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Showing posts with label Fruit and Vegetable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fruit and Vegetable. Show all posts

Sunday, December 12, 2010

GIFTS OF FOOD



My friends often give me interesting food to try. Recently my friend Junko gave me two plastic containers of food. She said they would be good with rice and beer. One of the containers had small fish she said her father had prepared (no idea what kind but I think they came from Lake Biwa.)  They were sauteed in soy sauce and sugar - kind of teriyaki style. I'm pretty sure the sauce was exactly the same as that used for the  large cooked grasshoppers a friend from Nagano once presented me with. The fish were indeed delicious with rice, but quite bony. I wonder if small fish bones are worse than crunchy legs...

The other container had sweet potato stems, which I had no idea you could eat! And they were really good, a little sweet, and slightly sour. I wonder if the Maori people in New Zealand ever eat sweet potato stems?
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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

EDIBLE CHRYSANTHEMUMS

Tần ô being sold in a Los Angeles, California ...Image via WikipediaI've encountered a lot of completely new vegetables in Japan, and shungiku instantly became one of my favorites. This dark green leafy member of the chrysanthemum family looks a bit like spinach when it has been cooked, but had a delicate flavor unlike anything else. It's really good in nabe, delicious tossed with lettuce in salad, and wonderful steamed with a light dressing of soy sauce or ponzu. But my favorite way to eat shungiku is in clear soup with mini gyouza (a kind of small Chinese dumpling.) I always add the gyouza dressing (made of soy sauce, sesame oil, a touch of chili, and lemon juice or rice vinegar) to the soup.
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