Big in Japan: The best Japanese summer food & drink

by Matthew Firestone on

After several long weeks on the road in East Africa, Big in Japan is back once more, bringing you weird, wacky and wonderful news from the Land of the Rising Sun.

Summer is in full effect here in Tokyo, which means that the temperature is soaring and the humidity is saturating.

Fortunately, the Japanese have a number of culinary treats that are perfect for beating the heat and staying nourished during their tropical summers. While tumblers of hot sake and steamy bowls of ramen are great for warming up during the winter months, it’s time to add a few more dishes to your culinary lexicon.

So, without further adieu, today’s post is all about the best Japanese summer food & drink…

Sōmen (素麺) You know it’s summer in Japan when the shops start serving these thin, white noodles made of wheat flour. While heavier noodle soups can slow you down in the summer heat, sōmen sit light in the belly, and are simply dressed up with a lightly flavored dipping sauce. Special variations of sōmen are made with powdered tea, and can easily be identified by their light green color.

Zaru-soba (ざるそば) Soba noodles are delicious when served in a hot fishy broth, but they’re just as divine when served ice cold on a bamboo plate known as a zaru. Made principally of buckwheat, soba noodles are high in fiber, and typically garnished with shredded bits of seaweed. Like sōmen, soba noodles are served with a light dipping sauce made of sweetened soy and mirin cooking wine.

Unagi (うなぎ) Nothing says summer more than charcoal-roasted freshwater eel, which is reported to give you the strength and virility you need to get through the long, hot days. While unagi can be a seriously gourmet fare, locals swear by the bento boxes from the convenience stores, which are perfectly-packaged for a picnic in the park. Best served with a dash of ground white pepper, good unagi has a soft texture and a complex taste.

Jasmine Tea (ジャスミン茶) The Japanese are devoted tea drinkers, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they have a specialty summer brew. Jasmine tea, which is served ice-cold and unsweetened, is a fragrant beverage that is light, fruity and low in acidity. You can buy pre-packaged bottles in any of Japan’s million or so vending machines.

Draft Beer (生ビール) Summer in Japan is punctuated by a number of outdoor festivals, ranging from huge open air rock concerts to fireworks along the riverside. At any of these events, sample a few frothy pints of nama-biiru, which is a wonderfully alcoholic way to stay cool. Of course, the tropical sun can seriously ruin your day, so don’t forget to stay hydrated as passing out in the public eye isn’t the most honorable way to go.

Bon appetit, or as they say in Japanese, ittadakimasu.

** All images courtesy of the WikiCommons Media Project **

“No Reservations” season 4, episode 15: American Southwest

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Location: After four weeks of glamorous international travel, Tony returns “to his roots” with an adventure in the American Southwest, road-tripping it across the arid desert stretching from Southern California through Arizona to New Mexico and on to a final stop in Texas.

Episode Rating: One-and-a-half bloody meat cleavers out of five. Given that this summer has seen one of the more memorable strings of No Reservations episodes in recent memory, the American Southwest has to be one of the blander installments. It’s not that Mr. Bourdain ever makes for uninteresting television or that his destination is uninteresting – far from it. It’s just that compared to trips to Laos, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay, it was kind of a letdown.

Summary: OK, so last week we were in Uruguay. And before that Saudi Arabia, Colombia and Laos. Where to this week, Tony? The American Southwest? Aw gee, well I guess that’s OK – there’s still plenty of cool stuff to see. To get things started, Tony rents a BMW for an old-fashioned American road trip and peels off into the sunset. The car choice was certainly a departure from Tony’s usual vintage car selection, but an appropriate one nonetheless. Things get going just southeast of Palm Springs at the Salton Sea. Read on after the jump to find out what happened.Although it appears to be a marvel of nature, the Salton Sea was formed by a man-made accident in 1905, flooding a low-lying desert plain near the Colorado River. For a short period the area was a vacation boomtown, though lately it’s largely become a ghost town. Tony makes a pit stop at the local hangout, the Ski Inn. After working up an appetite chatting with the locals, Tony orders the house specialty, the patty melt. It’s gooey and cheesy with a nice hamburger patty in the middle. Nothing spectacular, but certainly tasty.

Not wanting to relish his patty melt too long, Bourdain speeds onward towards Indio, California to visit the Shields Date Farm. After learning about the “fascinating” history of dates, Tony gets rewarded with a date-flavored milkshake. This looked delicious. Remind me to try one the next time I’m in California.

Like any good roadtrip, it was soon time to move on, and Tony crosses state lines into Arizona, eventually pausing in Phoenix, Arizona. In one of the more contrived moments of No Reservations, Tony has lunch with rock legend Alice Cooper, who owns a sports bar in Phoenix with baseball great Randy “The Big Unit” Johnson. Tony’s meal at the sports bar? The house specialty – “Randy Johnson’s Big Unit,” a two-foot hot dog smothered in chili and cheese. Let us not speak of this ever again.

Next on the Southwest itinerary was a remote ICBM missile silo. Tony gets a guided tour from a woman who used to work in the facility. Seeing this sort of thing doesn’t evoke the same sense of dread that it once did during the Cold War, but it’s an imposing sight nonetheless. And you know, missile tours can make you thirsty. That’s why Bourdain finishes his tour with the house’s special cocktail, the Titan-tini made with pomegranate, grain alcohol and vodka. How’s that for explosive?

Bourdain just keeps wracking up the miles though, and soon he’s in New Mexico, where he has a chance to sample the world-famous chili peppers in Hatch, New Mexico. To cool off from this spicy experience, the crew takes an invigorating run whitewater rafting. That’s all that happened in New Mexico. Sorry citizens of New Mexico, I’m sure there’s more to your state than Tony gives you credit for here.

At last, after numerous hours on the road, plenty of antacids and ample bathroom breaks, Bourdain reaches the “promised land” of the American Southwest in Texas. After doing a few blatantly stereotypical things like boot shopping and eating a 72-ounce-coma-inducing steak, I was about ready to turn off my television set. But then things took a turn for the better when Tony drops in for a visit with America’s favorite right-wing bad boy and Texas resident Ted Nugent.

Ted and Tony might not necessarily agree on politics, but they had plenty to talk about when it came to meat and guns. The two tool around Nugent’s huge ranch outside Waco, Texas, stocked with the world’s largest herd of African Oryx and a private firing range. In addition to shooting some of the world’s most deadly automatic weapons like the M60 as well as a sawed-off shotgun, the pair enjoy plenty of barbecue. At Ted’s house they grill some freshly-slaughtered specimens, including venison and wild-boar bacon. And because they didn’t eat enough barbecue, they have a second Texas-style meal of brisket and ribs at the Rusty Star.

Certainly a gratuitous ending to a gratuitous episode. The American Southwest is a place of great beauty and plenty of interesting cuisine, but I came away with the feeling Mr. Bourdain did not do it justice. Sometimes your destination takes care of itself. But other times you have to work for it a little. I think this particular installment falls into the latter category. Oh well, there’s still plenty of new episodes to go this summer – stay tuned dear reader, stay tuned.

Galley Gossip: More stuff for the airline museum…

by Heather Poole on

“What are you doing with all that?” asked The Husband, holding a huge bag of seafood as he stared (very rudely) into my grocery cart.

“It’s for work,” I said, and then I pushed the cart down the aisle – away from him, away from his hands, hands that, if given the chance, would take what was in my cart out of my cart.

“Work?” I heard him say behind me.

“Yeah work. I’m going to write about it!” I exclaimed, thankful to have an excuse, a very good excuse – that was actually true! – as I continued pushing the cart to the check out stand.

Following quickly behind me, he asked, “Just how many bottles do you need?”

As many as I could get in the cart. But I didn’t tell him that. What I told him was we needed all the bottles of wine for our guests that were in town visiting. What I didn’t tell him was that there was no way the guests that were in town visiting were going to touch my wine. That’s right, I said it, my wine!

If you’re a flight attendant, or an aviation enthusiast, you probably own a lot of airline crap. Like me. Of course we don’t refer to it as crap. Oh no, these are our treasures. Precious treasures. That belong in a museum. Like the one I USED to have in my guest room closet. I say USED to have because The Husband recently boxed up my airline museum and drove the contents that are now inside a giant grey tub to a storage facility nearby. Of course he did this while I was away on a trip.

Hey, that’s fine with me. Now I’ve got more room for more crap. I mean treasures! Like AUS Boarding Pass 2006 Shiraz, a very cool bottle of wine I found at Costco.

There I was at Costco, leaning against the wine, impatiently waiting for The Husband to hurry up and pick out a few crab and shrimp from the crab and shrimp guy so we could FINALLY leave and start dinner, when I actually turned around and focused on what I happened to be leaning on. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was like god had sent them to me. And oh my god they were so cute! I had to have one. Or two. Or three. In case I needed to…umm…you know…share…or something. As I filled the cart, I couldn’t help but think what a great flight attendant gift the bottles of wine would make, so I put a few more bottles into the cart. That’s when The Husband appeared and I took off.

The name of the wine, you ask? I’m not sure. On one side of the bottle, the side that looks like a boarding card, it says Boarding Pass. On the other side of the bottle, the side that looks like an information card (the one located in the seat back in front of you) it says Grateful Palate Airwines. And around the top of the bottle, the thing that looks like a baggage claim ticket, it says AUS Boarding Pass 2006 Shiraz. Like I said, it’s not exactly clear. What is clear is it’s the most adorable bottle of wine I’ve ever seen. And it tastes pretty good, too.

WAIT!

Before you jump into the car to go and look for your own cute bottle of wine to add to your own museum, because I know you will, which is good, because you really should…do you think you could pick me up another bottle. Ya know…in case I lose a bottle…or something.

Thanks.

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Butter cows and other butter sculptures

by Jamie Rhein on

Intelligent Travel recently posted about the Iowa State Fair’s tradition of the butter cow. This is not the only state to boast a life-size cow sculpted out of pounds and pounds of butter. Other fairs have cow and other objects done up in butter as part of their fair traditions.

The Ohio State Fair jumped on the butter cow bandwagon awhile back and has added other butter sculptures to the dairy wow factor. This year, displayed in the same case as the cow and her calf, is Ohio’s version of Mt. Rushmore–the faces of the eight U.S. presidents who were born in Ohio.

I was fortunate enough to visit the display this past Friday. There is a voice recording that blares out butter sculpture facts so that any one within yards of the building can get the scoop on exactly what’s involved in such an endeavor.

I also found the facts in this post by Kathy Lynn Gray who is blogging on the Ohio State Fair. It takes two tons of butter to sculpt 8 presidents and 2 cows. In stick numbers, that’s 8,000 sticks of butter.

If you’d like to try sculpting butter yourself, you’ll need a dairy case that is kept at 46 degrees in which to work, but work fast. You’ll only be able to work in increments of 40 minutes because you’ll get too cold and need to take a break.

In the same building that houses the butter sculptures at the Ohio State Fair, you can buy ice-cream, butter-milk and milk. The milk was a bargain at $1 for a 1/2 pint. If you happen to want ice-cream, the line moves fairly quickly. There are only four flavors: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and mint chocolate chip. My son shared.

A friend of mine wants to know what happens to the butter after the fair. I’m not sure I’d want to eat any of that butter on toast, even if it is kept cold. For more butter sculpture info, click here.

London Restaurant Hotshots to Try Dubai

by Josh Lew on

Formula One, the world’s tallest building, the most luxurious hotel on the globe, a housing development that is built to resemble a miniature world. Dubai has made a name for itself with its larger than life constructions, impressive spectacles, and over-the-top luxury offerings.

It seems only natural, then, that the major players in other urban areas would want to try their hand in Dubai. London super-cool eatery The Ivy, a fave of movie stars and other paparazzi targets, is going international by opening a location in the glamorous gulf city.

The competition will be quite stiff, however. Because of its status as both a business and leisure destination, numerous restaurateurs have joined the fray, making Dubai one of top culinary destinations in the world.

Celeb chef Gordan Ramsey, when he isn’t cussing at would-be chefs on reality TV, is overseeing a restaurant at Dubai’s Hilton. And there are many others, more than a few who have earned the coveted Michelin star given to fine dining’s finest.

Any newcomers are going to find the competition top notch.

Will Dubai’s restaurant scene ever reach its limits? Perhaps, but The Ivy and its peers are sprinting to make into into the world’s new capital of fine dining before that happens.

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