daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
We kicked off the new year with another delicious traditional osechi. In addition to the usual awesome dishes, we had some saba (mackerel) that our friends prepared for us and it was excellent. I love saba so much!
Here’s to a good 2021!
This year, we each had a huge serving of soba. The long noodles symbolize a long life, so I made a point to finish my noodles this year, and since we had so much soba I expect to live forever! 😂
Here’s to saying good bye to 2020!
At dinner tonight, Bay filled my bowl almost to the brim with miso soup. Mariko told me long ago that there should be a couple of centimeters of space left from the top but Bay knows I love miso soup and I guess he felt it was more efficient to just give me a big serving instead of getting a second helping. 🤷♂️
For the record, I prefer the extra two centimeters!
We recently purchased a new portable stove: the Kovea Cube Stove. I think it has a really cool, compact design, which is nice because it should stay cleaner from drips and splatters than our older, wider stove. Mariko says it’s a popular stove with lots of accessories, for instance, you can replace the know with a stylish wooden version. I was unable to actually find any accessories other than a carrying bag, but I’m guessing the market in Asia is larger.
One thing to note is that the burner sits higher than other stoves, so the pot is elevated an inch or two more than you may be used to. I could see the higher design of the Kovea Cube Stove being more convenient for camping, where you might not have a regular table to use. Honestly, though, I didn’t really notice the difference when we used it at the dinner table.
Our first meal using the stove was shabu-shabu, and it was delicious! In the afternoon, I used our Waring Pro Professional Food Slicer to prep the pork slices for the dinner. Buying pre-sliced meat from H-Mart is convenient, but can be a bit pricey, so we like to buy a large piece of pork butt from HEB, and slice it ourselves which the food slicer makes easy. Pro-tip: freeze the meat before slicing and you can get a nice, thin cut. Since shabu-shabu pork is meant to cook in the hotpot for only a few seconds, a thin cut is best, maybe around 1 or 2 mm thick. For yakiniku, pork belly at 3 or 4 mm and beef at 4 or 5 mm is what we prefer.
Hotpot or yakiniku using the portable stove at the dinner table makes for a fun meal, and everyone can take park in cooking – a great way to bring the family or friends together. I definitely recommend trying it if you haven’t already!
Here are a few photos of some oysters and hamachi (and buri) that our friend’s prepared for dinner. It was amazing! The buri is just a different part of the hamachi, and it was sliced thin so we could enjoy it in a nabe (hot pot).
You know, this is all food from the sea, but it would be weird to call it “seafood”. When I think of that word, my mind pictures Red Lobster and fried food. I wonder if others feel the same?
Anyway, I hope you had a good day!
