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!

Tabletop cooking!

The climate here at the far end(I'm being nice today) of the Chiba peninsula is such that we can cookout 9 months of the year. Bundling up against the fierce wind is sometime required, but February cookouts are not out of the question.

Yesterday we came across a little stove that reduces our reliance on charcoal to cook "yakitori", the popular mini-kebabs that almost all foreigners learn to love. I had my first skewer (don't go there) within hours of arriving at Narita in 1987 and have never stopped loving them. You can see the Iwatani Robata gas oven above on our picnic table. It is very easy to set up and get cooking. Of course the difficult part of yakitori is what happens behind the scenes. Cutting the chicken and other delights into "skewerable" sizes is a labor of love, but each person can build their own "kushi" at the table. If you use bamboo skewers you should soak them in water for a long time to reduce the possibility of them burning. This little oven comes with rests for the skewers which fold down out of the way if you just want to grill meat and vegetables .

I suggest using longer metal skewers with the heatproof handles. It may require a little more clean up, but you could then cook safely without the skewers catching fire. As you can see from the picture to the right the stove will flare up from time to time. For this reason yakitori chefs are required to hover over their masterpieces, turning them constantly.

As I mentioned before, wind is a factor in outdoor cooking and as you can see from the next photo down, care must be taken when using the grill as the wind will send flare ups flying.

If you visit my honest to goodness nothing but food and drink blog, you can see some of the other culinary crimes we have committed outside. My favorite being apple pie baked in a Dutch oven perched on a small charcoal brazier.

http://gourmetjapan.tumblr.com/ .