Justin's Place

Blog of Justin Sullivan

Archive for May, 2011

Autumn kaiseki cooking at Kei’s Kitchen

May 28

Posted by js in Food, Japan | No Comments

On a brief trip back to Sydney in mid-May I took the chance to participate in the wonderful Japanese cooking class experience provided at Kei’s Kitchen, a mother and daughter team offering very interactive, high quality cooking lessons that culminate in a delightful shared eating experience.

The classes are run in suburban Chatswood and I first heard about them probably around 10 years ago via a flyer at Tokyomart in Northbridge (a Japanese-owned supermarket with a wide range of imported and local Japanese ingredients). It took me several years to get around to actually attending a class but I’m really glad I did. I think this was my fifth class and they have all been great. I am especially interested in the kaiseki classes – traditional multi-course meals with exquisite presentation that highlight seasonal produce and themes. (Kei and Masako also offer Japanese party food and home-style cooking classes  that are arguably even more fun if albiet little less technical and indulgent.)

It was great to see some regulars who I had met before – some of whom have attended for several years more or less continuously – as well as new faces.

Kaiseki meals are comprised of a number of small dishes each delicately balanced and displayed. At Kei’s Kitchen the menu generally consists of around 7 dishes. Due to the constraints of being both chefs and diners, the meal is consumed in one sitting with all dishes presented simultanously, whereas traditionally kaiseki is served one dish at a time in a prescribed order.

Our autumn menu (fall for the non-Australians reading) was as follows:

Sakizuke (Appetiser or amuse-bouche) of Persimmon Sushi and Simmered Sweet Potato

Wanmono (Seasonal Borth) of “Dobinmushi” Fragrant Broth and Chicken, Mushrooms and Mitsuba Served in a Teapot (this was a contender for my favourite dish of the day, viying for the tile with the scallop dish, closely followed by the tuna sashimi…)

Mukōzuke (Cold dish / Sashimi) of Tuna “Yushimo” with Avocado, Shiso Leaf and Wasabi Garnish

Yakimono (Grilled or Broiled dish, most commonly fish) of Scallop Grilled in its shell with Golden Miso Topping and Lime Garnish

Takiawase (Simmered or Braised dish) of Quail Balls with Deep Fried Eggplant and Green Beans

Sunomono (Salad) of Prawn, Wakame seaweed and Cucumber in Mustard Miso Dressing

Gohan (Final rice or noodle dish) of “Odamakimushi” Egg Custard with Udon, Shittake Mushrooms, Gluten Flower and Mitsuba

Students each receive a full list of receipies for the days dishes, enabling us to endeavour to re-create them at home. In practice, making a full kaiseki meal is quite an arduous task. It takes 10 of us around three hours of chopping and cooking (and, ok, some chatting) to bring the whole meal together. So preparing a full meal on your own is quite a challenge. That hasn’t stopped me enjoying several of the dishes individually or throwing together a meal of, say, three of the dishes – not enough to qualify as a legitimate kaiseki dinner but a rewarding cooking and eating experience nonetheless.

 

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Anniversary lunch at Bistro Royal, Odawara

May 9

Posted by js in Family, Food, Japan | 1 Comment

Kanpai (cheers!) with a glass of Bourgogone Rose "Sakura" 2009 Pablo et Kaori Chevrot

In April, Yoko and I enjoyed an anniversary lunch and rare moment of just the two of us again. We dined at ビストロローヤル (Bistro Royal), a French restaurant in Odawara not too far from Odawara Castle. We had been to this restaurant a few years ago when it was at a different location; it relocated earlier this year. Some of the furniture like the chairs are very basic, but there is a pleasing array of artwork on the walls and the staff were very friendly and helpful (even more so once they heard it was our anniversary and that we were repeat customers from some years back – but even before that point the service was very good). There were a range of course menus on offer and we chose a selection that included a terrine, corn soup, fish, NZ lamb and dessert. Yoko opted for a rather tasty youghurt-based dessert topped with orange peel, strawberry and mint while I couldn’t resist the rasperry sorbet.

Japan has no shortage of French restaurants, at least in the bigger cities and we have enjoyed fine meals in Tokyo and Yokohama. French is harder to come by in Odawara, and it is nice to know we have Bistro Royal to return to in future. While it certainly doesn’t reach the culinary heights of some of the fine dining French establishments in Japan (or France, for that matter) it was good food and reasonable value, close to home and with faultless service.

ビストロローヤル (Bistro Royal), phone (0465) 24 2377, is located at 小田原市栄町1-10-10.

Children’s Day and Koi-nobori carp streamers

May 5

Posted by js in Family, Japan | No Comments

Today is Children’s Day in Japan, a.k.a. こどもの日 or kodomo no hi. This is the last of the public holidays that make up Golden Week, so trains are crowded today as people make their way back home after their week’s holiday. (You can tell they are not Aussies – if they were you can be sure a lot of people would have a pre-planned sickie for Friday tomorrow and enjoy that and the weekend to milk the holiday season for all it’s got).

Children’s Day is actually really mostly about boys, since girls get in first with their own 雛祭り hina-matsuri, or Japanese Doll Festival. The girls day festival is something most celebrated with elaborate oramental (and very expensive) displays of traditionally dressed dolls inside the house. Boys Day on the other hand is celebrated with 鯉幟 (koi-nobori), which are koi (carp fish-shaped) streamers that are erected to fly high above houses with sons.

The carp streamers are put up around late April in anticipation of Children’s Day, which always falls on May 5. The full display that gets put up is actually quite a structured thing, with various usually metal wheels and bits and pieces at the very top, followed by a dragon streamer (that looks like a windsock), then a large black koi representing Dad, a somewhat smaller red one (or sometimes pink) for Mum, then a blue one for the son.

If the family has managed to defy both Japan’s low birth rate and the odds of having a girl as well, then additional koi are added for each additional son after the first – smaller in size representing relative ages, with the subsequent koi being green and then either purple or orange depending on regional custom.

Being a son-less household at this point, I can’t show you a picture of our koi-nobori since we don’t have one. What I can share instead is a story from the neighbourhood.

Koi carp swimming in "our" river

Firstly, it is worth knowing that we live by a small river, which in the usual Japanese fashion is concreted up on both sides. Fortunately though, it is one of the nicest little “urban rivers” I have come across, with surprisingly clear water and very well maintained garden along one side that runs for quite some way. Along with various ducks, geese and other birds that appreciate the river, there is a population of koi that seem to live happily too, and I always enjoying watching them swimming when I walk past.

In late April, I could hear a number of people talking nearby for an extended period, and finally my curiousity got the better of me and I went to see what was going on. In a nearby carpark where around 10 people working on assembling carp streamers. This story was actually going to be one of (gentle) mockery, because the group, who could be most politely described as “not likely to have had sons any time in the past several decades” were working at an excruiatingly slow pace. Indeed several hours passed without any evident progress.

Eventually though, the group was on the move and Keira and I were caught as if on their fishing lines and couldn’t help but tag along and see what was happening. It turned out that rather than decorating their individual homes, as would usually be the custom, these koi nobori were going to hang proudly over our river. I felt some pangs of guilt for my overhead “spy shot” of the elderly group and plot line I was concocting for my blog post; they turned out to be extremely friendly and welcoming – as well as more than able to haul the rather heavy ropes over various obstacles, climb telegraph poles, wade through the river and other challenges before their job was done.

In the end they had transformed our stretch of the river into a lively, brightly coloured place with the koi appearing to swim in the wind. Plenty of onlookers and kids on the way home stopped to admire their work (both at the time and over the subsequent days).

Keira, too, got lucky and loved to watch their handywork, especially since one lot of koi-nobodi are right outside her window, so she had no chance of an afternoon nap while she was watching from the front row seating her bed provided.
I feel very fortunate that we live in a neighbourhood with people who care enough to do things like this, or to tend to the public-space flower beds in their own spare time.

 

 

Gardening on Greenery Day

May 4

Posted by js in Family, Japan, Nature | No Comments

Today is Greenery Day (みどりの日, midori no hi), a public holiday in Japan for the appreciation of nature. Or at least that’s the official line. In pratcice, today is just another in the series of (mostly) consecutive public holidays that collectively constitute “Golden Week”.

For most Japanese, this period is the longest time off from their jobs in the whole year (about one week all up) so it is an extremely popular time to travel within Japan and abroad. Hotels, airfares and so on are at their peak now during this brief period. With the earthquake and tsunami disasters still fresh in people’s minds, it seems the travel market is relatively subdued this year. In a normal year, a large portion of hotels, resorts, flights and shinkansen bullet trains are completely booked out.

I like to think that I appreciate nature most days, but today by coincidence after a very early start I got stuck into some gardening (without realising until afterwards that it was Greenery Day today).

The main task at hand was to plant a new momiji (maple tree). It turned out to be more of a challenge than I expected as the ground is criss-crossed by very aggressive and strong roots of some kind of climbing vine that seems to spring up all over our garden and beyond (such as from improbably small cracks in the driveway). Once I started digging though I realised a bigger problem: the remains of a rather large tree stump that had been left just below the surface. It was right where I wanted the maple to go, so there was no alternative but to get digging and finally after chopping out a decent creater I was able to (barely) haul the thing out.

Maple tree in the garden

You can see the new maple tree in place (and almost vertical… hmmm…) at the back left of the photo. In the foreground on the far left are some extremely small mini tomatoes that ripen up when they are only about 3 or 4 milimetres across. They have a bit of a tough skin but are tasty, and Keira has taken to helping herself to these any time she spots one that’s turned red.

On the lattice at the back is a vine I’m not sure about and on the right is a climbing rose that has nearly all its new growth up high outside of this photo (and now flowers yet).

At the back beyond the yellow daisies is more or less empty for now, but I’m leaving it alone as there are some curious looking spikes emerging that seem to be some kind of bulb I am guessing. That has been a fun part of this inherited garden, especially with the more distinctive changes in the seasons in Japan compared to Sydney: things that looked like straggly old sticks that I had contemplated pulling out have sprung to life with new leaves and flowers; one of our established trees turned out to be a sakura (cherry blossom) without me even realising when we first moved in.

When Mum was here in April, she planted the three mini tomatoes that can be seen staked up on the right of the photo. They now have some fruit on; none ready to eat just yet but there’s two of appropriate size that just need to ripen up now. To the left of the tomatoes is raddish we grew from seed. As you can see it is far too closely planted, but I’m reluctant to pull the poor things out even though I know the raddishes won’t form properly when they are living this close together. We’ve eaten some of the baby shoots in salads, which has been nice. There’s also some basil to the left of that, near the “keep out” sticks border, although they seem to be strugging (probably at least in part because they were verging on death by the time I transplanted them from a tiny cup that had been living in the kitchen sink, and they subsequently were largely eaten by slugs or something).

With the momiji planted, I also gave one of our pine trees a decent haircut to get it looking more Japanese, trimming downward facing leaves and extraneous new growth and exposing the forms of the trunk and branches.

All in all, a pretty good start to Greenery Day!

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Japanese election season and sound trucks

May 3

Posted by js in Commentary, Engrish, Family, Japan, Silly stuff | 1 Comment

It was recently election season in Japan. To me, this mostly just means the season of “sound trucks” – small vans and trucks plastered with signs and (barely) supporting large loudspeakers that blare out electionering guff in a rather inconsiderate way to anyone who will listen (which means everyone, since the noise is so loud and the trucks so numerous that the evil is unavoidable).

Speaking of evil, I was disappointed to see the voters of Tokyo re-elected Governor Shintaro Ishihara, just days after another outrageous statement regarding the Tohoku Earthquake – that it was “divine punishment”, and that the tsunami was needed to wash away greed from the people. Ishihara has previously expressed in no uncertain terms his deep racism, homophobia, denial of Japanese history (such as the Rape of Nanking) and more. His ageism (especially against women) is also truly offensive, with statements such as that “old women who live after they have lost their reproductive function are useless and are committing a sin”. He seems somewhat like Pauline Hanson of Australia, but with an even more well-rounded portfolio of offensiveness, and indeed I wonder just how many screws he is actually missing given he also says things like that forests eat children (this latter comment being more like a Bushism in its oddness). Perhaps the more bizarre thing is that he was re-elected. I wonder what the people of Tokyo were thinking? Apparently the competition was poor, but really…

Sadly, I don’t have any original photos to present here of the actual sound trucks, which I realise is quite an oversight. I was usually too busy blocking my ears to think of taking photos of them. Once, when I was outside returning from the station I tried walking in front of one to slow it down on our narrow street but shortly after I realised it was just making the noise last longer and relcutantly let the truck pass. There are some photos on the Wikipedia sound trucks in Japan page for the curious who may not have seen what these things look like.

Ironically, a lot of what the trucks are actully blasting out is politely worded apologies for being so noisy. In fact, that is more or less the only part of the “conversation” I was able to grasp in most cases, apart from the names of the relevant politican belonging to each truck. Inside the truck are typically the driver and then several people whose job seems to be to wave at passers-by. I assumed one of these was likely to be the actual politicial, but no, apparently not; these are just supporters or aides and the actual pollies are elsewhere (probably with earplugs in trying to get some work done or sleep).

Keira certainly wasn’t impresed by the trucks and the frequent interruption to her afternoon sleep patterns – she calls them “noisy trucks”. They also predictably blast throughout dinner time, presumably since that is when they know many people will be at home and within earshot. Fortunately, while the sound trucks are basically unregulated by the Japanese government there is at least a curfew and they do appear to abide by that.

When my brain wasn’t being pelted by high decibel propoganda, I did recall a kindly comment from a dear Japanese friend (who shall remain nameless) many moons ago in Australia on polling day, when she wished me have a nice erection.