Last night I tried fresh yuba for the very first time and it were sublime.
photo swiped from this site
I also ate the best edamame I’ve ever had (fresh and smoky), sake (unfiltered milky goodness), and chestnut icecream (words fail me).
The meal ended twelve hours ago, but I’m still in heaven just remembering all the flavours: eel stuffed with fresh tofu, skirt steak cooked in miso with enoki mushrooms, black sesame ice cream.
Food is good. Life is good.
Wow. That does sound amazing.
Yum.
A couple of months ago the New Yorker published its annual “food” issue. My two favorite articles were one on artisanal tofu makers in Japan, and one on short-order cooks in las vegas — quite possibly the two polar opposites of “food culture.”
but anyway, I had no idea (though I should have) that there were so many different kinds of tofu. I get the sense that u.s. supermarket tofu is to the world of tofu as cheddar cheese is to the world of cheese.
Yuba is awesome. I LOVE that stuff. It’s like the creme de la creme of tofu. literally actually, the stuff skimmed off the top in the process of making it, according to a Japanese friend.
Oh, and that place that’s mentioned in the wikipedia entry, Nikko? I live near there and am going to visit it next weekend. It’s gorgeous there all year around, and has a famous temple to visit, where monkeys run wild in the forest around it, and there are waterfalls and the statues of the three monkeys, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. It’s also a large part of the setting for that James Clavell novel of Japan, Shogun, I believe. I shall have some yuba while I am there!
Where?!?
Jason: it was.
Janet: [jumps up and down] I read that article! It’s what made me want to try this restaurant in the first place. That was a fab issue of the New Yorker! Oh, how I love good food writing.
You mean it’s like cheddar in that there are superlatively sublime artisinal cheddars and then there’s the yellow crap in the supermarket?
Chris: I’m so jealous. I so want to go to Nikko. I hope you blog about it big time. I want long loving descriptions of the yuba you eat and everything else!
Shana: Secret!
but.. but..
that food issue was my favorite in a long time, i’m totally with janet. but since i’ve got no chance to go to nikko any time soon … and since you’re leaving for warm weather …
(and since i’ve been working through my pile of manuscripts since 1pm yesterday, virtually uninterrupted..)
Please?
at least tell this suffering soul what it tasted like.
it tasted good.
yeh, my buds from oz-land took us out for the very same earlier this week. it were indeed nummy. great to chill! –ns
Hmm, I wonder who that was, Nathaniel, taking you out to eat yuba? What an eerie coincidence!