Smoked Kamasu (Barracuda) with Fukkura-san (tagine-style donabe)

Sunday night was the last Hollywood Bowl show for us this year. I smoked the filets of Kamasu (barracuda) to take to a picnic dinner at the Bowl. I simply seasoned the fish with salt & pepper, then smoked in Fukkura-san (tagine-style donabe) for about 30 minutes over low heat. Very delicious! The basic smoking recipe with Fukkura-san can be found in toiro's website.


Tonight's show was themed as "India Calling!". There were several performers of both traditional and contemporary Indian music and it was awesome! It was so great to see so many Indian people at the venue, too. I've never been to India, but through the music and people, I felt they have the amazing culture and I really want to visit there someday. Tonight's event made me hungry for the Indian food, too. This was definitely the "best-smelling" Hollywood Bowl event I've ever been! I saw many Indian families sharing their homemade picnic dishes and they looked/smelled so yummy!!


Our fish and salads were great. And, of course, I loved my onigiri (with konbu filling).

Temaki Sushi Dinner...Making Sushi Rice with Donabe

Please check out my new "Chabudai"! I brought this back from Japan. Chabudai is a Japanese short-height table which can be used to serve meal or tea. I've been looking for the right kind for a while and finally found it.


I was so thrilled to see it unwrapped. It's a hand-made of the traditional "Echizen-Nuri" lacquer table with the folding legs. Echizen-nuri is one of the oldest and best-known lacquer ware from Fukui, Japan.


Look, how detailed and beautiful the finish is!


I also love staring this new Chabudai with my double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san".


Speaking of "Kamado-san", I made the sushi rice and we did Temaki (hand-roll) sushi dinner. With this donabe, you can make the really shiny and delicious sushi rice! You can cook the rice exactly in the same way as cooking the regular rice, except that you use about 1.5 tablespoons less water to cook the 3 rice-cup of white rice. It's because you will add the vinegar seasoning after the rice is cooked, so you want to cook it a little firmer than the regular serving rice.

Here's the recipe for the regular rice. So, you can use 2 tablespoons less water than what the instruction says (measure 600 ml water, then take 2 tablespoons out).


While the rice is cooking, make the vinegar seasoning. Combine 5 tablespoons of brown rice vinegar (or regular rice vinegar), 1.5 tablespoons of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of salt and dissolve completely. As soon as the rice is cooked and rested for 20 minutes, as the recipe says, open the lids and add the vinegar seasoning to the rice. Fluff the rice quickly so that the rice is evenly seasoned. Then, cover the top with a tenugui cloth or a towel and set aside.


Once the rice is ready, making temaki dinner is so easy! We had maguro akami (tuna, red meat), tai (snapper), tako (octopus), hamachi (yellowtail), sake (salmon), maguro chu-toro (medium-fatty tuna), yaki-uni (baked uni), natto (fermented soy beans), minced okra, etc. I think I made myself about 15 temaki rolls! I was so stuffed after the dinner.


Yet, we still had a good amount of the leftover. So, for the next day lunch, I prepared the chirashi sushi bowls with the leftover ingredients. We got to enjoy the wonderful sushi rice and fish twice.

Steam-fry Pork and Bean Sprouts with "Fukkura-san" (Tagine-style Donabe)

Naoko's 10-minute cooking. This is my lazy easy cooking after a long brutal day of work. This tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san" is a savior when I don't have time or energy to cook.


I simply piled up the ingredients, in the order of the bean sprouts, (Kurobuta) pork belly slices, thinly sliced ginger and garlic, sliced abura-age (fried tofu pouch), and (our home-grown) cherry tomatoes. No oil or water is added.


Then, with the lid on, I simply put the "Fukkura-san" on the stove over medium+ heat, and cooked for 7-8 minutes and rested for 3 minutes.


Voila, it's ready! I made a quick sauce (1.5 T soy sauce, 1.5 T black vinegar, 1 tsp karashi mustard, 2 tsp sesame paste) and poured over the cooked ingredients. If you are really really lazy, you can just use a store-purchased sauce (such as ponzu or sesame sauce) and pour over it.

It was fantastic. The sauce and the natural juice from the ingredients blended well, so it tasted really great. I really enjoyed this healthy dish!

Thank you, "Fukkura-san".

Okoge Gohan

Kamado-san (double-lid rice cooker donabe) makes wonderful "Okoge" or crust of the rice. If you cook just a couple of minutes longer than you normally do for the plain rice, it will develop the nice brown crust in the bottom part. I love the "okoge" and I always try to get the best "okoge" part in my serving.


Today, I used my new black rice paddle! It's lined with the residue of bamboo charcoal, which prevents the rice from sticking to the paddle, as well as it's supposed to release a little "minerally" character to the rice. I like it!

Hot Dog and Beer!

I am back in LA. Yes, I miss Japan, and I miss my family and friends there. But, I love LA also! Los Angeles is a wonderful city with wonderful people and culture. Since I returned to L.A., I've been eating very American food. I just don't have time to go shopping or cook this week.

We picked up a large pizza from Two Boots yesterday, and and tonight was hot dogs and beer at Wurstkuche in Downtown. Pretty, pretty good!

I will get back to my donabe cooking very soon...once my jetlag is gone and am ready to cook again.

Back To Japan (Fall 09) Day 10...From Narita to LAX

Time flies really, really fast. It was already the day to leave for Los Angeles. I will miss my family until we see each other next time!

Before the shuttle bus arrival, we had our last meal together at a local homemade udon place. I had a simple udon with abura-age and onsen tamago.

From Urawa, the shuttle bus ride was about 1.5 hours to Narita Airport. My flight was in the early evening and it departed on time.

First Class meal is definitely much better in the flight from Narita to LAX, than the other way. In this flight (United), I really enjoyed the meal!

Appetizers...Escargot Bourguignonne in brioche, and vermouth poached scallop and shiitake mushroom with pine nut, basil cream sauce.

Soup...Mediterranean vegetable soup.

Then I skipped the salad and jumped to the "Washoku zen selection".

Appetizers of salmon sushi with fish eggs, roasted lime flavored beef with miso, quick-blanched tuna, broiled salmon, sansho-flavored sweet smelt, seaweed-flavored flounder and somen noodles topped with sweet egg.

Main course...Barbecued eel cabayaki, shrimp and scallop flavored with sake and seaweed, marinated broiled sea bass, steamed tofu and assorted vegetables served with steamed rice and Japanese pickled vegetables. I was so full after the main course, so I didn't go for either cheese course or dessert.

The wine list was kind of okay. I drank mostly 1998 Vranken, Champagne Cuvee Diamant, which was decent.

I slept quite well after the dinner!

Back To Japan (Fall 09) Day 9...Breakfast in Hakone

Good morning from Hakone, Japan!

The fog is gone and we had the beautiful weather this morning. The view from our hotel room was so gorgeous.

From our room, we can also see the big 大 (meaning, "big" or "great".) sign from Hakone's famous "Daimonji Yaki" ceremony. In this ceremony which is held in August, the ceremonial fire is lit in the letter, so this big glowing character appears in the dark night. I would love to stay here again when they have the festival next summer!

We were already hungry for the breakfast. At 7.30am, the hotel restaurant was already quite busy. So many chefs were working in the open-kitchen.

At the hotel restaurant, you can choose Western or Japanese-style breakfast.

I chose Japanese style set. The okayu (Japanese porridge) was so good! Grilled fish was fresh. Everything was so tasty. Waaaa...I love Hakone.

Gochisosama deshita!

Back To Japan (Fall 09) Day 8...Sushi Kaiseki Dinner at Hyatt Hakone

We drove to Hakone to stay at Hyatt Hakone Spa & Resort for the weekend. Hakone is a famous onsen region, in Kanagawa Prefecture. This mountain resort is about 2.5-hour drive from Urawa.

On the way to Hakone, we stopped by at a highway service area for a quick snack. I had Asahikawa Shoyu Ramen. Yum.

We got to the hotel in the afternoon. Our room is so spacious and has the panoramic view of Hakone mountains. It was very foggy but I could still feel it.

After the most relaxing time in onsen (hot springs), we went to the hotel bar for Champagne aperitif time. Champagne tasted especially tasty after onsen!

Tonight's dinner was at hotel's sushi restaurant. We had the private room.

More Champagne! We had a toast with Dufour, Champagne Brut. This is a very special Champagne, because it's made from 100% old vine (average more than 50 years old) Pinot Blanc! Yes, Pinot Blanc is, in fact, one of the official grape varieties of Champagne and some producers still plant some of this grape variety. It had the very complex palate of nuts, butter, minerals, pear, etc. Such an elegant wine.

Marinated summer vegetables and mackerel.

Sashimi...Kanpachi, Ama-ebi, and Nama-tako. Mirai Corn, served raw.

Grilled scallop with butter sake sauce.

Cold Chawanmushi with ikura.

Assorted seasonal nigiri sushi...Kinme dai, Hotate, Calamari, Hirame, Toro, Uni, Tamago, Kuruma-ebi. Served with miso soup. My nephew had his own sushi plate.

Ao-ume (green plum) and peach jelly with blamange.

Outstanding master work!! I wish this restaurant was in LA, so that I could come to eat here more often!

Gochisosama deshita!