Autumn #14: In the Soup / 秋＃１４：I love ゆ

Winter is creeping up on us here. The days are shorter, skin is drier, feets are colder, moods are heavier.
冬が私にこっそり忍び寄っているじゃん。日暮れがだんだん早くなって、肌がだんだんかさかさに、足下はだんだん冷えて、心がだんだん重ーくて。

Time for soup.

スープの季節だ。

I've been reluctant to attempt any ambitious broths here, since I can literally walk out the front door and eat a cheap bowl of noodles bathing in a well loved soup of bones and other various choice tidbits that has been stewed for days. The details of such potions can be found here, at my favorite ramen blog. But since I'm celebrating Thanksgiving with nabe -- Japanese hotpot -- I thought I'd try my hand at loving up some soup.
日本は世界中愛されたラーメンの天国なので、別に自分が時間をかけて、骨から汁を作る必要がないね。でも今年の感謝際は鍋で祝おうつもりで、ゆっくりでスープをやってみようと思った。

My idea was to pair chicken with yuzu, to flatten any ambitious cold viruses. Yuzu is a Japanese citrus fruit. It's kind of the ugly cousin to the beloved mikan -- mandarin orange. Its juice is similar to that of the grapefruit, but it is certainly unfriendly to the casual curious eater.
チッキンスープに柚子を使おうと思って、風邪を防ぐために。

As you can see, it is humorlessly jammed full of seeds.
みかんより醜い柚子を開けても中身も種いっぱいで、まるでみかんのへんてこないとこと考えちゃう。でも柚子にでも魅力あるね。

I'd also add some fragrant mitsuba, which is not dissimilar to parsley.
それに三つ葉を。

Mitsuba is also a little unfriendly. Be sure to at least blanch it, or it pricks the mouth.
三つ葉も熱湯に通さないと友好的でないね。

A wonderful pot of soup requires a certain kind of commitment. It's not a particularly high maintenance relationship, but it does require a long period of tending to, even if with just a bit of one's energies. It's more like a steady, healthfully rooted relationship, that still needs someone to skim the goop off of the top and keep the fire lit.
すばらしいスープを作ることに傾倒しなければなりません。あまり多くを要求する相手じゃないけど、スープはいい付き合いのように根気がいる。

Hours of tending the hearth yielded a light and tasty broth, brightened by yuzu.
何時間が経ってからこの軽くて柚子で明るくしたスープ。

Perhaps more gratifying still was the stewed chicken meat I extracted from the soup, sliced up and served over rice with mitsuba and chili sauce.
もう一つの楽しみはその煮た鶏肉！それを切って、ご飯に載せた。

  

 Also have to eat your vegetables...

野菜も食べなきゃね。。。 

Napa cabbage in sesame vinegarette...

白菜のサラダ。。。

And grilled asparagus.

と焼きアスパラ。

They seem happy to have each other.

幸せ。

Oh... and those mysterious bits on the rice: Those are the chicken skins I grilled on top of the asparagus.

それでもう一つご飯に載せたものがあるね。それはアスパラと一緒に焼いた鳥皮。

I have to fatten up for winter, you know.

冬の覚悟で太らなきゃ。

ごちそうさま！ 

Autumn #13: Strictly Roots / 秋＃１３：ルーツに戻ろう

Cashing in on the carb-hungry 1980s, my parents supported their young family with a pasta restaurant.
８０年代のアメリカででんぷん食品ブームがあった。それで私の両親がパスタ料理屋さんよやりました。

This meant that my earliest memories include not only eating spaghetti with my hands, but also learning how to separate egg yolks from the whites. In retrospect, I'm not sure what the Health Department would have made of snotty nosed kids in the food prep area. Also, I'm really curious what the Department of Labor would have made of Cheru, age 9, standing on a turned-over milk crate and pre-rinsing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Aside from an accelerated education of swear words from the staff, it was here that I first learned the bitter dynamic inherent to labor and management. I demanded more than 25 cents an hour, threatening a tantrum strike. My parents threatened to charge me for room and board. I remained on that overturned milk crate.
最初の思い出の中に手でパスタを食うこととパスタ生地を作ること。９歳のチェルは皿洗いとして働いた。その経験で初めて労働者と経営者のつらい関係を味わった。時間給が２５セントで、もっと欲しかったチェルは一人ストライキと指名しようとしたとたん、両親の方から下宿の値段上げの発言。チェルは皿洗いを続いた。

This is a long way of saying that I feel I have an intimate connection with pasta.
ごく簡単に言うとパスタと仲の良い間柄あります。

So please forgive me if a lot of my improvisations are pasta-centric.
それで、このブログでパスタ料理がちょっと多めで許してください。

Tonight, I decided to add some spice to my pasta dough with ichimi togarashi.
今晩のパスタを一味唐辛子で辛くしようともって。。。

Lovers of Japanese soup noodle dishes will recognize the package, although the more common expression is not this just-chili powder, but the seven spice -- shichimi togarashi -- version. After adding a little heat, then, I rolled out the dough and roughly cut myself some broad noodles.
これを入れてから粗切りのパスタを切った。

While my lovely, albeit roughly hewn, noodles stood by, I then contemplated another root. This one had nothing to do with metaphors; it was a total stranger to me.
この荒削りのパスタが待ちながら、もう一つのルーツをじっと見つめた。

Having an irresistible affinity for strangers, I picked this one up at the farmer's market. The name read yurine: lily root. It was supposed to be both similar to, and yet unlike, a potato, according to the farmer.
ユリネです。百合の根らしい。ファーマーズマーケットで買った私が農業さんに作り方を聞いてみるとユリネは同時に芋と似てると似ていない。へえええええ。。。

Once I loosened it up a bit, it fell apart into these lovely petal-like segments.
切ると花弁のような形。

In the soup with it! To match the floral theme, I brewed it up with chrysanthemum leaves in a light consomme.
お汁に！花がテームですので菊の葉とコンソメを。

Save the flowers for the romantics. I'm a realist, happy with the roots and the leaves. As long as they are edible.
花はロマン派にいい。唯物主義の私には葉と根でも結構です。食べれるならね。

And what of my patient pasta? It got treated right, pan-fried with butter and fragrant eringi mushrooms.
それで待っているパスタは？勿論愛情含めて、パーターとエリンギでソテーした。

Whether the epiphany comes from eating a hot yam on an Harlem street, or pasta in my tiny Tokyo kitchen, there's something to be said for roots. Especially the delicious ones.
ルーツを大事にした方がいいという考え方ありますね。おいしいなら、大事にしましょう。

 ごちそうさまでした！

Autumn #12: One bad egg may spoil my lunch, but not the bunch / 秋＃１２：食通の卵。とそのあたり。

A little over a week ago, I had the great pleasure of deepening my intimacy with one of my favorite elixirs...
しょっちゅう焼酎！

Ah, shochu! So similar to humble water, yet so much more potent. In the sobering light of day, however, its glowing promise dimmed. The Japanese term for a hangover is "two-days drunkenness." With the help of a light case of food poisoning, the "two days" turned into a week of a self-pitying, vaguely unsettling stupor.
夜の輝きは朝の暗い苦労。二日酔いより一週間酔いになると、あら。。。食あたりの疑問も。

Thinking back, there were about four raw eggs of varying degrees of trustworthiness, and a rather pink mouthful or two of grilled chicken, all of which I had consumed either with or shortly after the offending shochu.
ちょっとだけ考えても、４個の生卵、生ぽいの焼き鳥。。。容疑者は少なくないね。

So, in reviewing my equations, I hit upon this formula: (copious amounts of shochu) + (raw eggs of suspicious extraction) 
それで、（焼酎）＋　（生卵、鶏肉）＝

One week of a diet based on Seirogan pills. The key ingredient seems to be creaosote, which Wikipedia (alarmingly!) informs me is a kind of coal tar.
１週間の正露丸ダイエット。

But I'm back on the horse! Or, rather, under the chicken! A little touch of salmonella is no fun, but a life without runny eggs is no life at all. What better way to celebrate the newly harmonious relationship between myself and my guts than with an omelet?
でも私とわが内蔵の関係が改めて仲良くなって、一個だけのいやな卵を食べるは食通の卵の運命と理解して、卵を防ぐなら人生の意味もないぐらいので、また卵を挑戦！オムレッツはいかがですか。

And the eggs here in Japan are so very yellow and seductive.Whisked with a little bit of miso and mirin, they are irresistible.
それとも、日本の卵は特に魅力的です。ほら、みそとみりんと混ぜって：

It is a sunny-side-up universe.
太陽の色。

I decided to make a whole brunch out of it, a meal that I've missed for the past few months. Still a little wary of bloody mary, I stuck to the basics: eggs, starch, some greens.
このオムレッツ懐かしいニューヨーク式のブランチを作ろうと思った。

For the starch, I turned to these happy little fellows who found me on one of my local wanderings:
ポテトのためにこの子を：

They are wee little yamaimo sprouts. Yamaimo is a monster of a root vegetable when it reaches full-size, and is most commonly grated into a lusciously slimy goo called tororo.

山芋の芽だ！






These little guys resembled a gang of starchy insects (hard to see how to make this posting less appetizing). Each was quite small on its own:
ちょっと虫の群れのようだ（本当にだんだん気持ち悪くなっているね）。一匹ずつは可愛い。

So, I threw the whole gang in a hot frying pan with oil. In the meantime, I put some sliced up eringi mushroom in the toaster oven.
群れをフライパンに。そうして、エリンギをトースターに。

Eringi mushrooms are incredibly fragrant and meaty.You would be doing yourself no disservice to just grill and devour them.
エリンギの焼くとものすごく味を生かす。。。

But we have an omelet in the works. So: potatoes pan fried, eggs beaten, mushrooms toasted. I also fried some tomatoes for good measure, and made a side salad with a prominent dose of shiso, Japanese mint-basil leaf. Shiso makes a mean cocktail ingredient, too (as bartenders at NYC's bozu and Angel's Share know), but my liver remains a bit shy.
そのオムレッツにフライトマト、しそ入りサラダ。しそといろいろなおいしいカクテルが作れるけれども、肝臓はまだ「酒なんかイヤ」っと強く主張している。

 

Brunch, a New York institution! ブランチができたよ！

I suppose some institutions can be imported after all. But even so, there is a twist.

クローズアップ！

The mini yamaimo turned out to be little treasures. Although they still vaguely (or clearly) resembled buggy bugs.

山芋の芽もこの食通の卵の口に合った。

Well, their buggy marching across my plate can't deter me. Not in the face of such deliciousness. A little ugly root vegetables, or even a little chicken sashimi, can't stop the adventurous palate. Yet.

やはり虫と似てるね。でも虫の形の芋も、ちょっとした食あたりも、この冒険的な食通を止められません！

まだ。

Autumn #11: Going Underground with Wasabi / 秋＃１１：地下に潜る、わさびと

As autumn evenings get colder and colder, and we edge into the winter months, root vegetables really shine. There are lots of radical roots, of course. But nothing quite as extreme as the infamous wasabi.
だんだん秋の夕方は寒くなって、もうそろそろ根菜類の季節だな。地下からいろんなおいしさもらえるけど、過激さで言えばわさびが一番でしょう。

This was the line-up facing me on my recent visit to the farmers' market. The farmer himself was grating a stick of wasabi at the stand and offered me a smudge. "Go ahead, it won't kill you," were his words of encouragement.
市場で容疑者の列。農業さんにおろしたばかりわさびをもらちゃって。口を入れたら、「大丈夫よ。死なないよ。」っという励まし。

I liked the bite, and the very green flavor of an absolutely fresh wasabi. It was exciting.
緑の味！鼻に来るぴりぴり。

I decided to take one into my home.　一個を持ち帰り。

Cut in half...半分にしたら。。。

I decided that I would grate up some wasabi meat and make a dressing: a radical use for a radical root, with which I could very lightly dress some naked veggies. Kind of a return to my own California roots...
わさびおろしでドレッシングを！

Fresh wasabi renders a much softer kick than the tube kind, and the color is also more delicate.チューブで買うわさびより味も色も穏やか。

I added some lemon juice, salt, sugar, and olive oil.
これにレモン、塩、砂糖、オリーブオイル。

Totally radical. 過激な緑！

As a side dish to the salad, I made a little flavored rice, based on the recipe found here. サラダに合わせるご飯でキノコご飯を作った。

More than once, I've been captivated watching a Japanese friend wield a knife to render slices of carrots into sakura blossoms. My own efforts were less fluent.
何回も日本人の友達が人参を桜形に切ることを見るだけで夢中という体験あり。自分の手際は。。。

Maybe if I sent it home to my parents, they'd put it on the fridge. Only after asking me if it was supposed to be a fat man running to catch the bus, however. A crowd of these fat men would put anyone off of their meal. So I went abstract.
桜より走っているデブさん？やだね。それで、さくらを抽象的なチェル的なように。。。

Not my proudest moment, but I did manage some kind of flower-like shapes. 何となく。


These went into my rice cooker with some soy sauce, konbu, sake, mirin. Also I included some lovely fall mushrooms.
この曖昧に花のような形の人参と醤油、昆布、酒、みりん。キノコも。

The result was a happy little side bowl of rice. It was content to play the silent support to my more outspoken salad.
これでぴりぴりわさびサラダぴったり。

意義なし！

Autumn #10: Cream...Get on Top/秋＃１０：ミルクの魅力

There are certain foods I give up on while I'm in Japan. I don't really eat cheese. I don't really drink wine. There are more than enough other delicacies to distract myself with anyway.
日本に滞在する時に西欧のようなチーズとワインより日本のおいしい納豆、焼酎。

Happily, Japan has plenty of locally produced animal-based creaminess just in case my cholesterol levels plummet. Aside from its world-renowned marbled beef, Japan boasts high-quality dairy, much of it from the northernmost island of Hokkaido. When William Smith Clark of Massachusetts helped found an agricultural college in what was then, in the 1870s, Japan's wild wild north, his advice was: "Boys, be ambitious!" Judging from the reputation Hokkaido has cultivated as a creamy wonderland, the boys did just that.
幸いに日本でもとてもおいしい日本産牛乳を手に入れるので、せめてそれでコレステロールもたっぷり食べれます。１８７０年代に北海道の農産大学を作るために来日したウィリアム・スミス・クラークの有名な言葉は「少年よ、大志を抱け！」その北の搾乳場は確かによくできたね。

I thought it might be kind of funny to set up a kind of "Got milk?" photograph to illustrate these musings:
子どものころからずーっと見えた牛乳キャンペーンをまねして、ミルクの口ひげの写真を撮ろうと思いながら。。。

The results were pretty lewd. Leading me to wonder what exactly the "Got milk?" campaign was really selling me. As I pondered how truly disturbing the image of a disembodied mouths can be, and as I debated whether I should post these photos, I also wondered...
気味悪いね。いったいなぜそのキャンペーンに人気があったの？

...if I should invoke the term "vagina dentata." Too late. I already did. Hi, Mom!
ただ口を映ると気味悪い。失礼しました。食べ物に戻ろうね。

Back to the matter at hand, Japanese milk is sweet and creamy. It reminds me of some cold glasses I've had in the American Midwest.
手短かに言えば、日本のミルクに魅力があります。甘くてクリーミー。アメリカの農業地域も思い出す。









For mayonnaise, too, I am spoiled here. Kewpie turns out a nice one. The secret ingredient? Maybe monosodium glutamate, which was isolated and patented by Ajinomoto, a Japanese corporation, in the early 20th century. MSG also goes by the name ajinomoto--the root of flavor--in colloquial speech. If youtube would cooperate with me, this would be the sentence in which I would offer a link to a clip from the television show in which I witnessed Japanese schoolgirls squirting Kewpie mayonnaise into their mouths. Thwarted, I will now turn to a more tasteful presentation of Kewpie mayo.
日本にいる間にマヨネーズの心配もないね。我の友にキューピーがあるから。キューピーの秘密は何でしょう？味の素？アメリカに広く嫌われた味の素かな？ま、口に合うから私は文句を言いません。

Don't gaze too long into the vortex of mayonnaise. There's more to come!
驚嘆の念でいっぱいですか？

Tonight I basically enlisted the help of the creamy ingredients celebrated above to transform the food already in my fridge into a feast.
今晩は日本産牛乳、マヨネーズの手伝いで冷蔵庫にあったものをごちそうに変革しました。

I had pasta dough left from my chestnut noodles (see Autumn #9). I thought ravioli might be a nice variation. For that, I'd need to make ricotta. I slowly brought some whole milk mixed with cream and a pinch of salt to a rolling boil.
秋＃９のポストからパスタの生地が残って、それをラヴィオリーにしよう！まずはリコッタチーズを作る。そのため、牛乳とクリームと少々の塩をゆっくり沸かした。

When it was going hot and heay, I added some lemon juice, and reduced the mix to a simmer as it curdled. The mix went through a cheesecloth (that's what they are for!), and waited patiently for an hour as it dripped dry.
よく沸いていた時にレーモン汁を少し入れて、凝乳になるまで２分間ぐらい混ぜた。このミルクをガーゼで液体を抜けた。

"Real" ricotta may actually be made with rennet, but until I can get my grubby hands on them, the lemon juice done good.
本当にチーズを作るならレネットという材料が必要かもしれない。でもレネットがどこで買えるか分からない私にもレーモン汁で結構だ。

Okay, maybe this spoonful went directly into my mouth. But I was able to reserve some for the pasta dough, which I rolled out and cut into circles with the help of a rice bowl.
実言えば、この写真を撮ったとたん、このスプーンは直接に私の口に入れたしまった。できるだけ我慢して、チーズをパスタに使わなきゃーと思って、パスタ生地を薄くして、茶碗を使って、まるい形にした。

To this, a little ricotta, with a little impression in the middle.

これに、リコッタ：

In this little valley, an egg yolk.

リコッタの真ん中の谷に、卵の黄身：

Another round of pasta dough.

もう一枚のパスタ生地：

Boil it until it goes belly up. I found four minutes to be the best.

それで４分ほど茹でる。

Please note how the pasta clings to the fillings, revealing yet concealing the gooey goodness within.

外面から挑発的に中身が見えるね。

Topped with a little browned butter...

バーターを載せて。。。

And some ginger-garlic-bacon ratatouille on the side.

しょうがとニンニクとベーコンのラタトゥイユと。

 I haven't forgotten that mayo. It found its way into some mashed kabocha, which I had simmered with soy sauce and mirin. I added some yuzu kosho (citrus ground with pepper) for an extra kick.

マヨネーズを忘れずに、煮たカボチャとゆずこしょうにすりつぶした。

This, alongside a sesame coleslaw of sorts... 
これと薄切りにされたキャベツサラダ。。。 

And avocado (because I can't resist) made for a nice side dish.
とアボカドでおかず。

With all these flavors at my command, I was able to build such beautiful bites as this:
これでこの贅沢な一口が作られた：

Sure, I play with my food...
そうね。子供のように食べ物で遊びするね。。。

And I lick my plate clean...
その上、動物のようにお皿までなめる。。。

But at this point, I can't see any reason to resist these impulses. I'm busy eating.
でも大人さえ知らない満足。