Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Cutlets and noodles



Joyce asked me about Japanese food and what we were eating at Tetsu's favorite restaurant. This is as good a time as any because yesterday Tetsu was told by a doctor to go on a diet! So we probably won't be visiting his favorite restaurant for awhile!

The restaurant that Tetsu likes specializes in port cutlets. That right away tells you that this is not diet food! I don't think pork cutlets are very Japanese but Japan has a way of taking a dish and making it very Japanese and very delicious.

Pork cutlets are pork cutlets right? Right. But this is served with a simple salad of finely shredded cabbage and two slices of tomatos. The dressing is a vinegar dressing made with yuzu which is a small hard citrus fruit popular in Japan. My cutlet had been stuffed with umeboshi (salty-sour plums) shisou (perilla) leaves. Both ingredients give a very fresh taste and aroma. I ate this with a sweet miso sauce.

In Tetsu's case, he had a cutlet that had been simmered in a sort of teriyaki sauce and then topped with an egg. We also had miso soup. Mine was made with two whole shrimp bobbing around in it (I thought of taking a picture of that but decided that might gross you out. Shrimp heads and all and their antenea surfaced from the soup like periscopes!) Shrimp heads give the most broth so this is very tasty! Tetsu had pork vegetable miso soup. We were also served small plates of salted pickes. Cucumber, eggplant, turnip and chinese cabbage. And of course there was the ever present rice.

Another meal that we had recently is Chinese noodles. This is a pretty typical meal fro Japanese. Sort of like the fast food of America. Anywhere you go, practically on any street, there is a noodle shop! There are Chinese noodles, ramen, and Japanese noodles, udon and soba. We tend to go to Chinese noodle shops about once a week. Usually bowls of noodles are eaten hot with pork and vegetables and fish cakes. A lot of slurping and in fact, slurping is part of the good manners! If you don't slurp your noodles your mother is going to scold you!

"What do you think you're doing biting those noodles in half! That's disgusting! You slurp those noodles like you're supppose to, all in one slurp! I don't hear you~! You're not slurping strongly enough!"

It's true!

This week Tetsu and I went to have Chinese noodles and he chose green onion topping. There is some pork down there somewhere but as you can see, a lot of green onions!

It was a hot day so I chose cold noodles made with a sesame seed based cold soup, slightly spicy, and very refreshing.

Slurp, slurp!

9 comments:

Allie said...

Oh my - I'll take a bit of all of it, except those shrimp looking at me! I don't think I could handle that.

G'G'ma said...

Yum, everything looks delicious...so fresh and colorful.

Terri Y said...

Yummy! My husband loves Ten Zoru Soba (spell)? the cold noodles... he also eats Nato which is gross to me... but my favorite is pork cutlets, I make often, and always order when we go out...

My complaint there is not a Japanese Grocery store here in Carlsbad... I have to go into San Diego... or I would probably fix ALOT more Japanese meals at home... sometimes the package directions ( not in Englsh) make it hard for me though... :) Thanks for sharing, makes me HUNGRY! I only found how wonderful Japanese food was around 8 years ago... and haven't stopped since!

Janet C said...

Your post and pictures make me very hungry and it's only 10.20am here! lol. BTW, my daughter and I love Japanese food even though Chinese food and noodles are rather similar - just that the way of cooking is different!

CT said...

LOL! Tanya! you made me drool!!!! that noodle soup of Tetsu's is just what I'm craving... minus the pork. When I was in college I would usually make a quick soup of rice noodles, garlic, chopped green onion and a few pepper grains, plus a bit of salt... and that was it! I love the flavor of the green onion!!!! and your cold soup looks so mouthwatering! I'll stop and go eat something now! LOL!

Meggie said...

You could serve me any or all of that, & I would love it. I always say I must have been an Asian in a past life, since I have always loved Asian food. Chinese, Japanese, or Thai, & I am sure I would love Vietnamese. I have tried Korean noodles, & loved those too.

Joyce said...

Thanks, Tanya. All the food looks delicious.

I also have a 2nd cousin who is half American/half Korean. I have never tried Korean food, tho.

I do like kimchee ramen and tonkatsu, but not together. The cold noodles look good as well as the noodles with green onions.

Well, I'm off to cook. Joyce B.

Marilyn R said...

Thanks for not taking a photo of your bobbing shrimp! *G* The pork cutlets look yummy! I would think that hearing everyone slurp their noodles would be kind of funny. I bet they are yummy!

The Calico Quilter said...

Everything looks delicious! I noticed that little metal rack the cutlet is sitting on in the first picture - I guess to keep it crispy and out of the salad's dressing. What a good idea. The cold noodles look wonderful - we've been having hot weather that makes us long for cold foods, too. The slices of tomato on your plates surprised me. I just didn't connect tomatoes with Japanese food.