I love sushi, but I must confess to being very ignorant about Japanese cuisine - this is something I should really rectify, as I'm pretty fascinated by Japanese culture. Often, though, I have the feeling in the UK its very difficult to find really good, authentic Japanese restaurants - Wagamamas and Yo Sushi dont't really cut it. The best one I know of is Endamame in Oxford - a great restaurant that frequently has a queue.
Anyway, besides that, I decided for the purposes of this blog, I would delve a little deeper into some of Japan's more unusual culinary ingredients.
And, well, I don't mind telling you - Japan came up trumps for what seems (to my English tastebuds) - a veritable treasure house of the exotic, the weird and the no doubt wonderful. Like alot of Chinese cuisine, it also came equipped with some wonderful names, including:
Shirouo No Odorigui, or 'Dancing Icefish' - Sounds cool, huh? Well, dancing icefish are small, transparent little fish that are served and eaten alive. The wriggling in the mouth is what gives rise to the 'dancing'. I couldn't find much about how they actually taste, but the idea certainly seems more appealing to me than 1000 year eaggs and beche de mer.
Another set of ingredients that caught my eye were the insects that feature in Japanese cuisine. Bugs like grasshoppers, cicadas, locusts, wasps and silk worms are also found in other Asian diets. Now, a confession. The idea of eating bugs gives me some pause. Bushtucker trials would require some steely determination and no small amount of actual hunger for me to contemplate. However, I do cope better with the idea of them being cooked and I berate myself with the idea that I'm being a such wimp when it comes to eating insects. And, to be honest, after beche de mer, my benchmark for gross has changed quite a bit.
There is also the simple fact that a lot of the insects that make it onto plates in Japan and elsewhere are actually very good for you. They've got good protein to fat ratios, and like fish, the fats are of the right unsaturated type.
So really what I'm saying is I should man up and strap on a pair when it comes to the idea of eating delicacies like hachinoko (see the photo below) - wasp larvae - which has the highest protein of any insect; something like 81%, I gather. Its usually cooked in soy sauce and sugar. Or, there's zaza mushi - that's stonefly larvae - which is often found in tins and cans and again, the larvae are cooked in soy sauce and sugar.
Anyway, besides that, I decided for the purposes of this blog, I would delve a little deeper into some of Japan's more unusual culinary ingredients.
And, well, I don't mind telling you - Japan came up trumps for what seems (to my English tastebuds) - a veritable treasure house of the exotic, the weird and the no doubt wonderful. Like alot of Chinese cuisine, it also came equipped with some wonderful names, including:
Shirouo No Odorigui, or 'Dancing Icefish' - Sounds cool, huh? Well, dancing icefish are small, transparent little fish that are served and eaten alive. The wriggling in the mouth is what gives rise to the 'dancing'. I couldn't find much about how they actually taste, but the idea certainly seems more appealing to me than 1000 year eaggs and beche de mer.
Another set of ingredients that caught my eye were the insects that feature in Japanese cuisine. Bugs like grasshoppers, cicadas, locusts, wasps and silk worms are also found in other Asian diets. Now, a confession. The idea of eating bugs gives me some pause. Bushtucker trials would require some steely determination and no small amount of actual hunger for me to contemplate. However, I do cope better with the idea of them being cooked and I berate myself with the idea that I'm being a such wimp when it comes to eating insects. And, to be honest, after beche de mer, my benchmark for gross has changed quite a bit.
There is also the simple fact that a lot of the insects that make it onto plates in Japan and elsewhere are actually very good for you. They've got good protein to fat ratios, and like fish, the fats are of the right unsaturated type.
So really what I'm saying is I should man up and strap on a pair when it comes to the idea of eating delicacies like hachinoko (see the photo below) - wasp larvae - which has the highest protein of any insect; something like 81%, I gather. Its usually cooked in soy sauce and sugar. Or, there's zaza mushi - that's stonefly larvae - which is often found in tins and cans and again, the larvae are cooked in soy sauce and sugar.
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