I made supper yesterday and today on behalf of my wife.
昨日と今日は妻の代わりに夕飯を作りました。
For supper last night, I made potato salad and another salad, and I boiled somen.
昨日の夕飯には、ポテトサラダと別のサラダを作り、素麺（そうめん）を茹でました。
For supper tonight, I made hiyashi chuka.
Making kinshi tamago is the most time-consuming part of hiyashi chuka making.
I made ten egg sheets from six large eggs, using a 18-cm dia. non-stick frying pan.
今日の夕飯には冷やし中華を作りました。
錦糸卵を作るのが冷やし中華を作る上で一番時間がかかります。
直径18 cmのテフロン加工のフライパンを使って、Lサイズの卵６個から卵のシートを10枚作りました。
I sliced three cucumbers.
きゅうりは３本切りました。
I cut all the egg sheets in half at once first, and then finely cut them.
卵のシートは最初に一度に半分に切り、それから細く切りました。
My kinshi tamago does not contain sugar. Eggs only. Some recipes call for potato starch, but I don't like to add any.
私が作る錦糸卵には砂糖は入っていません。卵だけです。片栗粉を入れるレシピもありますが、私は入れるのは嫌いです。
I bought katsuo no tataki (seared bonito) for 98 yen per 100 g.
かつおのたたきを100 g 98円で買いました。
As I said previously, there are two types of tataki: chopped and seared. Katsuo no tataki is the latter type.
前に言った通り、たたきには二種類あります。叩いた（ミンチにした）ものと火であぶったもの。かつおのたたきは後者です。
I tried my outdoor knife.
自分のアウトドアナイフを試してみました。
I know it cuts well. It has a blade length of 11 cm.
よく切れることは知っています。刃渡りは11 cmです。
Because of its short blade length, it can't cut like a sashimi knife (cut a fillet with a single slicing motion), but I thought it could be used to fillet aji and other small fish.
刃渡りが短いので、刺身包丁のようには切れません（柵を一度にさっと切れない）が、アジなど小さい魚をさばくのに使えると思いました。
I placed the pieces on a mound of onion slices.
オニオンスライスの上に載せました。
Maru-chan Seimen:
マルちゃん正麺：
Maru-chan Seimen has revolutionalized the sector of instant noodles in packets (as opposed to to sector of instant noodles in cups). The texture of Maru-chan Seimen is quite similar to that of fresh ramen noodles.
マルちゃん正麺は袋麺に革命を起こしました。マルちゃん正麺の食感は生のラーメンの麺の食感によく似ています。
My portion:
私の分：
Very small, because I'm still on a diet.
まだダイエット中なのでとても少ないです。
After supper, I cut half a melon for my family.
夕飯後、家族のためにメロンを半分切りました。
I am one of the rare people who don't care for melons.
私はメロンが嫌いな珍しい人間の一人です。
16 comments:
Hiroyuki, I like melons, but especially their aroma. As for the taste, I will always prefer watermelon because melons are too sweet... and I cannot eat a lot. Watermelon has for me also a less delicate taste. We are in the minority definitely! I wish I could taste tataki. I will put it on my tasting list for next visit to Japan. I could buy it and taste in my hotel room! (I don't know if I could find it in restaurants...).
I have seen so often the thin shredded "omelettes" and never made them... It's such a nice topping idea for any cold meal.
I have had today two chawan mushi for brunch (no breakfast so I was very hungry!) and made them this time with chicken and chopped eringi. Very good but more watery because of the mushrooms.
It's completely out of subject, but I have recently seen a very nice Japanese film called "Megane" (I had previously seen Seagull Diner by the same director). I liked it a lot! There were some interesting fragments about food too. Have you seen it?
Sissi: I hope you can find katsuo no tataki in a depachika or supermarket. Mine was a cheap frozen type, but was tasty enough.
My wife often says that I could always make iri tamago (Japanese scrambled eggs) instead of kinshi tamago as a topping for hiyashi chuka, but I am adamant!
Chawan mushi for brunch?! How patient you are (laugh)!
I haven't seen that movie. It sounds like a good one, so I'm watching it on YouTube. Thanks for letting me know.
The fish looks very good even for a cheap frozen variety.
Kiki: It is good! But I can't tell how bonito caught with pole-and-line fishing tastes like because I have never tasted such expensive bonito (sad).
If you go for the real thing, go to Kochi in Shikoku, for example.
A brief description can be found here:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5606.html
I don't like canteloupe but I love honeydew, it's much milder in flavour :) refreshing!
I pay for fresh Tuna (sushi and sashimi quality) 39.95 Euro/kg at the fish mongers - sometimes more. Most of the time it is not possible to buy a certain long cut piece of tuna. You are lucky if they sell the fish in thicker slices. I have to look out for special sales at a distributor for restaurants, hotels and trading companies (lucky I have a members card). But don't ask wether this is high quality tuna or not.
To tell the difference I have to visit Japan.
Kiki, I also go to such a shop (but here everyone can ask for the member's card and it's not necessary: only if you want to profit from special prices). Anyway, this is the only place I can get fresh fish from but if I want to buy a certain special cut of tuna, I would have to buy at least a kg or more... otherwise it's in slices called "steaks" :-( Sadly, they never say what is "sashimi grade" and I have no idea if they know anything about it. I'm happy because this is the only place where I can buy aji, now one of my favourite fish species.
Stacy: Sadly, I've never dared to try any varieties of melon since childhood.
Kiki and Sissi: If you ever come to Japan and buy sashimi-grade tuna, you have to decide which variety you want:
Hon (or kuro) maguro = Bluefin
Minami maguro = Southern bluefin
Mebachi maguro = Bigeye
Kihada maguro = Yellowfin
Bincho (or binnaga) = Albacore
You also have to decide which of o-toro (very fatty), chu-toro (medium fatty), and akami (lean) you want. (In general, kihada and bincho are considered not to contain toro portions, but some shops may sell fatty portions as toro.)
As for me, mebachi chu-toro sounds good for special occassions. O-toro is just too fatty for my family.
Everyone's talking about o-toro and chu-toro (of hon maguro and minami maguro, in particular), but the best part of tuna is akami, in my opinion.
Hiroyuki, you have a very sophisticated palate! I remember in the film about the famous Ono Jiro, he was saying that though he serves also fatty tuna, the lean tuna is the most exciting and can always be surprising and he prefers lean tuna because fatty one is boring! I have never tasted fatty tuna I must say... Only lean (I am ashamed to say I went only once to a sushi restaurant in Tokyo... I had so many things to taste on my list! I will improve next time! I have heard that restaurants around Tsukiji market are cheap for the quality they have so I will go there I think).
Thank you for the useful tips and information. I have just checked to be sure: albacore tuna is my favourite canned tuna! It's called "white tuna" on the cans and is always more expensive than standard canned tuna. I eat canned tuna quite often...
Sissi: The fact is that when I was small (1960s), toro tuna was still rare. I loved ruby red akami tuna then, and I still do. The high fat content of o-toro simply puts me off. Chu-toro is much better, providing a good balance of fat and flesh. But a few slices of it is enough for me. I like akami the best, because it's tasty and it's the cheapest of the three.
BUT, I highly recommend that, when you visit Japan, you try all of these three parts of tuna, especially hon or minami maguro, no matter how costly they may be.
I will try all of the parts of course! Now that I think, I might dislike the fatty part because I don't like farmed salmon (even if it's an organic farm), which is 99% of what can be bought and 100% of what is served in restaurants, because of its fattiness... I'm the only person I know who loves fish but doesn't like salmon! I know many people who only eat salmon when it comes to fish. Wild salmon is much better, but I prefer it smoked than fresh (I would happily give a huge salmon piece for two grilled fresh sardines or aji ;-) ).
Sissi: In that case, you will probably like the salmon variety the most popular in Japan, the least fatty one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oncorhynchus
And do you like trout? Some varieties of trout, such as sakura masu, are quite good!
I love hiyashi chuka and kinshi tamago is my favourite part. However I happen to be one of the people that is in love with hon maguro o-toro. I tried some in Shirahama and split the cost of two pieces with a friend. It was so expensive but it was worth trying. I'm lucky to have found a sushi restaurant that has good cuts of chu-toro but good o-toro and akami are both somewhat difficult to find and I constantly think about having that same piece of o-toro again... We have an izakaya-style restaurant that has excellent akami on some days but the price is expensive.
Joanna: Two or three slices of o-toro should be the right portion per person. I guess that if you had more, you would soon be tired of it.
Today I went to the once best food supplier in Germany specialized on delicacies, terrible expensive treats and exotic food: The KaDeWe in Berlin. They had only one variety of tuna for sashimi, the lean dark red one. Times are changing, I am very sad about what happened to the KaDeWe It is no longer the department store it was before. They still sell those chanel dresses and glitzy watches but the food section is boring.
All in all I have to visit Japan.
Hiroyuki, I like trout a lot (but again... nowadays they often sell overfed, super fat farmed trout... the best one is wild!). (Sorry for the late reply, I haven't seen yours).
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