Japan– Spicy Tuna Rolls

What is the strangest food you can imagine being served out of an auto shop? Could it be fried chicken? We’ve done that. Or a whole turkey? Done that too. Let’s be honest, basically anything we serve could be considered strange, just for the sake of being food served from a garage. What I am alluding to today, though, is specific to this week’s country, sushi. Now alright, we didn’t have a full spread of sushi but we did have one roll to serve.

Japan is a very interesting culture to explore through culinary traditions. Of course there are the standards: sushi, teriyaki, ramen, and mochi. But, we wanted to look a bit deeper into the food of Japan. We first had to think about the regions of Japan and what they served.

In the end we didn’t choose a specific region but more of an idea, and that idea was to make food that one might find at izakayas across Japan. For those of you who don’t know, an izakaya is very similar to our idea of a pub, or a Spaniard’s idea of a tapas bar. They are often found throughout local neighborhoods and even in the streets. Izakaya food is primarily a casual food that can be shared and eaten with ease.

Here is a look at our menu:

• Japanese Inspired Green Salad
• Pork Gyoza
• Spicy Tuna Roll
• Yakisoba
• Momo Yakitori

Hot Wood made some delectable gyozas that paired fantastically well with his ginger-heavy soy-based “dipping” sauce. The gyoza was stuffed with a delicate mixture of pork and mushrooms, with a significant dose of ginger to play on the palate. The admitted downfall to the gyoza was that it was on the dry side, which we attribute to the fact that they were made the night before and reheated in a food warmer before serving. Otherwise, the sauce helped reintroduce moisture back into the wrapper. In hindsight, though, had we known that the sauce would play a more integral role in the texture and mouthfeel of the dumplings, we would have made the sauce thinner to alleviate the strong role of salt in its profile. All-in-all, though, these sweet little pockets of deliciousness helped accentuate an already superb meal.

To note, I felt that the green salad was an excellent addition to our menu and it tasted phenomenal, but I honestly do not know much about the preparation or concept behind it. Only that it was so good I had my fair share– and more– of it.

The yakisoba played the role of “filler’ on the menu, not that this is a bad thing. We sometimes need dishes that can fill up the plates of our 30 or so eaters, and it is always better if that dish is on the “cheaper” side to prepare.  The yakisoba met all those requirements, plus it created a strong cohesiveness among the dishes. If you are unfamiliar with yakisoba, it is a soba noodle dish that is stir-fried with various vegetables and meats. The flavor profile hung in the balance of sweet, salty, and umami; providing an additional vegetable entry and an approachable menu item.

Momo yakitori– yakitori is the Japanese term for grilled chicken, momo means thigh. Thus, momo yakitori is grilled chicken thighs. But not just any type of grilled chicken. Yakitori is skewered chicken that is grilled over open coals without a grill grate. The apparatus traditionally used for these skewers looks like a trough that holds a special coal, binchotan, and allows the skewers to straddle the coals. While the chicken grills, it is basted with either a tare or shio sauce. We chose tare and the recipe we used can be found at the end of this post, with the modification of molasses instead of brown sugar.

In our yakitori attempt, we tried to recreate the trough-like setup, minus the special binchotan charcoal– using bricks in a grill bed instead. It didn’t work out very well for us, though. The skewers kept shifting in response to the weight, so we moved to a traditional grilling method to ensure it would be cooked for lunch. Using skewers with a flat end would have solved this problem and prevented the rolling of the skewers.

Besides making the tare for the yakitori, I spent a large portion of time preparing the spicy tuna rolls. The first thing to note is that what we see as a spicy tuna roll in restaurants is actually an uramaki roll (inside out roll). I decided to make this roll in a more traditional fashion, as a chumaki roll. My preparation of the roll didn’t deviate much beyond the average recipe. I made a solid sushi rice with rice wine vinegar, simple nori (seaweed) sheets, sushi grade ahi tuna, quality cucumber, and a spicy sriracha mayonnaise sauce. What made it special, though, was the hand rolling and the uniqueness of serving it in a garage for our Friday lunch.

For some, the idea of sushi is as normal as potato chips, but for others it is as foreign as pig trotters. Sushi can be a delicate subject. Some people can’t stand the idea of raw fish and some have a problem with the texture, while others can’t get enough of it. We had all of these people at lunch. Of course there were plenty who ecstatically grabbed a piece but there were some who were reluctant. It is the reluctant ones that truly made me realize and appreciate what our lunches have given to our coworkers.

There were four people who had never tried sushi before and one who never really liked it. The reasons for this ranged from not being previously exposed to sushi, to not liking the idea of raw fish, but each and every one of them grabbed a piece a gave it a shot. Most were surprised by it and none were turned off. One person even said they had only tasted a tiny bite of sushi before but had never eaten a full piece, but this sushi was very good and the first they were willing to do more than just try.

This experience taught me that through our exploration of food and culture at our lunches, we have opened the minds and ideas of our coworkers in how they see, eat, and interpret food from across the globe. We had five people take a leap of faith to eat raw fish in a garage because they trusted us and our pursuit of cooking and exploration. That means so much to me and defines the key reason why I participate in this weekly event.

I don’t know if I can say Japan is my favorite meal we have done– actually I’m pretty sure I can’t– but I can say that it is one of my favorites. As cooks, we explored new concepts of cooking, flavor profiles, and ideas of food with our look into Japan. And we did quite a good job of sharing that experience with our friends.

Next week we will be serving up food from Belgium, and that does mean more than waffles and fries. However, due to some scheduled events I will not be participating in the cooking of the food. Instead, I hope you will look forward to an upcoming post on my recent endeavours towards provisioning and providing.