Introducing Japanese Hot pot or NABE

In my recent 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.

Open audition for cooking reality show

One week ago on Jan 10th, I went to the open audition of Master Chef, a reality cooking show. Although I was not selected by the judges, it was very interesting experience. This experiences started when
I received an email from Seattle Food Styling Photography organizer about the FOX open audition on Jan 5th. The email described the event as an inspiring cooking show named “Master Chef”. The producers are looking for candidates who are passionate about cooking and ready to change their life. According to the website, the show’s main character is Gordon Ramsay. I had neither knew his name nor watched his show. I searched You Tube and watched season two of Hell’s Kitchen. Mr. Ramsay is handsome and popular celebrity chef but seems scary to be around.
I decided to participate in the audition the day before the big event. I wanted to use natural and common ingredients to make pretty Sushi rolls. I made the yellow, purple, and white sushi rolls with green, white, and orange inside. They looked good and tasted good. I filled 12 pages application and printed out my photo.
On the day of the audition, I made the Sushi rolls in the morning. My husband drove me to the Sur La Table in Kirkland where the audition was held. It was about 11:00am which was the starting time of the audition. The line was already long and the security person told us that our waiting time was about 2 hours. It was not rainy and not too cold. I talked to the people in the line and realized that my Sushi was not good enough. Most people in the line were gourmet cooks.
Although I was intimidated by other people’s food, I liked talking the people in the line about food, life general, and even the Botox sign on the street corner. I learned how to make borscht from a Ukrainian woman. I learned various food words which could be used to describe the personalities. A woman describing her and her sister as "Granola" and "Saucy". Then I realized that my neighbor who lives 6 blocks from my house was standing by me. She is young, good looking and wore a pretty long green dress. She made three types of stuffed duck with fancy side dishes. She was well prepared and ready. Someone who already finished meeting the judges told us that the judges didn’t taste some food. They simply told contestant that the food looked nice. It was very discouraging. I waited for hours to present my food, and they may not even consider tasting my food. I really wanted to go home. My husband told me to go through and at least to bring my Sushi to the judges. He bought an apron to make me look good. People in the line were speculating why food was untouched. Did the food stay too long out of the refrigerator? Was the food not appetizing enough? Were the judges afraid of food poisoning? I cannot imagine being a judge tasting so many different food, decide whose food was the best, and who has TV personality potential. After 4 hours of waiting, I went into the room of the audition. My number was 139. First, each of us stood by the wall and the picture was taken. In the room the people were dishing up their food for the judges at 6 large tables and waited for their turn. The rest of us were waiting for our turn to go to the table to be ready. My turn came. I took out my chilled and ready to be served Sushi on the plate from bag. I put it on the ice pack to prevent it from being warm. One man was so nervous that his hands were trembling when he was dishing up his food. I was happy when other competitors made positive comments about my Sushi. “I love your Sushi. It looks good.” There were three judges total. Finally I brought my sushi to two of the judges. I described what the ingredients were. They tasted the sushi. Yeah, at least my Sushi met their requirement to taste. One judge liked my purple Sushi roll. It is enough for me to come and wait for four hours to hear that she liked my Sushi.
I was told to wait phone for a phone call at the end of the day in case of they decided to have me back for more interviews. I got out of Sur la Table around 3:30pm. The line outside was still long although some people brought their food but they were told they could not make into the line. The audition was scheduled to end 4:00pm. Since many people came, they extended ending time to 6:00pm. I went home tired and hungry. I rarely receive calls on my cell phone and forgot to carry it around that evening. I went to bed without knowing someone called me around 8:30pm, but I did not hear it ring and didn't know it until the next day. When I called back and the answering machine answered sounded like the judges voice. I left message and she never returned my call. I wonder if the call was from the judge with good news? I can only speculate.
My neighbor Linda Miller Nicholson(Salty Seattle), the woman in line with me, was selected to be the final 4. She deserves be one of the finalists. Her dish was excellent. I also met Seattle Food Geek, Scott Heimandinger at a food blogger’s event. He posts very nice looking food photos in his blog. I have to see “Master Chef” to see who will be from Seattle.

Holiday Bread

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.

Simple yet nice looks if the plate is right

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.

The arm of a Tempura cook

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.
<----The photo shows my potential arm protection. Left: Japanese farmer's arm cover, Right: Leg warmer

Working at a Popular Sushi Restaurant

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.

Concession stands in America and Japan

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.