Japan - July 14th 2007

Whilst French might have been more appropriate on Bastille Day, I am glad that I finally managed to organize another of my alphabetical dinners and continue on the journey to culinary discovery... The idea of cooking Japanese food is probably quite daunting to most people that have ever ventured to a sushi bar. Seeing the sushi chef handling those huge knives and coming up with the littlest pieces of art is really interesting but not something that I could do with my big hands. However, there's more to Japanese cuisine than sushi and who said that I always have to cook anyway?? Granted that was the initial idea but I decided to expand on my venture and I asked a celebrity chef to help with the cooking. Well, Kako Watanabe isn't a celebrity chef in a Food Network sort of way but she's certainly well known in her circle, and those of us who had the opportunity to be invited to her house for dinner know why she qualify to celebrity status. So, I've asked her to help me and she enthusiastically accepted. The results were fantastic. Read on...


We met early on Friday afternoon (I love summer hours at work, it makes the week end feel so much longer when it starts at noon on Friday) and drove to Buford Highway to buy the ingredients (for great fish at low cost, you can hardly beat the Buford Highway Farmers Market in Atlanta); we had lunch at Chef Liu, a great Chinese spot for those "in the know". This is hardly more than a trailer but the food is fantastic and it's so cheap you feel almost like a thief. Kako asked the waiter if he would sell us some of their noodles and we've got a huge bag for $4.00! We've used some for one of the dishes we served on Saturday night but I think I still have enough left to last me for another few meals... Anyway, we had this wonderful wonderful leek pie; it was so tasty! I am sure I'll go back since I've only tried 2 of their dishes and they were both outstanding. It's bring your own drink and Kako and I had lunch for $8.00 for both of us (plus the noodles!).


On previous occasions, I had to spend time doing research and defining the menu before going shopping, but this time Kako had it all figured out in her head and so we only had to go shopping and pick the best fish we could find. She kindly donated the steak and tuna for the sashimi (she knows of this place in Atlanta where you can find excellent sashimi meat and fish for great value for money and of restaurant quality). Once we were satisfied that we had enough food for 8, we returned home and started on some of the preparations - one thing I have learned watching Kako is that aside from excellent quality fish and meat, you can't have a good Japanese meal without marinades. She seems to know exactly what sauce goes with what, how much salt, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sake to combine to enhance the flavor of the dish - it's almost like instinctive cooking. I love it! It's so much more fun than following a recipe (but I can't give it up quite yet).

I asked Kako for help in drafting the menu so I could prepare it in advance for Saturday night and I couldn't believe how many dishes we ended up serving. And each one of them was a wonderful experience!

We invited a few friends to share the dinner: Joanne, Leonard, Floyd and Kiyomi (new friends we met recently through Kako) and as a welcome we served them Saketini (you guessed, vodka, sake and a slice of cucumber). Nothing better than a martini to break the ice! Not that there was any ice to break (Atlanta in July?? More likely the cold drinks are to cool us off).


The food on the table was just too beautiful: a wonderful array of fish accompanied by spinach gomaae (in a sesame sauce) and agedashi tofu (tofu in corn starch deep fried).

Tuna Carpaccio

Salmon Yuan-Yaki

Seafood Sunomono

Ika Matsubayaki & Ebi-Onigarayaki
Nimono with Gyu-Tataki

Doesn't it look wonderful? It was! Beautiful to look at and divine on the palate too.

And this was only to start. We broke it in the middle with a sorbet made with plum wine and sake in equal parts. We had the idea last Sunday as we were invited (again thanks to Kako) to a private Japanese lunch held by 4 Japanese chefs in Atlanta. They served a sake sorbet and it was really good so we had the idea of mixing sake and plum wine to get a sweeter taste.
Then onto the Yakimono: salmon marinated in orange juice, sashimi steak and cold noodles in broth... we were so full but really couldn't stop since everything was so good so to wash it all down we had Japanese beer, sake and red wine. Everyone looked just so happy (hopefully not only on account of the alcohol...), we had a really good time!
I had to introduce the concept of scoring the dishes to Floyd and Kyomi (who hadn't been at one of my dinners before) and we had such a laugh driving Floyd insane by questioning every single one of his votes (sorry Floyd but since you share the name with Floyd Landis we have to really dig in before we can make sure you mean what you say - note for those who aren't follower of the Tour the France: Floyd Landis was last year's winner but he then became the subject of a scandal when he was accused of taking performance enhancing drugs... he still says he's innocent but who will ever know, the French are even slower than the Italians when it comes to making decisions... nah, that's impossible).
Anyway, it turned out that this was the highest scoring alphabetical dinner I ever hosted; I wish I could say it was because the guests wanted to be nice to Kako... it really was a phenomenal meal. I can honestly say that if we send her to participate to "the next Food Network star", Kako might actually win... now, that's a thought!
We ended the meal with vanilla ice-cream with red bean sauce and more sake, beer, red wine and a little bit of limoncello... ok, this one wasn't exactly on the menu but I made my own and the guests asked to try it...
By the time we parted it was almost midnight; we almost had to use force to remove Joanne and Kako from the computer (ever heard of the game of Zuma? It's just addictive... ).














A picture of chef Kako

Here is the menu with the scores:

Welcome DrinkSakeTini: 9
Starters
Spinach Gomaae: 8.4
Seafood Sunomono (octopus, mackerel, scallops): 9
Agedashi Tofu: 9.4
Tuna Carpaccio: 9.2

Interval
Plum Wine and Sake Sorbet: 7.9

Yakimono
Salmon Yuan-Yaki: 9.1
Nimono with Gyu-Tataki (sashimi steak with vegetables): 10!!!
Ika-Matsubayaki & Ebi-Onigarayaki (shrimps and squids): 7.2
Hiyashi Udon:8.7

To End
Vanilla ice-cream with red bean sauce: 9

Next time we're travelling back to Africa (as a matter of speach). Kenya is my next country.
Stay tuned!

Rossana