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'Cause it's never touched a frying pan
As some of you know, I'm a huge fan of Japanese cuisine and will happily eat my own body weight in sashimi. Last night saw us experimentally trying out a new restaurant off Baker Street (called Nambu-tei), which turned out to be rather nice. It has an overwhelmingly large menu, which leads to confusion as by the time you've decided on three things to eat you've forgotten the first two. By the time you've remembered them, you've lost the third item and can't remember its name.
By misunderstanding a question early on, and then placing a slightly peculiar order (yes, I did want two kinds of soup), I managed to convince one of the waitresses that I was an idiot - or at least that I had no real clue what I was ordering.
I did have some clue - but the trouble is that Japanese food, and its serving, is just complicated.
One member of staff happened by our table occasionally to check we could actually work out what to do with the dishes we'd ordered. Did I know how to eat my tuna-natto ? (I did [*]). Did we know what the "small mountain" served with our sweet potato tempura was for ? (We didn't [**]). The seafood dumplings weren't complicated, but I was surprised to discover that the sauce they were served with - which looked exactly like mustard - was mustard.
However, there are a number of minor etiquette points that I'd quite like clearing up. I eat in Japanese restaurants quite often, and no one's yet thrown me out for ill manners. However, I'm curious as to what (if anything) is considered correct. At least then I choose to ignore it rather than acting out of ignorance. (Yes, I have in the past tried asking restaurant staff; they're always keen to assure me that it doesn't matter. Which is nice, but doesn't help my curiosity.)
I'm used to drinking misoshiru (a thin soup) straight out of the bowl. However, I've noticed a couple of times that more upmarket restaurants offer you a spoon with it. Is this a concession to Westerners, or is it just that I'm used to hanging out in cheap sushi dives [***]? Is picking my bowl up the equivalent of eating my chips with my fingers - perfectly fine in McDonald's, but not quite the done thing in a posh restaurant ?
My noodle dish yesterday was described as a Japanese hotpot, and arrived in a thing that looked like a balti. It was thin soup, full of the thickest udon noodles I've seen, chopped cabbage, a carved mushroom, some unidentifiable stuff and a poached egg. It was topped with a giant tempura prawn thing. Ordinarily, I'm used to a bowl of ramen coming with a big, flat spoon and you eat it straight out the bowl. My hotpot arrived with an empty bowl and spoon, and no clear indication of why I might want this extra bowl. I lifted things like the tempura and egg into it so they didn't go too soggy/cooked respectively. But I'd like to know exactly what it's intended for.
Actually, I'd like to know what the unidentified stuff was, too. It turns up quite often in ramen, usually hanging out with seafood. It's whitish, usually cut into flat half-circles, and often has a pink tinge around the curved edge. It has a slightly spongey texture, and generally appears to be something really quite inorganic and unnatural.
I don't order sushi all that much - I'm more of a sashimi and a bowl of rice kind of person - but I've noted in several different places that advice is, when dipping sushi into soy, to dip the fish not the rice. The obvious problem is, of course, that the fish is on the top. Even if you pick it up with chopsticks top-and-bottom rather than side-to-side, turning it over will have your fish flopping about in the soy. How does one achieve this with grace ?
I've heard it said (though admittedly only by one person) that in the really top-notch sushi restaurants you eat with your fingers, not with chopsticks. This sounds a little unlikely to me, can anyone confirm or deny it ?
[*] Tuna-natto is a dish with chopped, raw tuna on one side and fermented soy beans (natto) on the other. You pour soy sauce on it, and stir the tuna and natto up vigorously together to make a peculiar, sticky, slimey porridge. The first time I ever tried to order it in a restaurant, the waitress tried to discourage me on the grounds I wouldn't like it. She was wrong.
[**] It was, apparently, a moulded cone of grated radish and grated ginger. You're supposed to drop it into the thin dipping sauce served with the tempura, and stir to create a thicker, grainy sauce. It did improve the dish quite a lot, actually.
[***] In particular, Taro on Brewer Street, which I would highly recommend as an excellent place for a quick, inexpensive meal in London. Not for nothing do the people I go to gigs with refer to Taro as "the usual".
By misunderstanding a question early on, and then placing a slightly peculiar order (yes, I did want two kinds of soup), I managed to convince one of the waitresses that I was an idiot - or at least that I had no real clue what I was ordering.
I did have some clue - but the trouble is that Japanese food, and its serving, is just complicated.
One member of staff happened by our table occasionally to check we could actually work out what to do with the dishes we'd ordered. Did I know how to eat my tuna-natto ? (I did [*]). Did we know what the "small mountain" served with our sweet potato tempura was for ? (We didn't [**]). The seafood dumplings weren't complicated, but I was surprised to discover that the sauce they were served with - which looked exactly like mustard - was mustard.
However, there are a number of minor etiquette points that I'd quite like clearing up. I eat in Japanese restaurants quite often, and no one's yet thrown me out for ill manners. However, I'm curious as to what (if anything) is considered correct. At least then I choose to ignore it rather than acting out of ignorance. (Yes, I have in the past tried asking restaurant staff; they're always keen to assure me that it doesn't matter. Which is nice, but doesn't help my curiosity.)
I'm used to drinking misoshiru (a thin soup) straight out of the bowl. However, I've noticed a couple of times that more upmarket restaurants offer you a spoon with it. Is this a concession to Westerners, or is it just that I'm used to hanging out in cheap sushi dives [***]? Is picking my bowl up the equivalent of eating my chips with my fingers - perfectly fine in McDonald's, but not quite the done thing in a posh restaurant ?
My noodle dish yesterday was described as a Japanese hotpot, and arrived in a thing that looked like a balti. It was thin soup, full of the thickest udon noodles I've seen, chopped cabbage, a carved mushroom, some unidentifiable stuff and a poached egg. It was topped with a giant tempura prawn thing. Ordinarily, I'm used to a bowl of ramen coming with a big, flat spoon and you eat it straight out the bowl. My hotpot arrived with an empty bowl and spoon, and no clear indication of why I might want this extra bowl. I lifted things like the tempura and egg into it so they didn't go too soggy/cooked respectively. But I'd like to know exactly what it's intended for.
Actually, I'd like to know what the unidentified stuff was, too. It turns up quite often in ramen, usually hanging out with seafood. It's whitish, usually cut into flat half-circles, and often has a pink tinge around the curved edge. It has a slightly spongey texture, and generally appears to be something really quite inorganic and unnatural.
I don't order sushi all that much - I'm more of a sashimi and a bowl of rice kind of person - but I've noted in several different places that advice is, when dipping sushi into soy, to dip the fish not the rice. The obvious problem is, of course, that the fish is on the top. Even if you pick it up with chopsticks top-and-bottom rather than side-to-side, turning it over will have your fish flopping about in the soy. How does one achieve this with grace ?
I've heard it said (though admittedly only by one person) that in the really top-notch sushi restaurants you eat with your fingers, not with chopsticks. This sounds a little unlikely to me, can anyone confirm or deny it ?
[*] Tuna-natto is a dish with chopped, raw tuna on one side and fermented soy beans (natto) on the other. You pour soy sauce on it, and stir the tuna and natto up vigorously together to make a peculiar, sticky, slimey porridge. The first time I ever tried to order it in a restaurant, the waitress tried to discourage me on the grounds I wouldn't like it. She was wrong.
[**] It was, apparently, a moulded cone of grated radish and grated ginger. You're supposed to drop it into the thin dipping sauce served with the tempura, and stir to create a thicker, grainy sauce. It did improve the dish quite a lot, actually.
[***] In particular, Taro on Brewer Street, which I would highly recommend as an excellent place for a quick, inexpensive meal in London. Not for nothing do the people I go to gigs with refer to Taro as "the usual".
no subject
Well, I always eat miso soup with chopsticks, but I don't tend to go to posh restaurants either.
I know the unidentified thing you mean, but didn't know the name either. Wikipedia to the rescue -- apparently it's kamaboko. Points to that article for the phrase "typically sold in semicylindrical, Quonset hut-shaped loaves"...
My guess about the extra bowl for your hotpot is that it's actually supposed to be a dish for multiple people (in its original form) -- in which case obviously everybody has their own bowl and they take stuff from the shared bowl and then eat out of their own bowl.
As for sushi, this video might be helpful, or at least entertaining :-)
(I didn't know you could get cheap sushi in London...)
no subject
Now that is a challenge :) (I know what you mean, but it does read oddly.)
I think you're spot on with Kamaboko. I was about to say that I think it's more Nissen-hut shaped myself, but it seems that the Quonset was based on the Nissen.
I've seen the video before, how do you think I summoned up the courage ever to enter a sushi dive ?
As for cheap sushi... you can get reasonable sushi at Gili Gulu at Seven Dials quite cheaply. It has an all-you-can-eat menu, which is about £14. Taro's sushi is cheaper than many other London places for the quality, though still not what I might call "cheap" as a meal solution - if someone wanted an inexpensive meal, I'd recommend their noodle/rice dishes really. Bear in mind, of course, that I've never been to Japan so you probably have a whole different scale for these things :)
no subject
That really is cheap conveyor belt sushi, though (and you probably have to hunt to find those prices in Tokyo these days, as opposed to out in the sticks).
no subject