Nagaimo

The nagaimo (長芋、ながいも), or Dioscorea opposita, is also known as the Chinese yam or Korean yam. The first kanji is “long”; the second is best read as “yam”. Yams long predated potatoes in Japanese cuisine.

The defining feature of the nagaimo is that, unlike other yams, it’s safe to eat nagaimo raw. That means you can grate nagaimo and use it in food almost instantly. Note that whole tubers are soaked in a vinegar-water solution to neutralize an irritant in the outer skin.

Uses 

• In grated form, it is called tororo.
• Used as a topping for tororo udon.
• Used for “authentic” okonomiyaki (home made style pancakes).

Benefits

• Low in calories
• High in protein
• High in potassium and many other nutrients

Note that high heat cooking will lower the nutritional value.

Recipes

Recipes aren’t my forte, so try this site for a few recipe tips.  – J

A Somewhat Modern Tradition

Until the Meiji Restoration, consumption of beef had been banned in Japan for about a thousand years! This reflected not only Buddhist cultural prejudices, but to keep penalties severe in case anyone was tempted to slaughter drought animals (i.e. for pulling things) during a famine. Individually, a Wagyu (lit. “Japanese cow”) was more valuable than a Japanese peasant. It’s just a matter of muscle power and economics.

After the Meiji Restoration, Wagyu were mixed with Western types of cattle to some degree to improve their beefiness (no, really – to make them better for beef consumption) among other advantages. However, what made the “Kobe beef” different was that these cows were seriously pampered: each cow is meticulously back massaged by animal handlers to improve the quality of the meat and, critically, the distribution of the fat, creating a marbling effect as seen in the picture at the top of this post.

Kobe beef fat has a lower melting point than that of normal beef. You actually can’t make Kobe beef “well-done” without extracting all the fat in it, which defeats the purpose. The fat’s melting point is actually low enough that it literally melts in the mouth. This goes along with just plain tender meat that is considered by one list to be the fourth most expensive luxury food in the world, exceeded only by white truffles, saffron, and at the top, caviar.

Copycats and End-Arounds

I didn’t know much about Kobe beef until seeing a mention in the media. When I told a friend about it, he explained to me that he has personally tried Kobe beef, and it is indeed incredible. He also said it is much superior to a type of meat that goes around under the moniker of Kobe-style beef, which is American raised.

“Kobe-style beef” is a third of the price and is still good meat, but the cows aren’t given that “fancy Japanese massage stuff” that produces “largely cosmetic changes.” Yes, but those changes are important factors in the final product. As a translator, I always said that the final 5% of quality makes a huge difference in the overall quality of the final result. It’s true for beef, too.

The cows for “Kobe-style beef” are cross-breeds between Wagyu and the typical Angus. Due to the cost benefits, Japanese people were eating quite a bit of this at one time, because Kobe beef could be $300 US (that is, per pound) in Japan.  A third of that is still a wallet-bursting $100 a pound.

Now, a while back, we had Japanese producers shipping their cows to the United States, having them fed grain and massaged according to exacting Kobe standards, and then shipping them back to Japan to be slaughtered. Grain and land are a lot cheaper to come by in the US, of course.

In both cases, this came to a crashing stop eventually. While the “traditionalists” in Kobe beef likely rejoiced at the downfall of their competition, there was a very real reason at work, too.

The Mad Cow Disease Crisis

Mad cow disease, usually known as BSE (an abbreviation of a far too long scientific name), caused Japan to shut its doors to all beef from American soil, whether Kobe style or not. After all, any cross-herd contamination wouldn’t care whether the cows are “genuine” Wagyu, Wagyu-Angus, or anything else. It’s a terrible disease that destroys the brain and which isn’t even caused by a virus or bacteria, meaning that conventional methods simply cannot fight it. If you get it, sooner or later, it’s over for you.

Although at any rate, Kobe beef is not cooked to be “well-done,” since it’s not a bacteria, cooking contaminated meat to that level isn’t going to help. It’s essentially a protein gone wrong that throws the body for a loop. Very sad stuff to read about. So, the Japanese government did have a legitimate reason, even though I’m sure American producers felt like the response was dramatically overdone. Losing lots of money will do that.

Actually, Japan no longer has a total ban on imported beef, but the cows have to be slaughtered 20 months and under. Since “Kobe beef” cows are slaughtered between 26 and 32 months, American “Kobe beef” is completely banned. While I’m sure there is some scientific justification, that’s an awfully convenient coincidence for entrenched interests in Japan, isn’t it?

Not All Japanese Beef Is Kobe

The thing you have to remember is, only “Kobe beef” is actually Kobe beef. “Wagyu beef” is just beef from a Japanese cow.

Note that people like to say “beef cow,” but kanji-wise, there’s no specifying made. Rather, it is the lack of the kanji for “milk” stuck in front of the one for “cow” to specify milk cows. So it’s just Japanese cows. (“The “wa” kanji used for “wagyuu” or 和牛 is one used to represent Japan for over a thousand years.)

An example of a Wagyu beef brand is Miyazaki Wagyu. The cattle are given individual names, are given pure grain feed (i.e. none of that recycled animal remains stuff!!!), and are completely free of growth hormones and implants. (I think they receive antibiotics when necessary, and that’s all, so it sounds pretty organic to me.) But Miyazaki Wagyu and Kobe beef are apples and oranges, so to speak.

No, I’ve never tried either one myself. I’m not wealthy enough. I can only try and clear up some confusion about what is, and is not, Kobe beef, and why that is so. Just beware: branding is often deliberately confusing. Even so,  it must conform to some legal guidelines, so a savvy customer can find out which is which. – J

A Matter of Taste

Last Tuesday, I was finally able to implement a plan for a Japanese lesson I’d had my heart set on: using sushi to teach Japanese vocabulary. It was a strong success. Somehow, people just remember things about food very well. It must be genetic.

Sushi comes in wide varieties. The picture above is funamori, and to explain simply, fune is Japanese for “ship.” More broadly, think of the English word vessel and you might grasp the rest: it’s sushi served in a vessel of some sort. In ancient times, this was usually a lobster shell, but the “ship” theme caught on, and anything looking like a ship or boat or what have you, is employed to serve funamori style sushi.

The objective reason for using this in a lesson was to provide vocabulary for the formation of sentences. Forming useful sentences at an early date is the entire focus of my current style, and part of it is for critical short term reasons: keeping morale high, giving the learner a sense of advancement and progress,  and driving the level of frustration to a low and insignificant level.  It’s not just about having fun; really, it’s not. It’s about the feeling of empowerment vs.  helplessness.

Of course, helplessness is a normal feeling for people learning Japanese. Hence, why I seek to dispel it.

Besides this, the verb I use as the penultimate beginner’s verb is taberu, “To Eat.” Having a verb for eating without discussing anything to eat is a rather impoverished way to go about it.

Besides this, I strive to never forget that the Japanese language is a bridge to culture, with food culture being one important aspect of this. Learning the language is important, but we must not lose sight of what learning language is for.

The next lesson with this particular girl will concern where and when eating is taking place, or is to take place, or with whom it takes place. This allows us to focus on particles we have not yet addressed. Simplicity is important to ingrain the early steps, but it is also important to follow up. Fortunately, I am very pleased with overall progress and the “sushi lesson” (which she enjoyed greatly) seems to have sunk in quite well. I can throw in sushi terminology in future lessons, essentially at random, to have fun and, more importantly, further ingrain this useful terminology.

So, having fun is great, but using fun to enhance learning is fantastic. That, at least, is my personal opinion, backed up by my personal experiences. Everyone should give it a taste,  so  to speak. – J

Cooking is not my thing, and I have nightmares about translating anything related to food, but no harm here.

Overreach

Here in the LA Times we have a story about a man with Diabetes who refused to eat the rice in an “all the sushi you can eat” special offer at a sushi restaurant, wanting only the fish. I think the kicker here is that the chef kindly offered to prepare him sashimi specifically, but the customer dramatically refused – and then sued for “over $4000.” What an ass.

Not for the last time will I say this: “sushi” is vinegared rice. If you’re not eating the rice, you’re not eating sushi. The chef would be quite literally compromising his craft to take any other stance.

Key para:

Oh said he offered to prepare sashimi for Martin. Two orders of sashimi cost $25, or $3 less than the all-you-can-eat sushi deal. But Oh said Martin declined the offer.

To me, this makes all the legal and moral difference in the world. If you want sashimi – that is, the sliced fish – then order sashimi. Don’t order all you can eat sushi and not eat the sushi (i.e. the rice).

For his lack of respect, the customer wants $4000+ for humiliation and discrimination for his disability.

Sir, you have a medical condition, not a disability. Disability is someone who can’t walk because of a genetic defect. I have Type 2 diabetes; I take pills before meals. I’m fortunate that I do not have to take insulin, but I do not. I realize this might impact my enjoyment of Japanese meals if I was living in Japan, but people would understand… and by the same token, I wouldn’t be baka enough to go after all-you-can-eat sushi.

More to the point, just going after the fish is abusive to the hospitality of the chef and is in effect robbing him of his work.

It’s not just a financial mugging; it’s a cultural mugging. Maybe the image of “sushi” as the fish is being preyed upon here. But we have no obligation to humor cultural ignorance as the basis for a frivolous lawsuit. Nor greed.

Long story short, a new type of sushi bar is attracting a female clientelle in Tokyo: one offering slices and cuts of raw meat other than fish, such as beef, chicken, pork, deer, and horse. The rice is being sold with balsamic vinegar to offset the different meat better than the usual regular variety.

Now, I do see a rather obvious problem. I can understand raw fish of various sorts being entirely sanitary, but raw pork…? Isn’t that dangerous, since pigs are just close enough to humans (in body temp and so on) for a lot of bugs to be able to make the species jump? Well, I’m not their meat inspector, so I’m not going to speculate.

All I know for sure is that it’s an excellent opportunity to underline how the fish is not the sushi, so this, too, is sushi, without any abuse of language. I just don’t intend to vouch for it being good sushi, but someone likes it.

So I saw someone randomly refer to “kabucha” in a list of food. Apparently this is a common misspelling of “kombucha,” but the problem is, the actual “kombucha” in the English language is not the Japanese “kombucha.” Since ‘n’ can be heard like ‘m’ in the middle of word pronunciation, it’s not hard to see how it can be read like that.

The problem is, in Japanese, “kombucha” is from konbu, or kelp. It is kelp tea, and the English “kombucha” is most certainly not.

So, in English, “kombucha” is a fermented, reddish culture of bacteria and yeast. This culture resembles a mushroom, and that is how the Japanese would refer to it: 紅茶キノコ, or “red tea mushroom.” Chinese refers to it similarly enough.

Obviously, someone took the name from Japan, using the name of a legitimate and common (and brown!) kelp-based tea sold commercially on Japanese soil.

Well, the Japanese have some weird loan word usage too. I’m not trying to point fingers.

Supposedly the origins of the Western “kombucha” are Chinese. At any rate, it’s a sweet drink (from the fermentation) and there are people who swear by its health benefits.

I haven’t touched the stuff, personally. I’m just a linguist here.

Pressed By The Chef’s Loving Hand

So, to “nigiru” is indeed to grasp. Nigirizushi (sushi > zushi, at the end of a compound word; this makes it easier to say) is grasped by the chef and pressed together. It is formed of some sort of meat pressed on top of sushi. The above picture shows ebi, or lobster, in this case. The meat is pressed on top of the sushi while the sushi is in an oblong rectangular box (which simply means that fish/ lobster face forward when being pressed). The sushi (vinegared rice) thus packed provides a stable foundation, and the nigirizushi can then be served as-is.

A variant is known as the gunkan maki (“battleship roll”), using nori seaweed to form a perimeter around the sushi rice that constitutes a “vessel” that can be filled with soft toppings. This invention, pioneered by the Ginza Kyubey restaurant in 1931, greatly expanded the variety of toppings that could be used with nigirizushi.

Now, for pretty much all of the history of sushi, the idea of this being done by a machine was ludicrous, but you may want to take a peek at the video below. Behold – a robot with a silicon hand that can pick up squishy meat correctly, and put it on top of sushi! The idea was to have something that could save time. I doubt it’s economical, but it sure is nifty.

Incidentally, the meat that is put over sushi rice like this is cut in two and served in pairs, allowing the eater to appreciate the taste more (by being, well, less of a chore to handle). This is sensible. I just wanted to mention this to put the above video in context.

Rice You Can Hold

For once, eating with your hands (in Japan)  is OK.

To nigiru is “To Grasp.”

O-Nigiri (Japanese: おにぎり、お握り) is sushi that you grasp while eating it.

Put simply, onigiri are rice balls with fillings of some kind.

Traditionally, these fillings included:

• Pickled dry plums (umeboshi)
• Salted bonito (katsuo-bushi)
• Konbu seaweed (konbu)
• Cod roe (tarako)

Cod roe for the Japanese market is actually one industry that has existed for many years in my tiny coastal community here in Nova Scotia, though overfishing etc. has decreased the quantity, and the Japanese economy has not been booming, either.

Anyway, the point behind these traditional fillings is simple: anything salty or sour acted like a natural preservative. The onigiri long precedes the electric refrigerator, after all. (If you didn’t know that, now you do!)

Today, onigiri are highly popular in Japan as a snack food. A wide variety of flavors and fillings are employed. Onigiri are widely sold at convenience stores all across Japan.

Note that the rice in onigiri is actually not vinegared, thus, it is not itself sushi. Nonetheless, onigiri are common, easy to make, and do not require any worrying about servings or other issues a chef might otherwise face, so you will find them in any sushi-ya (sushi restaurant) alongside quote unquote “sushi.” You can’t miss them. They’re everywhere.