Four appetizers in new small bowls 御通し4種類と新しい小鉢

We have a good number of small Japanese-style bowls and plates but for some reason my relationship with breakable dishes ends up with them getting broken every-now-and-then. So I am always on the look out for potential replacement small Japanese style dishes/bowls. (Also, since enjoyment of food is visual in addition to taste, I just like different bowls in which to present what I make to complete the entire experience). I found these small bowls on Amazon. They came in four different patterns/colors in a set of four (i.e. total of 16 bowls) . I ended up getting all 4 sets. So, this is the first time I used this set to serve 4 appetizers. The first picture, from left to right, are "salmon nanban" 鮭の南蛮漬け, "hijiki seaweed stir-fry" ひじきと油揚げの炒めのも and Japanese "dashi-maki" だし巻き卵 omelet, "Wood ear"* mushroom, cucumber and wakame seaweed sunomono" キクラゲ、ワカメ、胡瓜の酢の物, and  "shredded chicken tenderloin and asparagus in sesame dressing" 鳥のささみとアスパラの胡麻和え. 

*Wood ear mushroom is so-called because it grows out of the surface of wood like an ear sticking out. Japanese call it "ki-kurage" meaning "jelly fish of the wood" because the crunchy texture is similar to dried and salted edible jelly fish. It is interesting, however, when it is written in "kanji" ideograms, it is  木耳 which means wood 木 ear 耳. There is no way you can pronounce 木耳 as "ki-kurage" but the meaning of these two ideograms indeed mean "wood ear".

The second picture is the salmon dish I usually make, fried and marinated in sweet vinegar with vegetables. In order to serve multiple appetizers, it is necessary to pre-make a number of them and have them last long enough to serve over several days. Due to the vinegar this dish lasts a few weeks in the refrigerator. So this salmon dish is a good one to serve as an appetizer. Perfect with sake but not with wine. The pattern of this bowl is not classic Japanese but nice—also the color complements the color of the salmon.

The third picture of hijiki seaweed is a dish that also lasts for some time in the fridge. I served it with Japanese "dashimaki" omelet which goes well with the seaweed dish both visually (yellow and black) and by taste (sweet and salty). The pattern of the bowl is classic Japanese wave pattern.

This is a variation of my usual "sunomono" dish. Besides cucumber and wakame, I used wood ear mushroom. We can get this mushroom usually dried. One of the problems with hydrating the dried items like this is after hydration, the volume increases much more than expected. This was a case here and I used wood ear in several dishes including fried rice for lunch one day. In any case for this dish, I cut the wood ear into thin strips like jelly fish. I also added ground sesame and sesame oil in the dressing. The wood ear really adds crunch exactly like jelly fish.

I froze sous vide chicken breast a few months ago and decided to thaw one. It came out exactly like it was just cooked. I made the chicken salad I usually make which was really good but I kept the tenderloin part of the sous vide chicken for this "goma-ae" 胡麻和え dish. I tore the tenderloin along the meat fibers to make thin strands. I dressed this with sesame dressing ("nerigoma" 練りごま sesame paste, roasted and ground sesame, sugar, rice vinegar and soy sauce. I kept this dressing in the fridge which made it stiff. So I added small amount of warm water to loosen the dressing) with blanched asparagus (stem cut into thin pieces at a slant and garnished with tips of the asparagus). The meat was so juicy and tender.

These small dishes are nothing special but I make slight variations which make it interesting and adds to the enjoyment of sake.