Thursday, June 02, 2011

Wednesday's topic

The refreshment was chocolate cake.

On Wednesday we talked about foreign foods.
1.If you went to study for a year in a foreign country, what food would you miss the most from your country?
2. What was your favorite menu item at your high school or college cafeteria?
3. Imagine you are in charge of the cafeteria menu, for a large university. You want to offer some international dishes. Think of three dishes you might serve.

1. I would miss grilled fish, not Sashimi, tempura. I think BBQ fish and grilled fish are different from Japanese styled grilled fish. You might ask me what difference there is. --- It's difficult to explain it. sorry.
2. I would take my lunch to school. But Yuki, he would love "ketchup spaghetti". (We went to the same university). Of course the real name was not "ketchup spaghetti". It was served as meat sauce spaghetti. But it had no meat, no vegetables. So we called it "ketchup spaghetti".
3.I want to offer Tom yum goongo,calzones, and grilled chicken with BBQ sauce and dry rub.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting topic. First, fish is normally not barbecued in the US. Barbecue usually involves a tomato-based sauce and often is cooked for hours and based. Fish, of course, is grilled for only a few minutes.
When I lived in South America several years ago, the thing I missed most was cottage cheese, my mother's American desserts and typical "home" foods not found there. We couldn't trust fresh greens so never had salads and that was the first thing I ordered when I returned. Jan

Mieko said...

I thought again the difference between American grilled fish and Japanese grilled fish. Probably it is taste of salt. I have some kids of salt from verious countries. To cook spaghetti, European salt of herb salt seems to be suitable, and to cook TEMPURA, Japanese rock-salt seems to be suitable.

Jan where couldn't you trust "fresh greens"? and Why?

Anonymous said...

The manner in which the greens were watered created parasites and bacteria. You really couldn't wash it enough to make it safe (chemical baths weren't available in those days to make it safer). You really had to be very careful about anything you couldn't cook or didn't have a thick skin (such as bananas, mangos, etc). Most of us got severe amoebic dysentery at least once. Jan

Mieko said...

Jan, I got it. And to tell the truth, I may not wash greens well as you do.
On the other hand some people wash fruits having thin skin with detergent ... they are worried about wax or coating on their surface. I don't like them. So I always buy non-waxed things.

mss @ Words Into Bytes said...

I like Japanese grilled fish, too. To cook salmon I use a method that my Japanese cookbook calls "shio-yaki"--salt grilled. The salmon is placed skin side up in a baking dish and rock salt sprinkled on top. Then the skin side is put in the oven under the broiler element. The rock salt keeps the skin from catching fire and the fat under the skin melts and soaks down into the flesh of the salmon.

It's very easy to make and delicious. (And, yes, it tastes salty.)

Mieko said...

Shio-yaki, is the most simple and easiest way to cook, probably. Freshness & fat decide whether the taste is good or not.