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Tetsu Kariya Quotes

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Famous Tetsu Kariya Quotes

“Is this a potato? It's so smooth! It doesn't have that muddy, earthy smell to it! It's not fluffy or dry, and it just melts away in my mouth!" "This is 'potato stewed in butter.' It's a dish I learned from Ajihyakusen, an izakaya in Sapporo. For the soup, you use the ichiban-dashi of a katsuobushi. That way you won't waste the scent of the potato. And for ten potatoes, you place half a pound of salted butter into the dashi... ...flavor it with a very slight amount of salt and sugar, and stew it over extremely low heat. In about forty minutes, the potatoes will start to float in the dashi. If you keep boiling the potatoes, they'll sink again and then come floating back up in two and a half hours. All you need to do after that is to boil it for about thirty more minutes, and it's done." "Then you boil it for almost four hours total?" "Right. It takes a whole day to cook this, so even though this dish only costs 600 yen, you have to order at least a day in advance to eat it at the izakaya. The dishes Kurita and I made the other day were all made to your order. They were dishes that avoided the true nature of the potato. But this is a dish that draws out the full taste of the potato in a very straightforward way. By cooking the potato for several hours over low heat, the flavor of the potato seeps out into the dashi, and when that happens, the unique muddy smell of the potato disappears. The potato can be easily broken apart in the soup, and it melts away on your tongue." "That's the biggest difference from the other potato dishes." "You can taste the true flavor of the potato with it.”

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Book:Izakaya: Pub Food
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“And the last one is the chicken-skin hot pot. The best parts of a chicken to eat are the skin and the innards. There are many ways of cooking them, but this chicken-skin hot pot is easy to make, and it tastes great. First you heat the pot, place the chicken inside... ... and slowly cook it inside the pot. Once the oil from the skin comes seeping out, you add the innards to the pot. You basically use the oil from the skin to stir-fry the innards. After the innards have been slightly cooked, you add some spring onions which have been cut around two inches long... ...and finally add sake and soy sauce to it. The oil from the chicken skin and soup from the innards have not been thinned down with any kind of broth or dashi, so the young people will love its rich, strong taste and scent. And anybody can make it once they see it being made.”

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Book:Izakaya: Pub Food
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“The filling for the rice ball is the wasabi leaves and stem marinated overnight in soy sauce. You make that into a rice ball using sushi rice... ... and wrap dried seaweed around it to create a rice ball the size of a ping-pong ball. Meanwhile, you create a barazushi. Ingredients like grilled saltwater eel with sauce, kohada marinated in vinegar, kanpyo, steamed shrimp, steamed abalone and others... ...are all chopped up... ...and mixed into the rice. Then use the small rice ball you made beforehand as the next filling... ... to create a larger rice ball. And then you coat it with thin strips of grilled egg.”

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Book:The Joy of Rice
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“The last one is a fun rice ball. The filling is ground black sesame and walnuts flavored with sweet honey. We made a rice ball out of that... ... and coated it with kinako soybean powder." "Huh... a sweet rice ball." "I've never seen a rice ball coated in kinako." "Ha ha ha... this is fun." "The black sesame and walnut isn't just sweet--- it also has a wonderful scent. Come to think of it, this really is the taste of Japan." "The taste of good old Japan too." "Sesame, walnut, powdered soybeans and honey. The combination of these sweet flavors... It soothes the heart, doesn't it?" "This really is like a dessert.”

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Book:The Joy of Rice
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“I thought you said these were Chinese-style noodles... ...so I was expecting something with pork spareribs on top. The fish dumpling noodles in Hong Kong are good... but I've never seen anything like this in China. What's this on the top?" "Barbecued pork made from Berkshire boar, and jakoten." " 'Jakoten'? " "It's a specialty from the Shikoku prefecture. They're fish cakes made from ground sardines and deep-fried in oil. They're nutritious and taste good too." "Sardines, is it?" "Ah, this barbecued pork is completely different from Chinese-style barbecued pork!" "And this soup?" "I made the stock with pork bones and flying fish yakiboshi... ... and boosted the flavor with some miso and soy sauce. I don't use any MSG in it." "Hmm... the combination of pork bones and yakiboshi isn't something that a Chinese chef would have thought of." "I've never tasted a soup like this before!" "The noodles have no kansui in them. After kneading the dough with eggs... ... I let it rest for a whole week." "Mmm... they're firm and flavorful!" "I haven't seen noodles like this in China either!" "The aged noodles taste so good!”

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Book:Ramen and Gyoza
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“Good eggplants are hard to find these days. It's because the eggplants don't get fully ripe because of the pesticides and herbicides." "This isn't just about Hitoshi. Anybody who eats this bad eggplant... ... will come to think that eggplant doesn't taste good at all. Eggplant and oil are a perfect match. Let me make you a dish that even the greatest eggplant hater will like. Pour sesame oil into the wok. Eggplant soaks up a lot of oil, so pour a lot in. Once the oil is heated, cut the eggplant into thin slices of about a quarter inch. You want to carefully stir-fry the eggplant trying to make every slice soak up the oil, but you also have to be fast at it. Keep the flame at high heat. It's done when the eggplant starts to get soft and brown. If you cook it too much, the skin gets hard, so be careful. Now you pour some soy sauce on top of it.”

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“Hmm. A grilled miso rice ball and a grilled soy sauce rice ball... But what is this covered in dried seaweed?" "When we think about the rice ball and its connection to the Japanese climate and culture, the existence of fermented food is something we can't ignore. Eating fermented food on a daily basis is a unique trait of the Japanese culinary culture. The most famous of the fermented foods are the soy sauce and miso. Seasonings that the Japanese diet cannot do without. We coated one of the rice balls with soy sauce and the other with miso... ... and grilled them over charcoal." "The slightly burnt scent of the soy sauce is so appetizing." "The grilled fragrance of miso is irresistible to a Japanese person. And this we can only taste in the form of a rice ball too." "Another fermented Japanese product that we must not forget about is natto. Natto is a little tough to put inside a rice ball as it is... ... so we've minced it along with diced green onions. It has been flavored with soy sauce and Japanese mustard. And to add some punch to it, we coated the rice ball with roasted shredded seaweed. By shredding it, the flavor of the dried seaweed becomes far better than just coating the rice ball with a sheet of it.”

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Book:The Joy of Rice
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“The first one is stewed hard clam. You stew the hard clam in soy sauce until it's rather salty... ... and then you place it inside the rice ball... ... and wrap it with dried seaweed." "Huh, stewed hard clam?" "Stewed hard clam is what you eat in sushi, right? Why's that the future?" "Next is a matsutake rice ball. You cook the matsutake you picked during the season and simmer it until it's salty... ... then preserve it. That becomes the filling for the rice ball." "The scent and flavor... it brings back the joy of being Japanese." "It's good... but why is this the rice ball of the future?" "The last one is a katsuobushi rice ball. You shave a katsuobushi from makurazaki as thinly as possible... ...then you flavor it with soy sauce... ... and place it into the rice ball. Finally, wrap it in dried seaweed.”

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Book:The Joy of Rice
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“The first one is paella-style takikiomi gohan rice ball. You chop up white meat fish, clams, shrimp and squid and fry them in olive oil with garlic and saffron. And in a different pan, you fry finely chopped tomatoes, onions and green pepper in olive oil. You mix those two together and cook them with rice using a broth made from beef shank and chicken bones. Then you make that into a rice ball... ... and wrap it in Parma ham." "Oh my! It sure is something to make a paella-style takikomi gohan into a rice ball." "But when it's wrapped in Parma ham, they match perfectly." "It's completely Western, but it still tastes like a rice ball." "This is a surprise. And the judges seem to like it too." "Next is a rice ball coated in pork flakes. This is a pork flake you often see in Chinese cooking. You cook the lean pork meat in soy sauce seasoned with star anise until it becomes flaky. The filling inside is Dongpo pork--- a Chinese dish made of pork belly that's been slowly braised." "Ooh, the soft Dongpo pork came out as I bit into the rice coated in the sweet and salty pork flakes!" "Ah, the flavor and texture are superb!" "This combination is just wonderful! " "You've made Dongpo pork into such a great rice ball, it's making me cry. It looks Chinese, but it's very much a Japanese rice ball." "Now the judges are taking his side..." "And the last is a deep-fried chicken rice ball. You deep fry chicken that has been marinated in soy sauce with ginger and garlic... ...and then use that as the filling of the rice ball... ... then coat it in red shiso seasonings." "Ah, the rich taste of the deep-fried chicken is something the young people will like. And the red shiso seasoning creates a refreshing aftertaste.”

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Book:The Joy of Rice
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“Look at the way the rice is shining... it looks like jewels. Each grain of rice retains its original shape... and they're all the same size too. It's stickiness and scent... it's been washed to perfection. Washing the rice just to rinse off the dirt and excess bran without wasting the flavor and scent of the rice is extremely difficult. I made my fortune before the war at the rice market... I still find time to do research on rice. I'm sure I can figure out what this rice is and where it comes from... It's Sasanishiki... but it's not from Miyagi. It's Shonai rice, from Amarume-Yamagata prefecture! Well?! " "That is correct!" "Wow... he guessed the type of rice and where it came from!" "I don't believe it!" "This rice has been dried under sunlight, not by machine--- and you milled it right here, just before washing it, didn't you?" You cook it over an old-fashioned furnace using firewood for fuel... and just before steaming it, you throw a handful of straw into the fire if you want to cook rice like this." "Yes." "Then this miso soup too... Ah... it's real miso made from domestic soy and natural salt. The dashi is made from katsuobushi, an obushi from Makurazaki. And he used the good part in the center. And the tofu is made with domestic soybeans and real brine. Aah... this is so good that it's making me cry!”

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Book:The Joy of Rice
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“First I shell the oysters, then coat them with flour... ... and I deep-fry that. I make a sauce with soy sauce, ground sesame, sesame oil, chili pepper and some mirin. And I dip the oysters in the sauce. Here you are. Give it a try. Deep fried oysters and kimchi over rice!" "Ah, this smells great! " "Let's eat!" "Ooh! The oysters have been fried perfectly! They're soft and when you bite into them, the juice comes spurting out... ... and the flavor of the oyster combined with the sourness and spiciness of the kimchi creates a wonderfully complex taste!" "Yeah! The deep-fried oysters go great with the kimchi!" "It would have been a bit heavy with just the fried oysters... ... but the hot and sour flavor of the kimchi makes this very tasty!”

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Book:Izakaya: Pub Food
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“You're going to make the broth for the ramen with katsuobushi?" "The chicken you used to make the broth for the ramen is a broiler, right? In that case, it's better to make it with katsuobushi." "But the ramen's going to end up smelling like fish." "Don't worry about it. I mince some garlic, chives, shiitake mushrooms, and onion... ... and fry them together with ground pork in sesame oil. Then I add some hatchō miso that's been mixed with sake... ... to make miso-flavored mince meat. I pour the katsuobushi dashi onto the noodles. I've given the dashi a light soy sauce flavor. Then I place the meat on top... ... and sprinkle a lot of chopped green onion on it... ... and you've got Oishinbo-style miso ramen!" "Wow! It really does go well with the katsuobushi! It doesn't smell fishy at all!" "The scents of the sesame oil, garlic and miso... ... complement the scent of the katsuobushi nicely! Ramen broth is usually made from chicken and pork bones. I never thought of using fish!”

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“Ah! Green asparagus, my favorite! " "I stir-fried it with crab meat. I quickly stir-fried the green asparagus and mixed the crab guts with dashi and put that in there as well... ... and finally seasoned it with salt and pepper and thickened the sauce slightly with starch." "I love its fresh spring vegetable-like flavor!" "I stir-fried it in a very mild soy oil... ... and I didn't use any Chinese broth made from chicken bones and Chinese ham. I used dashi taken from katsuobushi and konbu.”

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“It has such a warm and gentle flavor." "The rice has soaked up the rich flavor of the scallops. Could you teach me how to make it?" "Of course. You mix soy sauce with sake and boil it, then place the scallops in it and cook it for about a minute. After that, you take the scallops out, place them on a different plate, and start cooking the rice. And when cooking the rice, you pour the broth you used to cook the scallop into the rice. You won't get the full flavor if you don't cook the black area called the midgut gland together with the scallop. Once the rice is cooked, you put it on a plate and place the scallops on top. That's when you take the midgut gland off." "Keep the midgut gland on when cooking the scallops, and take it off when mixing them into the rice. That must be the secret.”

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Book:The Joy of Rice
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“The first one is red bean rice ball. Red beans and sticky rice were often steamed together to create red bean rice on celebratory occasions. It was considered to be a feast in the olden days. Many areas in Japan still carry on the tradition of making red bean rice whenever there is something to celebrate. In that sense, I think you can say red bean rice is deeply rooted in the Japanese soul." "That's right. I made red bean rice along with other foods when the framework of my house was completed." "It feels very festive for some reason." "I like the salt and sesame seasoning on it." "The next is a hijiki rice ball. You cook the rice together with the hijiki, thin fried tofu and carrots... ...flavor it with soy sauce and make a rice ball with it. The hijiki rice is the typical Japanese commoners' food that mixes riches from the sea and the soil together. A rice ball made of hijiki rice is one of the original Japanese foods with a long continuing history." "Aaah. This brings back memories." "It makes us realize that we're Japanese. It's a flavor we must not lose." "The last rice ball of the past is dried seaweed. Dried seaweed is one of the most familiar seaweeds to the Japanese, apart from konbu, wakame and hijiki. And the way to fully enjoy the taste of the dried seaweed... ... is to make seaweed tsukudani and use that as the filling for the rice ball. For the tsukudani, you simmer top-quality dried seaweed in sake and soy sauce. Once you learn its taste, you will never be satisfied with eating the dried seaweed tsukudani that's commercially available." "It tastes nothing like that one we can buy at the market." "It's refreshing, yet has a very strong scent of seaweed." "It's interesting to see the difference in flavor of the tsukudani filling and the seaweed wrapping the rice ball." "Red bean rice, hijiki rice and dried seaweed tsukudani rice balls... These are flavors that will never fade away as long as the Japanese are around.”

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Book:The Joy of Rice
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“There's caviar inside the prawn dumpling!" "I used fresh live Japanese tiger prawns and minced the meat, then mixed it with an egg. I wrapped the caviar with it and fried it in peanut oil." "The sweetness of the prawn and the rich taste of the caviar complement each other! Nice work, Yuichi!" "Ah, no..." "There are various kinds of fried prawn dumpling dishes, but it was Yuichi's idea to wrap caviar in it. He got all the ingredients and made it himself on his day off." "Tayama senpai created this?" "Yuichi, make something else for us." "Please let me off the hook now." "Yuichi, make the scallop rice." "Master!" "Just do it." "The rice has been steamed and lightly flavored with dashi and soy sauce. I basted the scallop with a mop sauce made from sake and soy sauce, and grilled the outside but left the meat half-cooked. Then I placed the scallop onto the rice just before it finished steaming--- steam it for a moment, and it's done." "Aah! The flavor of the scallop has seeped into the rice, but the scallop itself still retains its flavor too. This only works if you perfectly calculate how long to grill the scallop and how long to steam it on the rice." "He saw me making steamed clam rice... ... and that's where he got the idea to place the teriyaki scallop instead of the clams on top of the rice." "The fact that you made the scallop into a teriyaki was a nice touch." "This is great ." "One more dish, Yuichi!" "Oh, please..." "Yuichi, I've got some engawa. You want me to help?" "No way. I'll do it myself! I wrapped young spring onions with the engawa of a left-eyed flounder, brushed on a mop sauce made from soy sauce and sake, and grilled it lightly. Please sprinkle some powdered Chinese pepper or shichimi onto this, if you want to." "Yum! The scent of the grilled spring onion and engawa draws out my appetite." "I took Yuichi to a restaurant that cooked garlic chives wrapped with eel dorsal fins... ...and Yuichi said he wanted to try it with left-eyed flounder engawa and young spring onions." "I thought it would be a waste to grill the engawa, but it turned out surprisingly good when he made it that way.”

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