crazy white girl with a kitchen

One of my Christmas feast wishes was to eat sashimi for one of our meals. Candy cane striped salmon and Christmas red toro – what could be better? I picked some up from one of the most local places I know.

I bought my fish from the fish market inside the Kochinda Agrihouse farmer’s market. It was early in the morning on Christmas Eve and it was pretty quiet, still. The selection of fish was not so broad – some salmon, toro tuna, squid, octopus and tai.

The salmon and toro were both 500 yen for fairly large portions. I bought the saba, or mackerel, at the local supermarket for about 300 yen.

I also got a root of real wasabi. The taste is a lot more subtle than horseradish faux wasabi. It’s still peppery and zingy, but less sinus clearing and overwhelming. These roots normally cost 900 yen or so, but I got one for 350 yen. A Christmas miracle!

(I recently saw a picture of single roots for sale in Tokyo for $200 and up!)

It was a delicious snack! The next day we seared the toro tuna and made it into tacos.

メリークリスマス!

I sometimes feel bad that updating this blog has fallen by the wayside. So here are some photos I took in November(ish).

Taco rice! Sounds like a weird combination, right? Well it is a super Okinawan dish, influenced by the unique relationship the American military has had with Okinawa. It is a perennial favorite here on Okinawa with locals, expats and tourists alike. Although it is a kind of fast food here, it is still kind of healthy. The keys to delicious taco rice are the meat sauce and the dense, moist Japanese rice.

I spent over a year in Okinawa before I tried taco rice. BLASPHEMY!

After eating it, I immediately became obsessed and ate it a few times this summer. However, I grew tired of buying it at the supermarket premade and wondered if I could make it better at home myself…without the prepackaged spice kits they sell. So, I tried.

This is the best recipe I found, based on one from America’s Test Kitchen. Good taco rice meat has to be saucy enough to soak into the rice, and meaty enough to be satisfying. I think this recipe fits the bill.

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Okinawan Taco Rice Meat

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, minced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons chili powder (I used a mix of ancho and cayenne pepper)
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Salt
• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1/2 cup smooth canned tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce or sake (Okinawan taco rice meat typically uses soy or sake here, but cider vinegar works just fine.)
• 1 teaspoon light brown sugar

Directions:
Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, spices, and 1 teaspoon salt and cook until fragrant about thirty seconds. Stir in the beef and pork and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon until no longer pink, about five minutes. Stir in the tomato sauce, broth, soy/sake/vinegar, and sugar until thickened, about 10 minutes. Be sure to leave the meat a little moist, not crumbly and dry. Season with salt to taste.

The filling can be fully prepared, cooled, covered tightly, and refrigerated for up to three days. Reheat over medium-low heat, adding additional water to adjust the consistency.

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Make your rice (dense, Japanese rice hopefully), and cover with the taco meat. Then the toppings! The classics are fresh crisp shredded lettuce, plump juicy fresh tomatoes and yellow cheddar cheese, with some salsa or hot sauce for good measure.

Personally, I scatter shredded lettuce, diced fresh tomatoes, avocado, pickled jalapenos and spoon salsa fresh or jarred over top, along with a thick yogurt or sour cream. Sprinkle with grated cheese…and you are done. It is seriously one of the most satisfying dishes you might have.

Some variations on the theme might include rolling the meat up in maki sushi rolls or using it as a nacho topping. God, is it good.

{originally published on my other blog, Eating Okinawa}

I know I have been neglecting this blog a little bit this month, but that is because I am working so hard on Eating Okinawa. But finally, a post I feel fits over here on Crazy White Girl with a Kitchen! This entry is all about a strange little fruit with a lot of bite: shikwasa. It was probably my favorite blog entry to conceive, photograph and research from this year.

Recently at the supermarket I have noticed shikwasas available in large amounts, for a very low price (compared to lemons and limes). However, I was confounded; how are they used in such large amounts? They are so small and hard to handle I could not imagine juicing any more than five at a time. Additionally they can be so sour, would I even want juice anyhow?

First however – what ARE they? シークヮーサー are very small citrus fruits, about the size of a key lime, 4-5 centimeters in diameter. Their thin rind is green, they are packed with seeds and very very tart, but with an orangey flavour instead of lemon or lime. They originally came to Okinawa from the nearby country of Taiwan. They are said to be high in vitamin C and in nobiletin, which is thought to help control blood glucose levels and thereby keep blood pressure low.

When I cut into them and smell the citrus scent I am almost immediately transported to the streets of Bangkok. You know – where they juice those green oranges at little carts for the sweet nam som or orange juice sold in bottles for a pittance. Smelling shikwasa early in the day makes my mornings a little easier to swallow when I get to think about Bangkok.

I went about making an effort in thinking up seven different ways to use shikwasa. Some ranged from exceedingly simple to somewhat complicated. Most are just reimaginations of other recipes, so nothing too out there. Just enough to get you thinking about using this special Okinawan ingredient in different ways.

I made five out of these seven recipes, and hope to try the remaining two soon.

1: Shikwasa mint syrup for fruit salad

When a food blogging friend of mine from back home Tweeted one morning he was making fruit salad, it got me thinking about a lime based dressing I used to make for my fruit salad. However, limes and lemons can be really expensive here, so I looked to the shikwasas as an alternative, and made my favorite citrus based syrup for the fruit salad.

• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of water
• 2 tablespoons of shikwasa juice
• 1-2 tablespoons fresh mint

Combine sugar and water in a small pot, bringing it to a boil on the stove. Turn off once sugar has dissolved. In a small bowl combine shikwasa and mint, pouring sugar mixture over mint and citrus juice mix. Makes approximately 10 tablespoons of “dressing.” Pour by the tablespoon over freshly cut fruit to taste.

This makes enough syrup to keep in the fridge for a few batches of fruit salad.

2: Shikwasa water

I really do not like drinking water. But living in Okinawa, you have to due to the heat. I have some packets of Crystal Light to help me get the water down in the amounts I need, but the artificial sweetener can give me a headache. So in the morning I squeezed one of the leftover shikwasas from making the fruit salad dressing into my water and it made it refreshing and crisp and easier to get down. Shikwasa juice is said to help control blood sugar and is credited with keeping aged Okinawans healthy.

3: Grilled salmon with maple-shikwasa glaze

• 2 tablespoons fresh shikwasa juice
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• salmon fillets
• salt and pepper to taste

Combine the ingredients in a small bowl. Brush over salmon and grill.

Since we got our little patio grill, The Stache has been a gem and grills at least once a week. I cannot wait to try this glaze out on some of the delicious salmon available at the local farmer’s market.

4: Shikwasa ceviche

Citrus and fish just go together, and shikwasa works wonders in a ceviche.

• 1 lb of whitefish – we used a mix of tai (red snapper) and hamachi or yellowtail. It was already sliced thinly as it was sashimi.
• Juice of 6 shikwasas
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 hot pepper, chopped finely (I used the Korean kochu pepper since that is all my supermarket routinely carries)
• half of an onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro/coriander
• salt and pepper to taste
• pinch of cayenne pepper

Place fish in a non metal platter with a slight lip. Place onions on the fish. Add remaining ingredients, and cover with the juices. Allow to sit in refrigerator atleast 30 minutes, up to 4 if you can.

I served it with a black bean salad for additional South American flavor. (recipe here, via Fine Cooking)

5: Shikwasa Watermelon mint daquiri

This recipe was born after my fridge froze a very expensive slice of watermelon.

• 4 cups peeled, seeded and cubed watermelon (about 1/6 of a watermelon)
• 1/2 cup rum (I used dark, most people use light)
• 1/4 cup shikwasa juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar syrup (You can also use 1/4 cup triple sec)
• two ice cubes
• 2 tablespoons mint

Blend ingredients together. Serve immediately. Makes 5 cups.

6: Shikwasa blueberry muffins

I have yet to make this but I think it would be good. I baked a lot back home but in Japan I find my tiny oven a real inconvenience and prefer not to waste time and money experimenting with temperatures and baking times.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons shikwasa juice (about 2 shikwasas)
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, tossed in 2 tablespoons flour

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl beat the egg, milk and oil. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. Fold in the blueberries and shikwasa juice. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full and bake at 400 for 18-20 minutes. This makes one dozen muffins. You could also turn it in mini loaves.

7: Shikwasa pie parfait / Shikwasa curd

This is the most time intensive recipe for using shikwasas, but I thought it was the best use.

• 1/2 – 3/4 cups orange juice from approximately 20 shikwasas
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 large egg
• 2 large yolks
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks and softened
• pinch of salt

Pour the shikwasa juice into a small sauce pan over medium-high heat. Bring the juice to a rapid simmer and let it reduce down to approximately 1/4 cup. This should take 2-4 minutes.

Transfer the juice to a measuring cup to cool. Stir in the lemon juice.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, yolks, and sugar. When the juice has cooled to room temperature, whisk it into the egg mixture in a steady stream.

Pour the egg and juice mixture back into your small sauce pan and set it over medium heat. Stir slowly but constantly until the mixture has thickened to a pudding-like consistency – about 6-8 minutes.

Pour the mixture into a clean bowl. Stir in the butter and the pinch of salt while the curd is still warm. Store the curd in a clean jar with a lid. It will keep refrigerated for about a week.

I served this curd over pancakes, and layered with freshly whipped cream and graham cracker crumbs as a sort of “pie.” It would be great on toast, in tart cups…all sorts of situations.

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In closing, shikwasas are wonderful. They have a load of seeds so straining is almost necessary, but the juice to size pay off is pretty good. Try using a shikwasa instead of a lime or lemon in your favorite recipe – you might be pleasantly surprised.

While I love my space here at crazy white girl, I kind of felt like I was missing my audience on Okinawa centric blog posts. They get lost in the volume of posts from Edmonton, and I am certain that most of my readers from Canada do not give a damn about restaurants thousands of miles away.

So, since September last year (!) I have been trying to start a dedicated blog about food and restaurants in Okinawa as well as any other areas I may visit while I am here. It is hard going for English information on restaurants here – many of the blog posts by English speakers tend to be about restaurants close to the bases, and frankly, do not look that appetizing.

I enjoyed rebuilding a blog, especially one with a specific purpose. It took a long time, though, with many breaks as I contemplated my fate in this country.

Each post offers English information about the restaurant, as well as a map. I am hoping it will soon become a resource people can rely on. There are easy to browse sections by location, cuisine type and information about Japanese ingredients as well as shopping for food products and cooking in Okinawa. When comparing it to crazy white girl, there are bigger pictures, better tagging and more features about food in general here in Japan.

There are still a few glitches and changes I am making, so excuse any bits and bobs left lying around there as I move into my final preparations to really promote the hell out of this thing.

I will still be posting here about home cooking experiments, more general Japanese food tidbits and my travels, but most of my blog posts about Okinawan restaurants will now be posted on Eating Okinawa. If you are a regular reader, you will notice a lot of duplicate content up there so far, but from this point on it will be all new. So please be sure to visit EatingOkinawa.com for all your Okinawan food needs.

Think of it as a first year in Japan anniversary present to … ME!

We left Okinawa at 3am or some other ungodly hour. Everyone in Japan travels at three times of the year – Silver Week in September, Golden Week in May, and July/August. So my choices for cheap flights were really cut down and our options were leave at 3am or pay $300 one way for a flight to Tokyo.

Arriving at 7am, we hit the ground running and were on a train and headed into downtown Tokyo in no time from Haneda. This is the beauty of Japan.  We grabbed a snack, stored our stuff in a handy locker (they make them big enough for a standard rolling suitcase and a backcountry backpack) and went to pick up the bikes we had reserved with Neil at Tokyo Rent A Bike.  Despite being exhausted, I was elated to have our bikes and be on pedal power the rest of the day. It was exhilarating, and I will absolutely do this again and recommend it to anyone who is traveling to Tokyo.

With a general route mapped out, our first stop was the Tsukiji Fish Market. After visiting Sushi Dai three years ago, Mike had another place (Sushi Bun) in mind, but it was unfortunately closed. No worries – have bike, smartphone and back up plans – and will travel. We biked a short distance to a street in the outer ring of the market and tried to find a restaurant called Uogashi Senryo just after lunch rush.

It is not known for sushi (although they do serve it), but for chirashisushi bowls. It is behind a dried fish shop and kind of blends in with the other shops. The quality is not the best you can get in the area, but it is popular for a reason. I think my two kinds of tuna bowl was excellent, and Mike’s uni ikura bowl was salty, creamy and hit the spot. Just what we needed after an early morning of travel and bike riding, and just what we needed to power us up the rest of the day.

Uogashi Senryo from the street. They do have an English menu.

Recharged we rode around east Tokyo, circling back to the bike rental office while hitting a few big sights and neighbourhoods along the way. Again – I cannot emphasize this enough; renting a bike was insanely easy, relatively cheap and very safe. They come with wheel locks so you can park and lock wherever you are, there are bells to ring and let people know you are coming at them on the fancy shopping Ginza shopping street and 6 gears to make climbing hills in Roppongi easier. Most people ride on the sidewalk, and this is accepted and perhaps even expected (pedestrians beware!) Many many people in Tokyo have bicycles, if only to get them to the nearest train station. It is insane to think that the world’s largest megacity is bike friendly to even the lowly tourist, but it is. If the Neil the bike guy had not been going on holiday I would have totally rented for a few more days. Next time, Tokyo. Next time.

Alright. We have been stuck in the house for almost two days now because of typhoon Muifa, and I grow concerned that we will have to start in on the more boring food like packaged noodles and what not. But up until now we have been eating like kings!

I visited the grocery store on Wednesday night for last minute bits and went to a near by chicken rotisserie called Riiko Chicken.

It is kind of a bareboned place – they only sell two things, a whole chicken and a half chicken. That is their menu there. I think maybe at Christmas time (a very popular meal to have at Christmas here is roast chicken) they might do something special, but I am not sure. They were sold out four days before Christmas last year, so we missed the time to order one.

The lady pulls the chicken from the roaster, scrapes up extra garlic and will cut your chicken if you like.

Then it comes wrapped in this wonderful bag. We had roast chicken and crusty bread for dinner that night…

And the next day, Thursday, we had sesame soy dressed hand pulled chicken salad as the storm was rolling in.

I made some bolognese sauce later that day, and it was some of the best I have made. We also had some nachos and a few other special treats to get through Friday as we watched movies and surfed the Internet.

Now it is Saturday and I am ready for this storm to be over, if only to restock on groceries. I made these mango whipped cream pancakes as an indulgence this morning. And also to save the last few pieces of bread for grilled cheese sandwiches later.  A few brave/silly friends have ventured out to convenience stores close to their home, and reported that most of the food is gone, and some of the booze. No one really expected this storm to stick around so long, so it is a reminder for how bad things could be, I guess.

Anyhow, although I am a little bored at times and maybe am not sleeping as well as I could be due to the sound of driving wind and rain, life is not so bad. I worry for all the fields around Okinawa though. It is really agricultural, and I am certain many crops from okra to sugarcane to mangos will be decimated.

Although it was not always the case, this blog has effectively become food centric. As such, I often feel odd writing non food posts – even though it is my own blog! They just do not feel right for the tone of the blog sometimes.

However,  I recently had an experience that I thought would be good to post up on here. It is mostly photos – but I can answer questions in the comments if you have any.

A short intro: the sprawling Nakagusuku Kogen hotel was built in the mid 1970s next to a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are a few explanations for what happened to it, spanning the gamut of absurd (built too close to ancient burial ground) to realistic (ran out of money, government was angry it was so close to a historical site and shut it down) but the place fell into ruin.

Apparently there are periodic discussions about tearing it down but it simply remains, the jungle slowly encroaching on the concrete structure, with visitors and typhoon season after typhoon season slowly destroying it a little more each year.

We approached via the jungle, which in retrospect was a bad idea. It was chock full o’ palm sized spiders and mosquitos.

My favourite photo is this stitched panorama of the “art gallery” at the hotel. It is a room with 5 panels making up a mural that is about 8 feet tall and 60 feet across – maybe more. Click to embiggen it.

If you are interested in learning more about haikyos (abandoned ruins) and exploring them, in particular this hotel, visit this site or the Japanese Wikipedia article on it.

The words “wagyu” and “Kobe” incite many reactions in people. For some, it is the epitome of fine food. Expensive protein that is hand massaged, fed beer and lives a life of luxury so that it has the highest fat marble content around, all to make it better to melt in your mouth. For yet others, it is a waste of time and money – moment on the lips, forever on the credit card slips?

Diners are cautious because the high prices of this cattle have spawned many imitators and expensive but not legit knock-offs. Luckily, this does not happen as much in Japan. The Japanese dining crowd is extremely discerning and demanding, and there are a series of pieces of evidence that can be used to show a piece of wagyu’s legitimacy, including chips and barcodes.

Wagyu is a name applied to a wide range of about 130+ breeds of cattle, most of them named after the area they come from, such as Kobe wagyu. Wagyu just translates to “beef from Japan” but it is a title that is only bestowed upon cows that are 100% born from wagyu cattle and raised in Japan. That is why some beef in the States is “wagyu style” or “Kobe style” – it may be from a Japanese breed and raised in the same style, but it was raised outside of Japan. Very little of this beef is actual proper wagyu shipped from Japan. There are a number of other breeds that are not as well marketed in the west that some people say are better than Kobe. One of them comes from a little island not far from where we live, very close to Taiwan. It is called Ishigaki, and it looks idyllic.

{source}

Here, the cattle eat very mineral rich grass (Ishigaki is very famous for salt, as well) and live lives of beachy luxury until their number comes up and they are served to mainland Japanese tourists eager to try some fine beef. I cannot state enough how huge food tourism is in Japan. Every area has a famous sweet, famous noodle style, even a very specific food item. So it is big business…a cash cow, if you will.

Mike had been craving a big old steak for a week or two now. We recently bought a grill to do chicken sticks and veggies on but he was eager to give beef a try. Normally I would think it ridiculous to home grill a piece of meat of wagyu caliber at home, but here it is actually feasible because the prices are okay instead of insane. However, the biggest problem was finding it. Most super markets sell very fine beef in very thin slices suitable for beef bowls, sukiyaki or at home yakiniku grilling, but very little is available in big American sized chunks. And if you do find it, it is most likely going to be Australian.

So I took to Google to find a butcher willing to help us out, and found a video posted on YouTube of a local butcher in a very touristy market in downtown Naha, Okinawa.

This gave me pause, since we had eaten at this market and it was, unfortunately, a real tourist trap. But, the meat looked like what we wanted and I had no other leads, so we gave it a try.

Maruichi turned out to be intimidating. They had huge chunks of meat that looked like they might be able to be cut to order, but we still lack the language skills to ask for that. Dejected, we wandered to the nearby Makishi Market to see what they had. Makishi is kind of a place people go to take photos at. They eat upstairs at the terrible restaurants, take a photo with a pickled pigs head and go back to their hotel.

Things seemed over priced and it just was not the same as other Asian markets I have been to. When we arrived most of the fish stalls were cleaning up for the day, but in the corner we found a meat stall. There, pre wrapped hunks of well marbled meat labeled with prices and Ishigaki tags. Cha-CHING!

I am not sure if the meat was frozen or not, and we did not ask on this trip. Chances of it being frozen are about 50/50…Japanese transport companies are amazing, and able to ship both frozen and chilled items to arrive the same day, so it could also have just been chilled since Ishigaki is a short plane ride away from mainland Okinawa. It came from a supplier called Yaeyama / 八重山 and they seem to be a big supplier of beef from Ishigaki.

We picked out some steaks and the guy shot the shit with us the best we could in our Japanese. He said he was surprised we were taking the steak home – most people eat it upstairs (at the restaurants who cook items from the market) he said.

We paid about $30 for 200g, and took our carefully cold packed meat home with us after stopping at a grocery store for some vegetables. On the label you can see the code used to identify the company and perhaps even the very cow the cut came from. They take this stuff seriously.

Mike did all the prep and grilling, which I appreciate. Perhaps he will chime in on his technique in the comments.

He coated the steak in salt using a new method he read about online. Luckily the butcher had given us some omiyage, or a gift, of Ishigaki salt. It was very fine and powdery.

Ishigaki salt

After the grilling came the hard part – the resting. Finally, I sliced into the steak with a butter knife and sat and savoured in silence. I could barely speak. It was tender, buttery, meaty… wonderful. I found the fat rind around the edge a bit overwhelming, but I did eat most of it in a gluttonous way.

The veins of fat throughout the meat had dissolved into the protein, and it was light and buttery, not heavy and greasy. I have found Kobe to be overwhelmingly fatty sometimes, but not so with Ishigaki. Maybe it is Okinawa pride speaking, but I do think it is the superior meat. I have had it at restaurants and at home now, and it is wonderful.

Looks kind of grainy and maybe even tough in this shot, huh? It wasn’t. The fat rind is closest to the camera in this photo.

Sauteed some mushrooms and grilled some zucchini, okra and eggplant on the grill after.

Here is a video cut I made of us slicing through the meat. Meat porn!

We grilled some of the remaining fat up on the grill afterwards to char it a bit more. Fat popsicle, anyone?

Japan, especially Okinawa, has a strong drinking culture. There are countless pubs, bars and restaurants in any neighbourhood to cater to work groups, friends and family looking to gather together and be social while drinking and eating. But, sometimes drinking out can be expensive. Hell, even beer at the grocery stores in Japan is quite pricey because of the taxes imposed on the higher malt content of the beverage. So what to do when you just want to have a drink after work, but not think too hard about it, or spend too much money?

My friend, the chu hai/chu hi is waiting for you at your corner store.

Chu hais are a kind of cocktail that get their name from combining shochu and high ball. Shochu is a kind of Japanese distilled alcohol. It is not quite as strong as vodka and has a bit more flavour, but is similar in many ways. You can drink these cocktails in many flavours at izakayas, but much easier and faster is the canned version.

Keeping to the high ball formula, chu hais come in many flavours and are mostly carbonated and fruity. Their alcohol content ranges from 3 to 9 percent (STRONG varieties feature higher booze numbers) and can be night destroying if you drink too many of them, especially from supercans. There are sugar free versions, those combined with favourite sodas, seasonal kinds… the flavour possibilities are endless.

In the photo, a variety of chu hais including two only in Okinawa summer limited edition flavours, pineapple shikwasa (a kind of citrus found on Okinawa) and acerola pineapple (acerola is a tart berry.) Back in the white can is a white soda chuhai, one of my favourites. It is a kind of tangy milky yogurty flavour. All very refreshing on a hot day.

Click here for more simple Japanese pleasures.

Ice Zenzai from Fujiya

I should really rename this entry “simple okinawan pleasures” because iced zenzai is a very Okinawan thing. People often note the similarities between Hawaii and Okinawa – both are part of a bigger country, but maintain a very different culture, identity and lifestyle than their mainland. They also have very special food items, their own language and lots of beaches. The list goes on, actually.

Perhaps because of these similarities, Hawaii and Okinawa have shared a lot over the years. I have heard that many of the somewhat rare Japanese expats are from Okinawa and live in Hawaii. So there has been a lot of cross over between food and culture over the years. One of those things is shave ice, which may be thought of as being Hawaiian, but is actually rooted in Japan.

Zenzai is a sort of strange dessert common in Asia. It is a bit savoury, sweet and full of strange texture. It is also very filling due to it’s fiber content. Zenzai is basically red azuki beans served in a sweet syrup, usually eaten hot and sometimes with mochi, or pounded rice balls. Okinawa has combined shave ice with this classic Japanese winter dish called zenzai and made a power house of a dish, I think.

It is nice hot, but I LOVE it over shave ice as a summer treat. It is refreshing and savoury and sweet and cold and chewy and crunchy and filling and… well, it is a simple (but complex) pleasure one can only find on Okinawa.
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Fujiya is a very famous iced zenzai producer, and they ship all over Okinawa and Japan. It comes in little cups that look like Cup Noodles, not quite as pretty as the above picture.

Here is a cute Fujiya refrigerated zenzai delivery truck I saw on Sunday.

Click for more from the Simple Japanese Pleasures series

We tend to eat sushi out once a week at our favourite easy kaiten (belt) sushi chain restaurant, and it is excellent for the old favourites and some maki choices, but sometimes you like to eat your own creations full of your favourite ingredients. Also, maki sushi is quite different from the nigiri sushi that is often at these restaurants, as it combines many ingredients.

One of the best things about the local supermarket is the fish section. It is stocked with various cuts and preparations of the many kinds of fish, from classic favourites to seasonal varieties. There are packages of pre cut slices for sashimi or nigiri sushi, long pieces for grilling… you can really go to town.

On this occasion, I bought a few things:

• two kinds of nori seaweed, one for hand rolls and one for the longer maki rolls
• premade rice (almost as fresh as homemade, but more convenient)
• salmon, crab and maguro
• burdock root, and some vegetables

Crab sticks. Not imitation, although that is also available.

Burdock root, or gobo

This mixed pack of sushi grade maguro tuna and salmon was about $5.50

At home I already had what I needed to flavour the rice, as well as cream cheese and various kinds of pickles and other fillings to put in the rolls.

As I have mentioned before, I think the rice is one of the best things about living in Japan. My favourite is sushi rice with a lightly flavoured taste of vinegar, sake and sugar. It is tangy and delicious.

I made my own sushi vinegar to add to the rice by combining these items:

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (you can use rice vinegar too)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 table spoon of mirin or sake/nihon shu
• 1/2 tablespoon of salt

Combine these in a small pot on the stove until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Will flavour about 4 cups of rice.

Combine into warm rice by folding it in, being careful to not crush the rice.

Buying rice is a bit of a cheat since the flavour is better when the rice is turned into sushi rice when it is warm and fresh.
You cannot substitute any other kind of rice, or turn arborio or Thai sticky rice into sushi rice by making it gooey and mushy, so please do not do this.

Assembly is easy. I did not want the rolls to be too filling because we wanted to try many different combinations, so I did not push the rice to the edge of the nori. Normally you would, otherwise you get…

…sad looking rolls like this. These deflated looking things were really good though.

You can mix and match each rolls. Here, toro chopped and mixed with soy, negi or green onions, crunchy Niigata Prefecture miso daikon pickles that were a present from our Japanese tutor, burdock root dipped in the same sushi vinegar mix I made for the rice and a cucumber. You want to combine the things you like, thinking about taste, smell, texture (crunch!) and color.

There are sushi mats you can use to roll up rolls, like inside out California rolls, but I just hand rolled these nori wrapped rolls. The sushi mats help the rice from sticking and keep a uniform size and look, if presentation is important. But we are rustic here at the ZeeCall household, and we are not so picky.

I also made some salmon, negi, cream cheese, sesame seed and cucumber rolls.

Finally, even more customizable, the hand rolls. You just stuff and fill the little squares of nori with rice, then the fillings you want, roll up and eat.

Crab, cucumber, negi and cream cheese.

Fun and easy!