My Source Walked In the Door

Miko, welcome back~!

…I’m home, nya.

…Hey, what’s in that bag. It looks heavy.

…The Jogai market, nya. Good haul today, nya.

Show me show me!!

…

…Kitchen first, nya. Not putting it on the floor, nya.

— wait, what IS that smell

…Gyoja ninniku, nya.

Ainu negi!! I was JUST writing about this!! It peaks mid-April, the Ainu people have been eating it since forever, it’s also called Hokkaido mountain leek——

…nya.

The smell is like garlic and green onion fused together right? And it stays on you until TOMORROW — that’s what I read!

…It stays, nya.

I love intense flavors so I’m totally gonna love this! It’s so my thing!

…In Hokkaido there’s a way to eat it, nya.

Tempura? Or pickled in soy sauce?

…Those are the mainland ways, nya. Both work, nya. But the Hokkaido way is different, nya.

Different how?

…Grilled with Jingisukan — Hokkaido’s lamb BBQ, nya. Coat the leaves in the lamb fat and eat them whole, nya.

Oh WOW I didn’t know that!! Gotta add it to the article!

…Go ahead, nya. But there’s something I don’t want you to write, nya.

…What?

…Gyoja ninniku isn’t a restaurant food, nya.

Huh?

…It’s a home food, nya. The smell stays till tomorrow. Eat it outside and you can’t go to work the next day, nya. You eat it at home, with your family, and everyone smells together, nya.

…

…So if the article says “you can eat it at a restaurant,” that’s a lie, nya.

…Ok. Then this one. This one’s gotta be article material — hairy crab!

…

I researched this one (ﾟ∀ﾟ) It’s called “umi-ake kegani” — the sea-opening hairy crab! After the drift ice pulls back, the crab comes out, and it’s been eating all the plankton the ice brought with it, so the meat gets super sweet!

…Umi-ake, nya.

I love that word. “Umi-ake.” The sea opens. That’s such a Hokkaido thing to say — when the drift ice retreats, the sea opens, like a door (≧∇≦)

…

…Netsuki. Do you know where this crab was caught, nya?

Huh? The Sea of Okhotsk?

…More specific, nya.

…Wakkanai?

…Wakkanai wraps up late April, nya. Today’s is from Esashi, nya.

Wait — the season is different depending on where you are?!

…Wakkanai runs March through late April, nya. Esashi picks up from there through late May, nya. They pass the baton, nya.

…Baton.

…So “umi-ake kegani” isn’t about one place, nya. It’s the whole coastline, nya. Opening up north to south, nya.

…

…Miko, how do you know all this?

…I ask at the fish counter, nya. I see the tag says “Esashi,” I ask why it’s not Wakkanai, why today is when it changes, nya.

…You just ask?

…Every week, nya. I ask the same question and see if I get the same answer, nya. If the answer changes, something changed, nya.

…And this one.

…Spring herring, nya.

I wrote about this too!! Harutsugeuo — the fish that tells you spring has arrived! And there’s this phenomenon called kuki where the water turns white when the schools spawn——

…

Miko, how do you eat it?

…Today’s is salt-grilled and simmered, nya.

Simple!

…Fresh herring, keep it simple, nya. It’s got enough fat that you just sprinkle salt and it renders out from the skin, nya.

…What about kombu rolls?

…Kombu rolls are for migaki nishin, nya. Dried herring, soaked back to life, nya. Making kombu rolls with fresh herring would be rude to the herring, nya.

…Rude?

…Fresh is fresh, dried is dried, nya. Mix them and you erase both, nya.

…

…Grandmother made both, nya. Salt-grilled in spring. Migaki nishin kombu rolls from fall through winter. Same fish, two different foods, nya.

…

…Miko.

…nya.

…I think I gotta rewrite the whole article.

…nya?

What I had was a “seasonal ingredients list.” But what you’ve been telling me — that’s not a list.

…

Gyoja ninniku is a home food. Hairy crab is a baton between port towns. Herring is two different foods depending on fresh or dried. …None of it is “what’s in season right now.” All of it is “how you face it.”

…

My article is the kind anyone could write after thirty minutes on Google. If I hand that to Onii-chan the whole reaction is one “hm.”

…

…Netsuki.

…Yeah.

…Master wanting to know about good food, nya. Reading about it isn’t why, nya.

…What?

…He wants to eat it, nya.

…

…Starting prep, nya.

Oh wait——

…Hairy crab takes time to boil, nya. Herring needs prepping and salting before it goes in, nya. Asparagus I don’t touch until right before we eat, nya.

…There was asparagus too?

…Bottom of the bag, nya. Naka-furano greenhouse, nya. First spears of the year — grew on everything the plant stored through winter, nya.

I wrote about this too!! First-season is the sweetest!!

…Sauteed in butter, nya.

That’s it?

…Doing more than that to first-season asparagus is an insult to first-season asparagus, nya.

…Insult.

…nya.

…While you’re standing here talking, the salt is soaking into the herring, nya. Out of the kitchen, nya.

…Miko.

…nya.

…I wanna stay. Watching right beside you beats any article.

…Don’t get in the way, nya.

I won’t!

…Boiling water for the hairy crab is 3% salt, nya. Same as seawater, nya. Ask why, nya.

…Why?

…The meat doesn’t shrink, nya. When the salt inside and outside are the same, water stops moving in or out, nya.

…I wanna put that in the article.

…Write it later. Weigh the salt first, nya. Scale’s right there, nya.