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The Ten Most Recent Posts By KFPEKOPEKO
Premium Japanese Sake Abroad?
I am a foodie blogger living in Kyoto Japan and I have been researching a new series about making handcrafted sake and visiting some old sake breweries in Kyoto.
I am really interested to know how interested people in Western countries are about sake, and how much they know about sake now.
Stop by my blog and comment if you would be so kind.
KyotoFoodie Sake Series - Part 1>>
Peko
sudachi (Japanese citrus) and Sanma-no-shioyaki
American dude over here in Kyoto, Japan writing a foodie blog is wondering if sudachi is available in the US, et. al these days? Sudachi is a small, lime-like green citrus popular in Japan for squeezing on a whole range of dishes. It goes particularly well with yakizakana (Japanese style grilled fish).
And how about sanma (the dictionary calls it Pacific Saury), I think that I used to get it at Yaohan in Seattle. Still there?
I just wrote this little blog post about Salt-grilled saury (sanma), a very popular autumn dish in Japan.
I am very interested to know if you can prepare this dish (authentically) stateside.
PekoPeko
home cooking - Japanese cuisine
On my blog (kyotofoodie) I started a category about home cooking. The first article
is about donburi (literally, rice bowl), and in particular steak donburi and
Japanese 'wagyu'.
It looks like photos cannot be posted here on serious eat, you can see some piks
and the article here.
Donburi is a quick and easy dish and can be made very healthy. Does anyone have
any donburi news to share? Or any request for recipes, reviews,
etc from Japan?
The Ten Most Recent Comments By KFPEKOPEKO
home cooking - Japanese cuisine
Karen Resta,
While I have never made real wagashi, I would imagine that it is very, very demanding!
I don't believe that Westerners can't appreciate wagashi. Culture has been moving from West to East for centuries now. That is a very important factor to consider. And, I suppose that wagashi will never be nearly as popular as sushi or karaoke.
Maki,
That is really unfortunate that Toraya in NYC closed. I would think that a big, cosmopolitan city like NYC could support a Toraya. Too bad, so sad.
Oh, I love your sites! Thanks for sharing all the recipes!
Food blogging camera. What do you use?
Fuji FinePix
But my mobile phone takes darn good photos too!
home cooking - Japanese cuisine
++
I checked around and people in Japan almost never make wagashi at home, even gourmets and foodie types.
It is just a whole lot tastier, cheaper and easier to buy them in a store -- that is like 500 years old.
Peko
sudachi (Japanese citrus) and Sanma-no-shioyaki
How about yuzu and kabosu?
Yuzu has various and wonderful uses in the kitchen.
sudachi (Japanese citrus) and Sanma-no-shioyaki
Oh, cool! So we can get them in big cities stateside.
I have never seen sudachi in the US, do you know if they are imported or grown in the US now?
Pacific saury isn't something I ever recall seeing in a regular grocery store, just Asian places. Do we eat it in Western cooking? I can't recalling ever seeing it. It would be difficult for the unaccustomed to eat as is it too small to fillet.
Peko
home cooking - Japanese cuisine
Hi Karen,
Yes, wagashi is a beautiful and artful thing!
Several of the very old Japanese wagashi companies have stores in New York and Paris. Toraya, in Paris comes to mind.
http://www.toraya-group.co.jp/english/shops/index.html
Oh! They have three locations in the US! Cool!
home cooking - Japanese cuisine
Just call me Peko, or even Pek if you like.
wa (和) = pure, ancient Japan/Japanese and kashi (菓子) is sweet, or, confectionary. There is also yogashi, yo means 'Western'. So, Western pastries, confectionaries.
Wagashi is not really made at home in Japan. People buy it. Wagashi is readily available in Japan, anywhere. Even 24 hour convenience stores. (This is of course low end, but not bad.)
What people do do at home is mochi-tsuki. (Making/pounding mochi) This is often done in the company of many people, like the extended family at New Year's, etc or as the whole neighborhood, if you are going to do a mochi-tsuki, you might as well make a lot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mochi (The second photo from the top is a mochi-tsuki in Japan)
Thinking... Westerners make pasta or bread at home far more than Japanese make wagashi at home.
How about this? Think of it as making cheese at home. You could do it. But almost no one does. It is just too, too much work. You can get excellent, excellent stuff in a store at a reasonable price.
I think that if you want to make wagashi in some Western country, you have to start a wagashi shop -- and make a bit for yourself.
Drop me a line at Peko (@KyotoFoodie) if you have anymore questions.
This wikipedia article is a great resource:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagashi
Serious Sandwiches: Saffron's Lamb 'BLT'
OMG!!!
Will have to make an excuse to go to Minneapolis to part take!!
Do they deliver -- to Kyoto?
Peko (@KyotoFoodie)
Best Restaurants in Tokyo
Nice blog, nice articles!
Lots of Western food, eh? Looks a lot less traditional than the territory over here in Kyoto, especially on KyotoFoodie.
Responses to Comments by KFPEKOPEKO
home cooking - Japanese cuisine
Karen Resta,
While I have never made real wagashi, I would imagine that it is very, very demanding!
I don't believe that Westerners can't appreciate wagashi. Culture has been moving from West to East for centuries now. That is a very important factor to consider. And, I suppose that wagashi will never be nearly as popular as sushi or karaoke.
Maki,
That is really unfortunate that Toraya in NYC closed. I would think that a big, cosmopolitan city like NYC could support a Toraya. Too bad, so sad.
Oh, I love your sites! Thanks for sharing all the recipes!
Rice Cooker Cooking: More Than Just Rice
That Rice Cooker Chicken sounds wonderful.
But (to those of you who have tried it), do you just marinade the chicken, or put the marinade (along with the chicken) in the cooker, too? Thanks, JJ
Food blogging camera. What do you use?
I use a Canon Powershot SD600 Digital Elph. I used to be a somewhat serious photographer (ok, that was 10 years ago, but I do remember the basics), so I know how to properly use the manual settings. The automatic setting sucks, and I rarely use it.
All my food photos are taken on the macro setting (or sometimes on manual if I'm not doing a closeup). The key is to take tons of photos and really learn how your camera takes pictures - Canon Powershots produce very different photos from Sony Cybershots, so you have to play around with your camera to figure out what settings give you the results you want.
Once you have that all figured out, you'll be well on your way to lovely photos. Oh yeah - a decent photo editing program helps, too! (I am a fan of Picasa - it's free and very user friendly).
home cooking - Japanese cuisine
One of the recipes I've been meaning to try from Elizabeth Andoh's book Washoku is the Wafu Waffle. It's a fresh waffle topped with chunky red bean jam and vanilla ice cream, drizzled with brown sugar syrup then sprinkled with a mixture of kinako and cinnamon.
The weather is becoming perfect for this right now, I do believe. :)
home cooking - Japanese cuisine
Toraya used to have a full tea room / restaurant in New York, on the UES. Unfortunately it didn't do as well as they expected, and it closed down a few years ago. My sister was a chef there...now she's basically out of the restaurant biz (not much demand for wagashi shokunin (chef) in the US...and she did not want to move to Japan.) The Toraya in the Kinokuniya bookstore just sells their readymade things, like yokan.
I have one wagashi recipe on my blog, for ohagi or botamochi...this is something that people do make quite often at home in Japan, or at least my mother and aunts do. (There's also a basic recipe for tsubuan, and also, though it's not wagashi, castella.)
Other than that I have to say it didn't occur to me to post wagashi recipes...I didn't think people would be much interested. I'll try to if there is the demand for it though... I'll ask my sister for tips!
sudachi (Japanese citrus) and Sanma-no-shioyaki
I honestly don't know where all of Mitsuwa's produce comes from, though some of it is definitely grown in the U.S.
A lot of their seafood is flown in, not all, but a lot.
I've seen yuzu in Mitsuwa, but I havent looked close enough to see if kabosu was available, sorry!
home cooking - Japanese cuisine
I remember reading an article some time ago about the schools where one is trained to make wagashi, Peko - the details of learning to do the confectionary-making as a professional seemed to me to be even more demanding than those of being trained as a pastry chef in the Western tradition.
It's interesting that while Japan is embracing Parisian pastries its own have not travelled to other places all that extensively. It may be the texture, or the lack of pure dense sugar taste.
I must get to Toraya next time I'm in NY. :)
home cooking - Japanese cuisine
++
I checked around and people in Japan almost never make wagashi at home, even gourmets and foodie types.
It is just a whole lot tastier, cheaper and easier to buy them in a store -- that is like 500 years old.
Peko
Website: http://www.kyotofoodie.com/
Location: Kyoto, Japan
About: I am a real, live foodie living in Kyoto, Japan. I love the cuisine of Kyoto. I write and English language blog about my eating adventures here which is popular among fellow foodies and folks planning a trip to Japan.
Favorite foods: bread, artichoke, kung pao chicken, most anything Japanese, Italian or French.
Last bite on earth: Ahhmm, that is difficult. Let me think about it. In the meantime, please check out my blog!