Fancy Vinegar Flask ! ——- ? ? ?
Week ago I’ve bought rather fancy item from Lidl shop.
I don’t know the name which the receipt said Geschenkset. = Anyhow
this is a Glass Flask to serve Vinegar and Olive-oil on the dining table.
They were sold as a gift set (for a Xmas ?) —– Olive-oil and a Vinegar
together with a glass flask for £7.99 !
In fact, I was not interested in to
buy Olive-oil nor Vinegar, but
fascinated by the design of
glass which I can use it to
design strange sculpture kind.
Though, watching this many
days, I still couldn’t figure out
“How to make this” —– how a
Glass Craftsman made this !
Simplified description is, “Small glass flask inside of larger flask”
though, it is an utter puzzle to me = How it was made ? —— through a
hole of large flask, inserts a glass pipe with melted glass on the tip-end
and blow it up to make a small flask inside, and weld two together on
the edge of the hole —– though, as the photo above showed, the neck of
the small flask is not an one-piece straight pipe = inside small flask was
made separately and the outside pipe was welded later. But how ? ? ?
= If anybody who is reading this knows about the way to make,
please put a comment “How it was done” !
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Eating Kombu / Kelp Sea-weed
Since I don’t have a habit to pick up a cracker / biscuit or sweet kind, instead,
I’m having a kind of light cooking for an odd bite.
I wrote about green-bean / string-bean with Goma-ae source, daikon etc etc before.
And here, how about boiled Kombu / Kelp.
Although, I, myself never seen how it’s grow in the sea bottom, Kelp is not a special
sea-weed, it said to have deep forest of sea-weed of which each Kelp is 20~30m long !
—- I saw them when they were spread and dried on the beach = 1′ wide of long long strip.
And, neither they are special item in Japanese or Chinese food shop.
Japanese eat them most commonly for Dashi (soup-base) and in many other cooking.
(I don’t think, I need to repeat how nutritiously good they are, as it was too well known. 🙂 )
I have no idea how Chinese eat them still, we can buy dried Kelp easily and quite cheap
in Chinese shop. (Photo Left)
To make Kombu-maki — first soak the dried kelp strip in the warm water for 10 min’ or
so and thoroughly wash-off the sand and dirt. Then cross-cut them 2~3″ and roll-up.
(Authentic Japanese Kombu-maki roll was tied-up by edible Kanpyo string though
I short-cut it with tooth-pick. Photo Center ) And boil them in the plain water half to
one hour, then add a packet of Dashi or if you like fishy taste, add a piece of dried squid
as well. (photo Right) —– and after while, add a Soy source according to your taste, and
if you like even a bit of sugar ( I like to put some hot staff as well) — keep boil them until
rolled Kombu become very soft. ( I heard, the authentic one was slow-cooked over night !)
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(Boil them how many hours depend on the quality of the Kombu and your taste. — even
from the same pack, some Kombu would be boiled very soft, less than one hour though,
tough one may be still hard even after two hours. —– If you found it still hard, just put
it back to a pan and boil further. 🙂 ) Generally, Japanese Kombu / Kelp is soft and good to
eat but more expensive —– still, considering the serious environmental pollution problem
in China, may be spent a bit more and buy it in the Japanese shop could be wiser choice.
Most of the Japanese Kombu came from northern Japan / Hokkaido where no problem of
radiation scare has been reported — thanks goodness.
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Figs
Before Marks and Spenser started to sell more civilized products like a Wonder Bra etc.
the Figs said to be widely utilized though, I haven’t seen any of them in use, other than on
a very decent ancient sculpture wearing it. —– Anyhow I’m not a very fashion conscious
person, I’m more interested in its edible part.
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Fig is a very peculiar plant. Apparently it doesn’t have a flower still makes a fruits.
So that, in Japan they are called “Ichijiku” but to write its name in the Chinese character it is
[無花果] which mean “The Flowerless Fruits” though, its reading makes no “Ichijiku” at all.
Because of this, long since I’ve been wondering where this name “Ichijiku” derived from ?
Then, one day on a street market, I saw a fruits vendor selling the Figs.
And I knew a man working there was a Kurdish. I asked him, how they call Figs in their
country ? He taught me it is “Injee” —– With flash of light, I realized, this must be the
origin of the Japanese name “Ichijiku”.
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Fig is one of the biblical ancient fruits together with Grape, and originated from middle east.
Hence all over the Orient, Turkey to Persia, Egypt, Fig was commonly called Injee.
And it must came to China and to Japan through Central Asia = via Silk-road. So, I refer to a
Chinese Dictionary to see what is the Chinese name of Fig —– it was [映日果], which reading
in Mandarin is In-lee-quo, but local pronunciation is more like In-jee-quo which was a direct
copy of the original sound to Chinese character, and an additional letter, [果] quo, to indicate
a fruits. (Like the name of Japan / [日本], which reading in Mandarin is Lee-pen though, other
locals read it Jee-peng = So that, Marko Paolo wrote it down as Jipang hence Japan !)
From here it’s easy to see, a Chinese pronunciation “Injee-quo” has been changed to “Ichijiku”
= One long standing question was solved !
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But, without having a flower, how Fig can reproduce themselves ? —– As a matter of fact,
they are not flowerless plant at all, far from it, the fruits we are eating is nothing but a
compacted pile of tiny flowers. Hence, you can see numerous tiny seeds inside of Fig.
The seed was produced by the individual tiny flowers even more numerous than the seeds.
Those flowers were individually pollinated by also tiny Fig-wasp who came inside of a Fig
through small hole in the centre of fruits. —– Of cause, Fig-wasp was not come to a Fig to
pollinate but to mate and lay the eggs. (There are many different wasps which got different
life cycle —– some stay inside waiting the male wasp to come and fertilize her, and she lay
eggs there, and larvae grow in the Fig and male dies there. Some other wasps are came
and lay the eggs and their larvae are carnivorous and eat other wasp’s larvae. —– so on.)
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—– therefore, when we eat Figs, whether fresh or such as a Fig Roll, we are inevitably
eating the Fig-wasps as well. (In effect, it supply the Essential Amino-acid to the strict
vegetarian people = that is why they don’t die with rack of “Essential nutrition”.
Though, you don’t need to become nervous, since this situation is quite normal and common
= can you expect any mass-produced food such as Jam, Marmalade, Ketchup, what so ever =
which track-load of ingredients thrown-into a belt-conveyor, and is there anybody removing
the small insect and their tiny larvae comes with ? ) (Unlike Bottle-fly or Cockroach kind, who
is dealing with human derivative, the insects living with fruits are less likely carries the
germ related to the human diseases, hence they are much safer.)
There are many warning of food allergy, Nuts, Eggs, certain Protein etc etc. though I never
heard anybody got ill because of accidentally eat an insect —– may be without knowing,
we are eating them quite regularly, our body may not recognize them as foreign substance.
This is what “living with nature” mean, in its reality. 😀
This link may give you the idea, what is the situation.
http://www.rodalenews.com/bugs-food
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PS : Incidentally, the Boddhi-tree [Ficus, religiosa]
of which Shakya-Muni Buddha said to have reached
his Enlightenment, known locally as Peepal or
Pippal tree also belong to the same family / genus.
(Photo Right from Wiki media)
So, the Boddhi-tree is a small fruits version of Fig tree
hence has no flower. Despite the tree can reach up to
30 m, their fruits is not larger than a tip of finger.
( I do yet know how small the Fig-Wasp for this tree. —– Nearly 100 million years of
co-evolution, each species of Fig has their own gang of the Wasp species, otherwise
both of them would have had extinct long ago ! )
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Lettuce and Spinach — its Origin
One of the most unique Photographer / Artist, Karen showed her stunningly beautiful
photos of Canada Lettuce seed in her blog “Draw and Shoot” it awaken my memory that
I had the photo of this (or the one, closely related) plant — The seed-pod in her photo
looks very much like a Dandelion’s, as you can see. = In deed, this plant is a cousin of
Dandelion and as its name suggests, it closely related to the Lettuce.
Or the Lettuce was descended from this kind of Plant, namely
Luctuca of Asteraceae (Compositae) Family. When I found that this plant was the
ancestor of the Lettuce, I was shocked —– as it was completely out of my imagination.
( Not only it looks so different but also I’ve never seen it in an open field and flowering.)
A book, I saw said that “to eliminate its bitter tasted white sap, it took 200 years” though,
Wikipedia says Lettuce has been cultivated since ancient Egyptian time. So, the English
local farmer might have had their own approach, instead to import the established
variety from Mediterranean.
Something similar stories are in Spinach.
The photo left is a plant belongs to
Spinacia in Amaranthaceae family.
The Spinach was created from this kind
of plant, and this weed is also edible.
(Though, this plant contains Oxalic acid,
thus if eat a lots, it would cause an ulcer
on the mouth.)
The cultivated variety is not only to eat
leaves but also there was a variety to eat
thickened stem, called “Poorman’s Asparagus”. And other was called Lincolnshire Spinach.
—– In deed, we human being is very resourceful — or used to be so poor to scrape the life ?
Still, there is a very funny situation. Despite increased world population, therefore needs
lots more food and in deed great number of the people are starving, in the same time,
we are said to be wasting 1/3 of food. (couldn’t sell in the super-market, due to a blemish.
Or made them rotten in a fridge due to too much shopping.) —– Something wrong isn’t it ?
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Nattou (納豆) = Japanese food, others dread !
(Photo left ; Nattou I found in a Japanese food shop = £1.5 for 3~4 packages.
It comes with light colored soy-source and mustard.
Photo right ; Mixed all together with added spring onion = just in a minute, it’s ready to eat )
You know, Nattou is the most popular food in Japan —– still, so far, I never seen
any westerner ever eat, let alone liked it. 😀
Nattou is a fermented soy-bean. To make it, soy-bean was just boiled and placed between a
straw-mat and kept overnight, that’s all, nothing else. No trick, no additive, even no need to put
yeast kind of bacteria = in fact, the bacteria [Bactillus Subtilis var. natto] naturally comes from the
straw or any kind of dried grass hence fermentation will be naturally taking place.
( —– though, today the production was automatized in the factory where no straw
in sight = using cultivated pure bacteria instead, still some enthusiast making it
in traditional way )
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In nature, bacteria are everywhere, include inside of our body and some are doing pretty good
job helping digestion etc, but others are not necessary so, and cause illness.
Some are working to decompose the milk to make it a cheese, or to make a wine etc etc =
as long as it works useful to us, it is called fermentation otherwise called rotten.
So, fermented soy-bean is = to Japanese, it is a great fermentation but to rest of
the world, it is nothing but rotten. 😀
Rotten, because it smells like rotten and the bean became covered with sticky slime.
(In the same context, many of cheese here smells nothing but awfully rotten to the Japanese)
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To eat Nattou, Japanese are mixing it with soy-source, generally with mustard
and finely chopped spring onion — some people even prefer to add raw egg-yolk
to make it more slimy. (how delicious ! 😀 )
As the protein of soy-bean has been decomposed by the bacteria, it is much more digestible and
nutritional value is much higher than just boiled soy-bean. = Hence, Nattou is an indispensable
part of healthier Japanese food life.
And an interesting point is, as Japanese are familiar with slimy Nattou, they also
eat many slimy food such as Okra, name but few.
—– You may not think, Okra is slimy food because you eat them boiled.
But, Japanese eat it raw by cutting it into thin slices and mixed with dried fish flaks and drip of
soy-source = if you cut, you will notice, it got slimy mucilage =this texture is what
Japanese are after. ( I’ll write about this kind of cooking more on a coming post 🙂
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Incidentally, Okra is a sister of Hollyhock or Marshmallow, and a cousin of
Hibiscus = all in the same Malvaceae family hence if you clash those plant between your
fingers you will feel it has slimy texture inside = using this slimy mucilage property,
a soft sweets [Marshmallow] was originally created, as its name suggests.
(But today’s Marshmallow is an almost artificial sponge made by substitute)
And using its slimy substance as a fiber-bonding glue, Malveceae plants has been used for the
paper making —– you believe or not 🙂 ) As a matter of fact, lots of food such as cheap
Ice-cream couldn’t keep its soft creamy texture without having those slimy additives.
So, you may read a name of Zantan-gum on a food packages, it’s a slime created
by the rotten Cabbage ! —– horrified ? — Or you accept your unavoidable fate,
and start eating Nattou ? 😀
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—– thanks to its pure vegetarian contents, Nattou is very popular in the
Buddhist’s temple menu hence if any westerner had a chance to stay in a temple
= it would be a real dread as well, to face Nattou. 😀
But, I know, to get know to eat Nattou would be rewarded by really healthy life.
To open your mind (and the Mouth), it is the Zen —– ? —– really ?
Yah, —– may be. —- Ha ha ha 😀
___/\___
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Sushi Party
Me and the Artists friends, who also being involved in education, training program to the
disadvantaged people had a Sushi Party at a flat where those two are living. I prepared some
in my place and brought up to their flat. —– I used to have a Sushi party in my place though,
my flat runs out of the space to receive the guests 😀 —– Preparation for Temaki Sushi is just
cut the material to a stick shape, other than the shoppings 🙂 —– So, cutting is very easy, but
the hardest part I always found was = to get the best Avocado, = matured still not too soft 😀
(So, all the ingredients were prepared and cut into a stick shape for roll-up.
Photo left = Cucumber, Seafood Stick and the front three were Cooked Kombu (Kelp seaweed),
Cooked fried Tofu ( Soybean Curd) and Cooked Shiitake mushroom = those three were
boiled together in one hour or so, then Soy-sauce, a bit of sugar, vinegar were added = they
were the improvisation and the substitute of cooked Japanese Kanpyo (Dried Marlow) = as
Kombu and the Shiitake act as Dashi (taste base) no other Dashi was needed.
Photo middle = Salmon and front left was a substitute of Shime Saba (marinated Mackerel)
= Herring Rollmop and dark colored one was Tuna.
Photo right = Avocado, Cucumber and the front = Flied Egg and the Cheddar Cheese. )
So, I did some cooking and brought those to their flat in a big logistic operation and
I made famous Miso soup as well. 😉
To cook Sushi-rice to ideal condition is the most tricky part of Sushi making = Rice had to be
washed and soaked in the water over-night though, bring a big pan with soaked rice in water is
too awkward = so, next day, I drained the water and measured its amount ( for five or six people
I put 3 cups ( 1 cup = 250 ml ) of rice into a pan, and after washed, the water was completely
drained, then I put 4 cups of water for over-night soaking. Next day the water I drained was
3.5 cup = so, I added back the same amount of water in their kitchen, then put it on fire.
= When the rice started to boil vigorously, put the fire down to very small, and made it to
shimmer another 10 minutes.
Then change the cooked rice to a big bowl and let it cool down, and to add the Vinegar and
Sugar though this time I mixed the rice with Sushi Powder. (Sushi powder was made with
dried vinegar hence it prevent the rice become soggy —– but I found, it was a bit too sweet)
Photo middle was prepared Prawn for Nigiri Sushi (My friend Alberto was very keen to it 🙂 )
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Temaki Sushi is, to take some amount of rice on a piece of Nori (1/4 cut of the Nori sheet) then
put any ingredient(S) which was dripped in the Soy-sorce with Wasabi — then role it and eat 🙂
—–Every body try to use chop-stick (it was not obligatory though 😀 ) some were well
managed but some were not. As sushi has been well adapted in the west, the matter to cook it
by ourself is, where to get material or how improvised. = Instead to stick with traditional
ingredients, such as use of Avocado was invented in California — may be use Herring Rollmop
was my invention still they quite liked it 🙂
The party was a good success as everybody eat to the full or even over 😀
(Second round was requested )
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Cooking Daikon ( Japanese / Chinese White Radish )
Daikon (大根 in Japanese) is a sister of Radish (yes, that red small one) or Swede and hey are all in the same Brassicaceae family, hence having the same four-petals flower like Rape flower (but Daikon’s flower is in pale violet to white = in fact pretty pretty, innocent looked flower 🙂 )
Despite it is one of the most common root vegetable in Japan (also in China = Japan is exporting its shredded and dried products to China hundreds of thousands of tons every year) when I came to England, it was not in greengrocer’s (yet, French calls it as Molly and eat a lots though, theirs having black skin and as big as Japanese one (up to 4″ or 10 cm diameter = hence, it resembles girl’s leg with black tights = so, to see it in the piled-up mountain in St’ Michelle market in Paris, it looked very sexy 😀 )
(In Japan, call a girl “Daikon ashi” (Daikon leg) is a worst insult 😉 )
Even though Daikon is so popular and ubiquitous though, you may not see them in a restaurant menu —– situation looked the same in French or Chinese, I don’t remember I ever seen this vegetable in their menu, except a very rustic or family kitchen style restaurant, otherwise as a small side-dish to drink Sake = such as I describe hereafter. 🙂
( If you ever seen disc-shaped yellow pickles = Takuan = it is one of the pickled style Daikon though, it may not in an expensive Japanese restaurant 🙂 )
—– So, how Japanese is cooking this vegetable in their kitchen ?
Daikon is very easy to cook vegetable as its own or with another materials —– It can be eaten even raw = grated ( the source to dip Tempra) or finely cut into thread (comes with Sashimi) and often boiled with Octopus or Squid because the Daikon is having a Digestive Enzyme which soften Octopus, on top of many nutrition and vitamins 🙂
The photo above is Furo-fuki Daikon ( 風呂吹大根 ) = Daikon was boiled with dashi, that’s all !
* Boil the Dashi = as the powder, or in a small packet, or use Dashi Kombu (Kelp sea weed) and a bit of Salt.
* Then put cut Daikon and boil — may be 60 min or so, until it was cooked soft (— it would be disintegrated if it was boiled too long —– still, it will make a nice soup. 🙂 )
Even simpler is Dengaku ( 田楽) = just boil Daikon in a plain water until it was cooked soft.
* And eat it with a Miso based source = Miso with small amount of Vinegar and a bit of Sugar, + small amount of Mirin (Japanese Cooking Sake or a bit of wine, White Rum can be used instead )
* For additional flavor — I add few drop of West-Indian Hot-chilly Source, or Wasabi, Mustard. — When I mixed with Thai Tom-yam-Ku paste = it wasn’t too bad —– any variation you can try and enjoy the taste. ( If it became too runny with vinegar etc, just add more Miso. 🙂 )
(For Dengaku, you can put many different materials too, such as Carrot, Cauliflower, Celery even Potato. — Japanese use Konnyaku (it’s a funny staff / Mannan product) as well. ) —– from here, another popular Japanese cooking called “Oden” is only a step away. Basically Oden is a cooking of the chopped Daikon and various fish cakes boiled together and pick up of those you like from the pan to your own small dish and eat. (normally with mustard = why mustard is, = since Daikon and Mustard belongs to the same botanical family, their taste mix well, = same as that, Tomato based cooking will mix well with chilli pepper, since they are in the same family)
—– Now you have seen the key of the Daikon cooking = main seasoning in Furofuki Daikon was in its Dashi, but the Dengaku, it was in the Source. Still in both cooking, the dominant taste is Daikon itself.
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When an Italian guy who seemed to have very good taste bud, first ever eat Daikon and he was very impressed and asked me how to make it. —– And he was even surprised, why Italian doesn’t have such cooking, despite it is very popular in France.
( Only a small trouble with eating Daikon is, it could make you to produce strongest mankind ever know kind of fart, yet still, it was known to be not poisonous = hence, it makes short of health warning. 😀 )
—– Not because of its humble, Minimalistic Zen approach, but simply, it’s so tasty = So, this is my Festive time eating. (on top of Temaki-Sushi. 😀 )
If you haven’t tasted it yet, I strongly recommend you to try.
___/\___
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PS : I received an Email from my Chinese friend Sing Lee, the way how to cook it in Chinese style !
<<< (There was the Photos from him though, they have been disappeared — copyright issues ? —– I don’t know. What a shame.)
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Stollen ( German Fruits Cake for Xmas )
On my daily life, there are quite few things missing —– on the shopping front, it is far easier
to count what I buy rather than listing up what I don’t buy = such as other than fresh vegetables and
the fruits, a sort of sweets or confectionery is completely missing = simply because I’m buying
essentials which I desperately need ! = if I don’t eat I may die = So that, I have to eat = hence, I buy
the food staffs, but in the cheapest way = fresh raw material = never buy processed food, let
alone junk-food or that kind, bottled drink, any alcohol, which we don’t need for our survival 😀
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Don’t get me wrong, I’m not following ANY idea of “Healthy diet” or Religious restriction what so ever
but simply I’m living the life of poor-man. Cooking out of fresh materials is the cheapest way to eat.
This mind-set, “poor-man” (in Buddhist’s term, Bhikku = Beggar) seemed to have originated from
my family = Zen priest’s and the life in the mountain = NO waste of food, food is to survive.
—– And in the same context, no waste of anything (since, I’m not printing a money or ever
produced even a single grain of rice) so to repair and recycle what so ever it was possible, is the norm.
In the same way, wear the clothes is for its essential function, not for fashion or vanity = hence,
as long as it is wearable (with stitching repair etc), no need to buy another one.
—– So, I’m still using my heavy-duty jacket I bought in Japan 40 years ago 🙂 — though, it seems,
it has gone too far hence, some body told me “If you like to come, buy decent clothes and wear a tie”
= so, I needed to buy a trouser and jacket last week (last time I did shopping for clothe (other than
underwear and socks) was two years ago 😀 )
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Therefore, in my shopping, I’m going through a forests of foods and goods like a remote land-scape.
Still, it is not a kind of fixed mind or prohibition, the mind recognizes those item which I don’t need is
not there —– sweets, confectionery or the fashion display doesn’t take any attention = or they are
almost NOT exists. (I might be an enemy of the super-market —– or for them, £10 par week
kind of person has no statistical significance :-D) —– THOUGH, once in a year, I’m making
an exception for a German cake Stollen which is only sold in the Xmas time.
Stollen is a German equivalent of Xmas pudding but not as heavy as Xmas pudding with Rum or
Brandy, still it is a kind of festive fruits cake.
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—– I’m not an expert of cake making, let alone Stollen. I only know this, in the past 7~8 years since
I saw a woman buying this from the Lidl saying “This Stollen is our traditional Xmas cake”
As the woman pronounced “Sh-tollen” I noticed she is a German. (And Lidl shop was originated
from Germany)
—– So, as a cultural interest, I bought one and realized this must be the symbol of their winter life.
= In the Autumn, people, kids goes woods and gather edible small fruits, Blue-berry
kind and Walnuts, Pine-nuts etc. And use those harvested and dried fruits to make a
cake for winter festive season. (Though, today’s Stollen was made with imported Raison, Almond
/ Marzipan etc —– still showing and maintaining their traditional folk culture 🙂 )
I like the life rooted on the Earth and live accordingly to the season = life of
the moment to moment.
Pick the Berry in a late Summer, preparing for the coming Winter — and eat the gift of the Nature
in the Festive time remembering the Sun in the Past Summer = To repeat this, ten or so times,
the kids become good grown-ups and start to have their own family.
—– or, to repeat 60~80 times is what our LIFE is = smell of sun drenched bush, or cool air
of forest’s floor —– the memory of brother or sister, friends etc etc = and the cycle of the LIFE
= therefore, as I bought the same Stollen again, it’s mean yet another year has past.
I wouldn’t say, either congratulation or sorry = it’s just another year 😀
(And, I wouldn’t imply the life has an equivalent value of 80 Stollen 😀 😀 )
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San-sai (山菜) = Edible Plants from Mountain
Early summer, lots of Japanese goes out field or mountain to gather edible plants.
They appreciates each plant’s distinctive tastes and the flavor which is unique to the season.
= Naturally, I receive my friends Email with those stories and photographs (Link here). (He was few years
Younger member of the Alpine Club = In his older Posts, you may see that he is climbing snowy mountain
every week and skiing ! = That’s how Japanese is living with the Nature )
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—– those custom was behind of my Bracken story. = for me, as an ex-patriot, it is a sort of nostalgia to my
Japanese taste, in the same time it is a resistance to the modern western culture “Vegetable comes
from Tesco”, —– but in fact, it often came from a farm other-side of the earth,
and regardless the time of year. (Still, I got tasteful great memory to eat full-ripen tomato in the
very middle of dizzyingly vast, red tomato field in a Canary Island which tomato is destined to
a shelf of super market in England. A farmer stopped me to pick, and gave me the better one 😀 )
For a sake of convenience, it degrading the one’s only life to a life in statistical number.
To live in its moment mean = unique moment = unique to its year’s season. = not standardized
homogeneous pattern, which was mass produced and sold by a Supermarket.
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The stories from Japan is not a kind of surprising news = went so and so place and picked this and that plants then
enjoyed eating them as a Templa and so-on.
(In the photo left, underneath is Wasabia Japonica (that Wasabi /山葵 , comes with Sushi.
They grow in a very clean mountain stream). And the Small Bamboo Shoots (Takenoko / 竹の子 ).
The big one on top is Aralia Cordata (Udo / 独活).
Right photo is also in the Araliaceae family, Eleutherococcus Sciaphylloides (Koshi-abura / こしあぶら) = may
be not in the west and its bitter taste may be too strong for other than to Japanese ). —– Yet, I noticed, this
Japanese tradition may have some displeasure to the western people which might be originated
from the difference of the natural environment in Japan, and their attitude toward the plants.
= In comparison to the England where only 20% of the land is mountainous, Japan got their 80% is the mountain
= hence the area where those plants grow is huge and those plants are everywhere = human activities wouldn’t
affect so much (anyhow people wouldn’t go to the same area which got too much competition) and
the plant would recover by making side shoot.
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—– It may sound too funny though, only a week or two ago I discovered that I can use Google and Wikipedia
in Japanese. 😀
Because of my knowledges of the plants are all in Japanese, I didn’t necessary wrote the name of the plant in English
or in Latin before. —– But when I Googled and saw Wikipedia in Japanese, then found the English name, I noticed,
some of the plant which Japanese eat, are the garden plants in the west.
Like Foster, they are quite common in the gardens here, and in Japanese mountain they are everywhere.
= they are easy to distinguish and easy to cook such as to put into Miso soup though, the western people may not
feel comfortable to eat them as they make pretty flowers.
The Japanese “Udo” Aralia Cordata is now widely sold in England with a fancy name of “Aralia Cordata Sun King”
hence people never considered to eat as “Udo” like Japanese does.
There is a very firm idiosyncrasy
= plants in the garden is only for visual pleasure never for eating !
And they may not want to be seen as an hungry people. 😀
Kitchen garden might be only for a show-off of their rich folly and for a talking piece.
—– For a Japanese, nature is not just for looking at. They eat a lot from the nature as well
= literally living together.
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Eating Bracken — Really ?
Eating raw fish such as in Sushi or Sashimi is now widely accepted
in the west. (And pretty well appreciated)
But they are only a tip of the iceberg in the “wired” Japanese menu.
A notorious fermented soya-bean = Nattou (納豆) might already been known to many
Japanese food connoisseur though, it is still not appreciated or in fact utterly rejected
by most of the westerners who feel it just rotten. 😀
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Fermentation in the food making process is a tricky business, hence its subtle technique is
unique to each culture and the products may only be consumed by the people in its culture.
One of the Japanese delicacy [Shio-kara / 塩辛] was made out of Squid or Fish-guts with
salt, kept in a jar long time, and made them decomposed and melt. For some Japanese,
it is a mouth watering delicacy. (But may not be for your mouth 🙂 ) —– so, I thought,
this kind of cooking is unique only to Japanese though, I learned from Italian chef, they
make very special delicacy = keep the chopped rabbit meat in a sealed jar long time to
make them ferment and melt = it is the same idea.
And in Iceland, people makes very unique delicacy out of Shark meat, by keeping it long
time and made it half rotten. (then eat its ammonium smelled meat,
sound very yummy isn’t it :-D)
So, Japanese to accept [Rotten Milk products] such as Cheese, took long time
as its funny smell is nothing but a prohibitingly dirty smell to us.
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When bacteria decomposed the protein, generally we call its effect“Rotten”
though, if people find it is still useful, it was called “Fermentation” 😀
Strangely, our Taste-bud feel, somewhat decomposed protein (a kind of Amino-acid) tasty.
So that, a Soy-source was made out of decomposed (fermented) soy-bean protein.
And a Vietnamese Yokumani-source was a decomposed fish protein.
Even a beef has to be kept, about one month in a storage for its meat start to decompose
and become tender by the bacteria and its own enzyme.
And to make a good Palma-ham needs to have very delicate fermentation process = if it’s
gone too far, the meat is “rotten” and start to give a bad smell.
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But here I’m not showing fermented food, but just boiled Bracken. Yes, ubiquitous Bracken.
In the west, Bracken was classified to be a poisonous plant, but in Japan
everybody eat Bracken (Warabi / 蕨 ).
It may contain something = may be same extent of Spinach containing Oxalic Acid which
cause ulcer in the corner of the mouth if you eat a lot. ( Popeye must had one 😀 )
Unlike Spinach, eat 10 stems of Bracken once or twice a year wouldn’t cause any trouble.
As a matter of fact, non of the plant in the Fern family include Bracken has been used for
Herbal Medicine as they don’t have any potent chemical = despite of them on the Earth
hundreds of millions of years, they haven’t evolved to have even a flower, let alone a poison.
In the mountain shelter where I was a voluntary keeper, we collected 5 bin (80 cm tall) full
of Bracken to pickle in salt water, and served it to the guests all through the summer.
Naturally I eat as much amount everyday. And a pickled Bracken was commonly sold at
shops as a local delicacy. —– In a kind of wisdom, traditionally it was boiled in ash water
though, I found it doesn’t need to be bothered. (And I’m still here, live and kicking 😀 )
(A bitter tasted chemical seemed to be dissolved into brine or boiling water, and disappear)
Of cause, it has to be soft young shoot = the timing to get it would be crucial.
(This year, it came 2 weeks late though, colder region or mountain side may be even later)
Strangely, when I went to a park (I wouldn’t say where, because in the strict term it might
be illegal = I never heard any English Nettle-Picker was ever prosecuted though,
I saw a news, Japanese was fined for picking Bracken = Racial matter ? ) where
I collect them every year, I found somebody had already there. —– M m m ? ? ?
Did any Japanese come here ? Or any English people started to eat them ?
To eat boiled (5~7 Min’) Bracken, it has to be only with small amount of
Soy-source and Bonito fish shavings (Katsuo-bushi) to appreciate its
unique taste. (I think, they can be eaten just with Soy-source or even
with Mayonnaise but its taste might be too strong to settle with Bracken )
If you are interested in, you can try.
And enjoy natural taste of early summer. 🙂
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