FoodFuser's Profile
How difficult is it to make good home-made miso soup?
Back in Japan, men in white hats
Administering Miso.
I will never forget them.
They kept it so simple.
Simple dollop of Miso
to bottom of bowl.
Curled from the curve of two dancing spoons.
Well sat to the moment fulfillment of Dashi
There is wonderful Zen quest
in the making of Dashi.
The shaving of flakes OF SO GOOD THE bONITO
.
SPAM
Sam, sorely miss ya.
Even to items indelicate as Spam.
Transition two years ago,
But always Musubi
White rice, Crisp Nori.
Central the Spam.
Accords to your Moniker
"S(p)am I am"
You are missed.
More than just Nori, Musubi.
It be the "Am"
In "Sam I am".
Help! Pastry bottom stuck in stock pot!
Convexity, concavity. Dude with the curves, that was Sam.
The tamale thread
"Has helped my own cooking enormously."
Such good guarded chutzpah.
Later he'd talk of the hike to his house
and also the enveloping
of his spacious refrigerator.
Airplane Food
Perhaps Sam's first post.
There were many thereafter
Filled with a boast of a dude who could back it up..
SPAM
Sam loved his Spam, in it's various forms.
There was ecstasy in musubi.
Sam was as crisp as a fresh Nori wrapper.
Complete with the crinkles.
"Bar S Beef Franks": has anyone tried them?
OP here. Fun that you mention "on sale". I scored a few pounds at ridiculous price, which prompted my posting. I've moved on in exploring the dawgs..
To migrants, ex-pats, aliens and transplants, what do you miss?
Feeling your pain
about Jimmy Dean.
As expat in 80's in southern Japan
I made the 6 hour trip to Tokyo
Just to get me some bacon.
I hear it's easier now.
To assuage lust for sausage,
Google "Jimmy Dean copycat".
Looking for whole Katsuo to shave to make dashi
Good suggestions.
For certain remiss on Kombu and Miso.
I'll steep for a while, as all dashis do, and come back with a something that even includes dried shiitake.
Poetry of joy of the foods we eat.
Poem: Bonito to Dashi.
Visions of days in Hakata bay
as men did their work with bonito.
Skipjackck tuna
Quick knife, they were long quarters,
Transforming those quartered bonito
was slow dance with real rhythm.
Pulling from slow fire
Patience of rhythm
of drying and smoking.
Then the innoculum of sweet Aspergillus
to be molded and rested
It dries the bonito to
us and our shaving.
Praise to those fellows
who have worked the Bonito.
Now in our hand, the hardness and ping,
Katsuoboshi delivered from Masters.
We shave it to flakes
in the thinest of increments.
We savour the hiss
of bonito 'pon blade.
Shavings pile from our process
Deepest aromas surround us.
We are one with the fish
and its yield to the blade.
Good is our dance with the Dashi.
Looking for whole Katsuo to shave to make dashi
Poem: Bonito to Dashi.
Visions of days in Hakata bay
as men did their work with bonito.
Skipjackck tuna
Quick knife, they were long quarters,
Transforming those quartered bonito
was slow dance with real rhythm.
Pulling from slow fire
Patience of rhythm
of drying and smoking.
Then the innoculum of sweet Aspergillus
to be molded and rested
It dries the bonito to
us and our shaving.
Praise to those fellows
who have worked the Bonito.
Now in our hand, the hardness and ping,
Katsuoboshi delivered from Masters.
We shave it to flakes
in the thinest of increments.
We savour the hiss
of bonito 'pon blade.
Shavings pile from our process
Deepest aromas surround us.
We are one with the fish
and its yield to the blade.
Good is our dance with the Dashi.
Looking for whole Katsuo to shave to make dashi
Very nice work there, unburnt. I'm glad you are on this thread.
Looking for whole Katsuo to shave to make dashi
Here's contact info for BigSals' Boulette's:
http://bouletteslarder.com/contact.html
I'm impressed that you don't need my previous links.
What's the difference between Braunschweiger and Liverwurst?
Agreed that Kahn's is probably best of the national brands. I'm guessing they add a little extra mace.
Looking for whole Katsuo to shave to make dashi
OP here. Glad to see the thread is back up.
The shaving experience was marvelous. Getting ready to request a new log of katso from a friend in SF.
For more background and technique, here are a few links.
http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia17/en/what/what01.html
http://www.tokyofoundation.org/en/topics/japanese-traditional-foods/vol.-15-dried-bonito
http://italianintheus.blogspot.com/2009/07/quest-for-katsuobushi.html
http://www.nymtc.com/pl_mtcpremium/200901hanakatsuo.html
http://www.umamimart.com/2010/05/japanify-the-definitive-guide-to-homemade-dashi/
http://letseatmeal.blogspot.com/2008/10/katsuo-bushi.html
http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia36/en/feature/feature07.html
http://www.peterliem.com/2008/03/katsuobushi-or-my-quest-for-bonito.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honkarebushi#Traditional_production_process
Chicken thighs, the kidneys, and oysters.
I like the efficency of good cook with sharp cleaver.
Speaks of good skills in the kitchen.
In this case, separation of usable meat
from close the array of the beauty of thigh spine.
It's a hard cut to make with repeated good accurance.
Thus I depend on the skills of Thai sisters
Who lend their mellifluence to their restaurant.
They float with their customers, from table to kichen.
Just a single inch thick is their beauty of spine,
yet laden of kindey and oyster.
Defined to its succulence.
Chicken thighs, the kidneys, and oysters.
If you ain't yet 'et to the salience of kidneys
thumb-peeled from the trough next to backbone
of interior of a chicken thigh
Mayhaps you are missin' some ecstasy from eatin'.
Flip thigh to exterior,
still close to backbone,
and you'll find you the "oyster",
rounded disc, so delicious, best of the dark meat.
Both snugged to spine,
where just might expect them.
Kidneys sublime,
Oysters Divine.
My first of encounters
Were with thighs from the Colonel
But now do experience them
at a lunchplace of Thai
They are good with their cleavers
as they whack the thigh close to that exquisite backbone
Using full meat for the rest of their dishes
Yet frying and serving that one inch of the spine,
That harbors the oysters and kidney divine.
Ye who have suckled to kidneys and oysters,
Have you a chorus?
Soft Patience... the gift from Pistaschio's.
Get we to Park, with our salt and our nuts. Right and Left are two Hotdogs. Never the mind as I pluck good Pistachios.
Soft Patience... the gift from Pistaschio's.
I'm nuts for these nuts that are sold in split shell.
Their outing and eating requires both the thumbnails.
The pace of facilitating
their further dehiscence
is gentle, and slow.
Like so many other things
that we find in our stream:
"One nut at a time."
So let's let this thread
be a proffering place
for tips upon snacks of a slower pace.
The Leftovers That Didn't Make It
Such pleasure, those freezer containers,
that were purchased way back in late 80's.
They are square, they are stout,
walls really thick, and lids that still snap.
We have a relationship, me and those containers.
I've washed them and sorted them
And filled them with love
With numerous leftovers, sent as stacks to the freezer.
I've watched them come back in the microwave,
Have coddled them with dance to the MW buttons.
As give they slow twirl on the MW turntable,
so trigger memories of the meals now leftovers.
Are there others among us
who love their containers?
food haiku
Sheen glistens from Wok.
Memories, good charred moments.
Oil has curl, nascent smoke.
All things assembled,
As the vegetables go first
resounds as chorus.
High heat is building
Curved spatula is dancing,
also is ringing.
Veggies to vessel
in accord to their needing
Done browned, but yet crisp.
Naked Wok smolders,
Awaiting moment of Meat
Hot steel surrenders.
Meat by the handfull
Cascades past clasp of firm fingers
Wok now full symphony.
In seek of both char,
and interior rawness
Flame, paddle, do dances.
The meat now to plate,
a short rest, before return.
Now to the saucing.
Arrowroot powder
In a slurry with water,
Congeals, firm power.
Now all reassembled
to ingest, as we gestate,
Wok's work on our plate.
Why do people make a big deal about de-veining shrimp but not lobster?
Back earlier days, as a young foodie neophyte,
I figured that I had to buy a devein-ing knife.
But real soon it struck me, that up in that vein,
was nutrient value of pre-processed plankton.
Sometimes the shrimp, as they scour the bottom,
might pick up some sand, which our teeth feel as grit.
Grit Happens.
I'm no longer concerned about crustacean shit;
and thus I no longer devein it.
I celebrate their place that's so low on the food chain,
and am really okay with wee sand with my plankton.
The Leftovers That Didn't Make It
This is also the reason that we save mashed potatoes.
I'm real bad about freezing the Thanksgiving leftovers,
then bringing them back in the microwave
with all of that good leftover gravy..
Has anybody done a "fish tasting"
Fish tasting?....
I once was the bearer
of well-bonded letter,
assurance of "all you can eat"
at our local Red Lobster.
My dear aunt had seen
this now esteemed item
on a fundraising drive
on our local PBS station.
Dear aunt placed high bid,
with both me and my brother in mind.
She had seen us each fish
all throughout our upbringing.
We arrived in mid-afternoon,
in consideration that our ingestion
just might tip some displacement
from supply to the dinner crowd.
Unknown was the tasting of fish
that lay straight ahead of us.
Images of butter-dripped pescies
danced in our heads.
But let us just say
that within our back pockets
we carried the necessaries
of our own plastic bibs.
We asked for the table
that was closest to kitchen
as a favor to our server,
since there would be legwork.
Then proceeded the pescavore carnage,
and crabs oysters crustaceans and bivalves.
To heighten "fish tasting", we most often opted
for broiled, steamed, grilled, or sauted.
This was a night without french-fries or hush-puppies.
It was a time just for tasting of fishies.
Though, on spur of an instant,
we did share a cheese biscuit.
With thanks and good tips to the staff
we lumbered full bellies to exit.
A night of good memories
of good taste of good fishies.
Kikkoman Mirin down the tubes
One of the best is Mitoku brand Mirin. Available online from many sources, such as here:
http://www.naturalimport.com/inc/sdetail/6650
Poetry of joy of the foods we eat.
A pause of applause for strong paws, of them stack our cheddars.
They take them from milk, to good curdled caseins,
Stirring and salting to bring to a slab.
Forearms employed for the folding and stacking,
Transport to racks, where, over time, become cheeses.
Those of white shirts and white hats,
With paddle in white milk in vessels of steel
Should engender our praises
of their part in our cheeses.
Why do foodies like the McD's Filet o' Fish?
Just workin' my station,
with ear to the heart
of whatever steams.
