Journeys Into Cultural Cooking
On certain special occasions I have cooked food for my host family in Japan. So far I've been lucky and nothing has exploded or poisoned anyone. However, when it comes to making latkes (defined as "a pancake, especially one made of grated potato"), it might be more of a curse than a friendly gesture to cook them in someone else's kitchen due to a lingering oil smell that attacks clothing, hair, and any exposed skin. However, Shoko has cooked many deep fried oil dishes, so I didn't think the burning oil and potato smell would bother her too much.
I have not had much personal experience with latke preparation outside of Morgantown's world famous Latke Brigade, which I sorely missed participating in this year. However, at this outpost in Tamano, Japan, I had my own latke celebration (slivovitz not included). While there are many variations, the latke recipe is inherently basic: potatoes, onions, some eggs and flour, and then into hot oil until crispy and brown (no latke before its time). I found that the most difficult stage of the process was grating the onion. I haven't cried that hard in a long time. Shoko had gone to the store to buy some apples for my homemade apple sauce, so luckily no one witnessed my red-eyed display.
I guess pictures are better than words, but a few tears and oil burns later I had a good amount of crispy, gold delicious potato pancakes. I also made applesauce, which to the culinary beginner such as me might sound rather impressive. In truth I put chopped apples in the microwave for 10 minutes, or until mushy, then topped with brown sugar and served. My host family loved both the latkes and applesauce (even Shun who is very picky), and Andee came over the next day to finish off what we didn't eat. Next time I'll have to make a larger batch.
As a funny side story, my host family had a Jewish boy stay with them a few years ago. His family sent him a menorah for Hanukkah, and every night he lit the candles and put the menorah in the window of the Watanabe's house. One night, after all the candles were lit, the family woke up the next day to find the window cracked and melted where the menorah had been. Oy Vey!
I have not had much personal experience with latke preparation outside of Morgantown's world famous Latke Brigade, which I sorely missed participating in this year. However, at this outpost in Tamano, Japan, I had my own latke celebration (slivovitz not included). While there are many variations, the latke recipe is inherently basic: potatoes, onions, some eggs and flour, and then into hot oil until crispy and brown (no latke before its time). I found that the most difficult stage of the process was grating the onion. I haven't cried that hard in a long time. Shoko had gone to the store to buy some apples for my homemade apple sauce, so luckily no one witnessed my red-eyed display.
I guess pictures are better than words, but a few tears and oil burns later I had a good amount of crispy, gold delicious potato pancakes. I also made applesauce, which to the culinary beginner such as me might sound rather impressive. In truth I put chopped apples in the microwave for 10 minutes, or until mushy, then topped with brown sugar and served. My host family loved both the latkes and applesauce (even Shun who is very picky), and Andee came over the next day to finish off what we didn't eat. Next time I'll have to make a larger batch.
As a funny side story, my host family had a Jewish boy stay with them a few years ago. His family sent him a menorah for Hanukkah, and every night he lit the candles and put the menorah in the window of the Watanabe's house. One night, after all the candles were lit, the family woke up the next day to find the window cracked and melted where the menorah had been. Oy Vey!
1 Comments:
I love reading this.
By Bernard, at 3:55 PM
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