We don't go to restaurants often, Because I can cook, much better them.  

There're so many Japanese restaurants in London. Maybe 100s ,,, More? I don't know.
So how about in bristol? 
Have you tried one of Japanese restaurants ?
There're 3 which they called themselves Japanese restaurant. 「Noa」」「Masa」「Obento」,Obento is a bit different to others, but ,,,,.

I've been all those restaurants before, unfortunately to say that non of them are standard on my evaluation.
I don't think their owner are Japanese and see any Japanese person working in the restaurants.
Actually, I wouldn't mind what nationality the owners or chefs are at all, if they delivered the proper Japanese manners and taste. However, non of those restaurants have such important Japanese facts. Sorry but true!!!
My concern is that if you're new to Japanese cuisine, you think  they are the Japanese taste and culture. No way!!!!!!!!!!!  They have to have at least one Japanese adviser!

I posted my Japanese blog called 「英国通信」"Eikoku Tsushin/News from Britain" that I started to work in a bland new casual Japanese restaurant and take away in Cotham Hill.
「Yume Kitchen」 It was opened last month and has not been for one month.
「Yume」is a dream in Japanese. 「夢」in Kaniji (I don't say chinese character) 
It is so busy in the lunch time already which is good for a new restaurant, isn't it?

Sushi are very good. Hot food,,, still not proper ones, but much much better than the other Japanese restaurants in bristol.
So many our customers said, they'd been waiting for the opening of「Yume Kitchen」for ages. 
And as the owner and I, helper, are Japanese, we can make more proper and authentic Japanese taste, as well as the manners and culture.
If you have a chance to come and eat at Yume, please give us your opinion. We desperately to improve our taste. Hope you enjoy our meals.

  

Yume Kitchen
9 Citham Hill 
Bristol BS6 6LD

yuko@yumekitchen.co.uyk

Monday to Saturday 12:00 to 21:00
Sunday 12:00 to 16:00

I bought a couple of cods (I think, I don't remember the name) at Source in St. Nicolas market, Bristol last year.     (Source Food & Cafe -   http://www.source-food.co.uk/)
You usually ask to the fishmonger to gut the fish, don't you? This time, the cods had some eggs. So I make my fishmonger to keep the eggs and decided to make TARAKO（たらこ）.

Tara-ko, Tara means cod, but the original Japanese tarako is made from Alaskan pollok. Ko means baby, but here, eggs in Japanese.
When you travel to Hakata or Fukuoka area in Kyshu, South Japan, you can see more red tarako using chilli called Karashi-Mentaiki（辛子明太子）.

You just need some salt. About10% of eggs weigh. 
Be careful to gut out the eggs, they are quite fragile. 

- Place tarako on the plate and sprinkle salt all over tarako evenly. Leave them for an hour.

- Rinse them by the alcohol, like Sake or Cider roughly.

- Dry tarako and wrap them by the cling film and place on the kitchen paper (on a plate) 
in the fridge over night.

There are many other ways of Takarko making, though.

- Sprinkle a lot of salt all over Tarako, place them in the container placed kitchen towels 
(you can wrap Tarako and put them in the container) after took away excess salt. 

- Leave it for 3 〜 4 hours.

- Rinse Tarako and soak them in the salted water for 4 〜 5 hours. 

Use definitely the salt water, otherwise Tarako will be very salty.

- Take Tarako out and dry them by the kitchen towel.

Place Tarako on the kitchen towel in a tray or a dish and wrap it, use cling film. 

Put them in a container (place the kitchen paper) is an ideal. 
Keep it in the fridge.

How to use Tarako for your daily meals? 
Spaghetti, a rice, sushi or sashimi topping,  a filling of o-nigiri, for a starter on 
top of the bread etc..... many many ideas. Use your imagination!!!

Enjoy your home made Tarako! xxxxx

Happy New Year!!!!!!!

2013

Have a lovely New Year's day.

Hope your year will be fantastic.

I'll post cuisines and cultures etc. as many as I can.

Lots of love!!!!!

Masuyo,

 from Bristol, UK

xxxxxxxxxx

This picture is my garden covering the snow. 

My daughter is coming back tonight for Christmas.

But my son still in Japan,,, Fukushima's mountain side. Already everything is white!!

We are going to my brother-in-low's family Christmas dinner this year.

We had the lovely Christmas dinner at our home last year. A huge BBQ turkey!!!

Where we going to next year??? Maybe our friend's home?

Have a nice time!!!!! 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Christmas is around the corner, isn't it? 
Are you ready for the big day? We're going to my brother-in-low's family Christmas dinner this year. We had one last year and I cooed a huge turkey for 12 people. 
This year it'll be 10 people all together. I don't need to do the cooking this year!!

Not sure yet at the moment, but I'm thinking making a starter. It'll be definitely Japanese food,,,, a kind of sushi "Chirashi-zushi" (Upside down, squashed sushi)
So, I'm going to show you how to make it.

Chirashi-zushi, which is very entertaining at your dinner party as a starter or a main dish.

What do you need are;

Chirashi-zushi

- Vinegary rice --- you can buy a bottle of sushi-vinegar in a supermarket.

- cooked shrimps

- shredded egg sheet, 1 egg yolk and 1 whole egg, mixed with 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp corn or potate starch. Cook like a crape. If you don't bother to cook it, just use a couple of boiled eggs and break them into pieces.

- sliced and shredded cucumber

- peas and sweet corns

Options;

- Ikura, a small jar of salmon eggs. You can find it  at Waitrose, if you 're lucky.

- Carrot and Shiitake mushrooms, simmering in 1 C water with 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp each sake and sugar and 1 tbsp mirin (if you have) for 15 minutes or until both well cooked.

You can use other ingredients, such as sliced ham or shredded cooked chicken some colourful vegetables.

As you see the picture, decorated beautifully. Use your imagination!

This picture is a set of "Temaki-zushi", but you can use those ingredients for your Chirashi-zushi, if you like.

Vinegary beetroots, tamayagoyaki egg, gari ginger, avocado, tuna mayonnaise and natto.

I'll give you some more recipes next issue! 

For other type of sushi "Temaki-zushi, nigiriz-zushi etc, go into Your Sushi web site.

http://www.yoursushi.co.uk/

You can learn more sushi Your Sushi School, if you live in the UK.

Have a nice Merry Christmas!!!      Masuyo. xxxxx

I introduced the Japanese Curry last time, usually it's called Curry Rice (pronounced as Caley-lice in Japanese) .「カレーライス」
This dish is a very popular dish for children. Some Japanese mothers cooks curry a couple times a week.  Most kids' birthday party of main menu are Jap. curry!
So easy to cook. 








I'm going to show how to cook Jap. curry.
What do you need;

A half pack of Japanese curry paste (4 to 6 saving). 
Pork, chicken or beef. I prefer not to use the lamb. Japanese don't eat lamb much as here in the UK. 
500g meat would be enough for a family of 4.
Boiled ggs are ideal, if your son or daughter don't like the meat.
1 onion, roughly sliced. 
2, 3 potatoes, cut in cube  ------- size doesn't mutter.
1 carrot, cut in cube

Other vegetables as spinach etc, can be added, if you like.

If your children are so fussy about vegetables, can be shredded then add in the end of the cooking.
Water as it's said on the packet. But I prefer to use the water a little less than the instruction. 

Shall I cook?


- Heat the oil in a deep pan and fry the onion then the meat. And add the potatoes and carrot. Fly until their surfaces absorb the oil. 
- Add the water to the pan, bring to the boil over high heat. Or use the low heat for the tender meat. Keep your eyes on the pan first 10 minutes!
Then reduce the heat and simmer until the meat was tender.
Do not boil too much, otherwise the meet will get hard. 
I prefer to use the low to medium heat through the cooking. 

- The meat got tender, off the pan from the heat and put the curry paste in to the pan and stair very gently and well. The paste should be resolve completely.
-Put the pan back on the stove, the heat should be low. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
You can add the soft vegetable like spinach at this point. 
- Salt and pepper if you wish to add.

That's it!!!  No hassle, though.
Your children would love it. Itadaki mass いただきます！！！

If you are not particularly Japanese food lover, it's really worth to buy a big bottle of Shoyu 醤油 or しょうゆ (pic left; soy sauce) at a oriental shop. I usually buy a 1 litre of Kikkoman cost me around £5 to 6. But for you, it lasts for ages.

pic right is Mirin みりん (sweet cooking alcohol/sake/wine). I fortunately say that you cannot replace this by anything. However, probably you are able to manage to make close taste by using honey,,,,, but,,,,,  or just omit it. Cost would be  £5 to 6 for 600ml?

Both are very important ingredients for Japanese cuisine.

Other ingredients are sugar and sake. Using those basic four ingredients, and ad some more, you can make many many different tastes.

My mother really amazed me that she made many different dishes using those basic ingredients +. She didn't use any measuring spoons or cups!!! Now I do the same as my mother did!!

Miso paste 味噌 or みそ (pic left; soy bean paste). Japanese cuisine uses variety of miso, as light, dark etc. THis made by soy beens like shoyu. In Japan, your morning doesn't start without miso. Miso-shiru みそ汁 (miso soup with tofu {pic; right} and wakame is very popular). The price is from £ 3 to 5, depends on the size. 

Nowadays, you can buy a pack of Tofu (pic) at a big british supermarket (pic; as below). This Marinaga Tofu is very easy to handle. I think it's £ 1,10 to 1,30.

Sainsbury's oriental corner. They are not all Japan-made products, but if you cook Japanese dish very occasionally, it would be enough quantity. For me as Japanese, they are too small for my daily cooking.
If you really are a Japanese food lover, surf chinese or oriental shops in your town.
If you live in a big city or the capital city, like London, you can find many Japanese food shops. Means you can get some proper Japanese products. In addition, Korean products are quite similar to Japanese ones. 
But for me, sometimes the levels are all Korean language. No clue at all!!!

This picture is an instant Japanese curry packet. カレー. In a British supermarket, they have only small ones there. If you want to have a bigger size, go to the oriental shop and buy a 12 servings, 340g. There're even a instant stew packet too. Maybe the cost will over £ 3 to 5. Not too cheap, but 12 serves!!
I don't think this is healthy food, but it's so easy to cook. It's one of the popular dishes for the kids in Japan. A kind  of national dishes, though.







P.S I have to say sorry to everybody reading "Touch of Japan" regularly, because I didn't up dated for a couple of month. My Macbook, which my son gave to me 3 years ago, had been working so funny. I struggled to fix this machine and managed it in the end. However, I think I have to buy a new Macbook very soon. I changed the OS X Leopard to Lion, this time it worked OK, but when I bought the new Macbook (would be MC Air?), I will degrade Lion to Leopard again. My old Macbook is still workable. I wouldn't buy a Window PC, even the Window 8 is fine. My very very old Toshiba MC, which is still W-XP, is finely working. My husband uses Windows7,,,,, I don't think it's good machine. Anyway, I really enjoy my Apple machine.

Up dated my Facebook page "masuyo" 。よろしく！！！xxxxxxx