MISODOFU

Another fruitful visit to restaurant Inada. Chef Saburo Inada had just returned from Japan, bringing back with him a brownish-greyish paste which he served to me in a scoopful, accompanied by slices of bottarga. I savored microscopic bites, trying very had to guess what it may be. That's a sort of exchange of courtesy among food people, namely the challenge of delicious yet unknown foods. After a few minutes of thinking, all I could tell was that I was trying something which had fermented and which resembled a cheese that tasted like miso. Actually it is miso fermented tofu from the South of Japan. The flavor is quite complex, salty but also reminiscent of chestnuts and of mirin. I had tried something similar in a yakitori joint in Tokyo and tried to get to know more about the product over there, without success of course.

A notable dish was the crab meat wrapped up in scallop sashimi (wonderfully translucent sheaths of fish), sitting on a base of dashi jelly and with grated yuzu sprinkled over it... 
This time I could not find anything about it on the net but have not given up yet.
At the moment my first for fermented foods is quenched by a slim but very dense booklet, Tsukemono, by Ikuko Hisamatsu. It describes a big variety of pickling methods (Japanese and Korean) using miso, salt, rice bran, sake dregs...A veritable goldmine of information.

HOME FOODS - GOMADOFU

Time to try new things! After some searching for the magic ingredient, I managed to make "gomadofu". It took a few minutes and an hour resting time in the fridge. I followed a very simple recipe by Clea, published in her book on agar agar. Agar agar is a Japanese seaweed, available as a white powder and used to turn liquids into a nice textured jelly that will stand pretty warm temperatures (something that does not happen to other types of gelatine). Clea's version takes less time than the traditional one I saw the chef of a shinto monastery perform in front of my eyes. I was spending some time on Mount Haguro, one of the holy shinto places of Japan. One of the traditional foods of the monks is a tofu-like block made with sesame seeds. The Japanese chef had to give the mix a vigorous beating in order to get the required silky consistency. 

By using agar agar, the whole process is faster and easier and the result quite fine! I served it with a sauce of tamari, vinegar, oil and yuzu spicy sauce. But next time I want to experiment with a yuzu flavored version and a different nut (why not cashew or almond) in the place of sesame.

CITY TIPS

Wasabi, Corso Ferrucci 72, Torino
Sembra essere l'unico ristorante con chef giapponese a Torino. Si cena seduti sui tatami, con le gambe dentro "lo scavo" che sta sotto il tavolo, come accade nei ristoranti tradizionali giapponesi e nelle case di campagna. I decori (rose vere che sembrano finte, luci al neon filtrate da tessuti grezzi) appartengono allo stile nipponico anni 70 che ha fatto scuola in tutto il mondo e che, in fondo, è pure tornato di moda.
Ma alla fine al ristorante si va per mangiare. Da Wasabi le porzioni sono piccole e i piatti sguarniti. L'unico piatto ben eseguito è l'anguilla con la classica cottura nel mirin e salsa di soia, servita su un panetto di riso tagliato a pezzettono, pronta a dinoccolarsi come un giocattolo di legno. La bella glassa era un mix di mirin, zucchero salsa di soja e saké. Il sukyaki era approssimativo, il brodo privo di complessità, le fette di carne troppo spesse, la varietà di verdure limitata al numero di due...Insomma un disastro. Senza parlare della ciotola di udon (pasta in brodo) con tre pezzi di tempura, venduta obbligatoriamente in due porzioni e fatta pagare 20 euro l'una. Roba da sollevazione popolare!
Dulcis in fundo: al posto del solito gelato al the Matcha, dolcini al vapore, Yokan (gelatina) ai fagioli rossi, un paffuto wagashi e anche un dolce transculturale: il kasutaro, versione nipponica del pan di Spagna portoghese.