In praise of tofu

Usually in Italy when someone eats tofu people around him would look sorry and ask: “are you on a diet?”. Somehow tofu=tasteless experience.
I cannot deny that I was also part of that idea but since in Japan I have to say that tofu is good. No, I am not on a diet, tofu is good. Unfortunately what is exported is usually not that good. If you come to japan I recommend to try a supercool and oishii brand: otokomae.

lunch break consideration: summer and japanese food

The picture of today’s lunch brings up one of the few weakness of japanese cuisine: the food choice during hot weather.
Despite what japanese friends tell me that there are many japanese summer recipe, I am still skeptical about it.

The easier to eat are zaru soba, cold soba. Maybe one can switch to sushi or sashimi but not much more. In fact many people still eat more or less the same food they eat in winter time.
The problem starts from the fact that japanese eat fruits and vegetables in small amounts.  If one orders a tomato in an izakaya will get one ( or half) tomato nicely sliced. From this way of eating it is difficult and expensive to imagine a person in the summer eating a big bowl of salad with 3 tomatoes, salad, mushrooms and other things…

mi dicono che non scrivo abbastanza

abbastanza ma purtroppo Tokyo divora ogni ora del giorno.
Viaggiare in Giappone è certamente diverso, immersivo, alienante ma anche un pò pericoloso non certo per l’incolumità fisica ma per i nostri abiti.

Mangiare con le bacchette, dalla delicata funzione indicatrice (come osservava Barthes), può essere una difficile e sbrodolante esperienza. Ecco una lista di pericolosità:

Udon*****
Grado di pericolosità massimo per gli spaghettoni in brodo. Nemmeno il cucchiaio vi salverà.  Sconsigliati se siete in una cena di lavoro.

Soba***
Dipende se li mangiate in brodo (meno complicati degli udon ma da non sottovalutare) oppure freddi.

Eating eating

Today and tomorrow I am preparing a meal for the Studio.
Menu:
Antipasti
Ham Paté
Pumpking Gnocchi ( do not read it as “Gunochi” please)
Milanese Risotto (Saffron and if i found the famous golden leaf…)
Turkey
Orange Salad
Tiramisu And/or Panettone

Thank you to those who helped with recipe and suggestions, as Metallica used to write “you know who the f*** you are”.

While getting recipes I found some interesting things:
a 1500 yen (10 euro) Fennel
a really good tiramisu recipe website

Mt. Takao Nabe Party

A good quick and mind cleaning excursion from Tokyo is Mount Takao.
Last week we made a nabe meal on the mountain.
Nabe is a very popular food in the winter. It is a soup made with vegetables and meat, cooked while sitting at the table, somehow a soup fondue.
This time Fuji-san was clearly visible.

Temaki party!

This week end we have done a temaki party. Maki are the cone-shaped roll with sushi ( pay attention: sushi is the rice with vinegar not the fish!!). One could call them the “japanese tacos” (as Masayuki Lopez said).
It an easy and good meal to prepare.
slideshow

Recipes:
hot to make temaki video
recipe

Be brave: try goya

Another unknown food is the Okinawa goya. It could be defined as a bitter melon.

Most famous recipe is the Gôya Champloo easy to do, it is a refreshing taste if are a bit tired of other japanese food.

Be brave: try gobo

I think almost every foreigner in a japanese vegetable shops wonders what some of the products are. On one side one sees the expensive known vegetable and fruits: tomatoes, melons, … On the other a bunch of white and brown long roots which cost nothing.

Finally I found out how to cook one of them (gobo, in the picture) and I bought it.
There are many ways to cook it: with vegetables in a fry pan, with meat and in a soup.
As I was explained, clean the surface, cut it in small pieces “a la julien” leave in water a 10-15 in to take some of the bitter taste away and then cook it. It is very tasty!

the dark side of japanese food…

Japanese restaurant are more and more popular. Therefore more more people get to know japanese food. What it is interesting to notice is the “filtering” that is done.
“A” class food includes:
sushi
sashimi
chirashi
udon
sake
green tea ice cream

This is what we can usually find in a japanese restaurant. Of course, japanese do not eat sushi everyday… while being here in Tokyo I got the chance to find other type of food that somehow would not match the general idea of japanese food.

natto: the king of the “B” food. the fermented beans are extremely interesting

uni (sea urchid): usually it is quite hard to find this abroad

soba: especially the cold soba are a true journey into a different eating experience

shochu: this is the counterpart of sake. the “japanese vodka” is much stronger. i recommend to drink it on the rocks or with soba cooking water ( this is quite unusual even for many japanese)

daifuku: sweetness is one of the main difference of japanese food. As a foreigner you may find sweets always never sweet enough.

natto

japanese food… we all think about sushi and sashimi but one of the special typical japanese food is natto.

which today i finally bought. do not judge by the look of it, svp.

Obento

Obento is the japanese name of the lunch box. carefully prepared, it is possible to buy in any shop or try to make your own. Here a nice photo gallery of obentos to get some inspiration and new ideas.