Lunch and Dinner of Champions!

Wheaties may be billed as the “Breakfast of Champions” and that maybe true or not, but in the world of sumo and in our house Chanko nabe is the meal of champions.

First I must say that nabe mono is one of the few endearing benefits of winter. In my heart, good hearty comfort food is the ONLY good thing about winter. But for the uninitiated nabe simply means pot.(I’ll not tell you what it means in street Japanese). In the case of nabe mono it means an earthenware pot. Often translated as “hot pot”, the translation fails to express the richness and warming qualities of nabe mono.

There are many blogs, photos, and recipes of hot pot cooking on the web so I’ll let your fingers do the browsing. We enjoy chanko nabe as it is the famed food eaten twice daily by sumo wrestlers. I have seen them belly up for breakfast at the McDonalds in Ryokoku since they generally don’t get breakfast at their stable.(If they win their bout of the day they can get free burgers after the match at this shop) Suffice it to say there are as many different varieties of nabe mono as there are cooks in Japan. I am sure that there will be more pictures of vegetables and meat bubbling in broth on my food blog and Flickr before the winter is over.

Going out for a nabe mono dinner can be quite expensive and the best shops are often run by former sumo athletes thus driving up the prices. For a family night out a trip to a chanko shop is hard to beat.

Japanese Country Cooking; beyond sushi!

A friend, a sushi chef, once said to me that if I returned to my country, I’d starve. I laughed and told him that Japanese food was pretty much available in the “civilized” parts of my country. But thinking about this I realized that I was wrong. Sure, there are sushi shops in the wilds of West Virginia and “Japanese” restaurants in many landlocked areas. But as for quality “country cooking”, fresh ingredients just aren’t available-not to mention qualified and experienced kitchen help.

When I first arrived in Japan I was often served small plates of unfamiliar, shall we say, “goodies”. Training and upbringing taught me to eat whatever others around me ate and afterwards inquire to what it was. Of course there were times when I regretted that first bite. Culinary adventures they were, but nothing like appendages of sheep or simian sauté(another story)!

I’d like to introduce you to some of the items that I have grown to enjoy including more informative links that will give you greater detail.

I first experienced “fougere de mers” or “undaria pinnatifidia” in grad school before coming to Japan. In an attempt to make “ichiban dashi” http://www.bob-an.com/recipe/dailyjc/hints/dashi/dashi.html for Japanese soup I succeeded in smelling up my basement apartment with the aroma of low tide.

“Wakame” http://www.physorg.com/news77201733.html is cursed by it’s English name “seaweed” but is an integral ingredient in Japanese cooking. It’s off shoot “mekabu” http://www.nilab.info/cheapjap/000920.html and more at http://epicureandebauchery.blogspot.com/2009/03/terms-mekabu.html was introduced to me by my wife as a healthy way to lower cholesterol. It looks pretty dreadful, but it is quite tasty.

Now that cold weather is here I enjoy “arctium lappa” or burdock root http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_burdock in my soba and “oden”. This relative of the Deadly Nightshade plant is quite delicious and has been used extensively in Chinese medicine and is supposedly this source of origin of “velcro”. Harvest this plant at your own risk!

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the other slimy yet tasteful addition to buckwheat noodle(soba) soup. “Yamaimo” or “Dioscorea opposita” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioscorea_opposita is a yam and is grated and added to the noodle soup at presentation.

Time and your patience with this blog are running out so I will leave other highlights of Japanese “country cooking” for another date.

I have given the Latin names primarily for my readers who live in Japan and often are asked by bleary eyed bar patrons how to say these dishes. Unless they are serious students and taking notes at the time, I like to give them the Latin(if I’m in condition to remember). I enjoy the look of dismay as I say “Discorea opposita”. I feel like Harry Potter invoking a curse!

Curry to Die for By the Beautiful Pacific!

Here is Japan we are spoiled by really good restaurants and wonderful service. My Twitter friends often post pictures from little out of the way “Izakaya” and generally it’s of what we have come to call “comfort food”. The kind of food that “sticks to your ribs” and leaves you with that warm comfortable feeling.

Being so spoiled it is seldom that I do more than publish a few pictures on my photo blog http://gourmetjapan.tumblr.com/. Note and disclaimer that this is also where I often post pictures of family cookouts under the influence of uncontrolled substances. However, today I do have a place to rave about.

Kamal, http://sale.riseresort.com/index.html , was brought to my attention by 4 students mentioning it in class over a 2 week period. Then a student volunteered to take us to this beachfront “curry shop” located between Chikura and Awa Shirahama at the tip of the Chiba peninsula. We all know the mantra about starting a restaurant; “Location,location,location!” They have completely ignored this and placed it at lands end. I half expected to see “The Black Pearl” anchored on the horizon. It is worth the trip!

I know there are many wonderful Indian restaurants in Tokyo and I hit them when I can. Shops in Yurakucho and Ginza come to mind. But I must throw down the gauntlet and challenge any of them to make better “Nan”(Indian flat bread) than I had Sunday night; absolutely the best in recent memory!

At lunchtime(1100-1500) they offer it as an “all you can eat” side dish with their curry sets. I don’t think most people could hold more than one. Sumo wrestlers not being “most people”.

The dinner menu is served from 3PM, meaning lunch specials are over and the prices change. If I were to drive here from Tokyo, I’d want to have lunch, see some sights and return later in the evening for dinner. They stop serving at 9:00. Speaking of sights, Kamal is so close to the Pacific that global warming will put them out of business if success doesn’t prompt them to relocate first. I defy you to not walk across the road and gaze at the Pacific!

Finally, I must allay any doubts you have about the Nepali beer they serve at Kamal. It’s quite good actually and I would say better than 80% of what passes for beer in North America. That, of course, is just my opinion.

Their website is noted above and is only in Japanese, but prices and pictures should inspire you. The website is much slicker than the restaurant, so don’t expect anything fancy from this 5 table shop; beach sandals and jeans no problem.