Hiroko’s Kitchen | Blog

Cooking rice with seasonal delicacy – vegetables and seafood – is a very common practice in the Japanese kitchen.  This style of rice dish is called takikomi gohan and is traditionally made in a donabe (earthenware pot).  Like paella or pilaf dishes, we cook everything in one pot, so that the rice absorbs good flavor from every ingredients added to the pot.  If you do not have a donabe, try it in an ordinary, heavy bottomed pot, or rice cooker (I recommend Zojirushi). 

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Now let me first give you some story about ayu fish.  Ayu, which is translated “sweetfish” because of its unique flavor said to resemble watermelon, is a summer delicacy.  No Japanese can pass summer without savoring it at least two or three times at home or restaurants.  The ayu fish lives both in salt and fresh water.  The adults fish (about 8 inches long) swims down the river, gather and spawn in the lower part of river in late summer through autumn.  The fry remains in brackish water (coastal water) during the winter until spring.

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Last week while making a gastronomic tour – jorneying from one restaurant to another – in one of my favorite places, the city of Barcelona, I encountered an intriguing food history site – a place where Romans produced garum, a fermented fish sauce, when they occupied the city 2000 years ago.  Records and (more…)