Food in Japan is incredible. I’m not just talking about the Japanese food, I’m talking about any kind of food. You can get Italian food and it tastes better, Chinese food is authentic, even a hamburger tastes better. How is that? Is it possible that they have better, more fresh, ingredients than what we have here in the U.S.? That has to be the answer!
I come home from my long, wonderful stay in Japan, and I am not in the slightest mood of getting back in the swing of, having to cook every meal in order to have a decent one, so we get carry out. It wasn’t bad. We got my favorite Lebanese food, from the Lebanese (Anita’s) restaurant 2 blocks away from us. Since you can’t find Lebanese food that easily in Japan, I was craving it!
But the next day I go to our local Japanese market, because of the empty bachelor fridge my husband left for me, it was actually depressing. There is a limit to what you can buy, since they only import 2 options of one thing, and the look of the fish in the cases not that great. Is this because we are in the Mid-West and have to have everything shipped frozen, or packed in ice? Before I left for Japan, this was the most fresh place to buy fish. Doesn’t look anything like what I had in Japan. Now it doesn’t seem that great. My mouth has been spoiled.
Being by the ocean, eating fresh caught fish is like eating something from heaven, compared to the once frozen, possibly was caught last week, kind of fish you can buy here… I pretended that I didn’t know it wasn’t that fresh, and thought maybe I can trick myself into thinking the Sashimi here would be good, so I got some tuna, some salmon, and some yellow tail to take home to have sushi hand rolls that evening.
I also had to stop at the market for some veggies. I expect Whole Foods to have the best ingredient I can find, since you dish out a bit more to shop there. So I’m looking, looking, looking… It’s summer, where are the fresh good lookin’ veggies?
When you shop for veggies in Japan, the super markets are loaded with great looking veggies that are in season. When I say good looking, I really mean good looking! The carrots are all the same size, amazingly orange, the strawberries are all the same size in each packet, and are bright red. Nothing at all close to being wilted or even bruised! Almost too good looking that I feel guilty cutting it up to use it.
Then back to my real world in the U.S., where the carrots are mostly crooked and for some reason split down the middle, the banana is either green or bruised, and anything with leaves, you can’t use the first 5 layers because they are crushed.
I know it just sounds like I’m just complaining, and I’m just some kind of Japan lover, WHICH I am…, but it’s true! You really have to see it to believe it. Even the meat is so much better! Beautifully marbled and so fantastic that you don’t have to worry about eating Organic. They don’t use hormones to grow the cows!! You can also have pork & chicken rare, and not worry about getting salmonella poisoning. Now that is amazing. Even the cheap meat at the supermarket is GOOD!!
Anyway, back to my dinner that night. Disappointing. My lovely sushi dinner that I expected, turned out that I couldn’t cheat myself. What am I going to do…
I know what exactly is going to happen. I am going to be disappointed for a little while, then the whole denial thing kicks into my brain, and things I eat here start tasting better again. Maybe it’s the same chemical that is dispersed after you give birth, so that you forget about the pain you go through during child birth so that you would actually consider having another child. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating but I’m still a bit disappointed in what I’m getting…
Next weekend, I am planning on going to the farmers market, hoping for something better. Also my friend has told me of a local organic farmer that will sell a whole pig for a fantastic price! She also has mentioned how delicious the eggs are too. I would love to try some.
So here is my future menu for my organic pig & eggs.
Niku-jaga (Pork and Potato’s)
- Half a pound of pork belly meat cubed. (This is hard to find in regular grocery stores here so having my own pig butchered gives me this opportunity. You can also find pigs belly meat at most Korean or Japanese Markets frozen)
- 1 knob ginger sliced
- 3 Yukon Gold potato’s
- 1 or 2 carrots
- 1 large Vidal Onion sliced
- 1 block of Konnyaku (Konjac)
- 4 hard boiled eggs peeled.
- 4 Tbsp of Sake (cooking rice wine)
- 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- 2 Tbsp Mirin (or half honey, half white wine)
- 1/2 to 1 Tbsp of Sugar (depending on how sweet you like it) Start out with 1/2 and add more to taste)
Cut all ingredients into bite size pieces and soak the potatoes in water for about 10 min. Heat up you Le Creuset pot and melt a small knob of butter. Brown the pork on both sides, add enough water to cover the pork and boil for 10 min. When done, dump water and rinse off the pork.
Put another small knob of butter in the pot and fry up the ginger on medium low heat until fragrant, about a minute. Put the carrots, potato’s, in the pot and add the pork, eggs, and Konnyaku on top of that and finally cover with the onions. In a small bowl add the Sake, Soy Sauce, Mirin, & Sugar and put in microwave for 1 min and dissolve sugar. Pour sauce over the pot with the pork, cover and simmer on medium low for 15 ~ 20 min. Stir and finish cooking with no lid until all veggies are cooked through.
Enjoy with rice & Miso soup or even Udon Noodles.
