I met my investment group partner, Nizar Kassam, for lunch at Café Trang to discuss the re-financing of a property we own in California. He had chicken soup with a large round noodle and I had No. 21, which is Pho (beef soup) with thinly sliced, raw beef and beef meatballs. We both loved the newly introduced addition to the soups, which is a scattering of finely chopped fresh cilantro and green onions on the surface of each prepared bowl of soup. Amazing how one small change or addition to a presentation or preparation can make such a large difference in flavor. We both agreed that the soups had a decidedly fresher flavor.
I had talked to Willy about going to eat sushi before lunch so
when Nizar called I still had a hankering for some sushi. Willy could not go because he received a
skype call from one of his ex-roommates from Vancouver, Danny, and stayed home
to talk.
So after lunch I drove across the parking lot to Ta Lin to
see whether they had fresh sushi grade fish and they did (Thursdays are good days for fresh fish), I bought about a ½ lb.
piece red yellowfin tuna, (maguro at $21.88/lb.), about 1/3 lb. of fresh cooked octopus
($15.88/lb.) and a 1 lb. piece of Atlantic farm raised salmon about 2 inches
wide ($5.75/lb. if you take a piece from the whole fish).
After I had selected the fish, I went back to the sushi bar
area and selected prepared pickled seaweed salad ($2.99) and squid salad
($3.99), each pre-packed in their own small covered plastic trays and then to
the Japanese refrigerated area and selected a 6 oz. plastic container of Wel-Pac
pickled ginger (Sushi Yo Shoga for $2.15) and a nearby end cap I found a bottle of Sho
Chiku Bai Classic Junmai naturally brewed Sake ($4.88). Then I went to the fresh
vegetable area and found a broken three inch long piece of white daikon.
After buying a 500gram loaf of German whole grains bread
with muesili and a couple of Chinese eggplants and a bag of Chinese broccoli, I
checked out. The total of all purchases
was just over $47.00.
Suzette worked late and I worked until after 5:00, so around
6:00 I began preparing the meal. I
started by boiling 1 ½ cups of basmati rice with a few flakes of seshe dried seaweed
for 30 minutes. Then I began slicing the
daikon by peeling the outer skin and slicing it in half lengthwise and then into
thin semi-circular slices. When that was
completed I covered the slices with saran and put them into the fridge. Then I did the same with the tuna and octopus
cutting them into thin approximately 1 inch wide slices. I filleted the salmon and cut each semi-circular
filet into two 1 inch wide pieces and then sliced each filet into thin
pieces. I then filled a small aluminum
pot half full of water and turned the heat to low and poured a small pitcher
full of sake and placed the pitcher in the pot of water to heat and thinly sliced
a few cornichons to have pickles.
When the rice was cooked and still hot I added the last half
of my 75 gram bag of JC International instant sushi flavoring (Tamamoi Sushinoko)
to the hot rice and stirred it in. Instead
of turning off the rice I left it on low heat until Willy noticed that the heat
was still on. It had hardened on the
bottom of the pan but it was still quite warm when Suzette came home at around
7:00p.m.
Since I had laid all the fish in their plastic trays and
covered them with plastic, we decided to simply lay the trays with their rows
of fish slices out on the table. I put
the daikon and pickles in Japanese boxes and used our new set of color
coordinated chop stick holders, rice cups and dipping sauce bowls on the table,
then Willy made green tea with Chinese gunpowder tea and fetched chop sticks and small plates to match the colors of the bowl set and I fetched our S and B prepared
wasabi in a tube and Suzette fetched the Japanese soy sauce and we started
eating fish and drinking warm sake and hot tea.
After a fun hour of eating as much fresh seafood as we could, there were
still left overs of everything. So we wrapped
them in plastic and put them in the fridge for a future snack or PPI. I ate some chocolate fudge brownie ice cream with chocaolate sauce and cognac later in the evening for dessert.
Bon Appétit.
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