Journal Article #15: Japanese Sushi Video

I know!! We only need 14 Journal Entries.. but after Douglas' presentation on Japanese food yesterday, I totally remembered a really funny video on Japanese cuisine that I did three years ago for a communications class. Linked is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNKacfGafEc

enjoy!
p.s.- let me know if the video doesn't work :)

p.s.s.- Also, when I made this video, it was only my 2nd month working at a sushi restaurant so that's why i didn't know that the "unknown fish" was albacore... but ever since then, I have had 3 years of Japanese restaurant experience so I definitely know all my types of fish and different types of food -- also been to Japan and had to live like a Japanese for 3 weeks. Although I am very familiar with Chinese and Korean cuisine, I have more knowledge of Japanese cuisine than Chinese cuisine(s).

Journal Article #14: A Cricket & A Fly.

I ate a bug in class today. O.M.G.!!!!!! Wait, maybe it was an insect. Well actually, it was a cricket- a deep fried, spicy, and crunchy cricket. This is actually not the first time that I ate an insect. I distinctly remember working at my restaurant and I walked to the back of the kitchen. I saw a fly and I tried dodging it by quickly moving to the side. Little did I know, I forgot to close my mouth. So when I was dodging the fly, my mouth was actually open and the fly decided to “dodge” me so it won’t hit me and we dodged the same exact location and it flew straight into my throat. I then ran to the waitress station next to the kitchen and I tried coughing the fly out of my throat. I was coughing so hard and so many times and I could definitely imagine the customers being able to hear me coughing loudly. The fly loved the back of my throat and would not leave despite my heavy coughing. I decided that I did not want the customers to think I was really sick and serving them food so I decided to try to “drink” or swallow the fly down my throat with some iced tea. As I am drinking the cold ice tea, I feel the tea moving down my esophagus but for some reason, I still felt a big fly in my throat. I kept gulping down cold ice tea until I felt that the fly was dead. At least the fly would be dead in my throat and not alive and could fly out of my mouth while I was talking to customers. I had a “fly in my throat” feeling for the entire night and that really sucked. So eating a cricket was not the first time I ate a bug or insect- swallowing a flying fly was.

Word count: 321

Journal Article #13: My Thoughts on Vegetarianism.

My thoughts on vegetarianism are that it is probably the healthiest food and diet choice in the world. If you can imagine that everybody was vegetarian, there would probably be no heart attacks or people with high cholesterol or high blood pressure. The world would probably be at least 95% more healthy than it currently is. There would not be any multibillion dollar fast food chains in this world that are making their money off from killing people. There would probably not be any pandemic diseases relating to creatures that we could have possibly eaten. Such as there would be no such thing as SARS or the swine flu. If the world was vegetarian, then the world would probably be more green. Green plants would mean healthier air and healthier food. The current global warming situation would not have happened as early as now. If the world was vegetarian, there would not be 100 chickens living under one roof and their sole purpose is to be killed and eaten by humans. Animals would be able to run freely and there would not be horrible living conditions for animals that humans eat. If the world was vegetarian, there would be no restaurant being blamed for unsanitary cooking of meats or restaurants being blamed for food poisoning because of bad food practices. Most vegetables can be eaten raw or cooked so there would be any sicknesses derived from food unless the vegetable or fruit was poisonous in the first place. I think the world would be a much happier and healthier place if everybody was vegetarian. But, currently for me and probably 90% of the world, it is too hard to give up on meat… it is already too late.

word count: 288

Journal Article #12: The Most Disgusting Food Ever.

The most disgusting food ever. The most disgusting food EVER, in my opinion, is cooked salmon. The texture, the flavor, and the odor makes me want to gag whenever I taste it. I don’t know when was the first time I started hating cooked salmon because as a little kid, I remember eating it all the time in my household. I think when I was in highschool, my dad kept cooking salmon fish heads and I would have to eat it at least 3 times a week. I then started analyzing the cooked salmon. The texture on the fish is a bit dry, but the meat on the fish was oily, and the fishy smell of the cooked salmon made it so repulsive I would gag at the sight of it on the dinner table. Sometimes, it would be so bad that I would sit down and only eat three bites of dinner and then leave and not eat for the rest of the night. When I moved away to go to college, I never had to encounter cooked salmon anymore. (Which that is a HUGE relief) I tried cooked salmon again last summer, when my girlfriend bought home some curry cooked salmon. I couldn’t smell or recognize the cooked salmon because of the curry so I tried eating some. Sadly, the fishy smell after it entered my mouth and the texture of the fish pulled on my memories about cooked salmon and I started throwing up before I could even swallow the cooked salmon. It was quite disappointing because I would have thought that the curry would cover the smell and taste of everything on the fish because curry is a strong spice, but it did not do anything in the end. Hopefully, I can learn to enjoy cooked salmon again in the future.

P.S.- I love raw salmon sashimi. It is my favorite. I just can't eat it cooked- it's too repulsive. and that is the weirdest thing ever....

Words: 305.

Journal Article #11: Food in Japan

When I travelled to Japan for three weeks, I was so not accustomed to how amazing their food was. Their cuisine was somewhat, Italian and French influenced. I remember I went to a very expensive French café that served $15 coffees with a small sandwich. I also remembered I went to a very expensive European influenced desert place that served $15+ pieces of cakes that were amazingly decorated. I couldn’t eat expensive food throughout my trip in Japan, so I opted for breakfast from 7-11. Surprisingly, their 7-11 foods were always fresh and restocked every 6-8 hours because it would be sold out when it was displayed. I always bought a natto maki and ikura and spam o-nigiris for breakfast to make sure I had enough food. These little snack items were only $2 dollars each and they were so nutritiously healthy and delicious tasting. I also went to a lot of different types of Japanese cuisine that were not sushi. For example, I tried monjayaki, okonomayaki, yaki tori, izakaya, ramen, and yaki tori places. All of those different types of Japanese cuisine were amazing and they all were different and similar. There was a lot of grilled cooking in Japanese cuisines. The manners at the dinner table were also quite different in Japan compared to America. In Japan, you have to, may I stress, HAVE TO, say “ita-taki-mas” before you eat. Also, slurping noodles when eating ramen are a MUST to tell the chef and the cooks that the ramen tastes delicious. There are so many different cuisines in Japan that I haven’t tried and I will probably be going back to Japan for a longer period of time the next time I visit my friends there. Happy eating!! -_-V

word count: 288


P.S.- Attached are some food images from Japan. I love the ramen one!

Journal Article #10: Blowfish

In our class, you asked if anybody would try the seafood, blowfish, or the Japanese name it goes by, fugu. A few people raised their hands. I was one of those students. You may ask why I would try it? The blowfish is so deadly that if not prepared correctly, one might die from the poison called tetrodotoxin. The one main reasons of why I would try blowfish is because I love seafood. That might not be a good answer to many, but the blowfish is a rare seafood delicacy that is really expensive and really unique. I love trying new and exciting foods, even if it means the cost of my life. Only a couple of chefs have the license to prepare the blowfish around the world, meaning it is hard to find a restaurant serving this type of fish. Also, you can have bragging rights if you do try this rare delicacy. (Not that the bragging rights are on the top of my list of reasons of why I would want to eat it!) But my last reason for wanting to try this fish is that I heard that it tastes really good. Why wouldn’t you want to try food that tastes good? I would love to. And given that it is really hard to pass the exam to cook and serve fugu, I feel that I can trust my life on my fugu chef and his skillful technique when he is preparing the blowfish for me to devour.

word count: 251

Journal Article #9: Food Diary for 1Day

This is my food diary for one day. I will tell you what I ate and why I ate it. In the morning, I woke up really early at 8AM and I decided I was really hungry. I opened the refrigerator and there was nothing to eat that I can just microwave or spend a lot of time cooking. I decided to open the freezer compartment and I realize, I can microwave the $1 television meal from Banquet. I was, sort of, craving pasta and meatballs so I decided to microwave it while I was walking my dog. The breakfast meal itself, wasn’t quite so satisfying. For some reason it tasted a little bit sour to me? Maybe I did not stir or microwave it correctly. Eating about 75% of it, I decided to throw it away because I did not want a stomachache at work. I end up driving to work and while I am working, I started snacking on some mix nuts and beef jerky. The beef jerky was left over from eating it in class the day before. The mix nuts were bought by some other interns that are working with me. I snack a little and by 2PM, I end up at BJ’s in Oakridge Mall to have lunch. I was still craving pasta because the breakfast meal definitely did not fulfill my pasta cravings. I decided to go for spaghetti with roasted chicken and tomato sauce. I didn’t realize that it was 1700 calories and I specifically remembered in my other nutrition classes that females are only supposed to have 2000-2500 calories a day. I freak out for a little bit and I was debating if I should continue with ordering what I had in mind. I decided, f*** it, I am a skinny Asian girl and I can use a bit of calories. Given that I lost about 10 lbs in the 7 months because I didn’t eat enough and I didn’t have time to eat, I told myself my body has the extra calories to spare. I was pretty satisfied with my lunch and by the time I went home at 5PM, I fell asleep until 11:30PM. I woke up and I remember I promised my girlfriend I would have dinner with her once she came home from work so I decided to cook 3 cups of rice (the leftover rice will be good in the rice cooker for about 1-2 days) and to make guacamole. For the guacamole, I used two fresh guacamoles, 1/4th of a whole white onion, and a pinch of kosher salt and grinded and chopped it in the Cuisinart blender for about 30-45 seconds. I also opened up a bag of tortilla chips and a can of black bean dace. The black bean dace was to accompany the rice, while the tortilla chips were for the guacamole. For my late dinner, I ate a little bit of both with my girlfriend when she came home because I knew I couldn’t have that many calories and I would gain weight if I ate a lot at night.

word count: 505