About food

Kanikama ( Kani-kamaboko)

This sea food has a various names abroad Ocean stick Crab stick Imitation crab Surimi Last one [Surimi] actually means fish meat paste. In Japan this food is called Kanikama ( Kani- Kamaboko ) Kani is crab, Kamaboko is fish cake So Kanikamaboko is crab flavoured fish cake ( it contains crab extract but mostly no meat) History of Kamaboko is quite old in Japan, in year of 1115 you find in literature. Kanikama is new version of Japanese traditional food. I used a word [fish cake] to explain Kamaboko but it might be easier to understand that Kamaboko is sausage made from fish.Various kinds of white meat fish are .cleaned, cut, pulverized.to be fine paste. This is Surimi. Surimi is formed then steamed or roasted or deep fried to priduce different kinds of Kamaboko, As same as meat sausage, there are so many different quality of Kanikama .For example, there is a very good sausage which is made from almost 100 % quality meat plus salt and spice and the other hand, there is also very bad one which contain only 20 % of rubbish meat plus 80 % of mythterious things. .It is exactly same situation in Kanikama, In 'AN' I am using best quality product from Japan, so if you have negative image about Kanikama from your experience, why not try one more time in my restaurant..

Kampyo
Kampyo is one of Sushi ingriedient in my restaurant.When customer asks what is Kampyo, it is quite difficult to explain. so i do it here. Kampyo is Japanese gourd, same familly with calabash or big round things attatched behind of indian instrument Sitar. This heavy fruit is havested late June, then peeled and dried. First, I wash Kampyo with warm salted water very well. Cook in the boiling water about 1 hour, drain, then cook again in soyasauce and sugar untill no more requid remain in the pan. Kampyo contains vitamine B2, iron and a lot of dietry fiber. It is very healthy food. In Japan, Norimaki (Sushi roll ) means Kampyo roll, if you don"t mention any other ingriedient. Same way [flower] means cherry blossoms. In old time, when refrigirator is not widely spreaded in each house, Sushi was not made in home but only in Sushi restaurant except Kampyo roll.Kampyo roll was very popular item for picnic or all kinds of events.It is purely the taste of mother.

Kampyo in the field	Peeled and dried	Kampyo roll

We have home made Icecream with 5 kinds of flavours. Caspian yogurt is one of them.
This yogurt is very popular in Japan since Dr.Yamori introduced from Caucasus region (between Black sea and Caspian sea) where he had been reserching into long life. Lactic ferment of this yogurt is very strong and it allow the multiplication very easy.
We also make (or multiply) yogurt by ourselves.

Gyoza
Gyoza is originally Chinese dish ,but very popular in Japan too. It is available in authentic Chinese restaurant, Japanese style Chinese restaurant or gyoza speciality restaurant . Same time , gyoza is well made in home. My mother also used to make gyoza quite often and it was my favorite food. One day my mother planned to make gyoza for dinner, arranged all the ingredient then she felt very sick from a cold So, she called me and said she will quit to make gyoza but order some deliverly food. I was aroud 7 or 8 years old, couldn't give up my favorite food so asked mother that can I try to make it by myself.. So that was my first cooking career and result was ,,,,,of course very successful !! My father and sister couldn't believe that not only taste was perfect but so many pieces.I made. And I ate a lot as usual. Long long time had past, but there is not so much different between my first gyoza and the one we serve in restaurant.There are so many variations in recipe, AN' s gyoza is rather orthodox. We use more vegetables than meat ( this is really a lot of work because after minced and squuezed vegetables reduce their quantity till 20 % ) garlic and ginger decide storong and spicy flavor.For the pork meat, I always go my favorite meat shop, ask freshly grind. So our gyoza is well balanced, quite healthy and tasty food .

vegetables and minced pork	foaming	ready !!

Nori : very popular for making a sushi roll, so it is known as a shape of sheet..But originally, it is very tiny structure floating in the sea. You can eat this sea weed in various way. Try once like this,Cut Nori in small piece, dip in soya-sauce lightly then rap the warm rice with it.

Sea weed
		Hijiki ; black seaweed.ready to use after 30 min. soaking in cold water.good to cook or eat as salad. full of calcium,(12 times than milk) iron and dietary fiber..
		Wakame; green soft seaweed. popular to use as salad or in miso soup but stir-fry with other vegetable is tasty too. contains all kinds of sea minerals but specially kalium. that helps to discharge surplus salt from your body.
		Tosakanori ; Tosaka means cocks-comb.; contains kalium calcium, iron and carotene.

Shimesaba ( Marinated Mackerel )
Mackerel is one of most tasty fish. But it"s meat is very soft and consists special enzyme which makes thier meat quickly go bad.. To avoid this troublesome nature, it is often smoked in Nederland and in Japan we use traditional marination technic. First, make mackerel as fillet, then covered with a lot of salt or soak in salted water. These day I use the latter way because it is more easy to give salt equally, and when it' ready, i don"t need to wash up salt. It takes about 3 hours but time depends on size of meat and season..After that, drain the mackerel on the basket or kitchen paper about 1hour.. Now mackerel go into the vinegar about 20 minutes.Pick up from the vinegar, peel off the outer armor skin, take off tiny bones and ready !! But at this stage, mackerel is still very soft and raw.Even after picked up from vinegar, marination is still going on. Some people prefer ligtly marinated condition but best timing is rather next day.