Sea Urchin from Maruhide 丸秀の特選生うに

We are always looking out for new sources of sashimi items. Although Catalina Offshore products have been our go-to place, in recent years, quality tuna マグロ and sea urchins うに have been hard to come by. For uni sea urchin, we found an excellent alternative. It is a company called "Maruhide" 丸秀 from Long Beach. Uni is harvested off Santa Barbara. By far, the quality and careful preparation and packaging are the best. It tends to be a bit expensive but not overly so. It comes in a metal box with a transparent plastic front. The uni is sandwiched between the bottom sponge sheet and the top special absorbent pad (see below) so it doesn't slide around in the box getting turned to mush during shipment. This is 3.52oz or about 100 grams.

Upon opening, it is nicely shaped with the bright yellow color of California Uni.

As soon as we received it, we had to taste it. So, we had a small amount around lunch time. It was indeed sublime. Creamy but not too soft or liquefied. Although it is treated with alum or myoban ミョウバンas per the back label, we did not detect a chemical or bitter taste, which sometimes happened especially with U.S. prepared uni. Actually, the company also sells uni soaked in salt water that doesn't use myoban, This product is called "uni in salt water" 生うに海水パック or Shiomizu-uni 塩水うに which we would like to try next.

In the evening, we had more uni as sashimi. Since we did not have any other sashimi items, we had uni with avocado slices and skinned and sliced Campari tomato.  As a "shime" ending dish for the evening, I made a small donburi with golden egg threads, nori, and cucumber over vinegared rice.

The next day, we finished up two trays of uni with another simpler version of uni donburi. I also made a sort of salad with cucumber, tomato, broccoli, wakame sea weed and shrimp dressed in kimisu 黄身酢.

This version of donburi made with only nori worked better since we could really enjoy the uni.

This is by far the best uni we can have had either in restaurants or at home.

This time I got the uni with kazunoko 数の子 from JAL Shopping but we learned that we can also get uni directly from Maruhide.

Digression addendum:
We recently had a snow storm (the first measurable accumulation of the year). The temperatures were very low with highs in the low 20's. This was the scene at the feeder in our backyard. Depending on how you count them there are over 20 birds lined up to get on the feeder. Most of them were cardinals.

We often supplement the feeder by distributing peanuts. Everybody loves peanuts--birds, squirrels and we have even observed foxes eating the peanuts we put out).  The cardinals beg for peanuts when they see us at the window. On this day, a female cardinal came and pecked at the window next to which we were sitting. In response, we got up to put out the peanuts shown below--who is better trained the cardinal or us?

This male cardinal is posing for his close-up.

Norio's new Izakaya cookbooks 2015 and 16

Apparently I forgot to add the link to my 2015 Izakaya cookbook (volume 7 1/1/2015-12/31/2015).  I added the link below (1/9/2017). 2016 version is also coming which you can purchase.  PDF files of all cookbooks are also available from the link posted under the image. These links are available in the "Norio's Izakaya cookbooks" tab in the header.

Volume 8: (1/1/16-12/31/16)
Volume 7: (1/1/15-12/31/15)
Volume 6: (1/1/14-12/31/14)
Volume 5: (1/1/13-12/31/13)
Volume 4: (1/1/12-12/31/12)
Volume 3: (1/1/11-12/31/11)
Volume 2: (5/1/10-12/31/10)
Volume 1: (9/5/09-4/30/10)

100% buck wheat soba 十割蕎麦

As a part of the Sushi Taro Osechi box, we also got Chef Kitayama's 100% buckwheat flour soba noodles or "Juwari soba" 十割蕎麦 ("Juwari" in Japanese means 100%). This year, a concentrated sauce was also provided. As I mentioned before, making soba from 100% buckwheat flour is very difficult (20% regular wheat and 80% buckwheat flour is most common). Using 100% buckwheat represents Chef Kitayama's prowess and passion for soba making. As before we could not eat it as "Toshi koshi soba" 年越しそば or "Welcoming-New-Year soba", so we had this as a lunch on January 2, hoping it would bring us the same good luck as having the soba on New Year's eve.

Since it was rather cold outsdie, we decided to have it warm.

It does not show well but I added mitsu-ba ミツバ as garnish.

The picture below was before pouring in the soup. I diluted the accompanied sauce with my dashi broth (from kelp and bonito flakes I made few days ago).

As a topping, I used red and white fish cake 紅白蒲鉾 in a decorative cut. I also added New Year's omelet roll or Datemaki 伊達巻 that I made. I garnished it with chopped scallion and mitsuba.

The 100% buckwheat flour noodles had a unique texture unlike standard soba noodles. It was nicely firm, slightly brittle with a lovely fresh soba smell. We also detected a slight nutty flavor. We really enjoyed this distinctive artisan soba very much.

Addendum to Sushi Taro Osechi 寿司太郎おせち料理追加

I said I may have missed some items in the Sushi Taro Osechi box and I indeed missed one very good dish. (We are still working on the box and finding additional goodies as we go). The dish we missed was the oysters smoked in-house at Sushi Taro 牡蠣燻製. They were wrapped in a pouch and somewhat hidden (I think they were under the duck).

This is not a traditional preparation but we liked it very much. The oyster was succulent and infused with a lovely smokey aroma accompanied by grilled and skinned sweet red pepper and cubes of feta cheese; both were also infused with smokey flavor.

The picture shown below is what I came up with for the evening. All were chosen for imbibing sake. The left in the back is smoked oyster, left front is Daikon namasu 錦なます (cut in wider strips with nice yuzu flavor and kelp strips) topped with salmon roe marinated in soy sauce イクラの醤油漬け and herring roe marinated in miso 数の子味噌漬. On the plate are steamed sea urchin 蒸しウニ, (left back) and simmered  sweet fish with roe 子持ち鮎の甘露煮 (I forgot this one as well since it was under the steamed sea urchin), The center are scallops braised in sweet soy sauce ホタテの甘煮, Steamed fish cake with matsutake mushroom 松茸真蒸 (both were cut in half) and the right back is karasumi カラスミ and right front is monkfish liver terrine あんきも豆腐.

As I mentioned before, the ankimo terrine is our absolute favorite and goes so well with cold sake as well as Champagne.

Of course, karasumi is the "ultimate" for sake sipping. Sake is a "must-have" with this.

The steamed sea urchin had a nice sweetness to it. We ate it like we would eat raw sea urchin; with wasabi and soy sauce.

These were what we had the night before. I reheated the small red snapper in the toaster oven. I covered the head but forgot to cover the tail with a aluminum foil which got burned. I think this was dried (probably overnight or "ichiya boshi" 一夜干し). It was a bit bony but my wife expertly deboned and removed the meat. We had it with a little bit of soy sauce.

I served karasumi sandwiched with thin slices of daikon.

I added a few items from my stash of new year foods. We had raw sea urchin from "Maruhide" 丸秀 (on the perilla leaf with nori strips), below that is octopus I prepared and served with sumiso sauce 蛸の酢味噌. The center are red and white fish cake stuffed with strips of perilla leaves and sea urchin shutoうに酒盗 also from Maruhide. The stuffed fish cake is  the same as I served on new year's day.

We went back to the osechi box. For steamed head-on prawn 長寿海老, I peeled the shell and cut the tail before serving.  Of course, sucking on the head was mandatory. Some vegetables, New year's omelet roll. I added salmon kelp roll I made as well.

As we say every year, this is an ultimate over-indulgence and we enjoyed every items with cold sake or Champagne (Taittinger Brut Prestige Rose, Blended from Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes). This is Rosé Champagne but very dry with strawberry and raspberry notes and went well with these food.

Sushi Taro Osechi Box 2017 寿司太郎おせち ２０１７

Once we got used to having a Sushi Taro Osechi Box, it is difficult to cerebrate New Year's without one. We started getting the Osechi box from Sushi Taro in 2012.

This is the top box. It was nicely packed with all kinds of goodies. I just wanted to share the excitement we had enjoying this box and provide some trivia concerning Japanese "Osechi" dishes. These Japanese New Year's dishes are traditionally prepared as auspicious dishes to have at the beginning of the year. They are for the family to eat during the first 3 days of the year which are considered the most auspicious and are called ”Shogatsu Sanganichi" 正月三が日.

Each of the dishes through their color, shape and number, among other things have symbolic celebratory meaning often in multiple layers or as puns/plays on words. For example, red combined with white is considered an auspicious color combination.  Thus, red and white is a traditional color motif for New Year's dishes as exemplified by the red and white fish cakes (#2 in the annotated picture below). Red snapper is an example of a dish that has multiple layers of symbolic meaning; not only does it incorporate the venerable color red but also includes a play on words because it is called "Tai" which in Japanese rhymes with "Omede-tai" おめでたい commemorating "celebration" (#6). Many small fish and roe are symbols of prosperity and numerous offspring and are represented multiple times through out these boxes by such things as salmon, cod, mullet and herring roe. Herring roe incorporates an additional layer of meaning since it is also "gold" in color and gold would be considered the color of fortune in almost any culture. Dishes rolled in kelp represent a pun on words since "kelp" or "Kobu" rhymes with "Yoro-kobu" 喜ぶ which means "to rejoice". So cod roe wrapped in kelp (#17) incorporates the symbolism of numerous offspring and rejoicing. Black "kuromame" beans are eaten because "beans" in Japanese are called "mame" 豆  another play on words because it sounds similar to the word which means  being "attentive, truthful,  and helpful".  (All this symbolism gets complicated but the degree of thought that goes into the choice of these particular dishes becomes evident). All these auspicious foods are thought to set the tone for the upcoming new year. Of course, many of these dishes are great with sake which flows more readily during New Year and what would a celebration be without it?

1. Kuromame 黒豆 black beans, 2. red and white fish cake "Kamaboko" 紅白蒲鉾 3. Bottarga "Karasumi" 唐墨 (our favorite!) 4. "Jako" hatchling fish simmered in "Sansho" 山椒 Japanese pepper flavor 雑魚の有馬煮 (In a plastic container wrapped in white paper) 5. Pickled "renkon" lotus root cut in a decorative flower shape 花輪酢蓮根 6. Grilled whole small red snapper "tai" 子鯛姿焼 7. Stem lettuce or celtuce marinaded in miso チシャトウ西京漬け (this is new this year. Crunchy and sweet miso flavor is nice) 8. Soy sauce marinated salmon roe いくら醤油漬け 9. Daikon julienne picked in sweet vinegar 錦なます.

10. Herring roe marinated in miso 数の子味噌漬け 11. Mustard stuffed burdock からし牛蒡 (our favorite, the best way to enjoy gobo as far as we can tell) 12. Steamed sea urchin 蒸しウニ 13. Steamed fish cake with matsutake mushroom 松茸真蒸 14. Simmered small whole shrimp 小海老艶煮 15. Burdock root in sesame dressing たたき牛蒡 17. Cod roe wrapped in kelp タラコの昆布巻き 18. Kumquats simmered in syrup  金柑蜜煮 19. Simmered chestnuts with brown skin 栗の渋皮煮 (We had inside information that these are North American chestnuts and only the ones without deep creases are chosen for this dish) and underneath are "scallop braised in sweetened soy"  ホタテの甘煮.

"Karasumi" is our favorite and really encourages sipping sake with each nibble. This was prepared in house at Sushi Taro. We like the Japanese preparation of this, especially Sushi Taro's, as compared with Bottarga from Italy. As previously mentioned, the Japanese preparation goes especially well with sake. Although not the best with sake, grated on the pasta, Bottarga is mighty fine.

Of course, ikura salmon roe marinated in soy sauce is another dish that goes so well with sake.

I made salmon kelp roll this year and this dish is similar but uses cod roe "tarako" wrapped in kelp instead of salmon. It was a very nice variation.

Of course, raw sea urchin is the best but steaming is a good way to make sea urchin last longer.

Small red snapper is peaking through.

This is the bottom box.

1. Monk fish liver terrine あんきも豆腐 (Another of our favorites) 2. Mashed sweet potato with chestnuts 栗きんとん 3. New Year Omelet roll 伊達巻 4. Pickled renkon with decorative flower cut 花輪蓮根 5. Yellow tail sushi wrapped in picked turnip 鰤かぶら寿司 6. Grilled pompano marinaded in sweet miso まながつお西京味噌焼 7. Steamed head-on prawn 長寿海老 (this is the first time we had head on prawns. The bent "back" of the shrimp symbolizes longevity as represented by the bent backs characteristic of the venerable elderly in Japan in the old days) 8. Grilled Japanese snapper with "kinome" miso paste 真鯛の木の芽焼き  9. First spring harvest bamboo shoot 新筍土佐煮  10. Duck breast teriyaki 鴨照り焼き and other wonderful simmered vegetables. I think I may have left out a few items.

The prawns were really good with firm texture and sweet taste. Since these were head-on prawns, we could "suck" out the tamale from the head (which we did).

The grilled fish was best heated up in the toaster oven before enjoying. "Kinome" miso (green stuff) has a very distinctive flavor. This is the young shoot (leaves) of Japanese "sansho" (or Chinese) pepper tree.

The duck breast was great. I think that, underneath the duck, there may have been small dumpling made of edible lily bulb and grated renkon.

These vegetables are good but especially unique is "Kuwai" くわい, best seen bottom right, which is an unusual vegetable for Westerners and has very interesting texture. This is mostly served as a New Year dish because of the shape, it was equated with "me-ga-deru" 芽がでる meaning "sprouting" that sounds like "me-de-tai" めでたい meaning "auspicious' or "celebratory", another "pun".

In any case, I may have gone on longer than I probably should have but I just wanted to convey what a joy it is to delve into these boxes. All the multiple layers of symbolism and meaning entailed in these celebratory New Year's dishes are given justice through the attention to detail and careful execution by the chefs at Sushi Taro making it especially memorable.  Luckily, we will be feasting on these boxes for some days to come.

Year of the Rooster, Happy New Year 2017! 酉年新年おめでとうございます ２０１７

Happy New Year! As we get older, it seems the year is getting shorter and no sooner do we turn around and we are facing the start of yet another year. This year I finally gave up buying a plastic "Kagami-mochi" decoration  鏡餅 since we always ended up throwing out the rice cake inside (not to mention the Japanese grocery store was all sold out by the time I got there). This year is the year of the rooster (or hen or chicken). Accordingly, I decorated our "Tokonoma" alcove 床の間 with the roosters my wife collected for the occasion over the years on our various trips to Japan. The two large ones are "Dorei" 土鈴 or bells made of clay and the smallest one is carved from wood.

The small wooden rooster is part of a 12 zodiac animal set my wife bought in Kyoto on our last trip to Japan several years ago.

As before, we started the day with a cup of cappuccino and my wife's assorted home baked breads. We did our Ozou-ni お雑煮 and new year dishes for lunch. At this point, we refrained from digging into the Sushi Taro Osechi box (that is for the evening). I served several of the dishes I made as well as some I bought at the store.

I made the same dishes I always make such as "Datemaki" 伊達巻 (left upper), two kinds of chicken patties (one is with pine nuts and miso flavor or "Matsukaze yaki" 松風焼き and the other with blue cheeses - this year I used British Stilton and Shropshire Blue - and dried figs (left middle). I cut them in the shape of "Hagoita" 羽子板 ( the decorative item based on the traditional badminton like game that used to be played on New Year). My usual salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻き (left bottom). Russian marinated salmon 鮭のロシアずけ (center top), Red and white "Kamaboko" 蒲鉾 fish cake stuffed with two kind of seasoned sea urchin or ウニの酒盗 from Maruhide 丸秀 (center bottom). Simmered freeze-dried tofu or "Koya-dofu" 高野豆腐 (right top) and two kinds of herring roe I prepared from salt preserved herrings 数の子の塩漬け; the one with bonito flakes is my usual one and the one below that was marinated in miso and sake lee 数の子の味噌漬け.

This is my usual daikon in sweet vinegar dressing or "daikon namasu" 大根なますgarnished with salmon roe ikura いくら and boiled octopus with sumiso dressing 酢味噌. This year, I could not get the type of octopus leg I usually get (sold out at our Japanese grocery store--I'm going to have to get started on this sooner next year). So I used frozen raw octopus from the regular grocery store. I prepared and boiled it myself--not a trivial task. They were rather small but tasted OK.

Finally. my New year's soup Ozouni お雑煮. As usual, by my wife's request, I put the mochi 餅 in fried tofu pouches 油揚げ. This year, I did not add any meat protein such as chicken or shrimp (for no particular reason). I also happened to get some Mitsuba 三つ葉 which added a nice unique flavor to the soup.

Since these New Year's dishes would not be complete without it, we also had a small amount of sake (Shouchikubai Daiginjou 松竹梅大吟醸酒, US brewed from California Yamadanishki 山田錦). It was quite wonderful and we got quite full. Small dishes add up and mochi is very filling. But this was a good start of the New Year.  Next, we have the opening of the Sushi-taro osechi box for the evening to anticipate.