with 7 different veggies...bok choy, spinach, carrot, cherry tomatoes, baby leaf, onions and garlic scapes (which I had originally thought were called garlic sprouts from the translation from Japanese to English).

It was my first time to cook with garlic scapes...apparently they are not readily found at the markets, though I have seen them in Chinese dishes here.

On my first try, since it was our first time to try them, I prepared them simply by steaming them and we ate them as is....it was like eating garlicky green beans!

With the rest of them, I sauteed them with some thinly sliced beef and seasoned it with some oyster sauce and shoyu (soy sauce).

When we received the box, it was nice to also receive some pamphlets educating us about the area our veggies came from as well as a few ideas on how to use their produce.

One thing that Ogawa Farm had mentioned was that garlic scapes were not often found at the markets so I'm glad we got to try them, but just in case, will also keep an eye for them on my next grocery run...

With the bok choy, I stir fried it with some chicken, some of the carrots we received as well as some of the onion that was in the box. I added garlic and seasoned with shoyu (soy sauce) and oyster sauce.

We have the spinach, carrots and onions left to eat...I am happy with this box and will definitely order again from this farm when the season changes.

It's shakuyaku (Chinese peony) season...we were lucky to get the last two at our neighborhood flower shop.

Love how big they get when they bloom, like a hand with fingers splayed!....hard to believe the buds were only the size of a golf ball!

Too bad these don't have any fragrance though...still pretty to look at though.

Good news: The 2 washable masks for 1 household from the government arrived...It took about a month.

39 of the 47 prefectures in Japan have been released from the state of emergency and have been allowed to transition back to some normalcy.

Sad news: After saying they would give every household 2 masks, some people that received them saw hair and some discoloration on their masks...blah!

So, it was recalled and they had to examine "each one" before putting them in our mailboxes...sigh.

AND after I washed them...they are already falling apart...boo!

Tokyo was not one of the prefectures that were released, we still need to get our numbers under control.

Sadly, this year they will not open Mount Fuji to hiking.

Rainy season and humidity is coming...at least we are eating well.

Hope your week was a good one.

Stay safe.

ibaraki

(Photo: field of cosmos) Back in May, we went to Hitachi Seaside Park to see their nemophila hillside.

Well, after the nemophila plants bloom and die, they uproot everything and plant kochia (bassia scoparia).

The kochia kind of look like green tunbleweed bushes and I've heard some also call them "broom plants" because when dried they look like brooms.

With the drop in temperatures, the green bushes turn reddish.

After seeing this on a news program many years ago, it was on our list "to see".

From Tennodai, it was a little over 2 hours to get to Hitachi Seaside Park.

Once there the weather was a little overcast with the sun peeking out here and there.

It was still impressive to see.

One area that we passed through on our way to Hitachi Seaside Park was Isozaki. Ibaraki is the second largest producer of sweet potato in Japan (I think the top producer is Kagoshima in Kyushu).

Fields and fields of sweet potatoes!

If you'd like to see a video I took from the train, please look here-- at about the 3 minute area I hope you'll be able to see all the harvested sweet potatoes!

It was exciting to see all those sweet potatoes from the train.

Like we did in May, we stopped at the Nakaminato area and walked to the fish market.

We had intended to eat at the conveyor belt sushi restaurant there, but the lines were krazy!

So we went back to the shop we ate at...Morita Suisan.

I ordered the same thing I did back in May and this time around Satoshi ordered the kaisen donburi too.

We were happy to get a table quickly and as always the food was delicious.

After lunch we walked around the town and stumbled upon this shop selling dried sweet potato called Daimaruya.

Inside, there were all sorts of dried sweet potato.

There was also a gelato shop that sold gelato made from different varieties of sweet potato.

Satoshi and I shared this double...left side is akaioimo (literally red large potato), which tasted more like pumpkin and right side was tamaotome (literally round maiden).

Both were delicious.

Kinmokusei (osmanthus) is blooming...love this fragrance!

Autumn is starting here, hopefully we'll be able to see some fall colors which is forecast for the end of November.

We have a special holiday tomorrow as the new Emperor will be crowned.

Hope you have a nice week.

Daimaruya
18-38 Shakamachi
Hitachinaka, Ibaraki
Phone: 029.263.7777
Hours: Mondays-Saturdays 10:00-17:00, Sundays-Holidays 9:00-17:00

tako sunomono (revised)

One of the first things I "cooked" when we moved to Tokyo was this Tako Sunomono.

I used this recipe, and added some sliced myoga and red onion.

I got the idea from a sozai (pre-made food) shop that I like called Matsuoka.

Their version didn't have tako (octopus) in it, but had all the other ingredients.

Super easy and I think I'll be making the version from now on perfect for summer.

smoked saba toasts

Was watching a Nigel Slater show and he talked about smoked mackerel toasts.

Smoked mackerel, cream, cheese and chives...mixed together and then baked onto bread slices.

I adapted this and served them on toast and then on crackers.

1 can smoked mackerel
1/4 red onion, diced
mayo
pepper
cheese

When putting this on toast, I put the cheese on just before toasting.

When we ate this on crackers, I didn't put the cheese.

NOTES: I think mixing the smoked mackerel with cream cheese and onions then nixing the mayo would be delicious too.

Kind of similar to smoked salmon dips.

The can of smoked mackerel is a brand from Shizuoka, I love the packaging.

The fish is caught in the area and packed in olive oil.

Will make this again soon!

kame no te

Have you ever had these?

In Japanese they are called "kame no te" (kah-meh-no-tay literally turtle hands)...in English they are percebes.

Thank goodness for the internet as everyone on Instagram told me about these so I knew what to look up.

Apparently they are a delicacy in Spain...they look pretty creepy to me.

Wednesday night, Satoshi brought these home...of course, he didn't have them refrigerated...do you remember his fish story?!

Anyway, I was leery that they weren't edible because they weren't refrigerated, but Satoshi insisted that he wanted to try them.

So, Thursday, I prepped them, you need to remove the "sucker" the part that attaches itself to rocks and other sealife like mussles...

My pinkies were up and gingerly touching them, there were occasional squeals as the buggers would squirt seawater at me when I cut open the pouch like thingy near the "sucker"...

Also, a website I read said to be careful not to cut yourself on the sharp parts...eep!

Here is what is to be eaten when you remove the sucker.

From another angle.

Then I boiled them in some salted water for about 5 minutes (as the website said).

The mussels that were attached went for another 3 minutes, but didn't open, so I threw those out.

Then, I get a text from Satoshi saying he met up with a friend and would be eating out...grr!

So he ate them on Friday.

I waited a whole hour before posting this pic on Instagram, you know, just in case we had to run to the hospital for food poisoning or something...I didn't try them for fear of food poisoning, but he said they taste like clams.

At least "we" experienced a new food thingy, but I don't think I would want to again.

asamushi onsen-aomori-sendai-ishinomaki

When we awoke, it looked like it would be sunny.

Breakfast was buffet-style and I liked this sectioned tray. You could put a little of this or that into it.

No wasting of food.

After breakfast, we headed back to Aomori to check out the Aomori Museum of Art.

We were greeting by passing showers...

This huge objet, is called "Aomori-ken" by Nara Yoshitomo, an artist from Aomori.

The name of the piece is a sort of play on words, "ken" means prefecture as well as dog.

We also viewed the photo exhibit of Sawada Kyoichi, a UPI photographer, who was from Aomori that won a Pulitzer for his combat photography.

I was even interviewed by local television while at the exhibit...hope my Japanese was okay...gasp!

Lunch was this "hitokuchi darake" (literally full of one bites) eki ben (train bento).

We had seen this on tv and were happy we found this.

The lady selling the bento also gave us two bags of ikamenchi--fried fish paste, squid and veggies, so good!

I want to re-create this!

We also got a chance to ride the Tohoku Shinkansen from Shin-Aomori to Sendai...about 2 hours.

From Sendai, it was about an hour by local train to Ishinomaki.

If I'm not mistaken, this area was one of the hardest hit by the tsunami in 2011.

We asked the woman working at the tourist information office where would be a nice place to eat at.

She said Tomofukumaru.

We were in luck because it was right next door to where we were staying.

Tomofukumaru was totally destroyed with the tsunami in 2011, but due to the requests of their customers, they decided to open a shop in Ishinomaki.

Satoshi ordered their Arigato-don...all sorts of local seafood and rice grown by an Ishinomaki farmer.

I wasn't too hungry and went with their uni chazuke.

This was interesting.

The uni (sea urchin) is congealed in a collagen (gelatin) ball.

Hot water is poured over and voila, uni chazuke. There is no actual tea used in this chazuke.

I think I would've enjoyed this more had that dollop of wasabi on the side of my bowl not secretly fallen into my chazuke and disintegrated...oopsa!

At least my sinuses were clear...

Even though there is a lot of land that has not been rebuilt on, it was nice to see businesses and people moving forward.

We were glad we were in Ishinomaki.

Aomori Museum of Art
185 Chikano, Yasuta,
Aomori City, Aomori
Phone: 017.783.3000

Tomofukumaru
3-15-28 Minami-nakasato
Ishinomaki, Miyagi
Phone: 0225.22.2851
Closed Mondays
Hours: Lunch: 11:00-14:00, Dinner: 17:00-20:00

Hotel Value the Ishinomaki
3-15-37 Minami-nakasato
Ishinomaki, Miyagi
Phone: 0225.92.7567

harbor pier 38

Got to meet up with my cousin, G, and his family at Harbor Pier 38 for lunch.

The interior of the restaurant is huge! I'm glad that they keep the windows open so that the noise from chatter doesn't linger.

Some restaurants are so noisy that it makes conversation inaudible.

My cousin and I had the ahi tuna melt (the name is a little redundant...ahi is tuna in Hawaiian).

You can choose how you wanted the fish cooked and we both got it medium rare.

The wasabi aioli that was on the bun had a lot of heat.

The cross cut potato chips were light and crispy! And they served it with what tasted like a clam dip...good stuff!

My cousin's wife had the soup of the day (asparagus) and their seafood skillet.

It was nice to catch up with them.

I hope to bring Satoshi here the next time.

Thanks G and family for lunch and for a great day!

Harbor Pier 38 (UPDATE: January 2018 closed)
next door to Nico's at Pier 38
1129 Nimitz Highway
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.550.3740
Hours: Lunch: 10:00-15:00, Happy Hour: 15:00-18:00, Dinner: 17:00-21:00

kaisen chirashizushi

Last night for dinner I made a kaisen chirashizushi. This is a type of sushi that is topped with seafood.

In recent years I've seen this version especially for hinamatsuri (Girl's Day).

I adlibbed.

After cooking some rice, I mixed in some denpu (a type of "meat floss" made from fish that is sweetened), if I am not mistaken, Japan uses tara (cod). I also mixed in some sesame seeds and snow peas.

On the bottom of my plate I sprinkled some shiso (perilla) that I cut up thinly.

I added the rice mixture.

Topped it with more shiso and snow peas.

I sprinkled on a little thinly slice omelette.

And then I put on some sashimi (katsuo (bonito), salmon & amaebi (sweet shrimp).

Drizzled some denpu here and there.

And also drizzled some ikura that was soaked in shoyu.

I drizzled a little shoyu over everything before eating.

Super easy dinner, well, once I got everything together.

I had this with Hoegaarden's rosée.

Oh and can I talk a little about this plate that I served it on?

I think my mom gave me this from her stash when we moved from Hawaii (pre-blog)...

It has ume (apricot) flowers on it, but it isn't microwave friendly (there is a metal rim as well as some metal on the plate), so I don't use to very often.

Anyway, I hope you had a nice Girl's Day, if you celebrated.

Have a nice weekend.

hoisin shrimp with bok choy, shiitakes & peppers

Our weather has been dreary. Rainy.

Yesterday, there was even a chance that a typhoon would pass over us.

Luckily, we didn't receive much rain or damage. Other areas in Eastern Japan weren't so lucky. Lots of flooding.

I hope they can get back to their daily routines soon...

I recently tried Family Circle's recipe for Hoisin Shrimp with Bok Choy, Shiitakes & Peppers.

The recipe is super easy. Just throw everything on a sheet pan and bake.

Hoisin Shrimp with Bok Choy, Shiitakes & Peppers : serves 4
Ingredients
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce, plus more for serving (optional)
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon sriracha
1 large bok choy, cut into 3-inch pieces
2 sweet red peppers, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch strips
1 pound small shiitake mushrooms, stems removed
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 pounds jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
Chopped scallions (optional)

Directions
Heat oven to 450F (230C).
Line a 13 x 9-inch rimmed sheet pan with nonstick foil.
In a small bowl, combine hoisin, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil and sriracha. Set aside.
Place bok choy, peppers and shiitakes on prepared sheet pan.
Combine 3 tbsp of the hoisin mixture with canola oil. Pour over vegetables and toss to coat.
Toss shrimp with remaining hoisin mixture. Place shrimp over vegetables.
Roast at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Garnish with sesame seeds and, if using, scallions. Serve with additional soy sauce if desired.

Tip
For Best Results Use a rimmed pan and line with nonstick foil or parchment.

NOTES: I don't have an oven to actually bake a sheet pan in, so I threw everything into a baking dish lined with parchment and baked it off.

Instead of shiitake mushrooms, I used shimeji and maitake. I made half the recipe for the sauce and just drizzled it over everything.

This dish is perfect with rice. I like the flavors of this dish, reminded me of the hoisin sauce chicken and ribs my mom used to make.

The hardest part of this dish is cleaning the shrimp.

I'm making this again.

koregusu tako

Recently in "ELLE à table", there was a story about different hot sauces of the world.

One that was featured was koregusu, the Okinawan hot sauce.

They also had a recipe using it with tako (octopus), so I gave it a try using my homemade koregusu.

Marinated tako adapted from "ELLE à table" issue no.75, September 2014
200 grams steamed tako (octopus)
koregusu
2 tablespoons olive oil
juice of 1 sudachi (lime)
pepper
myoga (ginger shoots), thinly sliced and soaked in water for at least 5 minutes
shiso (perilla), julienned
cherry tomato, sliced in half

Take the tako and cut it into bite sized pieces.
Add the koregusu, amount is up to you.
Add the olive oil and lime juice
Mix well and chill.
Just before serving add the myoga, shiso, cherry tomato.

NOTES: If you cannot get myoga, substitute with red onion. Shiso can be subbed with basil. Lime juice can be subbed with lemon or another citrus. You can also add sliced cucumber and okra too.
Very versatile recipe.
When I first put the oil, koregusu (1 teaspoon) and lime juice together, it wasn't hot...so I added 2 more teaspoons of the hot sauce.
When we ate the tako there was a slight "burn" but nothing "fiery".
I would also add some shoyu for more flavor.
I am making this again.

furin

Satoshi and I recently tried a Japanese restaurant in Umeda Sanbangai called Furin.

I ordered their Nasu-ju, grilled eggplant is put onto rice with thinly sliced omelette and then topped with a delicious minced meat that is seasoned with sansho (Japanese pepper), shoyu and other seasonings.

This really reminded me of the Nasu Kabayaki Donburi I made before, but I really liked their addition of the meat sauce.

Satoshi had their kaisendon.

Rice topped with lots of seafood.

It is a tiny place but the food is good, we'll be back.

Furin
Umeda Sanbangai　B2
Umeda, Osaka
Phone: 06.6372.5700
Hours: 11:00-22:00, Closed when Sanbangai is

singapore seafood republic

We tried Singapore Seafood Republic the other week. If I remember correctly, this restaurant was originally a buffet type, which is why we've never tried them.

I ordered the Mee Goreng. It was my first time trying this so I'm not too sure if it was authentic, but it was spicy and really delicious, though I wish they had had more seafood on it like the picture on their menu.

I really liked the crispy shrimp chips that came alongside this dish too.

Satoshi ordered their spicy shrimp, this came with some rice.

Both orders came with salads.

We liked the laid back atmosphere of this restaurant and that it wasn't too crowded or noisy.

We'll be back.

Singapore Seafood Republic
Daimaru Umeda 14F
Umeda, Osaka
Phone: 06.6347.1160
Lunch 11:00-16:00, Tea 15:30-16:30, Dinner 17:00-23:00
Closed when Daimaru is

uncle's fish market

Across the pier from Nico's is Uncle's. The restaurant has a nice atmosphere and a/c as a bonus.

My brother and I met our two aunties there for dinner the other night.

While everyone ordered entrees for dinner, I went with a side salad and this poke tower.

The poke tower was made of uncle's poke (cubed ahi, onions, sesame oil, chili flake, green onion), ahi (yellow fin tuna) tartar, guacamole, masago (capelin roe). I didn't realize this but masago is substituted for tobiko (flying fish roe).

Anyway, it was a nice dinner and the food was really delicious. (Thank you Aunties!)

We'll be back.

Uncle's Fish Market
Pier 38 (no longer in business at this location)
1135 North Nimitz Highway
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.275.0063
Hours: Monday 10:00-15:00, Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-21:00

nico's

It had been about 6 years since the last time I visited Nico's at Pier 38.

Since then, I think this area had a major overhaul. The restaurant had a nice face lift and a fish market is now next door.

There is also lots of free parking in a lot at the front.

Aunty M had their daily salad which was a fried monchong (pomfret) with garlic pesto shrimp on a bed of spinach which she enjoyed.

I had their fried calamari salad. I liked this but wished the sweet chili sauce/dressing would've coated the spinach better. Most bites were "dry" having no dressing at all.

Other than that, it was nice to have lunch with Aunty and her friend. Thanks Aunty.

Nico's (Pier 38)
1129 North Nimitz Highway
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.540.1377