"Mozuku" and "Nagaimo" in sweet vinegar モズクと長芋の甘酢

The Japanese eat anything which comes out from the sea and also like combining slimy food with slimy food (double slim or, sometimes, triple slim). I got inspired (??) from the reportedly mediocre dish I saw in Jon's posting. I occasionally get a type of slimy sea vegetable called "Mozuku" もずく, which is already prepared in sweet vinegar and packaged in a plastic cup, which I get frozen. The southernmost archipelago of Japan, Okinawa 沖縄, is famous for Mozuku. Since I had an end piece of "Nagaimo" 長芋 left over, I simply peeled, sliced and made it into match stick shaped pieces. I used sushi vinegar to lightly dress it and placed it over the mozuku and garnished with another type of aquatic vegetable called "aonori" 青のり which is dried and comes as small flakes.

 It was an exceptionally nice day for mid June and we fired up the Konro grill outside and this was a part of the starter dishes pictured below. I already had stewed "hijiki" which I had made previously (middle). The cut glass tumbler from Kitaichi glass (on the right) is tall and a bit unstable so I used "masu" 升, a square wooden Japanese measuring cup, to stabilize it.  This happens to be the common way in which sake is served in an Izakaya. They intentionally pour sake to overflow the cup and let the sake spill over into the "masu" underneath as a gesture of generosity. Although we need not to do that since we are quite generous to ourselves when it comes to sake, I recall Dave was not too happy at Shuto-an 酒徒庵 since they did not serve sake this way.

The nagaimo has a nice crispy texture with some sliminess (but nothing compared to grated nagaimo) and mozuku has a bit similar characteristic and is the perfect match. The sweet vinegar is very gentle and we slurped whatever was left in the cup. Actually, I served this in a crystal sake cup "guinomi" ぐいのみ also from Kitaichi glass, so this was a very natural thing to do.