Monday, August 07, 2006

Fusion Cuisine

Too busy today to outline my battle plans for a J-assault, by which I mean eventually asking Emi-san out. Instead, I’ll just pass along a few fusion culinary tips.

Last night I had one of the best home-cooked meals in a long time – New York strip steak, eaten J-style. I had a bowl of miso soup as an appetizer, which I made in advance but left out the scallions. Miso soup keeps well, but the green part of the scallions get soggy over time, so I recommend making the soup without them and then adding them just before reheating. I also set aside a pile of chopped scallions to go with the steak.

The steak was lean and I grilled it in my wok with just enough oil to keep it from sticking. Since the Japanese regard meat as an occasional side dish, I selected a small cut – about five ounces. I like my steak medium-rare, so I cooked it before cutting. When it was done, I cut it into bite-sized pieces, placed the scallions on the edge of the plate, poured some Heinz 57 steak sauce into a dipping bowl, and ate it with a bowl of rice. I flavored the meat and rice J-style, first by dipping the tidbits of steak into the sauce, then touching them to the scallions, then placing it on the rice for a moment before eating. Thai jasmine rice goes great with scallions and Heinz 57.

As I composed this, I had my morning snack – bits of watermelon with salt. I ate them with chopsticks so I wouldn’t have to touch my food and get my hands sticky while working. It worked well, although the watermelon is better with the salt sprinkled on top instead of dipping it into a pile of salt as the juice makes the salt stick together.

Note – today’s post is really boring and you should probably not bother to read it. I should return to detailing my battle plans tomorrow, which should at least be more entertaining.

10 comments:

Raju said...

Hey don't stop...I'm taking notes here! How you doing these days bud?

PBS said...

Too late, I've already read the post. No, actually it was pretty interesting as always. Heinz 57 is great on steak no matter how you eat it!

Grant said...

reflextion - I'm good. Are you back from no-bloggy land?

pbs - Heinz 57 is my favorite, but I suspect A1 would work with this recipe as well, or even BBQ sauce.

Tony said...

Did you treat the steak in any way before cooking? A marinade or dry rub?
(puns about my wife dry-rubbing my steak go here).

I knew the meat was a side dish but I hadn't heard of eating in this fashion. Interesting.

Can you substitute road kill for steak?

Grant said...

tony - I didn't do anything to it since the steak sauce and other flavors were all I wanted, although you could go that route. It was a NY strip from the local Whole Foods market, so it was a great cut of beef that didn't need a lot of work. I think to make it even better, you should reduce the beef down to about three to four ounces and serve it with grilled peppers and onions on the side. I'm betting that blackened or jerk chicken would also work well this way.

Ayako1984 said...

OMG! Someone non-asian who eats watermelon with salt! =D Haha everytime that I tell people about how I like to eat watermelon, I get weird looks =D A sympathiser yay!

Monogram Queen said...

I am an A1 fan! I might have to go to Miyami today.

Anonymous said...

i had rice and stir-fried beef for dinner! [heh what's news.]

Because you see, i'm sure you care =P

Grant said...

ayako - I can't imagine eating watermelon without salt - the taste is completely different. Tell your friends they're a bunch of heathen weirdos.

patti_cake - I'm almost out of Heinz, and I already decided to do A1 the next time. I'll bet the rice goes great with it as well.

fatty - yes, the world needs information like that. Don't pull anymore disappearing acts. If you have to, skip an exam or two.

Josh said...

Next time put the note at the beginning :P

Making me hungry.