Japan

by L 
This week, we remember a friend who has left us. Don’t worry, he’s not dead, he’s just on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, having gone back to Japan at the end of his contract here. In parting, he left a number of gifts behind for people in the lab: his old bike for M., nearly-new running shoes for another friend (possibly a hint?), and a number of treats. L. is now the proud owner of a high-quality rice cooker, rice from his family farm, seasoning mixes, and Japanese hot sauce. This was an incredible coincidence given that we didn’t have the blog idea yet when he left. An incredible, delicious coincidence.


by M
When said associate came to the lab, like many foreigners he was not thrilled with the local cuisine. So he set upon himself the challenge of making his own food, the food he liked and grew up with. Like most things, cooking is a skill that comes from practice and some trial and error. Now for a story of error. One day I saw him preparing lunch for himself. He got out a large bowl and took two bags from the freezer. He then placed two raw frozen chicken breasts in the bowl and sprinkled an array of frozen vegetables over the chicken. He then filled the bowl up with water and added a ramen-like flavor packet. He then proceeded to microwave the shit out of this bowl... like 15 minutes or so of microwaving. When it was done cooking, he squirted mayonnaise from a tube all over this now scalding hot concoction of frozen crap in water. For those of you that don’t know, Japanese people love mayo, or at least some do. They have special mayo bars in Tokyo where you can order mayo margaritas and other strange mayo-based concoctions.  As we sat down to eat our lunch I said to him, “That can’t be good”, to which he replied, “No, no it is very good”. So I asked, “On a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being really good and 0 being inedible, what would you give it?” to which he replied, “It was a 1 before the mayo, but now it is a 1.5”. He then proceeded to eat every last drop. I think hot sauce could have at least taken this to a 2. 

Sauce: Fundo Kin Liquid Chili Sauce (ekitai no yuzu kosho)
Manufacturer: Fundo Kin
Chile Pepper: Green peppers (Capsicum annuum)
Country of Origin: Japan (Nippon)
Score: 7.5/10

 


by L 
We’ve eaten a lot of hot sauces in our time, and this hot sauce was like no other. The English translation of the ingredients on the bottle say: green peppers, salt, vinegar, citric acid. I don’t know what kind of green peppers they meant, but this is really something special. The sauce is pretty salty, so it tastes like the peppers were pickled (maybe Peter Piper picked a peck of them?).  This pickling gives it a very funky unique taste.  It is also moderately hot and lemony. Overall, this sauce is not messing around: flavor AND kick. I can’t  imagine an Asian-style stir fry or rice dish that couldn’t benefit from a spoonful of this sauce. Good choice and great gift!

7.5/10... always keep in in your fridge door.

Some recipes available on the product website. We enjoyed our Japanese-to-English Google translate experience:

• “A little spicy chili oil is not hot so spicy”
• “Plenty of vegetables along with the handy plump meatballs.” [Ed. note: I guess meatballs can come in handy sometimes.]
• And a recipe: “1) A and put the ball ground pork mix dough. 2) is chopped cabbage, carrots cut into strips. 3) plus 1 rounded into bite Nitate a B in a pot. Please boiled while adding an appropriate amount of bean sprouts and then 2.”

I think Google translate has a ways to go before it’s truly useful in this context, although I am intrigued.