Okinawa Exile #1: An Embarrassment of Riches / 沖縄＃１：大学院生避難所

At four p.m. last Friday, March 11, I landed in Naha Airport. I greeted my friend Sayaka, and she asked me if I had heard about the earthquake. About a day previous, there had been a long but mild tremor in Tokyo. The epicenter had been in the Northeast, and my friend in Sendai had changed his facebook photo to a cartoon of a namazu, the giant catfish of Japanese myth that lives under the earth and makes it rumble.
先週の金曜日、午後４時に、那覇に着きました。空港まで迎えに来た友人（さやか）に「地震のことを聞いた」って聞かれたら、このホラー映画が始まった。

  

But Sayaka didn't mean that earthquake. She meant the one that hit shortly after I took off from Haneda Airport. She pulled me over to the television screen in the terminal. The tsunami had just hit the Northeast. Reporters were disheveled, and a map of Japan blinked red, pink, orange to indicate the tsunami risk along the coasts of the archipelago.
テレビのライブ放送を見て、津波の直後の映像が映った。日本の地図は赤、ピンク、オレンジの色で光っていた。津波の警告を指していた。

The plan had been to get in the car and head off to the north side of Okinawa, but the graphic on the news blinked away merrily, in pink.

We went back to Sayaka's place, and there we (with Sayaka's partner Colm) watched the news. Reporters were all wearing white helmets (and they would do this for a while), and slowly the first reports of casualties trickled in. It was so hard to know the magnitude of the disaster. Initially there were only reports of an elderly man who died of shock, or a woman gone missing in a supermarket. I guess I don't have to tell you in detail about subsequent developments, or describe the footage we've all seen of terrifying walls of water. I can't yet tell if the repeated viewings of the catastrophe made it feel more or less real to me...
さやかのアパートに行って、テレビを見た。まだ死亡の報告がまだ１人ずつで、まだ大丈夫じゃないかなーと思った。今から考えると非常に甘え考えだった。

My original plan was to return to Tokyo on Wednesday evening, but as we watched the footage coming from the nuclear plant in Fukushima, it seemed wise to extend my stay in Okinawa. From reports from friends in Tokyo, the fear and pressure from family, friends, and authorities from abroad were quite trying, and those who had the means to do so relocated to Western Japan or further. It seemed to improve their mental health, at the very least, and relieved pressure on the infrastructure in the capital.
沖縄は５日間の旅行だけという予定だったが、また福島の事故があって、ちょとだけ那覇の滞在を長引いた。東京に残った友達のたくさんは両親や友人の心配に応じて関西に移った。東京でも体が安全だっても、精神的に安心できなかったという人も少なかった。

In the past week, I've experienced too many emotions to relate here. Mostly, I'm so relieved that Christopher and Nori in Sendai are safe and are working hard to coordinate getting help to those in need in their community. I feel a little bit like I want to go home to California and get a hug. But I'm also eager to go back to Tokyo and get on with my life and research (and get a hug). But to all those worried about me: I could not be safer than here in Naha.
今週にいろんな複雑な感情があった。。。疲れて、帰国しようという時もあれば、もう早く東京に帰りたいと強く感じる時もある。

So it is a confusing, uncertain time. But one thing is for sure, even when the mind is mixed up, there is the body that needs to be taken care of, and fed. Nothing makes me happier than to have people to cook for... And now that Ryan has also joined this community of graduate school refugees (and brought my passport!), I'm happy to turn to the issue of food. So let's give words a break for a moment, and turn to more earthy needs...
複雑な時期だというのは確かだ。とりあえず頭を使わないときに、まず体を大事しなければならないと思う。それで、このブログを。。。

Near the place where I am staying is a market. It's got a postwar black market feel. But alongside butchers that sell every cut of a pig and vegetable stands hawking their exotic foliage are small drinking establishments and hip coffee stalls.
今泊まっているところのすぐ近くに栄町市場というマーケットがある。戦後の直後の昭和の味がある。

The fishmonger I usually visit helps me pick fish based on what I want to make. The other day, when Ryan and I stopped by, he broke a baked sweet potato open for us, and we three stood around the trash can gnawing on the insides while throwing scraps of burnt potato skins into the can. We got a fish for a stew.
行っている魚屋さんがいつもどんな料理にどんな魚が適当かと教えてくれる。この間、ライヤンと一緒に行ったら、焼き芋もいただいて、それを食いながら魚を決めた。

Here is the fish's head, after I unwrapped it from the newspaper:
この魚にした：

  

With this, I hoped to make a Okinawa-inflected bouillabaisse.

これで沖縄風の魚スープを作ろうと思った。

Any visitor to Okinawa has probably noticed the bottled utchin-cha, or turmeric tea in stores and vending machines. At my market, I found fresh, dirt-covered turmeric:

沖縄のウコン茶も有名で、市場でこのウコンがあった：

It resembles ginger, but cut open reveals a lovely golden hue:

ショウガと似てるけど、このきれいな黄色をしている：

I made the soup base with this, local onions, garlic, Okinawan bacon... and the fish's head:

それとタマネギ、ニンニク、沖縄産ベーコン、魚の頭：

To this, I added tomatoes and the local yellow carrots:

トマトと沖縄の黄色い人参：

Toward the end of the simmer, I added the rest of the fish.

I matched the stew with an island salad. The main green was handama:

島のサラダにハンダマという葉っぱ：

Also wrapped in news. I thought it rather poignant, considered that I feel wrapped up in news myself these days, literally rolled up inside of all that information.

To this, I added some beans:

それに煮たまめ：

Opened up to find:

I simmered the shucked beans in salt water...and added them to the greens, with some shaved carrots, avocado, and sashimi that the fishmonger had insisted I take with me.

Rotating the pots (only one burner in these temporary lodgings), the soup was finally ready:

I reserved the fish head for Sayaka and I to dissect, since we are animals like that.

We picked it clean...

I'm truly embarrassed to be safe on this island, surrounded by such bounty. If only I could send them fish stew, or at the very least some beer (poor Christopher!)

本当に東北に食事が足れない人々がいるので、このごちそうができて恥ずかしい。本当に頭を下げて、こころから「いただきます」を言って、みんなの安全のために祈っています。

I hope it doesn't come off as irreverent to those who are suffering from cold and hunger in the Northeast. To cook is the most powerful method I have to escape from the daily battering by the mass media, and it is with the deepest respect for the producers and the food itself that cook and eat.

In Japanese, the word used in the place of 'bon appetit' is literally the humble form for 'I eat.' With the greatest humility: itadakimasu.

Spring #1: Tiptoeing on Eggshells/ 春＃１： 洗練されたらいいけど。。。

Spring! The other day a breeze carried me a hint of incipient spring so powerful that I felt downright drunk. That was quickly drizzled away, but it is undeniable that in pieces and patches spring is poking its way through to us here in Tokyo. 春！この間春の香の漂っていた風に出会った。少しずつ冬の気分が解けるでしょう。

Spring is a delicate season, marked (and marketed) by the ephemeral blossoms of the cherry -- the sakura. In spring, the Japanese nation gathers collectively underneath the pink clouds of sakura, and contemplate the transience of all earthly things as the fragile blossoms flutter down. 春の象徴は優美なさくらでしょう。それで春はつかの間の生について考える季節でしょう。

Funny how that contemplation seems to take the form of mass drunkenness in public parks, as people jostle for position under the cherry trees from early in the day, with their piles of boxed lunches, coolers packed with beer, and maybe even the occasional portable karaoke machine. 考える季節だけでもない。。。飲む季節でもあるの春：週末の上野公園の大衆はお弁当、ビールで朝早くから場所競争を。。。

But the culinary delicacies of nubile like a newly admitted college coed (the school year starts from spring in Japan), and just the palest green, like a cherry-blossom-contemplating drunkard. でも春の食べ物は確かに入学したばかりの女子学生のように自然、それにさくらを眺めている大酒飲みのように薄く緑色している。

For example:

 Tara no me: shoot of the angelica tree. たらの芽。

Yama udo: a relative of ginseng, apparently. 山ウド。

Both these shoots caught my eye at the local green grocer. Although once I got them home I didn't know what to do with them. Or, rather, I knew what I should do with them, but not how. I knew they should be battered and fried as tempura. But I don't know how to make tempura. And since I make it a point of pride that I like to improvise most everything I cook, I wasn't confident that I'd be able to "wing" tempura. この芽で春の目が覚めるとわかった。確かに天ぷらでおいしいでしょうね。でもレシビをよく無視して料理作るの私は天ぷらを挑戦でもいいかな。。。

I'm not really one for delicate cookery. I'll break down a duck. I'll flambé bananas. I'll braise a lamb's head. But follow a recipe? It's the great hurdle that has kept me from getting a handle on "real" Japanese cooking. 和食はがまんが必要。それで、もちろんレシピをちゃんと読んでから作るのも必要です。その理由で私に正式な和食は今でも不思議です。

But enough of these words. A whiff of spring and suddenly I fancy myself a literary lady. Basically, I decided to try to make this the most delicate meal I could possibly have the patience for. I picked three Japanese standards that I have never made: tempura, chawanmushi (a savory egg custard), and suimono (a delicate clear soup). それで、今回は和食挑戦にした：天ぷら、茶碗蒸し、吸い物。

I had the most elaborate fantasy for the chawanmushi. A little research showed me that it's actually a pretty simple dish, just eggs and broth, steamed. To make it even more delicate, I decided I wanted to try to serve it in eggshells. So how does one cut open an eggshell? I cut one slowly with a serrated knife, and at the last moment, it shattered, although remained mostly whole. The second, I attacked with two pins, blew out the insides and then tried to make a little perforation line around the top with the pin:

調べによると茶碗蒸しはそんなに大変なものじゃないので、茶碗より卵の殻に作ったらっと思った。一個をピンで穴を二つ作って、それで中身をだした。最後にピンできれいにあけ口を作れると思ったが。。。

Oh no! It shattered, too. But I had at least two imperfectly opened eggshells. あらっ！それでも使えた。

Chawanmushi is basically eggs, broth, and flavoring with a bit of mirin (sweet cooking sake) and perhaps citrus. I chose to use a little bit of sudachi. 茶碗蒸しにスダチを入れた。

A little grated rind went into the mix. 

Then this went into the eggshells and the eggshells went into the pot with water to steam. それで卵の殻に入れて、蒸し蒸し。。。

Here is the very unsexy photo of my scrambling to prevent all the custard from leaking from the egg with the pin holes, and struggling to improvise egg holders from jars. ちょっと大変だったけど。。。

In the meantime, I peeled the yama udo stalk and sliced it. I parboiled the slices, along with enoki mushrooms for the clear broth soup. それで、吸い物のために山ウドの皮を抜いて、湯通しておいた。

I arranged them in a bowl, as delicately as my clumsy hands could, and attempted a kind of elegant flourish with some sudachi rind. 吸い物の茶碗においた。

In the meantime, I began to worry about the tempura. I read that tempura batter requires very cold water, so I was chilling the water, and just generally worrying. それから、天ぷらのことについて心配し始まった。本当に揚げ物の初心者であるので。。。

What kind of an alchemy is tempura? One that still eludes me. The batter was mixed, the oil was heated, and tested with a bit of batter. The glob went halfway down, then floated up. I coated up a shoot, and dipped it in the oil. It emerged a sassy green, but with no tempura aura. あまり結果が。。。天ぷららしくなかった。

Vaguely tempura-ish fried tara no me. Well, at least the soup's up, and it looks okay...

ま。せめて吸い物は。。。

Ah... delicate. And the chawanmushi?それで茶碗蒸しは？

With a bit of dramatic tobikko (which I also used to great effect here), it turned out to save the show. トビッコに合わせたら、悪くはなかった。

But these simple delicacies still elude me. The mysteries are deep....

Murky...

And dark... like this vision that confronted me in the used oil...

A universe in a frying pan.

ごちそうさまでした！

Winter #4: California Love / 冬＃４：カリフォルニアのラブ

It was my great fortune to be able to spend some time in California this February. California in February makes me wonder why I ever bother to go anywhere else. And not least of all because of the glorious produce. Kale, chard, brussel sprouts, citrus... I was in a tizzy. For seasoning, all I had to do was step out the back door to find lavender, parsley, laurel, and modest jungle of rosemary.
２月に出身のカリフォルニアに帰ることができた。あ。。。２月のカリフォルニア。確かにカリフォルニアドリームだよ。冬の青物もオレンジやレモンもおいしいよ！パーブが必要ならうちの庭でもラベンダー、ゲッケイジュ、パセリー。ローズマリーももちろん。

Beets fetched an extravagant 10USD a root at my local supermarket in Tokyo, so I set out to eat as many beets as possible. My friend Namita (not this Namita) told me about a beet recipe from a show she keeps yapping on about called "Diary of a Foodie". At first I misheard her, and thought the show was called "Diarrhea of a Foodie." That made perfect sense to me, given my experiences with street food from Mexico City to Phnom Penh, but it did seem a rather daring title for a mainstream cooking show. In any case, the point is that once Namita had me thinking about salt-encased beets I knew I had to make some.
東京でビーツを買おうと思っても８８０円ぐらいかかるのでカリフォルニアに着いてからすぐビーツを食べたかった。友人のナミタから塩に包んだビーツというレシピを聞いたら、是非そのような食べ方を試したいと思った。

A little research yielded the following: mix egg whites with salt, black peppercorns, and herbs (I opted for lavender and rosemary). 塩に卵の白身、ペーパー、ハーブ（私はラベンダーとローズマリーにした）。

Mix it up...混ぜる。。。

Stick your unpeeled beets in a pan with this grit (oh, and I added a celery root).

ペーツ（セロリーの根も仲間に入れた）をこの塩砂に入れる。。。

 Now encase what looks like an alien creeping up from the mud in the salt mix. それでこの蛸のようか宇宙人のようかベーツを塩砂に包む。

 

Bake about 2 hours. ２時かんほど焼く！

Now it looks like your martian is firmly buried on the surface of the moon. それで宇宙人みたいのビーツは月面みたいのスフレに入っているみたいになるとできた。

These beets ended up in a wilted chard and salad for a potluck reunion hosted by Bonnie. このベーツは大学の友人のボニーが行った集まりのサラダに使った。

But I had other plans for the celery root. でもセロリー根に特別な計画あった。

When I'm home, sometimes it's nice to flip the generational relations and pretend to be my parents' grandmother. I guess that would make my parents siblings. Well: maybe I'd just be an affectionate old auntie. But I do like to spend all day in their expansive kitchen, making up goodies in anticipation of them coming home from school. たまに帰るとき、両親のためにおばあちゃんの役割を演じるのが好き。一日中うちの広い台所でおいしいもののいろいろを作りながら。。。

This time I went for the Italian grandmother thing. Tonight the focus would be fagotelli -- stuffed pasta -- with a celery root, parsley, walnut filling.
今回はイタリア系おばあスタイル。フォゴッテリパスタ：セロリ根、パセリ、クルミ入り。

Using the salt-baked celery root, I blended it with parsley, walnuts, olive oil. Basically until it tasted like the most luscious avocado. 塩で焼いたセロリ根にパセリ、クルミ、オリブ油。

To make fagotelli: Prepare the pasta dough (from scratch, naturally) with the egg yolks left from the egg white used in the salt bake, and cut into rectangles. 長方形に切った手作りパスタ生地。

Stuff. 中身を入り。

Fold. 折り。

Repeat. 終わり。

Here are my cute little fagotellis. ジャーン。

To go with these, I planned heaps and heaps of vegetables. First of all, the beet greens I had reserved from the beets could not go to waste. パスタに合わせる野菜のいろいろも作らなきゃ。まずはビーツの青物。

The red stalks of the beet greens made a nice relish when finely chopped and sauteed withvinegar.
赤い部分を細く切って、お酢で煮た。

I wilted the leaves, reserving only the cutest ones for garnishes.

Kale: wilted for salad. Tomatoes: pan roasted for a side. Beef: broiled. (Beef is a vegetable, right?)
ケール：焼いた。トマト：焼いた。ビーフ：焼いた。

At hand I had a colorful California palate to paint the plates. それでお皿に。

It's an interactive medium.

So eat your greens...

And your reds and your yellows.

Buon appetito! ごちそうさま！

Winter #3: Happy New Year! / 冬＃３：明けましておめでとう！

Already two months into 2011, and just now crawling out of hibernation. Not that I've been fasting like an actual bear in a cave. No: I've been eating quite well, and inviting friends over to share the meals...and the body heat.　やっと冬眠が終わるだろう。もうそろそろ春が来るので、その前に冬の食事を要約しなければなりません。寒い日々の中にはグループで食べる方がおいしい、暖かい。

The New Year in Japan means special food to usher in the year. The delicacies are symbolic -- long-whiskered shrimp to represent long life, fish roe to represent fertility -- and well preserved in sugar and salt to last for a few days of lazy grazing. It's not my favorite incarnation of Japanese cuisine, I have to admit. But it does mean that for a few days the supermarkets carry all sorts of mysterious wonder. Like this little guy:

お正月にはお節。和食が大好き。。。けど。。。お節は。。。ちょっと。。。ま、ね。。。せめてお正月の時スーパーに変わったものがたくさん。

I found this kuwai cozying up with some pals.

かわいいクワイ。

Yes, I invited the gang over. No, I didn't know how to prepare them.

But soon I realized they could be part of my latest plot: pork belly tacos.

作り方もわからずに買った。もしかしたら最近の夢に使えるじゃないか。スパゲッチタコスを作ったからずーっと豚バラタコスも作りたかった。

There are few things I enjoy more in winter than simmering things for long periods of time. The pork belly taco dream would allow me to truss up this little piggy and enjoy the aromatics for hours as I read my books. 　冬にものを煮るのが好き。特にお肉。特に豚肉。特に豚バラ。

After a few hours in the pot with star anise, black peppercorns, an apple, vinegar, black sugar... this little piggy laid prone. On my plate.

ペーパー、スターアニス、リンゴ、お酢、黒砂糖で。。。

My research yielded the information that kuwai makes for delicious chips to crisp up the tacos. Sayaka, who hosted the meal, realized the vision of kuwai chips with her infinite patience.

クワイのチップスはおいしいらしい。ですので、さやかさんに任した。

Since I was simmering stuff already, I threw on some tea eggs.

煮るなら、お茶の卵も作った。

All these elements, were brought together with some cilantro, mayo, guacamole by Arthur-Nan, salsa by Ryan... all wrapped up in a homemade tortilla.

この材料でこのタコスを作れた。。。

In the frenzy that followed, there was little time for photography.

A million thanks to Sayaka for clean up!

ごちそうさまでした！

The next big get-together I decided I would try to host, as narrow as my quarters are. My classmates had expressed a desire (one called it her "long-awaited dream" even) of sampling sauerkraut and sausage, ever since reading about it in a children's book (Der Räuber Hotzenplotz). 　すぎの集まりは私の狭い狭いところで。ゼミの友達の何人が子どものころからドイツ料理のザワークラウトとソセージほ食べたがっているらしい。絵本の「泥棒ホツエンプロツ」に出たみたいで。

That is one dream I can make good on for someone else. Although I warned them that they were not to, under any circumstances, expect some sort of epiphany from German home cooking. Although they could expect to be sated.

そのような夢は私の特徴でーす。それでも、あんまりドイツ料理を期待しない方がいいという注意も覚悟した。

Everyone contributed a little bit, and we cooked up some fabulous sausages from Kichijôji in dark beer. The result was not exactly high highbrow, but even with our brows lowered, we maintained a high velocity. Hence the blurred documentation:

みんながそれぞれの材料を持って来て、吉祥寺に買ったソセージをザワークラウトと黒ビールに煮た。

Not particularly colorful on its own, but add a side salad and some Rotkohl and...

Guten Appetit!

The last guest left as the sun was coming up, and when I stumbled out of bed a few hours after that, I found bits of Sauerkraut littered along my hallway. Not too timid a start to the year of the rabbit! I sure hope the year is just as delicious as a good rabbit stew, too!

ごちそうさまでした！