Three years ago today was the most terrifying day of my life. The shaking during the 9.0 earthquake in Japan was awful. I was in my second grade classroom with all of my students, their sweet faces peaking out at me from beneath their desks, not able to fully process what was happening. A few items fell off the wall. My arms bent at the elbows along with the movement of the tile floor. I had an inflatable globe hanging on the wall that bounced around like a ping pong ball. Once the earthquake stopped, there was complete silence (a rare thing to experience inside a school). The inflatable globe continued to sway, slowing down ever so slightly. The silence didn’t last long though. We quickly evacuated the school and made our way outside to the soccer fields where we experienced several after-shocks.

I watched the old, tall trees around us sway but it was not the same swaying trees do in the wind. The clouds above us were swirling in a very strange way as well. Everything seemed out of balance. Brad (we taught at the same school) and I looked out at the students sitting on the field and realized that the ground was literally rolling beneath them. We didn’t know how long this would last. We didn’t know if our dog was OK inside our first floor apartment.

We didn’t know that as we sat there a tsunami was forcing itself into the shore line.

We didn’t know the water would move so far inland that it would bring the sea floor along with it, burying buildings and people.

We didn’t know that as terrifying as the earthquake was for us, it didn’t end there for many others.

We didn’t know that 3 years later the struggle would not be over.

The fear we felt could not compare to what hundreds of thousands of others experienced that day. For many, the fear continues.

Brad traveled to Ishinomaki, one of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami, with a group of teachers and friends to help with clean-up a few weeks after the earthquake and tsunami. He met people who, despite having less than nothing to offer, showed hospitality to their group. In the midst of the loss and the fear and the continual after-shocks and the ocean sludge all around, they were able to show appreciation and composure in a way I believe is unique to the Japanese people.

After living in Japan for 4 years, I learned so much. I’m learning even more as I watch them rebuild and recover with grace after such devastation.

3.11 | Remembering Japan | 3 Years Later

We are on vacation in Michigan right now, but I wanted to take a minute to share a little fun from Japan with you!

A few years ago, I joined the team over at Japan Eats. It was great fun and they just recently put up a video of one of the Japan Booze Blind episodes that I was in. This one was a blind tasting of awamori, a spirit from Okinawa. It’s got quite a kick to it, so tasting 3 of them was tough work, but someone had to do it! Here is the link to the most recent post, plus a link to the very first one where we did a blind tasting of Japanese third type beer.

Awamori

Japanese Third Type Beer

I’m a condiment person. Dips, salsas, sauces…you name it, I probably love it. When I was a kid, it was not difficult to find me at parties because I was most likely lurking near the chips and dip. OK, let’s be honest…that’s usually where you’ll find me as a grown-up, too. Chips and fries are just vehicles for salsa and ketchup, right?

When we lived in Japan, I got hooked on furikake, a combination of sesame seeds, nori, and other seasonings that is sprinkled on rice and other foods for added flavor. For the first 3 years of life in Tokyo, I used furikake liberally. Then, I got pregnant with Riley and like many first-time mothers I obsessively read every ingredient label on everything I put into my body. When I saw MSG as one of the main ingredients in furikake, it immediately exited my list of pregnancy-friendly foods.

This was difficult. Mostly because I was craving Japanese sticky rice like no one’s business and all I wanted to do was put some salty, crunchy, umami-flavored furikake on top. The thought of making my own crossed my mind, but I was pretty busy growing a human being and didn’t have the energy to think about making something that I was sure would be equally as difficult. I had visions in my mind of drying salmon skin in the oven and other “complicated” steps that must go into making such a flavorful mixture. Turns out, furikake is not at all difficult to make.

Here’s the basic recipe that I’ve found to work quite well (no MSG included). If you’re not a fan of fish flakes, you can omit them, although I highly recommend you at least try it with the flakes before tossing them out the window. They add such a lovely, smokey note that can only be found in these immensely flavorful flakes can lend. Once you have the basic recipe down, experiment with other flavor combinations. I’m working on a wasabi version right now, but you can do almost anything from classic sesame to matcha (think of a dish with a flavor profile like toasted rice in matcha broth) to a simple sesame salt, or gomashio.

I love using furikake on popcorn, hard boiled eggs, in salads, and of course sprinkled over steaming hot rice. You could even keep a little ziploc bag of the stuff in your office drawer to spice up some noodles or other bland workday lunch that needs a pick-me-up.

No MSG. No hard work. Big rewards. Can’t get much better than that, can it?

Homemade Furikake

• 1/3 cup nori sheets, broken up into small pieces
• 1/2 cup white or black sesame seeds
• 1 cup loosely packed bonito flakes (fish flakes), broken up into small pieces
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon mirin
• 2 or 3 drops toasted sesame oil

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.
In a small bowl, combine the sesame seeds and bonito flakes. Add the soy sauce and mirin and stir to evenly coat the sesame seed mixture. Add the nori and stir to combine.

Spread the mixture in and even layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the mixture is dry and slightly toasted. Keep an eye on it while it cooks to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Let the furikake cool for about 2 hours before transferring to an air-tight container. Store at room temperature for up to 2-3 weeks. If it lasts that long.

I’ve heard stories from Brad and my in-laws about asparagus hunting in Iowa. Brad’s grandparents live there and have been known to pull their car over at the sight of the green asparagus stalks reaching upwards from the depths of a ditch. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to partake in this activity but I love hearing about it. What is more wonderful than the idea of foraging for food because you found it growing where it naturally wants to be at the proper time of year without having traveled hundreds of miles to be wrapped in two thick rubber bands and placed in the produce department in a grocery store chain.

Spring seems to have finally settled in for most of us, making this the perfect time to enjoy asparagus. There are so many wonderful asparagus recipes out there right now, so I wanted to bring something different to the table. This beautiful Japanese method of preparing asparagus results in a bright, flavorful dish that is as wonderful to eat as it is to look at. The bright green becomes more vibrant with the black specks of sesame seeds that coat each spear.

I love this recipe because of the flavor and appearance but also because it gives me an excuse to break out my suribachi. A suribachi is a Japanese mortar and pestle that has an unglazed, textured surface. Using a wooden pestle, the sesame seeds in this case are rubbed against the grooves in the bowl until they look like black sand. Then, mirin and soy sauce are added making the mixture look a lot like wet potting soil. Riley loves soil. Therefore, he was very interested in “helping” me get the black sesame mixture out of my suribachi using the bamboo brush.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a suribachi. You can use a food processor or spice grinder to grind the sesame seeds, then just transfer them to a small bowl and stir in the liquid ingredients.

This is a very easy way to prepare asparagus and works perfectly as a side dish to salmon and rice, or even topped with a fried egg. If you don’t have any asparagus on hand, you could also prepare green beans using this method. Just as beautiful and tasty!

Asparagus + Black Sesame

Recipe adapted from Elizabeth Andoh’s Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen

*Don’t worry if you don’t have a suribachi. You can use a food processor or spice grinder to grind the sesame seeds, then just transfer them to a small bowl and stir in the liquid ingredients.

• 1 bunch of asparagus (thinner is better, but you can use whatever is available)
• 2 tablespoons black sesame seeds
• 2 teaspoons mirin
• 2 teaspoons light soy sauce

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. While the water heats up, break the woody ends off of your asparagus by holding onto each end and bending it until it naturally breaks. The bottom portion is the woody stuff that you don’t want to use. Next, cut the asparagus into 1 1/2 pieces on an angle. Put the asparagus tips in a separate pile. When your water is boiling, add the asparagus except for the tips. After one minute, add the tips and continue cooking for another minute.

Drain the asparagus and transfer to a bowl to cool to room temperature.

While the asparagus cools, toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium high heat. Once you start to smell the nutty scent of the seeds, remove them from the heat and transfer them to a suribachi. Grind the seeds until some are still intact and others are completely ground. Add the mirin and soy sauce and continue to grind until the mixture resembles wet soil. If needed, add a touch of water.

Scrape the black sesame mixture into the bowl with the asparagus and toss gently to coat. Mount the asparagus on small plates and serve room temperature or cold.

Up on the new blog, Set the Table, today!

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Happy Friday, everyone! I’ve got a brand new Cocktail Friday post over at Set the Table! If you haven’t added Set the Table to your reader yet, please do!

I’ve got a new post up on my new food blog, Set the Table! Click here to check it out!

You can find the recipe for this perfectly delicious cocktail at my new site, Set the Table!

Check out my newest post on my new food blog, Set the Table!