Are you paying attention?
No talking and note passing.
No sleeping.
This is Japanese Cooking Essential Tip, No. 5,489.
This is a gobo - burdock.
It can be cut and fried in sesame oil with carrots. With some added chilli pepper and the usual soy sauce, rice wine mix - a very traditional Japanese dish called Kinpira.
But! You just can't cut it any old length!!! What on earth are you thinking about?
THIS is Japanese cooking where form and appearence and correctness is EVERYTHING.
In the picture:
the top gobo stick is INCORRECT. Too long.
the bottom gobo stick is CORRECT. Just right for picking up with chopsticks and fitting into a Japanese mouth politely, being chewed and then digested in the extra long gut that Japanese people have.
I am so lucky that I have an Okaasan who will pass on these pearls of wisdom to me, so I may learn and improve myself.
I know I am lucky. So I smiled and thanked her when she told me.
I am a good, good, GOOD little Oyomesan.
Yep.... and you can't just CUT the darn thing into the length as show above...the burdock has to be cut in an ANGLE for extra beauty....LOL! Okay... I'm off the soap box now....
ReplyDeleteI can feel the pressure building inside your head!!!!
ReplyDeleteHmmm. Got to be honest with you. I've never prepped gobo at all, so I had no idea!
ReplyDeleteI don't really like it so I'm not motivated to learn anyway. I've had it two ways that were nice, in a cream of gobo soup and in chocolate cake-chocolate gobo cake. I wouldn't mind learning how to make those.
I think you are much nicer to Okaasan than I would be!
I bet you were thinking about where the "wrong" length gobo could go!
ReplyDeleteword verification=splose
What you might want to do after hearing that pearl of wisdom
Helen - gobo chocolate cake??? really? now that sounds nice...yes....remind me of my struggles last year with the lilly bulbs that Okaasan kept buying, they taste of nothing at all as far as I can tell...but then I went to a cafe and they had lilly bulb cheesecake and I was very impressed.
ReplyDeleteYes - so now I know the correct lenght of a gobo stick.
To be fair, this time around Okaasan managed to smile and chat lightly about this topic...so I didn't boil over...I just smiled and simpered back and let it all wash away from me....
Yes! Gobo Chocolate Cake. I had it in a restaurant once...I wasn't sure and even asked the waitress if it was good. It was! I thought that it was probably along the lines of zucchini cake or something.
ReplyDeleteThe gobo soup was really nice too. A little spicy and warming. I thought it was mushroom soup at first.