Raw fish? No, sashimis of jellyfish and horse

Have you ever tasted sashimis(raw fish) before? Now that you can see the word ‘sashimi’ in English dictionaries. My Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary says ‘sashimi’ is a Japanese dish consisting of slices of raw fish, served with sauce. The geographic location surrounded by the ocean enables us to develop our seafood cultures. Hmm, you’ve already tried sashimis. Okay, how about this, then? Sashimi of jellyfish.

I met this strange dish by chance when I dropped by a tavern with my friend. The words ‘sashimi of jellyfish’ on the menu just drew my attention. Here, it is.

Actually, it’s difficult to describe the taste of this dish. I would like you to imagine and enjoy the texture rather than the taste. Let me search for an adequate expression about the texture from my limited vocabulary. How does it sound: crunchy?

Only a few kinds of jellyfish are used as sashimis: bizen jellyfish and echizen jellyfish. As I said, you can’t expect the taste too much from this cuisine; however, it is said that this cuisine is hearty as a Chinese medicine.

In contrast, I would like you to enjoy the taste rather than the texture: sashimis of horse. We call it basashi.

There is an anecdote regarding basashi. It is believed that samurai warriors fighting at Korean Peninsula in 1592-1598 were forced to eat horses due to the lack of food. After the war, the samurai warriors brought the custom back to Japan and spread it from Kumamoto prefecture: the hometown of the high-ranked samurai warrior at the war, Kiyomasa Kato.

The taste of basashi is different on parts of horse. You can enjoy basashi with soy sauce, sliced leeks, etc.

Every little thing in my ordinary life 16

Belated lunch
I have two meetings today. One is a grand meeting, and the other is just a meeting. One of my clients gave an extension of the contract with me at the grand meeting. I’m relieved with the result, but there are at least 5 grand meetings to go.

Now I’m in an Internet cafe and have a belated lunch before the next meeting. Thanks to Internet cafes, I can post journals in my blog.

A lot of exciting things in Phil…the first day of my travel Vol.2

The last half of the first day.

Thanks to the man who had bad breath, I could get much sleep in the airplane.

The terminal 2 in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport was my front door in this travel. With my disembarkation card in my hand, I made my way to the immigration. As I wrote at the previous journal, there were many middle-aged Japanese in the same airplane. For the Philippines, the Japanese are still important customers even if we are under disastrous recessions. “Japanese, here!” staff pointed out a few gates.

Finally, I’d arrived at the Philippines.

Sweets sometimes turned me on.

Have you ever felt like eating sweets suddenly? I fell in such a feeling today and bought obanyaki at Osu after a meeting.

obanyaki has a lot of other names. I guess imagawayaki was its original name. Imagawayaki was originated from imagawabashi(imagawa bridge), which is in Chiyoda ward, Tokyo. In the region where I live, obanyaki is rather famous than imagawayaki.

An analogy for your sincerity

I got one topic on soba, one of Japanese noodles.

As I wrote it in this blog, it was my birthday last Sunday. “So…you had spaghetti?” I got these words from my godmother who lives in the other country.

“Why?” She told me that there is just one of customs in her country. “Ummm…it’s like…hikkoshi soba?” said I.

Ofcourse she didn’t know what the meaning hikkoshi soba has, so I explained it to her. As one of the ways to show politeness, we have one custom to visit our new neighbors and let them know ourselves when we move to the new place. At that time, we often bring hikkoshi soba and present it to them. hikkoshi just means “to move to the new place”, not indicate sorts of soba. In other words, all sorts of soba gifted when moving are called hikkoshi soba overall.

soba, as you know, is a long and thin strip made from soba flour, like spaghetti. Giving soba to our neighbors in the new place, we try to express our “I would like to let you know I start living in here, and make a long and constructive relationship with you” feeling.

I asked her that serving spaghetti and eating it on one’s birthday have the same meaning as hikkoshi soba has. She said “kinda”. In her country, they eat spaghetti on thier own birthday or someone else’s birthday, hoping for the person’s (who got his/her birthday) health and happiness.

Unfortunately, such a custom I refered above now seems to be diminishing in Japan because people tend to avoid communicating with each other, and even if people has opportunities to visit neigbors after moving, the visit is finished without hikkoshi soba. Anyway, it’s so crucial for you to visit neigbors, let them know yourself and know what kind of neigbors live. It is said from police officers in Japan that such behaivor can protect you from robbing. “You have to know at least the people who live in your right upper floor, right lower floor and right your both sides, especially in the case you live in a condominium” One of police officers taught me like that when I went to the police station and got the instruction against crimes related to condominiums. I often get such instructions on condominiums and use them as one of interesting topic for my clients. That is one of my job as a consultant.

What about your contries? Are there any similar customs?

Incidentally, zaru soba is the most favorite soba among all kinds of soba. Here it is.

I’ll show you how to eat zaru soba. Don’t pick soba and put it into your mouth directly. You have to some strip of soba and dip it into the cup placed next to soba, and you can taste it better.