thursday with v & k

Thursday, I spent most of the day with blog reader V and her husband K.

We started out early, "fighting" the salarymen (businessmen) "ocean" at Shinagawa Station, then finding our way to Tsukiji.

Since we moved to Tokyo in April, we have not been around here, so it was hard for me to remember what everything was like before.

It seemed to me that a lot has changed.

After going row by row in the market, I'm glad we found the furikake that V wanted to get.

We then walked to Ginza/Yurakucho to have unagi for lunch.

On a previous trip V tried the Osaka shop and wanted to have unagi again at their Tokyo shop.

I liked how "crispy" the unagi was...thank you for lunch!

We then went to Kyu-Shibarikyu Garden and walked around.

Not too much fall colors, but at least they were able to experience a Japanese garden.

V gave us lots of snacks.

I'm glad we were able to meet up and it was nice to meet K too.

It was overcast and a bit drizzly, still I hope they had fun and enjoy the rest of their trip.

Thank you V & K!

Hitsumabushi Nagoya Bincho
2-2-14 Ginza, Marronier Gate 12F
Chuo, Tokyo
Phone: 03.5159.0231
Lunch: 11:00-15:30, Dinner: 17:00-23:00
Closed when Marronier Gate is

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.

shimabara-isahaya-hakata-osaka

The next morning, there was a haze, which seemed liked fog.

The breakfast buffet had slim pickings...mostly pre-packed stuff that was re-heated...

After walking the town a little, we caught the train to Minami-Shimabara.

This is apparently where Ryoma Sakamoto landed in 1864 to travel to Nagasaki City.

And then we walked to the port area because we wanted to check out the fish market, Funabito Tottoto.

We had intended on eating an early lunch, but they weren't serving anything until 11:00.

So, we just bought some frozen sardines roasted in olive oil & garlic.

These are good. We've had them with our New Years' foods and also in a pasta.

From Fujita Cherry Mame, we bought these seasoned fava beans, which they call "cherry mame".

I'm not too sure why they call them by this name.

There were sweet ones and savory ones in the sampler packet we bought...we liked the savory ones best because they were crunchy. The sweet ones were coated with sugar and were a bit stale.

Tatsumiya Sohonten makes a tora-maki.

A light sponge cake wraps smooth sweet bean paste. We agreed that they didn't need to coat the outside with granulated sugar.

and a mikan-zuke.

A whole mikan (tangerine) that is dried and covered with granulated sugar. This was similar to orange peel. They also make a zabon-zuke (pomelo), we should've bought some of that to try too.

From Shimabara it took us about an hour to get to Isahaya.

Most of our guide books had nothing written up about Isahaya, so we grabbed a couple of pamphlets at the train station and went in search of lunch.

We found a huge unagi restaurant up a steep hill called Uoso.

Satoshi had their sashimi.

I ordered their Isahaya sushi, which was seasoned shiitake and kanpyo (gourd) mixed into the rice. Shiso placed in the center and topped with Uoso's kabayaki unagi.

The sushi is a pressed type of sushi rather than a rolled or hand-molded sushi.

I really liked this, the flavors were balanced, not overpowering.

Satoshi also ordered their una-zen. (ooh-nah-zen)

This was served in a Kyoto raku style dish, the dish holds hot water in the base to keep the unagi hot all the way through the meal.

I also ordered the u-maki. (ooh-mah-key).

The unagi they use is prepared lightly (edo-mae style) and is put into their omelette. The photo in the menu looked small, but when this arrived at the table it was HUGE!

Since we had some time before our train, we walked along the river until we reached the Spectacle bridge.

This one was larger than the one we saw in Nagasaki City. We also realized that we didn't go across the one in Nagasaki city.

On the way back to the train station, we stopped in at Tsukasa to pick up some of their okoshi (puffed rice). Peanut (on the left) and Isahaya (black sugar) on the right.

Not as light as some I've tried before, these kinda stick to your teeth.

And then it was time to go back. From Isahaya, it took about and hour and 40 minutes to Hakata and then 3 hours back to Osaka.

We were happy that the weather turned out to be nice the whole time. We did lots of walking, lots of eating! I hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as we did.

Have a nice weekend!

Funabito Tottoto
451 Minato-shinchi-machi
Shimabara, Nagasaki
Phone: 0957.63.9911
Lunch: 11:00-15:00, Dinner: 17:30-20:00

Fujita Cherry Mame
1850-8 Imagawa-machi
Shimabara, Nagasaki
Phone: 0957.63.1100
Hours: 10:00-17:00

Tatsumiya Sohonten
275 Nakagumi-machi
Shimabara, Nagasaki
Phone: 0957.62.3127
Hours: 8:30-17:30

Uoso
3-41 Uzu-machi
Isahaya, Nagasaki
Phone: 0957.22.0039
Hours: 11:00-21:00

Tsukasa Honten
5-5 Eisho-higashi-machi
Isahaya, Nagasaki
Phone: 0957.22.2380
Hours: 8:30-18:30
Closed 1st and 3rd Thursdays

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!