Sasebo eats

Kurume Taiho head quarters long cue. Had to give up so visited Shuho in Miyaki. The champon was a failure should have stuck with ramen.
The ramen is good. Nice and thick ton soup a bit on the sweet side.

Mother in law’s cooking. Chikuzenni and red and white kamaboko, black beans. Traditional osechi cooking.

Interesting finds in markets. Soy milk in plastic. Vegetable of the future “ice plant”.

Fresh seafood restaurant “kasayama”. Private seating and good sashimi!

Sasebo eats part 2

My cooking steak. Red wine juis. Pork belly with dried persimmon. Nagaimo and salmon caviar. Namako(sea cucumber). Komatsuna and shimeji. Pork salad. Grilled kingfish collar, chicken giblets and thigh pieces.

Mother in law ozoni. They use round mochi in Kyushu.

Oita eats

Visited a good friend in Oita. Greeted with an extravagant osechi made by a luxury hotel chef.

Was good to catch up T and M! Thanks so much for preparing everything and letting us stay. We had a great time!

Sendai eats part 3

Mother’s home style vegetable main cooking. Hijiki tempura. Potato salad. Enoki and spinach nibitashi. Daikon salad. Harakomeshi.

Iron chef year end special new chef Kuroda 33yo vs original michiba 82yo.

Toshikoahi soba. Japanese culture to eat soba on New Year’s Eve for health and longevity.

Osechi and chikuzenni, ozoni. Typical Japanese new uear’s food.

Sendai eats part 2

Ogawara mochi butakan. Famous for plump texture wa-buta. Wagyu means Japanese beef. Wa-buta is Japanese pork.

Late night drinking session. Featuring sekitoba IMO Shochu. Pretty proud of whipping this much up in 15 minutes!

Sendai station gyutan alley. Gyutan is beef tongue. A sake tastin set and assorted tongue, tongue sausages and twice cooked tongue. The stnadard thin cut tongue slices were the best. There’s a reason why some things are considered classics!

Anpanman at anpanman museum in sedai.

Home cooking @ Tokyo

Home cooking at our friend’s in Tokyo. Oyster with vinegar soy. Grilled Taylor roe with Japanese cress and shiitake. Farmed tuna. I was interested in this as i had just seen a documentary on the topic and they just recently started succeeding in life cycle farming of Honmaguro. Due to uncoordinated fishing, Honmaguro (black tuna?) numbers were diminishing at an alarming rate.

Because they are farmed, the fattiness of the flesh is wonderful. The transport time and they probably don’t have to freeze it either so it’s actually pretty good!

K family osewaninarimasita!

Miso Soup in Nagoya

Miso soup in Kariya (Nagoya).

Miso soup differs in location. This one is made by my friend from Nagoya. They use red miso.

And souvenir kurikinton chestnut pastry.

Thank you T San!

Yakitori

Recent project. Yakitori

Inglewood free range organic chicken is very good. I did it last time with Lilydale free range but perhaps the storage and handling had something to do with it too but noticeable difference in taste, texture. Also lots of water in the Lilydale when opening the plastic. Anyway, the Inglewood is very good!

The coal you use must be heat beads. Huge huge difference with the Coles generic brand in heat generation. Before becoming a Ramen Chef, I was a coal business man and I know my coal! The Coles briquettes are very high in ash and low in calories.

I dissect the chicken into pieces as shown. Thigh, breast, skin, tail, tenderloin, wings, rivulets. I scrape the little bits of off cuts, the little pieces of back liver, cartilage and add some breast pieces, chop it up on the board to make tsukune (rissoles). I add some flour, salt and pepper, and mould into shape. Put the thigh and breast pieces on skewers. Some with fat pieces of shallots.

Grill on the coal and season with salt and eat with lemon (shio) or grill half way, baste with sauce, and grill further, finish off with more sauce. You can simply purchase some Teriyaki sauce and use or make your own. Basically it’s just soy sauce and sugar and mirin.
I had a home made yakiniku sauce (sweet soy base with ginger, garlic and grated apple) so used that instead.

The skin is just awesome when roasted crispily, the cartilage becomes a great accent in the tsukune and the frames end up as a soup an so absolutely nothing is wasted.

Great match with beer and also divine match with this oaky creamy Chardonnay, Te Mata.

Result, simply the best yakitori this side of the equator!

1996 Penfolds 389 with Bangalow Sweet Pork Collar-but Roast

M san and S san invited us over for an indulgent roast lunch. Properly cellared 389 and a perfect roast. I was very happy!!

As S san was preparing the roast, I noticed the pork was Bangalow Sweetpork so I pointed out that it was exactly the same pork and cut that we use for our charsiu. S san humbly replied “pressure is on” but I was blown away how perfect he finished the crackling and also maintained the juiciness of the roast. The fennel seed juis and side garnishes were as exquisite. For some reason Dutch carrots seems to match pork very well.

Aside from the very entertaining host, with a designated driver and a breast feeding mother at the same table, I drank to my heart’s content. Very very luxurious way to get drunk in deed. Thank you so much S san and M san!

Friday night meals

Ginger pork and chocolate mousse by S-san. S-san used to work in a Belgian chocolate specialty shop in Ginza and boy does she know how to make a good mousse!

Hot pot by me. A fiery Sichuan lamb pot and a mild ginger and shallot shabu shabu for the not so hardcore staff.