Kamakura

Miko priestesses dance at a Kamakura shrine to gagaku music

dango roasting over a grill

Visiting Kamakura, an ancient temple site that has long been a standard omairi locale for the Japanese, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I have already been to Todaiji and the Daibutsu, so the famous (although very slightly smaller) giant Buddha in Kamakura is a local next step.

Still, while the temples are in fact quite beautiful, there are so many of them and they are of a similarity such that looking at them one after the other is, well, tiring to say the least. There's only so much walking through gates and admiring of chrysanthemum flowers that anyone can take before their stomach starts grumbling.

sweet sake manju steam buns

Fortunately I happened across a section of town that offered hot food and treats from street-side stalls. Dango, dumplings made from sweet rice flour and skewered before roasting, are a specialty of the region.

I also enjoyed the soft fluffy texture of sake manju – steamed buns made with sake and sweet adzuki bean filling – on a bamboo bench while watching the crowds mill about shopping for trinkets and snacks. The three flavors pictured, from the left, were yomogi, kokutou brown sugar, and mochi rice. Yomogi is a Japanese variety of mugwort, but it's not nearly so bad as that sounds. Think of it as a leafy and faintly flavored kind of an herb. In Japan, it's mostly used as a kind of natural food coloring, although it does impart a nuance of vegetative flavor to the steam bun.
 
I munched on sweets and snacks for a bit longer before deciding that my stomach was telling me it was time for something more substantial.

Lunch led me to sausages. Thick, bratwurst-like sausages with local craft lager from Enoshima. A German experience is not exactly what I was expecting out in a rural and old-school-traditional Japanese town, but it was good nonetheless.

And it had the biggest line in front of its stall. I guess times do change.

mystery meat - but of course!

Quiz time! Here's some mystery meat for you - something I'm guessing not all of you have given a try yet. Or seen sold as food.

Ok ok, here's a hint - what's four-legged, hangs out in the desert, and has one or two humps on its back, varying by region?

If you answered anything other than camel, you were totally wrong! It's totally camel.

double the hump for double the flavor!

I got this in a seal-pack from a friend who claims it's common eating back home. It was heavily salted, but rather palatable. I would say it tastes a lot like kangaroo, but since that may not be very helpful to some of you as a description, I will say it was similar to a fat-free and somewhat coarser lamb shank.

We had it pan fried with a simple stir-fry that utilized the vegetables around the house at the time. By the way, back home for my Uighur friend is a city in the Xinjiang region of China, an area of what used to be the Silk Road. Apparently camels are used not only for packing, but raised as we raise cattle as a source of food.

It was a first for me, and I'll be sure to ask what kinds of recipes camel tends to be used in!

rare - less medium rare than it once was?

Many people might agree with me about this already, which makes bringing it up controversially as if I were arguing for its cause sort of a feint, but steaks are best rare to medium rare. This has been a recent realization for a lot of people though, with overblown fears of raw meat poisoning and poor understanding about cook temperatures in general driving people to scorch their steaks. But in a meat where succulence is everything I don’t at all understand why you would want to fry through the core to make a burnt-out chunk of what could have been magical.

garlic steak flavored rice crackers - mystery genius?

I remember as a young kid going to this supposedly fancy steakhouse called The Hindquarter, which my parents had somehow procured a gift certificate for. When I was young the family wasn’t invested heavily into red meat, and honestly speaking steak was a virtual mystery to me, something that I only saw on Swanson Hungry-Man and Applebees commercials.

This steak, which based on my childhood memory - mixed with my current knowledge - I am convinced must have been rump roast, was so blackened and cooked to death that my young pre-teen teeth never were able to bite through it. I remember being profoundly disappointed, since the waiter had gone out of his way to recommend it to me. Steaks were supposed to be expensive because they were incomparably delicious.

It wasn’t until a barbecue at a family friend’s house - Leonard's house - some years later that my image of them was revived. Leonard’s steaks were juicy and medium-rare. He hadn’t used rump either (who tricks a kid into thinking that’s a nice cut?), but skirt steak. He wasn’t so afraid of a lawsuit that he wouldn't dare to leave the center soft and pink. His confident steaks were appalling, revitalizing, and eye-opening for me at the time. That juicy, rich color matched the richness of Swanson's commercials perfectly.

By the way getting that perfect pink is all about temperature control. That and a grill pan. You can do it on a flat pan, but get the grill pan - it’s just more awesome!

hanami bento

It’s blooming season for sakura – the Japanese cherry tree. When Japanese people think of cherry trees, they tend to think about blossoms, not berries. These trees do not fruit. For about two weeks out of the year, they blossom fully and beautifully, and then the petals quickly fall off as green leaves sprout and take their place. There is a word that exists to describe this one seasonal moment, when the pinkish-white petals scatter from the trees in swirls through the air – hanafubuki. Read literally the word would mean “flowers blowing like a breath of snow”, and that’s a good idea of the impression that you get by watching these trees. It's a beautiful time of year and a perfect chance to picnic.

for some reason the theme appeared to be cats

In good tradition everyone goes out to picnic under the flowers, with blue plastic mats, near-ridiculous amounts of liquor, and bento boxes full of food. This year the blossoming of the flowers seems to have timed itself up with the haru ichiban – the first warm spring wind of the year. Here’s the bento we had for lunch, made by the diligent and lovely Takako Nakayama. The stacking form of the bento box is a great way to keep food separated and to include a variety of items in your picnic basket. This has really put me in just the right mood for posting on some traditional bento side dishes, as well as picnic items!

mascarPOne (and caramelized balsamic pear)

Mascarpone is already fantastic on its own, just as it is. Still, having a few simple – yet elegant – recipes for it will make you feel fancier about yourself and raises your overall sexiness. Caramelized balsamic pears with mascarpone on crostini - this is one of those versatile entries that would be equally fit on a picnic, as an appetizer to a meal, or for a light dessert. 

The caramelization of the pears can be aided by sprinkling a handful of sugar over top. Of course you may consider peaches, nectarines, or apricots, but remember before caramelizing that you want to take out as much of the liquid as possible from the fruit. Caramelizing food, as with searing it, is a dry fry technique.

Caramelization, as it happens, is the reaction that occurs as water molecules are drawn out of sucrose through evaporation, and high temperatures are reached within the component sugars. You can caramelize something even if it’s juicy to start with, but you might end up with a syrup. And, since you’ll be burning off the water anyway, the process will be much quicker if you remove the excess liquids before putting it in the pan.

just get some color on that fruit

After drying out your fruit as best you can on paper towels, get your frying pan hot over medium / medium high heat. Place your fruit in the pan and let it cook for a bit, before pouring over your balsamic vinegar. As that begins to bubble away, sprinkle a bit of sugar (brown for sticky fruit!) over the fruit and turn them over.

You can sprinkle a bit more sugar here before turning them back over. They should start to become dark and syrupy. When you see that the sugar has melted and the fruit looks shiny, take the slices out and put them on a plate to cool. You can use them warm, or leave them in the refrigerator for nice chilled slices. The texture is quite different but delicious either way.

 
The mascarpone, as we have already confirmed, is good as it is, but let’s take it up a notch. Add either a bit of honey, Grand Marnier (or similar liqueur), or lemon juice to the cheese and stir until well blended. Toast your thinly cut bread, scrape some of the mascarpone mix over it, and finish by placing a couple slices of caramelized fruit on top – magnificent.

 

shippoku at Marugame Udon

I guess I should explain some of these words here. Udon is a type of Japanese noodle, made with wheat-flour and saltwater, which is characterized by its thickness and stiff bite (what the Japanese refer to as having 'backbone'). Shippoku is a style that that udon is sometimes served in. Imagine a hearty soup crammed full of mountain vegetables and swirled with these thick noodles to get a good idea. Actually you don’t have to imagine, here’s a shot for you:
 

shippoku udon

The udon over at Marugame Udon is made to order and will definately fill you up, although locals complained to me over wait times (10-15 minutes? Which didn’t seem like a big deal). Probably this is because most udon joints, which serve it up as-you-order-it quick and cheap to boot, have created an image of udon as a kind of fast food. Salary men in business suits rush in alongside workers in rubber boots and paint splattered garbs, throw down a few coins, and slurp away. In a flurry of chopsticks they’re all rushing off again – maybe they sat down for 3 or 5 minutes - to get back to their jobs. I guess there's a lot of people that just don't have the patience to wait around for noodles while on their tight schedules.

While sipping on hot tea given to us by the hostess, I found the wait at Marugame Udon - with its old-fashioned atmosphere and relaxed pace - to be a refreshing change to the eat-as-you-stand debacle I often encounter. Sometimes a little wait can make food more tantalizing, giving your taste buds time to consider what’s to come. And the price, which was a few hundred yen more than other places, didn’t bother me much when I started eating the hearty home-styled goodness.

sweet strawberries Batman, a salad!

Sweet strawberry spinach salad yin-yang-ed with balsamic vinaigrette chicken scaloppini

The yin-yang effect - the sweetness and color of the red strawberries will contrast delightfully with the tangy, deep-maroon colored balsamic.

Let’s marinate our chicken, and then make the salad. To rightfully give it the scaloppini tag, we’ll need to flatten the breasts out a bit. Sandwich the breasts between sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap and lightly pound them down with a mallet, the goal being to get an equal thickness throughout. Once that’s done, season your scaloppini with salt and pepper and set in a tray or bowl. Pour enough balsamic vinegar to nicely cover (3-4 tablespoons should do it). Add a drizzle of olive oil. If you have it, sprinkle some fresh tarragon or sage leaves on top. I didn't at the time so there's none here in mine. Mix lightly and put away in the fridge.

Get some nice ripe strawberries (often smaller ones are sweeter, don’t be fooled) and slice them up finely. Sprinkle a bit of salt on them, and put aside in a small bowl. Wash your spinach thoroughly, and either use  whole leaves (my preference, if the leaves are small) or cut them into large pieces. Back to the bowl and add in either a bit of white wine or (if you’re avoiding alcohol) some white wine vinegar. Just a small bit, and then stir together gently. Now, drizzle some olive oil on your spinach leaves and toss. A pinch of sea salt adds a great crunch and taste. Add half of your strawberry mix and toss again gently. I recommend waiting until serving to put the other half of your strawberry mixture up on top to give the salad its beautiful color.

They've been marinating for long enough by now, so whip out your breasts like it's half-time at the Superbowl. Get a frying pan hot but don’t put in any oil – there’s enough of that already in the marinade. Shake off excess juices before putting it in the pan. There should be a sizzle! At this point, turn the heat down to medium / medium-low so that our thinned chicken doesn’t dry out. The key here is to not overcook the chicken. The cooking time is very short because of the thinness. When color comes half-way up the side of the chicken, turn them over. A good thing to keep in mind is that the chicken will continue cooking in its own heat even after you take it off the pan, so it’ll be done before you know it.

When plating, I tried to showcase the different dishes as individuals rather than combining them. Simple, light, and totally delicious - try this one out!

off days - not to be confused with days off

what is that mess?

Believe me I have my share of off days. Shrimp, bacon, mushrooms with kale and a glass of grape juice might not look pretty, but leftovers and exhaustion can force you to be creative. At least that's the idea. Sometimes even when you love cooking you just don’t feel like doing it. Long day at work, the whole story - you’ve heard it, you know it. But you can’t give in to the Big Macs of the world. Cooking isn’t just good for your body, it’s important to make your own things - to have control over what you’re eating and not to give in to fast food alternatives. It’s satisfying to not be reliant on some teenager sitting over an at-best-weekly-oil-changed fryer. Even if the stuff that you make does come out a little…unorthodox, sometimes.

We all need a few ideas for super-quick things to make when we've waiting too long and we're already hungry. I'll continue to post my impressions on quick and dirty meals here on the blog; for now take a look at rmcrayne's great article on HubPages, containing ideas for super fast and super simple meals.

designing from symbols: the yin-yang

The yin-yang is already a symbol derived from life – following the yearly patterns of the sun and moon – and has an obvious balance to it. When we design things, we want to find a kind of balance to the design as well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to talk to you about the yin-yang as the Chinese representation of the celestial universe. I needed an easily recognizable symbol that we can talk about, and we’ll be talking about it from a food design perspective.

sweet strawberry salad with balsamic scaloppini

When I start talking about food, there are two distinctions here: balance in appearance, and balance in flavor. Flavor has all the nuances of a painter’s palette; it’s just that we see all the colors and tones with our tongue rather than our eyes. The methods of design are also similar: choosing colors that harmonize as well as colors that contrast is what will intrigue us and keep us interested.

It’s also a simple way of working with meals – choosing dishes in pairs - with each complementing or contrasting the other. Keeping them separate also takes away the worry of trying to blend complicated flavors. Choosing something with color-contrast as well as flavor-contrast will be sure to get all of your senses going. That’s it for the theory, let’s take a look at some ideas:

Sweet strawberry spinach salad yin-yang-ed with balsamic vinaigrette chicken scaloppini

Salt pork cutlet yin-yang-ed with avocado bean sprout purée and Chinese cabbage

Cucumber cod fillet yin-yang-ed with spicy-hot red bell pepper soup

salty pork with avocado bean sprout purée

Basically, you just want to let yourself be creative; thinking about groups of flavors and colors instead of constraining yourself to the names of vegetables. You might be concerned about melon with lamb, but if you thought about caramelized brown with a deep rich green? You might be afraid to put grapefruit with honeyed chicken, but would it bother you to put sweet with sour? Free your artistic palette as well as your sensory palate. Oh yeah, recipes for the dishes pictured here soon!