Sunday, March 11, 2012

Home Cooking in Yokohama

The food in Japan is remarkable. It's especially a treat to have meals prepared by a Japanese mother. I'm not sure if it's just the quality of the produce or a combination of recipes, execution and produce. Whatever it is, everything my MIL made was delicious. 
While I knew that groceries tend to be more expensive in Japan than the US from living there previously, it was interesting to see how much more expensive everyday items have become in the supermarkets. Vegetables and fruits especially are much more expensive than I remember.
 Kinkan (kumquats)
Sweet Strawberries
  Breakfast Feast
Salmon head, salmon filets, rice, tamago-yaki, thick asparagus spears and kombu.
Shirako, tofu, mizuna and enoki mushroom nabe.
My fiance missed out on a relaxing excursion to Mantan no Yu, a nearby onsen (bath house) to finish setting up the new Slingbox so we could watch Japanese TV back home. He asked us to bring back anything for him to eat, so we stopped at a supermarket. His mom picked up a variety of ingredients and made a fantastic nabe (hot pot) with kombu (dried kelp) and water, then layering in deeper flavor with the other ingredients. My fiance loved the shirako, cod fish milt (aka sacs of cod semen). Shirako is only available in the winter months and is a Japanese delicacy. I think "delicacy" is the designation used for foods that would make most Americans squeamish to eat. 

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