Shabu shabu 1/2/06
On January 2nd we had Jim, Carola, Franco, and Sofia over for Shabu - Shabu, a Japanese dish. Franco is visiting from Chile, and we wanted to share this Japanese delicacy.
While most of the dinner preparations went well, I was in charge of obtaining the beef and pork. The meat should be thinly sliced. Paper thin, actually. And the only real way to do this is to freeze the meat first, then have a butcher slice it. The long holiday and shortented shop hours meant I couldn't do the proper preparation, i.e. have the meat frozen. The first place I stopped at wouldn't guarantee that the meat would be thin enough. He kept insisting that I place an order. Well, that's great, but I needed it in about 45 minutes. So I left. At the second place I went the nice man behind the counter wanted so badly to help. He offered to thinly slice it by hand. While I know this is difficult because I have tried it myself, I decided to place my faith in this meat expert. In the end, it was sliced maybe four centimeters thick. Sigh. Waaayyyy to thick. But there I was, with a lot of expensive meat, sliced like steaks. At home, the best thing I could do was try to flatten each piece by hand, hitting it with a frying pan. Crude, but more or less effective. Did I reproduce the actual thing in Japan? Not even close. But I tried, and trying is better than nothing? Right?
At any rate, Hiroe was very well prepared for the meal, as usual, and everyone enjoyed it.
And Jim showed off his chopstick skills by picking up a piece of cooked tofu...
Smooth.
While most of the dinner preparations went well, I was in charge of obtaining the beef and pork. The meat should be thinly sliced. Paper thin, actually. And the only real way to do this is to freeze the meat first, then have a butcher slice it. The long holiday and shortented shop hours meant I couldn't do the proper preparation, i.e. have the meat frozen. The first place I stopped at wouldn't guarantee that the meat would be thin enough. He kept insisting that I place an order. Well, that's great, but I needed it in about 45 minutes. So I left. At the second place I went the nice man behind the counter wanted so badly to help. He offered to thinly slice it by hand. While I know this is difficult because I have tried it myself, I decided to place my faith in this meat expert. In the end, it was sliced maybe four centimeters thick. Sigh. Waaayyyy to thick. But there I was, with a lot of expensive meat, sliced like steaks. At home, the best thing I could do was try to flatten each piece by hand, hitting it with a frying pan. Crude, but more or less effective. Did I reproduce the actual thing in Japan? Not even close. But I tried, and trying is better than nothing? Right?
At any rate, Hiroe was very well prepared for the meal, as usual, and everyone enjoyed it.
And Jim showed off his chopstick skills by picking up a piece of cooked tofu...
Smooth.
posted by john and hiroe at 1:12 PM
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