Tofu pouch gyouza 焼き油揚げ餃子

I am always looking out for interesting drinking snack recipes. When I saw the gyoza in deep fried tofu pouch ( or "abura-age" 油揚げ), I had to try it. I served this with a garnish of chiffonade of perilla leaves and myouga 茗荷. As a side, I also served beer-picked daikon and carrot and  Japanese-style sweet vinegar cucumber pickles.



The below shows the gyoza stuffing better.



Gyoza stuffing: The recipe I saw used onion, garlic chive, and fermented squid and guts (or "Shiokara" 塩辛) but I stuck to my original gyouza stuffing of ground pork, finely chopped cabbage and scallion seasoned with salt pepper, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Tofu pouch: I used small rectangular tofu pouch called "sushi age" which is meant to be used to make "Inari sushi いなり寿司".  This is much smaller than regular abura-age. I used frozen ones I had in my freezer. I thawed it at the room temperature for 30 minutes and then poured hot water over them in a colander to completely thaw and remove excess oil ("abura nuki" 油抜き). I pressed them between the paper towels to remove any excess water. Using a rolling pin, I went back and forth over the tofu pouch which helped separate the two layers. I opened the abura-age from the shorter end and using my fingers separated the two layers to make a pouch.

Assembly: I put in the gyouza stuffing in the pouch and flattened it to make sure the stuffing is evenly distributed.

Cooking: I suppose I could have cooked these in a toaster oven but I cooked then on a dry non-stick frying pan. Turning several times on low flame, I cooked them until the surface was brown and the meat stuffing completely cooked.



I cut them diagonally and served it with chiffonade of perilla and myouga. I poured on a small amount of noodle dipping sauce (from a bottle).

We were not impressed with this dish. The tofu pouch was not crispy enough and we much prefer the regular gyouza skin. Maybe, cooking this in a toaster oven could have been better. At least, I got one post from this dish.

P.S. Few days later, we heated the leftover tofu pouch gyoza in the toaster oven. We placed them on a rack over a small cookie sheet and warmed them up in the 350F preheated oven for 5-6 minutes. Then, switched to the broil mode, turning once, until both sides browned(1 minute each, be careful of over broiling and causing them to smoke). The result was much better. The abura-age skin got very crispy. In addition, I made a dipping sauce (equal mixture of soy sauce and rice vinegar, Japanese red pepper powder, sesame oil, and finely chopped scallion). This rather assertive dipping sauce made this dish even better. So next time we make this, I will bake it rather than pan-fry.

Tako rice and Matsutake soup for lunch タコ飯と松茸のお吸い物昼食

 This was a lunch we had one day. We had leftover frozen octopus rice or “Tako meshi” たこめし made from a kit we got from the  Rice factory. Although the original was not bad, the amount of octopus was rather small. Since I made tender simmered octopus タコの柔らか煮 a few days ago, I added slices of octopus legs to the previously made rice. Also we had matsutake mushroom 松茸 from Maine and made clear matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物. I added a dish of salted vegetable or “asazule” 浅漬け and simmered root vegetables and chicken similar to “Chikuzen-ni” 筑前煮.

I  just microwaved the rice to thaw it then added slices of tender simmered octopus with a small amount of the simmering liquid and further heated it. I also garnished it with fresh “myouga” 茗荷 from our garden. The addition of the simmered octopus made the Tako rice much better than the original.

I made this clear soup from broth made from a dashi pack (kelp and shiitake), with mirin みりん and light colored soy sauce 薄口醤油. I also added shrimp (sunk in the bottom), scallion and flower-shaped “fu” 花麩 gluten cake. I also added frozen zest of yuzu 柚子 citrus. This is a lidded soup bowl and when the lid was opened the subtle but distinctive aroma of matustake and yuzu wafted out. (The aroma of matustake is one of the joys of the matusake season).  I think Maine matsutake appears to have a better aroma than the ones we used to get from Oregon.

The below are basic simmered root vegetables including daikon 大根, carrot 人参, bamboo shoot 筍, shiitake mushroom (I used dried) 椎茸, lotus root 蓮根, kon-nyaku 蒟蒻 and sugar snap スナップ豌豆 (for garnish). This time I also included chicken thigh.

This is my usual “asazuke” 浅漬け. I just made myouga in sweet vinegar 茗荷の甘酢漬け. I thinly sliced and served next to the vegetables.

For a lunch, this was quite good. 

Squid salad Japanese style 和風イカサラダ

Again, I got cleaned squid. I asked for 1 pound but I ended up with a bit more since the fish monger at our grocery store threw in the reaming squid since not much was left after my purchase. Again, I was not sure what I would make. I decided to quickly boil them so that they would last until I could decide. So I cooked the squid in boiling water with sake and salt for 30 seconds and drained. I kept the cooked squid in a sealable container in the refrigerator and served them as an appetizers over the next 5-6 days until we finished them.  Apparently the quick blanch helped to keep them from going bad over that time. Although with karashi-sumiso sauce 芥子酢味噌  have been our most common way to have this, we had it like sashimi with soy sauce and wasabi ワサビ醤油, sautéed in butter with garlic, celery seasoned with soy sauce イカとセロリの炒め物,  with black olive, olive oil and balsamic vinegar カラマリサラダ and this dish, seasoned with soy sauce and grated ginger.

The pickled myouga 茗荷の甘酢ずけ in sweet vinegar really made this dish, I also added sliced scallion.

Although the squid was tender due to the initial short boiling, I cut up the squid ring and also tentacles especially for my wife.

This is not a really a recipe.
I washed the squid, cut the body into rings and cooked for 30 seconds in boiling salted water with a splash of sake, drained and cooled. I placed then in a sealable container and refrigerated.

The dressing was a mixture of grated ginger and soy sauce. I sliced pickled myouga thinly and sliced scallion on bias thinly. This was really a simple and good dish. I thought the boiled squid I prepared was really good way to make it last for almost one week. Even the sautéed  dish came out really good. Since the boiled squid does not exude liquid, it does not produce much sauce but the cooking time is short and the squid remained very tender. I found it sometimes better to prepare squid this way rather than making one dish since we enjoyed it several different ways during the week.

Izakaya in Kagoshima: Tsuwabuki 石蕗、鹿児島

From Kyoto 京都, we traveled all the way to Kagoshima 鹿児島 via Sanyo 山陽 and Kyushu Shinkansen 九州新幹線. Since the last time we were in Kyushu, the shinkansen only went to Hakata 博多, we really wanted to ride all the way to the southern most shinkansen station, Kagoshim-Chuo 鹿児島中央. The Kyushu Shinkansen train is shorter (6 cars). In addition the terrain is more mountainous so the line has quite a lot of tunnels which don’t afford as many vistas of scenery as other lines. In any case, this was the first time for us to visit Kagoshima. Our Hotel was on the top of a small hill/plateau overlooking the active volcano "Sakurajima" 桜島. We were appropriately impressed with the view from our windows.


For this evening's Izakaya, I chose "Tsuwabuki" 石蕗 from Tabelog listing.  I made a reservation for the counter and took off from our hotel. The taxi driver did not know the place and entered the address into his GPS. Despite the intervention of modern technology, he dropped us off several blocks away from the Izakaya. After walking around directionless for a while we found guy in a stained apron who appeared to be a cook from a nearby restaurant on break smoking a cigarette and asked him for directions. While the cab driver didn’t seem to have a clue where the izakaya was located, this fellow did. The place was in the basement of a building. The stairs did not have any railing and it looked like someone with a little bit of sake on board could easily fall off the edge (as we would say in the States stairwell “not up to code”). We took off our shoes and went in. It was a rather small place with a counter that could seat 7-8 people and several low tables on koagari 小上がり.  The place was run by a "Mama-san" and a sidekick. Mama-san was very attentive and was very good making her guests feel warmly welcome including us. Her sidekick was an older women who took the orders and brought the dishes.



The otoshi for the two of us were six small dishes served in two long plates which looked like three bowls connected together; somewhat reminiscent of  the otoshi served at Suikou 酔香 and Shuhai 酒盃. Among the six, we liked a kind of salad made of bitter melon, kelp and myouga and Mama-san gave us an extra serving (see below).



As usual, we asked for a combination sashimi. Among the items, "Kibinago" きびなご (English name is supposedly "silver-stripe round herring"). This is famous in Kagoshima.  I was not familiar with the fish since I am originally from Hokkaido and this fish does not exist in the cold waters around Hokkaido. The sashimi was good but we were not crazy about the "Kibinago".



The sake choices were limited but there was a much wider choice of Kagoshima shochu 鹿児島焼酎. Especially, Imojouchu 芋焼酎 which is famous in the region. It is made from sweet potato called "Satsuma-imo" 薩摩芋. "Satsuma" is the old name for Kagoshima. After we finished the first sake (I do not remember what it was), I tried shochu on the rocks which was recommended by Mama-san. It was too harsh for my wife. I did finish it but I have to admit that shochu is not my favorite. After we switched back to sake, we ordered "home-made" satsuma-age 薩摩揚げ, deep fried fish meat balls, again famous in the area. It was fried after we ordered it and was good.



At this point, there were several regulars sitting at the counter and a group of salary men who must also have been regulars took up the tables. The regulars at the counter were competing with each other to buy Mama-san some beer and the sidekick placed her glass on the counter asking "How about me?" And the glass was quickly filled. After all the guests had been served drinks and food, both Mama-san and the sidekick joined the group at the table. We could see that the warm welcoming atmosphere that Mama-san created, in addition to the food, was a major attraction to the place.  It felt somewhat like a bar and the guests obviously liked her attention and easy familiar conversation. Her clientele appeared to be salary men coming in for homey relaxation first and a bite to eat second. We had a few more dishes and decided to “call it quits”. We were impressed that as we were leaving, Mama-san came out, and in turn grasped each of our hands firmly in both of hers and looking us in the eye genuinely thanked us for stopping by. We left feeling like truly honored guests.

Home grown tomatoes 家庭菜園トマト

I mentioned that we used to grow tomatoes in our backyard vegetable patch but over the years the yard got shadier as our trees grew taller. As a result, we stopped growing tomatoes long ago. Now, our Japanese plum tree is in the middle of our old vegetable patch and, underneath, myouga plants grow. So I said in the comment of one of my posts that we did not have easy access to home grown tomatoes. Well, one of our friends took pity on us and gave us of some of his home grown tomatoes. Good, sweet, nice vine ripen tomatoes should be eaten simply like the chilled tomatoes 冷やしトマト served in an Izakaya. For us, though, luscious tomatoes like this need not be chilled. (Certainly, we do not store tomatoes in the refrigerator but we could chill it just before serving). Generally we do not like the skin so I peeled it off. Then I sliced, the tomato and sprinkled it with salt and pepper and served it with home-made mayonnaise. The taste of summer! Thank you, Jimmy.

“Cup” sake Funagichi Kikusui ふなぐち菊水生原酒

There is a class of sake called "Cup-sake" which comes in either a glass or aluminum "cup" (about 1 go size 一合 or 180-200ml) with a pull top. These are widely available in convenience stores and vending machines in Japan. This type of sake is usually not high quality but it is easy to get and you can consume it anytime anywhere which appeals to certain clientele. Ozeki 大関 sake brewery is credited for inventing this type of sake  (called "One cup Ozeki" ワンカップ大関) in 1964. More recently, better quality sake, even daiginjou 大吟醸 class is being sold in this format but when I lived in Japan, "cup sake" had some negative stigma attached to the extent that even in my youth I did not partake.

Interestingly, when we went to Sakamai 酒舞 in New York some years ago, one of the "genshu" 原酒 tasting included this "Funaguchi Kikusui" ふなぐち菊水生原酒. We did not think it was a particularly great sake but not bad either. We were a bit surprised that this came in an aluminum cup and was included in the "genshu" tasting at this “fancy” sake bar. Later, I learned that Kikusui sake brewery 菊水酒造 was in Niigata 新潟 and there were four different kinds of cup sake including "ginjo" class but this particular one is "hon jouzou" 本醸造 made of rice polished to 70%. "Nama genshu" 生原酒 implies non-pasteurized and non-diluted sake but I am not sure if it was pasteurized after placing it in the can.

In any case, when we had this at Yuzu restaurant the other evening.  Few days later, I happened to spot this sake-in-a-can at the Japanese grocery store.  I had to buy it to taste it. I served this cold.



It is always important to me that we taste sake with the appropriate food. I served daikon namasu 大根なます garnished with ikura いくら salmon roe, boiled octopus leg with karashi sumiso 芥子酢味噌and my pickled myouga 茗荷の酢漬.



The taste of the sake was totally different from what we had at Yuzu. It has some yeasty flavor of honjouzou but had a nice "umami" flavor and not extremely dry.  Although this is not one of our favorites, it is certainly a drinkable sake.

Store bought sushi from a near-by market アメリカ市販のお寿司

This post is to remind those people privileged enough to have easy access to quality sushi and bento boxes, particularly in Japan, how good they have it. In the past 10 years or so, increasing numbers of gourmet markets in the U.S. as well as even regular supermarkets started carrying sushi. In many food courts like the one in Union station, you can find small sushi bars mainly for take-out. Some gourmet markets even have a small sushi bar in the store. Some cafeterias may even offer a box of sushi (mostly rolls). The quality of the sushi served in these places, however, often leaves much to be desired. If we like to have take-out sushi for a party, our best bet is to place a take-out order in our favorite sushi bar for pick up just before the party.

This one was bought from the near-by gourmet market. It is made on the premises, but not to order, the plastic sushi boxes are placed in the cold case. So, sometimes these sushi boxes may be sitting in the cold case for quite some time. I served the sushi on a plate with my asazuke and real wasabi to make it more presentable. I also made a tofu and nameko (small slimy Japanese mushroom) miso soup with a garnish of chopped scallion and myouga.

While the fish, luckily was fairly fresh if somewhat spongy, in general the quality of the sushi was dismal. As you can see in the picture the California roll barely held together. The rice balls were huge (in the U.S. big is better) and unless we practically choked ourselves stuffing them into our mouth in one bite they quickly fell apart while trying for a more manageable two bites. The rice was especially disappointing. It turned out to be dry and hard without much vinegar flavor.  Although sushi means vinegared rice for some reason much of the sushi sold this way seems to leave it out--(saving costs? Americans won't notice?) So why did we even bother buying this stuff? It's better than nothing when you need a sushi fix for lunch. Desperate times call for desperate measures (Due to recent demands at work and other factors we did not have a chance to visit our sushi bar much this summer). At least, the miso soup was excellent (because I made it). We have to hit the sushi bar soon!!

Artichoke, acorn squash and rack of lamb アティチョーク、エイコーンスクワシュ, 子羊肉

This is certainly not Izakaya food. But I thought, just in case there are some Japanese readers out  there, acorn squash and artichokes may be a bit unusual for them. Artichoke is a very strange vegetable (if it is a vegetable). It is the immature flower bud of a giant thistle. Whoever (must have been Europeans) decided this could be eaten, must have been very hungry. In terms of its strangeness and the fact that it is a flower bud, it is on par with myouga 茗荷. I didn't cook artichokes myself until I moved to California from the east coast many, many moons ago. We fondly remember driving through Half-moon Bay on the California coast, one of the major artichoke producing regions of the United States. We often stopped at one of the many road side stands to buy fresh artichokes just harvested from the fields that extended either side of the road. After moving back to the east, the artichokes we see at the market are usually pitiful and we only rarely buy them. Last weekend, I found some reasonably good looking artichokes and I could not resist buying them, but I did not have a chance to prepare them right away.

My wife came to the rescue and she prepared the artichokes along with acorn squash the following Friday. I only had to cook the rack of lamb that went along with them for dinner.

Artichokes: There are many ways to cook artichokes (which also depend on the size of the artichokes). The most classic old fashioned way for regular size artichokes is what we did this evening.  How to clean and prepare artichokes is readily available elsewhere. My wife steamed them for 45 minutes in water to which lemon juice, onion, black pepper corns, bay leaf and olive oil had been added. The picture above shows the cooked artichoke served on the plate. What it doesn't show are the many outer petals that were already eaten in transit between pot and plate (It went swimmingly well with a sip of the red wine we were having).

To eat, remove a petal, the edible portion is attached only to the bottom inside of the petal (above image, upper left), dip it in a whatever dip you like (the above image, upper right, is mayonnaise with lemon juice, but you could use melted butter as well) and using your front teeth, scrape off the edible portion (above image, lower left). When you get into the more immature inner petals, not much edible portion is attached. You then remove all the petals exposing the "chokes" (which, I suppose, eventually become the fluffy cottony stuff attached to the seeds to be carried by the wind). As the name implies, you do not want to put these chokes into your mouth. They are not named "chokes" for no reason. The name describes how you will feel if you attempt to eat it--choked. You must carefully remove all the chokes using a knife or spoon or both. You end up with the heart of the artichoke (the above image lower right, this one is already quartered). Actually, this is the meatiest and the best part of the plant. This is what the previous work was all about. The taste of artichokes is difficult to describe. We like it very much but you would have to taste it and decide for yourself.

Acorn squash: It is a very popular fall vegetable and my wife cooked it in the traditional American way but seasoned it with a Japanese touch. She cut the squash in half and removed the guts (seeds and inner membranes). She washed it under running water (leaving some water inside). The water puddles under the squash and steams it as it bakes. She then placed them on a flat cooking sheet with the cut-side down. The squash baked in a 350F oven for 45 minutes. She scraped all the meat out of the shells and put it in a bowl. She added butter, honey, and soy sauce (in lieu of salt), mixed well and then stuffed it back into the half shells. This tastes somewhat like mashed sweet potatoes but different. It has a mildly sweet taste yet is savory at the same time. This was a perfect side for the lamb (or more like, the lamb is perfect side for the squash).

Rack of lamb: This was seasoned with salt, pepper, and fresh rosemary. identically seasoned as ones in my previous post but I did not marinate and, instead of an electric grill, I browned it in a frying pan and finished it in an oven (350F 5-8 minutes).

Between the artichoke, squash, and lamb we noticed that this meal resulted in an unusually large amount of debris on the plate by the time we were finished. Doesn't this look the epitome of a good feast thoroughly enjoyed? In case you were wondering, it was.

The wine we had this evening was Benessere Vineyards Napa Valley Phenomenon 2005. This is a California red blend Super Tuscan style and made of Cab Sauv (47%), Sangiovese (27%), Merlot (14%) and syrah (12%), all from St. Helena estate-grown fruits. It is not like classic Napa cab with strong vanilla and chocolate but has a more subtle but complex taste. The tannin is now nicely matured giving a nice backbone to this California Super Tuscan. We like this wine very much. It went so well withthe lamb and artichokes. Perfect for tonight dinner.

G-sake Fifty and G-sake

A few years ago, we came across a good US brewed sake called G-sake "Joy" from SakeOne. Some time later we tasted a new batch of  "Momokawa" Silver and Diamond sake also from SakeOne. Recently we came across a new variation of G-sake called "G-sake fifty", so we had a mini tasting to compare G-Sake fifty with regular G-sake (they have apparently dropped "Joy" from the name).

To start the sake tasting, we needed "Otoushi" お通し. I could not come up with 6 otoushi like Suiko  酔香 or Shuhai 酒杯 so I settled for three (see below).

From left to right; Kinpira gobou きんぴらごぼう, Pork belly "Kakuni" 豚の角煮 and Chicken skin, pickled myouga and cucumber in Ponzu 雛皮，蛇腹胡瓜，茗荷のポン酢和え.

Here is a picture of the two G-sakes. Left is the original G-sake（yellow "G") and the right is G-sake fifty (Green "G").

The picture below shows what is written on the back of the of the G-sake Fifty bottle.

Again, what kind of rice they are using is a bit of a mystery but if I had to hazard a guess I would say that they must be using a combination of imported "Saka-mai" 酒米 from Japan and probably  "CalRose" rice from California. Since it has an affiliation with Momokawa shuzou 桃川酒造, it is possible the imported rice may be from Aomori prefecture 青森県.

We were quite excited about this tasting. We poured both G-sakes into clear glass sake cups (to see the colors of sake better); surprisingly G-sake was slightly turbid (see below right). (Yes the sake cup was clean so the turbidity is indeed the sake not the cup).  The G-sake fifty, as you can see in the picture was clear (below left). Both had a very similar flavor profile which is not unlike Momokawa Diamond but not as sweet and a bit more refined, especially "Fifty". It is a more savory sake with a slight sweetness In contrast the regular G-Sake was a bit sweeter.

Being "Genshu" 原酒 (or undiluted sake), the alcohol content was 18% which, (believe it or not) we felt, was a bit too high for our tastes. So, in conclusion, we were not as impressed as before when we tasted G-Sake "joy" 2 years ago. Of the two we tasted we liked G-Sake Fifty better but if you like this flavor profile, Momokawa Diamond is more readily available and less expensive, albeit sweeter.

Of course, more food is needed when tasting sake. Again, we had sashimi from Catalina Offshore. This batch was quite good. Especially the blue fin tuna; very nice "Chu-toro" 中トロ (left lower) and "Ko-toro" 小トロ (upper center). Hamachi ハマチ could have had more fat (Center lower) but had a nice texture and Uni ウニ was superb.

Since, as usual, I removed the almost pure fat layer which was closest to the skin, I made a dish which is a cross between "Negi-toro" ネギトロ and ”Namerou" なめろう (Dressed in Karashi-sumiso からし酢味噌 and finely chopped scallion) preparation. I used a small container we newly acquired from the pottery store in Nishiki Market.

Although both G-Sakes are quite drinkable, we still prefer "fruity" and "clean" as oppose to "savory" and "sweet" tastes in sake. We  still prefer our house-sake "Mu" over either G-Sake.

Sushi taro Osechi and New Year's day evening 2018 元旦の夕べ

It was a mellow relaxing New Year's day. My wife wanted to see the first sunset of the year at our sunset gazing spot in our house. First rate sunset admiration requires food and libation. Rather than carrying up many plates and bowls,  however, I came up with the idea of using stackable "Tsugaru-nuri" 津軽塗り Japanese lunch box which my friend gave me many years ago.

Although we were ready to dig into our Sushi-taro osechi box 寿司太郎御節箱, I started with what I made, which, to my surprise, mostly filled the boxes. I only added shiitake-umani 椎茸旨煮 and "fu" gluten cake 梅麩 from the Sushi-taro osechi box. For the occasion, I used "Hagoita 羽子板*"-shaped chopstick pillows or "hashi oki" 箸置き.

*Hagoita is a racket for Japanese badminton-like game which was traditionally played in New Year. Now, almost nobody plays the game and "hagoita" rackets are a purely decorative item for New Year, there are special "ichi" or markets before the New Year which specialize in decorative "hagoita".

Recipes for most of the dishes I made are posted in the "Norio's New Year's Dishes" tab in this blog. #1=Salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻, #2= salmon "Nanban" 鮭の南蛮, #3=Russian marinaded salmon 鮭のロシア漬, #4=Date-maki omelet roll 伊達巻き, #5=chicken patty with dried fig and Gorgonzola cheese いちじくとガルゴンゾラチーズの松風焼き (I garnished with my figgy cranberry sauce), #6="Matsukaze-yaki" chicken patty with pine nuts, 松風焼き#7=simmered shiitake mushroom 椎茸旨煮 and "fu" gluten cake 梅麩 (these are from the osechi box), #8=blanched green asparagus with mayo-sesame paste-soy sauce アスパラの胡麻マヨ, #9=Thinly sliced rib roast with wasabi/horseradish Greek yogurt sauceローストビーフ, and #10=spicy tofu cubes ぴり辛豆腐.

After watching the sun set, we came back downstairs and hit the osechi box. The picture below is the top layer. We were excited to find "Karasumi 唐墨" Japanese bottarga. As usual, the box is packed with goodies.

Here is the close up of sun-dried karasumi 天日干し唐墨.

The picture below is the bottom layer.

This is the plate I prepared from the osechi box. I served the karasumi slightly heated in a toaster oven and sandwiched between thinly sliced daikon. The other items are ginko nuts 炒り銀杏, pickled flower-cut  lotus root  花輪蓮根, steamed "uni" sea urchin 蒸し雲丹, caramelized small shrimp "Tsuyani" 小海老艶煮 and grilled Japanese "Madai" snapper with Japanese pepper tree leave/miso or "kinome" sauce 真鯛木の芽焼き. I also heated up the fish in the toaster oven.  Some items especially grilled fish are best enjoyed heated up slightly to take off the chill of cold. Karasumi is, of course, our favorite and we started with cold sake we brought from Japan on the last trip there.

Here is the close up of all the items which go so superbly with sake.

The sake we opened was the limited edition,  "extra premium Jurakudai" daiginjou from Sasaki-shuzou in Kyoto 聚楽第大吟醸エキストラプレミアム, 佐々木酒造、京都. It was brewed from Yamada Nishiki 山田錦 milled to 40% and a special artesian well water from the ruin of "Jurakudai" castle 聚楽第跡, hence the name of the sake. All sounded very promising but it was not as impressive as we had hoped. It has  all the characteristics of daiginjou sake. Very fruity and it almost tasted slightly sweet which may not have been our favorite type of sake. Since this was bought at the duty-free shop in Narita airport, we did not have a large selection and we did not have any foreknowledge of the sake we were buying. Still, this was an excellent sake, especially with karasumi, uni and grilled fish with kinome sauce. Kinome has such a distinctive flavor you cannot miss. So we were warming up for more goodies and proceeded to make a second  plate from the osechi box.

The below are the second plate which included "tarako" cod roe kelp roll 鱈の子昆布巻, flower-cut simmered carrot 梅人参,  sweet simmered chestnut with inner skin 栗渋皮煮, pickled myouga 酢取茗荷 (new this year), Kumquat in syrup 金柑, simmered sweet fish with roe 子持鮎甘露煮, herring roe marinaded in miso 数の子味噌漬. I am not sure if snow pea 絹サヤ came from my own or from the osechi box.

Herring roe was very nice with very subtle sweetness.

Japanese sweet fish "ayu" with it's roe was also perfect.

At this point, we were quite full. As a ending dish, we had my fuccacia bread with Spanish olive oil for dipping.

This was a pretty auspicious way to start the New Year but it's not over yet. There are many more goodies in the osechi box.

Myoga flower ミョウガの花

This year we were a bit late in harvesting myoga (myouga) ミョウガ.  The area of our backyard where the myoga is growing is solidly in the domain of mosquitoes and requires some resolve and protective gear on our part to enter their territory without paying inordinate “blood tribute” (literally).  Usually, my wife bravely volunteers for the task but that was slow in coming this year (I do not blame her).  This year, we kept postponing the harvest until my wife pointed out she could see little white flowers surrounding some of the myoga plants (meaning that the myoga, which is best used before it flowers, was moving past its prime). So, one weekend we donned protective clothing and together we harvested the myoga. Of course, my wife is a much better myoga harvester than I am (it is not easy to find the myoga buds that have not yet-flowered since they are buried below the surface of the soil and the soil can be almost hard as rock). Many of the ones we (especially "I") found had already blossomed. In previous years we discarded those. This year, however, my wife advised that once we had suited up and were scrabbling with our noses in the dirt we should retrieve every myoga we could find regardless of its condition and we could sort them out later. As we sorted through our haul we realized that even if the myoga has blossomed, we could eat it as long as the bud was still solid; once the bud becomes "hollow" or soft, it can not be used. Since we usually discarded the myoga with blooms, we never really paid any attention to how the flowers might be used. Although the flowers generally wilt quickly, this year we had more flowers than usual and many of them had just opened so we decided to eat them rather than discard them.

Here I used myoga flower to garnish my cold simmered vegetables. This time the cold veggies included daikon, carrots, renkon (lotus root) and konnyaku (devil's tongue). I garnished it with blanched haricoverts  and myoga flower.



Here are two flowers open from a single bud.



We removed the flowers and washed them in cold water.



The below are "good" myoga before blossoming.



The myoga flowers are usually not available in stores even in Japan since they are very perishable and probably not worth harvesting or selling. The flowers do have a nice ethereal quality. They have a distinctive myoga taste but are very delicate in texture without the somewhat hard or fibrous texture of the buds. They may also be slightly bitter. They can be used as a garnish or just eaten as a part of a salad.