Monday, June 26, 2006
So, you're saying the octopus didn't take a dump?
Because, I have to admit, I was actually a little disappointed when I did a double-take at the headline and found out that Japan wasn't exporting octopus excrement.
Octopus Dumplings
Quote from article:
..."When I was a small boy, it was street food that made me feel good and warm inside," Sase said at a recent interview....
This goes with my thought I had last year on my Pizza Blog...people really do find comfort in the food of their youth. Except maybe me, because I am less adventuresome with food every year, and there is stuff I ate --and enjoyed-- when I was a kid, that I wouldn't touch now.
What pops into my head at the moment is a piece of dried elk I bought at a small grocery store in rural Sweden. It was in the shape of a small tube, was hanging from a string, and when the guy cut it down and handed it to me, it looked for all the world like a dehydrated, used tampon. Don't judge me, I was hungry.
Speaking of food in Sweden, when I first got there, I kept ordering "hamburger" on the menu and bought packages of it at the store, because, you know, it's hamburger, right? Only in Sweden, if you want ground beef you order Oxfars. Hamburger is ground up horse. Forgive me Flicka, I just thought Swedish cows tasted funny. Don't tell Santa, but I also consumed reindeer in Sweden. Over there it's okay because reindeer don't pull Santa's sled, I think he can fly by himself or something.
When I was a kid in Oregon, it wasn't unheard of for my family to raise and our own food. Not dogs and cats, but we cooked up lamb, chicken, ducks, and geese, and whatever else wandered onto our plate. I have to say, I don't know if it's because it's so fresh or what, but pets taste funny.
My dad and my brother used to go hunting a lot, so I have eaten different kinds of deer and moose, and some really interesting homemade sausage. Parts of the cow I wouldn't dream of putting in my mouth today, such as testicles, tongue, and heart, were some of my favorite foods when I was a kid. Also chicken gizzards and hearts, although I never quite got into liver. It tasted too much like a McDonald's meat patty. They claim it's 100 eef, but they never specify which part of the beef animal it comes from.
I won't touch crustaceans, anything that causes me to have heart palpitations while it's alive is not something I will eat. Steve used to have a pet crawdad that scared the crap out of me. Krusty got out one day and hid under some dirty clothes in the bathroom. I found him when I was cleaning up, and I did several laps around the house screaming before my four-year-old daughter brought me to the couch and calmed me down. To this day, if Steve wants to threaten me, all he has to do is make "pinchers" with his fingers and I back off. Steve's not mean though, at Elephant Bar a while back, he was quite concerned when he couldn't find the tail to the piece of fried shrimp I was eating. I thought it was a chicken strip and bit right into it, wondering why it was so crunchy.
Even though I don't eat most water creatures, I do enjoy salmon, and I've eaten a lot of different kinds of caviar --either on little crackers or straight out of the jar with my fingers--but not like my sister-in-law's grandmother in Sweden. We were at the summerhouse one day, cleaning some pike my brother had caught in the lake, and Mormar came out and collected all the pike eggs in a bowl, mixed in some vinegar and salt, and stood there chowing down on the roe while we cut off the heads and gutted. She said it tasted too good to share, and I didn't argue.
Sometimes fresher is not better. I don't want to eat something so fresh that I ever had to look it in the eye. I never did get the hang of sushi. This is a chapter from The Zach Chronicles, where I write about my first experience with sushi:
"Tuck it! Tuck it!" Kat and I shouted. It was one of our favorite activities; bursting in on Zach in the shower and making him do the Silence of the Lambs dance for us.
"Cant you go watch TV or something?" moaned Zach. "Let me finish my shower in peace!"
Kat and I obligingly left Zach alone in the bathroom and I finished getting ready. After all, this was a big event; today for the first time I was going to try sushi. And Zach, a seasoned sushi-eater, was going to show me the ropes.
Having spent most of her life as a vegetarian, Kat bowed out of the sushi-bar trip, but I was determined to go on. What is this food that everyone is making such a fuss about?
"Be sure and not tell me how it goes," Kat said as she went home.
I was a little nervous. Although I had come from a family of hunters and so had eaten a variety of hooved mammals, I had very limited experience with creatures that came out of the ocean. Lobsters and crabs are nothing more than large, freakish spider monsters, shrimp look like and have the consistency of ears, and fish should be caught while you drink beer and cooked thoroughly over a fire or in a frying pan.
Zach, and most of my other friends, assured me m that I would love sushi. So here I go, ready to brave a new eating experience.
The first thing I noticed when I sat down at the sushi bar was the fish tanks.
"Hi little fishy!" I waved to the little guy swimming around a few inches from my face. This is kind of cool, cozy atmosphere, they even had aquariums. What a nice touch, very relaxing. Just as I was beginning to bond with my new orange friend, the guy behind the bar reached his hand in the tank and scooped the little fish out. I heard some whack whack whacks behind the counter and the chef proudly handed the plate, a little lump of something pink, white, and black, to the person sitting on the other side of Zach.
"Was that the-?" I stood up and looked over the bar. Oh god, it was. "I'm not sure about this."
Zach nodded absentmindedly and looked down at the list in front of him. I picked up my list and scanned it quickly with my eyes.
"Z?"
"Yes, C?"
"Does the caterpillar roll have real caterpillars in it?"
Silence.
"Zach? Does the caterpillar roll have real caterpillars in it?" I asked a little more urgently this time. I looked to the woman on my left. She had a small purple tentacle hanging out of her mouth that she sucked in like spaghetti. "Z? Why wont you answer me?"
"Shhh, geez dont yell. Now what do you want to try first?" he asked. Zach wasnt getting, or was ignoring, my panic.
"What do you suggest?" I whispered. "Nothing with fish in it, okay?"
"Uh, okay, why dont you have an avocado roll then," Zach said. He handed our order slips to the chef and got us each a Sapporo.
"Whats that green stuff on the outside of the food?" I asked Zach, watching another plate go by.
"Oh, and wrap that avocado roll in rice paper, please," Zach told the chef. "Dont worry, you wont get any of that green stuff."
Zach showed me the wasabi and soy sauce. I tried the wasabi and washed it down with a little beer. This place wasnt so bad after all, anything spicy had to be good.
A moment later the chef handed me a plate.
"Is that my food I smell?" I asked Zach. For something that had no fish in it, it sure smelled like the underside of a dinghy.
Zach dug heartily into his plate but I stared at my little lump of food for a moment. I picked it up and looked at it carefully. Nothing in there looked like it had been swimming around in front of me only seconds before, but still...
Zach turned and looked at me, chewing.
"Whats the matter?" He asked after taking another swig of Sapporo. "Dig in".
"I dont like the way it smells," I whispered.
"Just take one bite," Zach urged.
I held my breath and brought the fork to my mouth. I felt a shaky, cold feeling in my stomach. I finally tore off a little tiny bite and moved it around my mouth.
I dont know what everyone else was eating, but I had something they found wrapped in toilet paper in the alley. There is no way this is going down, there's just not enough wasabi in the world.
I slid my plate over to Zach who quickly popped my roll into his mouth with his chopsticks. He ordered himself another round of sushi from the chef and called a waitress over.
"Vegetable tempura for the lady, please," requested Zach.
Now were talking. Veggies, all crispy-fried and crunchy, covered in nice hot wasabi.
I like sushi!
"When can we go again? I asked, two Sapporos and a plate of fried vegetables later. Zach had eaten a wide array of colorful mounds in veritable silence.
Zach waited until we got to the parking lot to light up. He didnt say anything on the way home.
Octopus Dumplings
Quote from article:
..."When I was a small boy, it was street food that made me feel good and warm inside," Sase said at a recent interview....
This goes with my thought I had last year on my Pizza Blog...people really do find comfort in the food of their youth. Except maybe me, because I am less adventuresome with food every year, and there is stuff I ate --and enjoyed-- when I was a kid, that I wouldn't touch now.
What pops into my head at the moment is a piece of dried elk I bought at a small grocery store in rural Sweden. It was in the shape of a small tube, was hanging from a string, and when the guy cut it down and handed it to me, it looked for all the world like a dehydrated, used tampon. Don't judge me, I was hungry.
Speaking of food in Sweden, when I first got there, I kept ordering "hamburger" on the menu and bought packages of it at the store, because, you know, it's hamburger, right? Only in Sweden, if you want ground beef you order Oxfars. Hamburger is ground up horse. Forgive me Flicka, I just thought Swedish cows tasted funny. Don't tell Santa, but I also consumed reindeer in Sweden. Over there it's okay because reindeer don't pull Santa's sled, I think he can fly by himself or something.
When I was a kid in Oregon, it wasn't unheard of for my family to raise and our own food. Not dogs and cats, but we cooked up lamb, chicken, ducks, and geese, and whatever else wandered onto our plate. I have to say, I don't know if it's because it's so fresh or what, but pets taste funny.
My dad and my brother used to go hunting a lot, so I have eaten different kinds of deer and moose, and some really interesting homemade sausage. Parts of the cow I wouldn't dream of putting in my mouth today, such as testicles, tongue, and heart, were some of my favorite foods when I was a kid. Also chicken gizzards and hearts, although I never quite got into liver. It tasted too much like a McDonald's meat patty. They claim it's 100 eef, but they never specify which part of the beef animal it comes from.
I won't touch crustaceans, anything that causes me to have heart palpitations while it's alive is not something I will eat. Steve used to have a pet crawdad that scared the crap out of me. Krusty got out one day and hid under some dirty clothes in the bathroom. I found him when I was cleaning up, and I did several laps around the house screaming before my four-year-old daughter brought me to the couch and calmed me down. To this day, if Steve wants to threaten me, all he has to do is make "pinchers" with his fingers and I back off. Steve's not mean though, at Elephant Bar a while back, he was quite concerned when he couldn't find the tail to the piece of fried shrimp I was eating. I thought it was a chicken strip and bit right into it, wondering why it was so crunchy.
Even though I don't eat most water creatures, I do enjoy salmon, and I've eaten a lot of different kinds of caviar --either on little crackers or straight out of the jar with my fingers--but not like my sister-in-law's grandmother in Sweden. We were at the summerhouse one day, cleaning some pike my brother had caught in the lake, and Mormar came out and collected all the pike eggs in a bowl, mixed in some vinegar and salt, and stood there chowing down on the roe while we cut off the heads and gutted. She said it tasted too good to share, and I didn't argue.
Sometimes fresher is not better. I don't want to eat something so fresh that I ever had to look it in the eye. I never did get the hang of sushi. This is a chapter from The Zach Chronicles, where I write about my first experience with sushi:
"Tuck it! Tuck it!" Kat and I shouted. It was one of our favorite activities; bursting in on Zach in the shower and making him do the Silence of the Lambs dance for us.
"Cant you go watch TV or something?" moaned Zach. "Let me finish my shower in peace!"
Kat and I obligingly left Zach alone in the bathroom and I finished getting ready. After all, this was a big event; today for the first time I was going to try sushi. And Zach, a seasoned sushi-eater, was going to show me the ropes.
Having spent most of her life as a vegetarian, Kat bowed out of the sushi-bar trip, but I was determined to go on. What is this food that everyone is making such a fuss about?
"Be sure and not tell me how it goes," Kat said as she went home.
I was a little nervous. Although I had come from a family of hunters and so had eaten a variety of hooved mammals, I had very limited experience with creatures that came out of the ocean. Lobsters and crabs are nothing more than large, freakish spider monsters, shrimp look like and have the consistency of ears, and fish should be caught while you drink beer and cooked thoroughly over a fire or in a frying pan.
Zach, and most of my other friends, assured me m that I would love sushi. So here I go, ready to brave a new eating experience.
The first thing I noticed when I sat down at the sushi bar was the fish tanks.
"Hi little fishy!" I waved to the little guy swimming around a few inches from my face. This is kind of cool, cozy atmosphere, they even had aquariums. What a nice touch, very relaxing. Just as I was beginning to bond with my new orange friend, the guy behind the bar reached his hand in the tank and scooped the little fish out. I heard some whack whack whacks behind the counter and the chef proudly handed the plate, a little lump of something pink, white, and black, to the person sitting on the other side of Zach.
"Was that the-?" I stood up and looked over the bar. Oh god, it was. "I'm not sure about this."
Zach nodded absentmindedly and looked down at the list in front of him. I picked up my list and scanned it quickly with my eyes.
"Z?"
"Yes, C?"
"Does the caterpillar roll have real caterpillars in it?"
Silence.
"Zach? Does the caterpillar roll have real caterpillars in it?" I asked a little more urgently this time. I looked to the woman on my left. She had a small purple tentacle hanging out of her mouth that she sucked in like spaghetti. "Z? Why wont you answer me?"
"Shhh, geez dont yell. Now what do you want to try first?" he asked. Zach wasnt getting, or was ignoring, my panic.
"What do you suggest?" I whispered. "Nothing with fish in it, okay?"
"Uh, okay, why dont you have an avocado roll then," Zach said. He handed our order slips to the chef and got us each a Sapporo.
"Whats that green stuff on the outside of the food?" I asked Zach, watching another plate go by.
"Oh, and wrap that avocado roll in rice paper, please," Zach told the chef. "Dont worry, you wont get any of that green stuff."
Zach showed me the wasabi and soy sauce. I tried the wasabi and washed it down with a little beer. This place wasnt so bad after all, anything spicy had to be good.
A moment later the chef handed me a plate.
"Is that my food I smell?" I asked Zach. For something that had no fish in it, it sure smelled like the underside of a dinghy.
Zach dug heartily into his plate but I stared at my little lump of food for a moment. I picked it up and looked at it carefully. Nothing in there looked like it had been swimming around in front of me only seconds before, but still...
Zach turned and looked at me, chewing.
"Whats the matter?" He asked after taking another swig of Sapporo. "Dig in".
"I dont like the way it smells," I whispered.
"Just take one bite," Zach urged.
I held my breath and brought the fork to my mouth. I felt a shaky, cold feeling in my stomach. I finally tore off a little tiny bite and moved it around my mouth.
I dont know what everyone else was eating, but I had something they found wrapped in toilet paper in the alley. There is no way this is going down, there's just not enough wasabi in the world.
I slid my plate over to Zach who quickly popped my roll into his mouth with his chopsticks. He ordered himself another round of sushi from the chef and called a waitress over.
"Vegetable tempura for the lady, please," requested Zach.
Now were talking. Veggies, all crispy-fried and crunchy, covered in nice hot wasabi.
I like sushi!
"When can we go again? I asked, two Sapporos and a plate of fried vegetables later. Zach had eaten a wide array of colorful mounds in veritable silence.
Zach waited until we got to the parking lot to light up. He didnt say anything on the way home.
