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！

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 #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。

Autumn #4: Miniature Tea Eggs and Chrysanthemum Sunomono / 秋＃４：茶玉子と菊の酢の物

The other day I noticed flowers being sold at my local greengrocer. Chrysanthemums, to be specific.
この間うちの近くにある八百屋が花を売っていることを発見しました。近寄ると：あっ！菊だ！

I'd never cooked with chrysanthemums before, so I asked the little old lady how I should go about preparing them. She recommended sunomono -- a vinegared Japanese-style side salad. 菊を料理に使ったことない私だから、お店のおばちゃんと相談した。彼女のおすすめ：酢の物。

Sunomono is quite simple really, it just calls for equal parts rice vinegar and mirin (sweet cooking sake), and a touch of salt. I decided to jazz it up, and take the opportunity to tackle a recipe I've been biting at the bit to get to. 酢の物は本当にシンプルで、ちょっとだけチェル的にしようかな。。。

Ever since I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. このレシピを見た瞬間、私も絶対作りたいと思った。

Tea-glazed eggs. 茶玉子。

But when I got to the poultry store, delicate little gems beckoned me away from those ungainly, vulgar chicken eggs...
でも鶏肉屋に入ったら、このちびっ子に誘われた。。。

The little masochists begged me to boil them and crack them and boil them again. How could I resist? I'm only human...
この誘いなので、抵抗できなかった。。。

So I boiled them for half a minute or so to set them, cracked them with the back of a spoon, and then put them back in the pot, this time joined by soy sauce, darjeeling tea, star anise, and a splash of mirin. And I let them boil...
そして３０秒ぐらいゆでて、出して、スプーンで軽く割れ目を殻につけって、またお湯に戻した。この時に醤油、ダージェリング茶、スターアニス、みりんも入れました。

And boiled them and boiled them, for close to two hours.このまま２時間近くゆでた。
And when the came out, they were scarred - but also somehow more hauntingly beautiful. And also more delicious.
だしたらちょっと不気味な美しさ。。。でも確かのおいしさ。

I wasn't through with them yet. I prepared a beautiful bed of sunomono made from slivers of mitsuba (Japanese wild parsley), okra, red onion, and the chrysanthemum petals, which I plucked from the flowers and doused in hot water before adding to the mix. このミニ茶玉子をチェル的な酢の物を！みつば、オクラ、赤いタマネギを細く切って、菊の花弁も湯通ししてから入れた。

Autumn is a sad season of endings, a season of bitter experience: the spring chicken gets fattened to become winter's warming soup. But with experience comes...
秋は切ない季節です。終局を感じられる季節。それでも。。。

Deliciousness.
おいしい。

ごちそうさまでした。