I just returned from a week in Vietnam with Johnny. We had an incredible time! I will be posting more in the coming weeks, as my jetlag fades, but here’s a snapshot from a market in Cái Bè, a small town on the Mekong Delta.

I love this photo. Amidst the chaos of the early-morning market, this lady sits among her colorful meat parts, calmly concentrating on her animal flesh.

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Forgive me, I am going to cheat a little here… like that “100 Episodes of Seinfeld” episode. I think Umami Mart has been around long enough for something like that. So this is a re-post/interpretation of another post I wrote in Tokyo 4 years ago.

The other day I got a tray of mentaiko (spicy cod roe) from my mom and all week Washi and I were dreaming of making the mentaiko rice recipe.

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INGREDIENTS

1.5 pounds large shrimp, head and shell left on, rinsed well (I used Ridgeback shrimps from Santa Barbara)
3 (12-ounce) bottles of Japanese lager beer (I used Sapporo)
1 cup water
1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 lemon, halved
2 coins of galangal or ginger (couple slices)
1 stick lemon grass (smashed)
2 stalks green onion (sliced)
2 dried red chilis
Few leaves Thai basil
Few leaves cilantro

METHOD

1.

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A gleaming school of herring greeted me upon my arrival on U.S. shores yesterday. After landing from Tokyo, my first errand after dropping off my bags at home was a visit to my local fish monger (Monterey Fish Market). Winter is a cornucopia of goodies for seafood. Crabs, oysters, salmon roe and herring are just some of what I look forward to every winter.

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Last week, Sakura wrote about chirashi sushi in London, a dish you can find at many Japanese restaurants throughout the world. I grew up in Kansai so when I was young, our chirashi (called bara-chirashi or gomoku chirashi) consisted of cooked root vegetables like bamboo shoots, carrots and yams — all mixed with sushi rice, and topped with thinly sliced egg omelet.

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When the persimmons and matsutake start populating the markets in Japan, so do the sanma (Pacific Saury). They are so abundant, they are practically giving them out for free. For less than 100yen per fish, it’s the most economical choice to celebrate autumn. It’s another story out here in California. I was perusing my local fish market and got seduced from sanma imported from Japan.

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Fish is still something a lot of people are scared of in the States. Heads, guts, scales, filleting — there are a lot of processes involved before you can eat a piece of fish. It is the same process for meat or poultry, and I am sure butchers go through a lot of steps to serve us beautiful meat or chicken.

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Myoga madness continues as I experiment with the harvest from my sister’s myoga plant. Last week, I topped raw myoga on tofu. This week, I make a stir fry with myoga and slices of pork shoulder.

I am very inexperienced with cooking mammal meat and quite intimidated when it comes to preparing chunks of it. But I have always like the ginger and pork combination, which goes so well with rice.

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I recently became a permanent resident of this country, and to celebrate my newly acquired freedom, we went to Le Bernardin. Though I know a lot about food, I haven’t been to many top-notch restaurants because I end up bitching about its flaws. If you are paying $250 a person for a dining experience, don’t you expect it to be superb, from food to decor to service to every tiny aspect such as the flower arrangements, or how the tables are set up?

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Crab. Now who doesn’t have a thing for crab? Sri Lanka is a tiny island hanging off the tip of southeast India where there is an abundance of juicy seafood. People probably eat more fish than meat. And yet, it’s been donkey’s years since we’ve been able to get a decent-sized crab or lobster as most of the catch here is exported overseas.

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