Tonight’s dinner was miso soup, started with a dashi of kombu, steeped in boiling water for a half hour, with shredded bonita added, the fire turned off, the bonita and kombu steeped for another half hour. Then the dashi was strained, mellow white miso & thinly sliced green onion were added. The gyoza were Thai shrimp & onion and pork & vegetable with lime-chile & chile dumpling dipping sauces, and gyoza sauce with garlic chile sauce added. The lime-chile was very good with the shrimp; the other two were good with the pork. All was very much enjoyed with a Wakatake ‘Onikorushi’ Junmai Daiginjo sake - dry, rich, full-bodied and wonderful with the meal.
Then for dessert, while watching The Unit and a couple 1961 Mavericks (via TiVo), we had gelati, two small scoops each of pistachio and dark chocolate; a very enjoyable finish to a nice meal.
Did you ever live in Japan, Dick?
So few people cook that lovely healthy and delicious food.
I think most Americans would see katsuobushi (鰹節) as fish food…
Great notes on the food–I’m especially intrigued by the lime-chili sauce. May have to try something similar…sounds delicious.
I’ve never lived in Japan; but have visited it several times. I went to Japan on business four or five times in the late 90s for meetings with one of our instrument suppliers. Then we spent a more than a week with Mark Miller (then of Coyote Cafe) in Tokyo and Kyoto in Sprng 2000, We also ate sushi/sashimi/otsumami once or twice a week at Kiku Sui in Redondo Beach and then Torrance for close to thirty years. So we’re quite familiar with Japanese culture and food.
The lime-chile dipping sauce was from SantaCafé. They serve it with their fried calamari, so we decided to try it with the gyoza.