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Sushi chef instructor Master kawazumi and me

I decided to have my old posting from google to this site.

I learned interesting facts about Edomae Sushi at <a href=”http://www.sushischool.jp/”>Tokyo Sushi academy</a>  during my Japan visit. Edo is the old name of Tokyo. Edomae Sushi is Tokyo style Nigiri.  Nigiri is a shaped Sushi made with sliced fresh fish and Sushi rice.Here is introduction to Sushi vinegar. Sushi vinegar is made of rice vinegar, sea salt and sugar. Sushi vinegar in east part of Tokyo is different from west part. In the west include Osaka, Sushi vinegar recipe include more sugar or sweet (Osaka style) while east part of Japanthe Sushi vinegar is less sugary (Tokyo style). Since I am from Hiroshima which is located in the western part, my home style Sushi is made from sweet Sushi Vinegar.  Edomae Sushi uses Vinegar called Akasu or Red vinegar.  I had lived in only western part of Japan and never heard about Akasu  before hearing from Tokyo Sushi Academy instructor. Akasu or Red vinegar is made from Sake Kasu which is byproducts from sake making process.(See http://www.esake.com/Sake-Food/Kasu/kasu.html .)Edomae Sushi chef has his/her unique recipes of Sushi vinegar by blending, partially red vinegar and the rice vinegar. Sushi rice made using Red vinegar is called Aka Shari which means red Sushi rice in Japanese. Tokyo Sushi Academy uses Mitsukan brand.  Mizkan sells Akasu or Kasuzu for only commercial use. Here is a bit of history of Red vinegar from <a href=”http://www.mizkan.co.jp/story/change/01.html”>Mizkan Japan website</a> which is not included in <a href=”http://www.mizkan.com/Corporate/?id=370369210558″>American Mizkan Site</a>.   “… Founder of Mizkan, Mr. Matazaemon Nakamura was born as a Sake producer’s son in Edo period. He recognized when bacteria got into the Sake barrel, Sake turned to vinegar. He decided to make vinegar from byproduct of Sake and successfully made Kasuzu or Akasu. Meanwhile, Haya Sushi(fast Sushi), which is origin of Nigiri made of sea food and Sushi rice, was very popular  in Edo or former Tokyo. Haya Sushi was made with expensive rice vinegar.  Mr. Nakano marketed his Kasuzu as inexpensive alternative to rice vinegar. Sushi chefs at popular restaurant in Edo recognized Kasuzu had flavor and Umami suitable to Sushi rice. They madeHaya Sushi with Kasuzu. Since then, Kasuzu or Akazu has been necessary ingredient to make Edomae Sushi ……”When I was in Tokyo, I looked for Akasu or Kasuzu.  I had to go four super markets and several  more expensive than rice vinegar due to  long processing time. I brought back this rare vinegar to Seattle and made Sushi vinegar by mixing 1:1 ratio of rice vinegar and Akasu. Sushi rice was beige.  I made lettuce wrap stuffed with Sushi vinegar, vegetables and meat. They were delicious.Lastly, things that you should know before you decide to go to traditional Edomae Sushi restaurant. Sushi chef decides the price of Sushi when he/she sees the face of the customer. It means the same Nigiri can be cheap at one Sushi restaurant but expensive at another. No price will be listed on the menu. That is why people like to go Kaiten Sushi (conveyor belt Sushi) or Sushi train place.  There you can estimate how much you had by number and color of your empty plates.Here is <span style=”font-weight:bold;”>Tokyo style Sushi vinegar recipe </span>½ cup Rice vinegar1 table spoon sugar (Preferably superfine sugar)1 tea spoon sea saltIn the cooking pot, combine all ingredients and heat to melt sugar and salt. Do not boil. Cool the Sushi vinegar and use for Sushi rice. For sweet Sushi vinegar, add extra 1-2 Table spoons of sugar.As you wish you can adjust sugar and/or salt amount.

I wanted to make something nice for Easter.

I saw colorful eggs on the natural food store advertisement. The description stated all eggs were colored using natural ingredients. I was interested in blue eggs which were colored with red cabbage. After I had conducted various experiments with red cabbage with boiled eggs, I found that boiling the red cabbage turns the water purple then adding boiled eggs to the water change the color of  egg white to blue.  I was very excited seeing my blue egg.

Please see the second photos what they were made of and were colored.

In my recent cooking class, I realized that Nabe, or Japanese hot-pot, is not well-known Japanese meal.
Hot-pot is similar to other Asian style on pot meals. Hot pot is a light and healthy meal that is great on cold evenings. It is the meal for the family and friends. It is easy to prepare. You make soup stock, cut raw ingredients, and bring them to the table. The soup is cooked in a pot over a portable heater that is placed in the middle of the table. Family and friends sit around the table and put raw ingredients such as fish, thinly cut meats, Napa cabbage, and tofu into the pot to cook. They take the cooked items out of the pot, dip them in sauce, and eat them.
‘Tori no Mizutaki’ is chicken hot-pot.’ Tori no mizutaki’ consists of words ‘Tori’ which means Chicken and ‘Mizutaki’ means cooking in water. As the Japanese words implies, the chicken is cooked from the water to make tasty soup stock for this hot pot. My students had their first ‘Tori No Mizutaki’ with vegetables, Yam cake and tofu in traditional dipping sauce ‘Ponzu’ with grated Dankon. They loved it. One student was vegetarian who eats fish but doesn’t eat tofu. For her, I made a soup that was fish based stock and vegetables and Udon noodles were added into the soup. She liked the vegetarian version while other students didn’t. We made rice soup with the soup left-over from the Nabe. My students told me the hot-pot would be the great meal for tail gate party.
I make my hot-pot at home by pre-cooking most ingredients and placing them on the portable gas stove on the table. So my hungry family can start eating immediately by taking cooked food from the pot while I put new ingredients in the pot.

Mizutaki (Japanese hot pot)

I love making Christmas bread which looks pretty and tasty. It will be great center piece for your Christmas meal. The store-bought frozen dough will do fine. Only part which is time consuming is making long rope and braiding them together. I made four Christmas bread since last weekend.
I made my first holiday bread for The Seattle Food Styling and Photography Group December Meetup. I wanted to create tasty good looking food.
I received a gift of Christmas wreath from a neighbor a while ago. It gave me an idea making the wreath bread. I made a milk bread dough, made long rope, braided it to make wreath. The baked wreath was decorated with cranberries, sugar frosting, and green sugar. It looked pretty and tasted good.
The second bread for my son’s class party was made of the bread dough using eggnog. Because eggnog is made of milk, cream, egg and sugar, I exchanged egg, milk, and sugar to eggnog only. The eggnog flavor was good. I made a small wreath and candy cane shapes from braided ropes.
The third time was for my neighbor to take to the school for her son. I made wreath bread with milk dough and decorated it with cherries and pineapples. I also shaped candy-cane bread and decorated with cranberries.
The forth wreath bread was for a teen Christmas party.
I am planning to make several more for parties and a gift to my friends.

I attended The Seattle Food Styling and photography group meetup on Sunday. I cut vegetables to make pretty shapes. I was in hurry to grab a plate and didn’t inspect it well. Unfortunately my black plate had scratches. All photos showed the imperfection when the light reflected to the surface of the plate. All 7 other photographers had the better camera than mine and the problem of the plate more likely shows in the photos of my dish. All my work to create nice looking food was spoiled by the imperfection of the plate. I failed the food styling at this time. Hopefully I can do the better job for the next time.
I recreated some of my vegetables and selected the better plate. My photo is OK but could be better.
<-- Check out this Italian YouTube video. Even though you don't speak Italian, you will learn how to make rose as I did.

This photo of my arm shows oil spattered burn spots. Hajime at Mashiko joked about an earlier time in his career, when his arm had burned marks which were cause from making Tempura. John said he had a similar experience and made his arm protection by cutting his long sock.
I often make Tempura at home in a regular frying pan, and I hardly ever burn my arm. The pan used at home is shallow, where as at Mashiko, I use a deep fryer. I dropped vegetables with Tempura batter a bit too high above the oil in the fryer from my nervous unsteady hand. This caused the oil to splash burn spots on my arm.
My husband told me that he had seen people’s arms like mine. He thought that the people were drug addicts, as they had burn marks on their arm similar to the ones on my arm. He was surprised to learn that maybe those people where really cooks working at a deep fryer instead of drug addicts like he thought.
I didn’t know that people with drug addiction problem had skin problems. I found some image of arms badly spotted by drug addiction. Hopefully soon I am able to fry Tempura without splashing oil. I should wear long sleeve shirts or cover my arm.
When you see someone with small blisters on one of his/her arms, it may be caused from splash from the deep fryer not from drug addiction.

Useful arm covers, Japanese farmer's arm cover and foot warmer

The photo above shows my potential arm protection.

Can an experienced home cook survive working in a busy kitchen of popular Japanese restaurant?
After 3 days of work, I am doing fine and happy.
Two weeks ago, on Craigslists I found that the Sushi restaurant, “ Mashiko” in West Seattle was looking for a cook. It was a week after the advertisement was posted, but I decided to go Mashiko to see if I can get hired for the position. The worst case scenario would be that I didn’t get a job, and that I would be happy to meet and talk to the owner, Hajime.
I updated my resume for a cooking job. I packed up my cooking knife and my apron and headed to the “Mashiko”. I asked about the Craigslist job listing and if they found someone. Hajime met me and I spoke to him in Japanese for a while. It seemed that we had a similar idea about cooking and food.
He told me that they were testing some candidates that day, and asked me to come back at 4:00pm on Saturday to be tested. I left my resume with him. It seemed that I passed the first interview.
On Saturday, I brought my cooking knife and wore casual clothes for cooking. After I got there, Hajime told me that John in the kitchen would tell me what to do. John told me to help skewer chicken for Yakitori. Then he showed me how to cook rice, how to mix Sushi rice, how to prepare Tempura batter. I cut some vegetables for Tempura. John showed me how to fry Tempura. I mixed rice by adding Sushi vinegar with a large rice paddle and frying Tempura of various vegetables, shrimp, prawn, Sushi rolls, and brownies under John’s instructions. I washed pots and pans. At the end of the day, I helped clean the floors. I worked until past mid night.
I had expected a “cooking test”, i.e. a short time showing that I could cook. Hours later at the end of the evening of hard work, I was exhausted and I still didn’t know if I had passed the test. I didn’t know if I would be would be paid or asked to come back. Then, Hajime asked how the evening went, and I said it was hot, but I liked it. Hajime told me to write my name to a time-card and come to work the next Friday and Saturday. I was happy to have my time-card and the ability to return to work.
Friday came and I was still anxious. I got to Mashiko at 3:00pm as Hajime requested. Under John’s instructions and supervision, I mixed Sushi rice, checked fish, cut vegetables and cooked Tempura. John told me to cook faster and make more Tempura for each vegetable tempura order. It was hard work but I managed to work through the day. I helped clean up and I was done working before mid night.
On Saturday, John told me to set up my Tempura station then to cook rice. Rice was measured and put in the very large container. I set up my work station and started cooking rice as he instructed the previous day. I made Sushi rice and fried Tempura. The hardest work was to move a large container full of Sushi rice. It was very heavy. Carrying a heavy wooden sushi mixing container to the sink was also hard. I carried it with outstretched arms to the sink while walking around various obstacles. Cooking requires a strong body and muscles.
I confirmed with Hajime that I would be back to work next Friday and Saturday, I told him that at the end of my third day of work, that I was not as tired as the first two days.
So I managed to complete 3 days of work with only a couple of minor mistakes, including almost dropping container full of Sushi rice, and a mixed up an order. I look forward in learning much more about Mashiko’s way of cooking. I think that my Tempura does not look as good as John’s, and I need to learn to cook faster. The work is hard but I love cooking and it is fun working with John and Pablo in the kitchen. . Check out my future blog posts to find out what will happen to me at Mashiko’s.

The following video was produced by Christopher Boffoli for the West Seattle Blog Mashiko Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar.

I helped a small concession stand at a public sport field in West Seattle during marching bands’ performance. This concession stand was for a fund raising event for Seattle All City Band. I doubted to make much money by selling food.
The menu was very simple. Menu included 3 types of Pizza, hot dogs, chili dogs, and popcorn. Chips and candies were also sold. Vitamin drinks, pops and water was the choice of drink. The Pizza was picked up from takeout place near by and kept warm in the clear show case. Hot dog was steaming in the warmer. Large canned Chili was emptied to be warmed up in the large pot. Popcorn making machine was popping corn kernels. Drinks were cooled in the large buckets full of ice. I stationed at the hot dog area. Pizza was sold more than hot dogs or chili dogs. The most popular item was popcorn. Because of the price, customers bought a large bag of popcorn for 1 dollar while chili dog cost 4 dollars. I was surprised to see many items and drinks were sold.
Here I thought about Japanese concession stand at the baseball stadium in Japan. I found website of Nagoya Dome where residents of Nagoya often to go to see Japanese baseball games. The link shows the photos of the concession stands and food sold.
The stands at Nagoya Dome sells, Tama Ben or Ball box lunch, snacks, pudding(Dragon and koala bear together named Doara Purin) , and shaved ice called gut’s ice. It seems that hot dogs and pizza are not there. Most Tama-ben contains cooked rice according to Japanese description. The names of the Bento box are very interesting. Strike Bento, Full base Home run Bento, Sports Bento are the examples.
How about American ones? I found a blog “Where to find the best baseball stadium food” (http://blog.ratestogo.com/baseball-stadium-food/) The baseball stadium food seems to be Hot dogs, fries, Sandwiches, Cotton candies, and other American’s favorite meals .
If you have an opportunity to go to Japan, it may be interesting to go see a baseball game and check out the concession stand there.