onigiri is too awesome for words
Food rec: If ever in Nagoya, check out Tenmusu. If on Oahu now, they are available until the 27th at the Ala Moana Shirokiya. They are small onigiri with tempura and they are awesome. ♥
I'm happy to have something else to eat next time in Nagoya, on top of kishimen, akafuku, hatcho miso, and that famous tonkatsu place near (under?) some train station that supposedly kicks lots of ass.
Speaking of onigiri, I have to recommend a fabulously easy way of making onigiri I learned (and put to good use) this week. Instead of just plunking rice into a rice bowl, wetting and throwing salt on your hands, and attempting to not get burned handling the rice directly, put saran wrap into a rice bowl and put the rice in it. Scatter some salt before and after putting the rice in, then stick the ume or whatever in the middle (pushing it down into the rice). Then gather the wrap together and twist the top, squeezing the rice together without having to actually touch it. Then, use your hands to shape and squeeze some more. The rice doesn't feel so hot through the wrap and the grains don't stick! And being able to squeeze it all together with the wrap makes it less likely that the entire onigiri will fall apart because you didn't squeeze enough.
I took onigiri for lunch three times this week, each day wrapped with damp nori. I used to hate damp nori as a child, preferring to take the onigiri and the nori along separately and putting them together just before I ate it, but now I adore the texture and flavor of damp nori. XD This also prevents the rice grains from sticking to the container you put them in. Mostly I had ume inside (I love love love ume in general and the ume we currently have in particular), but I did do the shoyu-soaked katsuobushi (I think it's called bonito flakes?) thing once. I think it was a bit too dry (and thus too flaky), but I wanted to avoid using too much shoyu. :P I took carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, steamed broccoli, or cucumber with miso to gnaw on, as well as chicken quickly sauteed in butter with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and tons of garlic powder. Yum!
Hilarious: Let's Make Final Fantasy VII Into a Footnote (Dirge of Cerberus). I've only read the first two sections but laughed all the way through them both.
I'm happy to have something else to eat next time in Nagoya, on top of kishimen, akafuku, hatcho miso, and that famous tonkatsu place near (under?) some train station that supposedly kicks lots of ass.
Speaking of onigiri, I have to recommend a fabulously easy way of making onigiri I learned (and put to good use) this week. Instead of just plunking rice into a rice bowl, wetting and throwing salt on your hands, and attempting to not get burned handling the rice directly, put saran wrap into a rice bowl and put the rice in it. Scatter some salt before and after putting the rice in, then stick the ume or whatever in the middle (pushing it down into the rice). Then gather the wrap together and twist the top, squeezing the rice together without having to actually touch it. Then, use your hands to shape and squeeze some more. The rice doesn't feel so hot through the wrap and the grains don't stick! And being able to squeeze it all together with the wrap makes it less likely that the entire onigiri will fall apart because you didn't squeeze enough.
I took onigiri for lunch three times this week, each day wrapped with damp nori. I used to hate damp nori as a child, preferring to take the onigiri and the nori along separately and putting them together just before I ate it, but now I adore the texture and flavor of damp nori. XD This also prevents the rice grains from sticking to the container you put them in. Mostly I had ume inside (I love love love ume in general and the ume we currently have in particular), but I did do the shoyu-soaked katsuobushi (I think it's called bonito flakes?) thing once. I think it was a bit too dry (and thus too flaky), but I wanted to avoid using too much shoyu. :P I took carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, steamed broccoli, or cucumber with miso to gnaw on, as well as chicken quickly sauteed in butter with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and tons of garlic powder. Yum!
Hilarious: Let's Make Final Fantasy VII Into a Footnote (Dirge of Cerberus). I've only read the first two sections but laughed all the way through them both.
