Miso soup with watermelon salad with cheese and sourdough bread


I can make anything I want but I don't want to make anything. I can buy anything I want but I don't want to go shopping. I'm lazy. And hungry. 

I want the ease of miso, easier than a peanut butter jelly sandwich, and the crunch of iceberg lettuce, loser-most of all of the lettuces, but I want its crunch and its microbes.

The lettuce wilts if put directly into hot miso and I do not want that so the lettuce is soaked bit by bit. 

As far as I know, Japanese have little or nothing to do with cheese. And watermelon goes with everything. 

This is a satisfying scrounge session.








6 comments:

Unknown said...

日本人も飛鳥時代から食べていた
日本では孝徳天皇の時代、645年に百済(くだら)からの帰化人の子孫、善那(ぜんな)によって牛乳と酪や蘇といった乳製品が天皇家に献上されたのが始まりです。この蘇が一種のチーズにあたるといわれますが、今の製法と違い牛乳を煮つめて固めたもののようです。醍醐天皇の時には、諸国に命じて蘇を作って天皇に貢進させる「貢蘇の儀」を行ないました。醍醐天皇はこのように酪農の理解者で、「醍醐」という乳に関係した語を天皇の名にしたといわれます。その後、権力が武家に移るにつれ、「貢蘇の儀」も行なわれなくなりました。
江戸時代に白牛3頭を輸入
8代将軍吉宗はオランダ人にすすめられインドより白牛3頭を入手して、その牛乳から「白牛酪」を製造するようになりました。「白牛酪」は、牛乳を煮詰め乾燥させて団子に丸めたもので、バターという説もありますが、よりチーズに近いものといわれています。60年後の11代家斉の時には、牛は70頭になりました。
明治8年日本最初のチーズを試作
近代ヨーロッパ型チーズは、明治8年北海道の開拓庁の試験場で初めて試作され、明治33年頃から函館のトラピスト修道院でも作られました。しかし、昭和初期までチーズの生産量はごくわずかで、ほとんどが輸入品でした。本格的に作られるようになったのは、北海道製酪販売組合連合会が北海道の遠浅にチーズ専門工場を作ってからで、昭和7年のことです。
昭和30年代後半から消費急伸
急激に消費が伸びたのは、食生活の洋風化や生活水準が向上した昭和30年代後半からです。昭和50年頃のピザの普及、昭和55年頃のチーズケーキのブームなどナチュラルチーズの消費が拡がり、昭和63年には従来多かったプロセスチーズに代わって、ナチュラルチーズの消費が多くなりました。現在では食生活の中にチーズが定着し、ナチュラルチーズの風味を楽しむ人が増えています。

Chip Ahoy said...

Thank you Abraham Dan, that's awesome history there. I did always wonder about that, and you answered it beautifully. And thank you too, Google Translator, for showing me what Abraham Dan said.

Unknown said...

Apologies. I'd have translated myself but I don't do translations. One of those very, very firm iron/golden precisely drawn with a rule(r) line in the sand I dare not cross over thingamajibbyboohibby. I see that beer googles has been of only limited help. That drunk, uneducated, son of a binary fool. Anyway, to summarise: Historically speaking, Japanese have little or nothing to do with cheese. You were right. Carry on.

Call me Abe, please. And if ever in Kyoto, do I have some miso to show you.

Chip Ahoy said...

No apologies! I love your comment. It helped me understand a lot. Thank you for invitation too, I know you have the best miso there and I am jealous of you. This is the best miso we have in this country, they do their best to imitate yours.

Unknown said...

I feel bad that your generosity prompted you to post that gobbledygook translation at that other site, and you continue in your generosity. I've had truly superior miso in the States and terrible stuff here, so I have no doubt yours is excellent. My friend, we were friends that s.o.b., big fight, anyway, very nice guy who is from an old miso making family that supplied the emperor before he was dragged to Tokyo, was always off to China to buy up supplies and constantly watching the soy ticker from the chicago mercantile and pissed that shipments were late to this and that country, so there is really not much here here or there there anymore. On the other hand, the old ladies with their family recipes, the back alley black market stuff.......

Now wildly off topic, but just to add my three yen on the issue of the origin of the becoming of this contentious being that now is, my cursory perusal of the archival record finds the following post and comments as most causative of what would necessarily become to be. Innocence as hubris. But what fun it was, and why not.

http://althouse.blogspot.jp/2007/11/do-you-want-to-be-star-in.html

Good day Chip and sincere thanks in bringing me many smiles over the years. Time to disappear, but I will keep reading, life permitting.

Chip Ahoy said...

You are a very perceptive and gracious person, Abraham Dan, I missed that post you provided by link.

Blog Archive