In the kitchen

Yokosuka_Mike said:
You are so right!

In the past, my wife and I bought some electric gadgets that were supposed to make our lives better - think food processor. After a few uses and the toil and trouble of cleaning up afterwards, they soon sat on the shelf taking up valuable space.

It’s amazing… a good chef's knife and a wood cutting board is pretty much all I need for food preparation. A couple of pots and frying pans and I’m good to go. Everything else is just a waste of space (and money).

Give me the simple life!

Mike
Click to expand...


Hi,


It might amuse you; I had a friend who was the top man in his trade and he told me once that the chopping board should be made of wood from the sycamore tree...


Regards, David
 
David Hughes said:
Hi,
It might amuse you; I had a friend who was the top man in his trade and he told me once that the chopping board should be made of wood from the sycamore tree...

Regards, David
Click to expand...

Interesting, David, I'm going to look into it. This is my setup:

Voigtlander 50mm f1.2 Nokton VM lens, Sony A7III
Yokosuka, Japan - August 2019
My kitchen

Unknown type of wood cutting board. I bought it many years ago at a roadside vegitable stand out in the country on Izu peninsula. All I know is that it's heavy and it's just the right size for me.

DSC01719.JPG


MAC 8 1/2" chef's knife (MBK-85). I have other knives but this is my go-to knife for everyday cooking. Sharp as can be and easy to maintain it that way. Fits my hand perfectly.

DSC01720.JPG


There's a damp cloth under the board to prevent slipping around.

Mike
 
Yokosuka_Mike said:
Interesting, David, I'm going to look into it. This is my setup:

Voigtlander 50mm f1.2 Nokton VM lens, Sony A7III
Yokosuka, Japan - August 2019
My kitchen

Unknown type of wood cutting board. I bought it many years ago at a roadside vegitable stand out in the country on Izu peninsula. All I know is that it's heavy and it's just the right size for me.

MAC 8 1/2" chef's knife (MBK-85). I have other knives but this is my go-to knife for everyday cooking. Sharp as can be and easy to maintain it that way. Fits my hand perfectly.

There's a damp cloth under the board to prevent slipping around.

Mike
Click to expand...


Thanks, and nice to see others have tea pots...

My friend, who sadly died a while ago, was the person you'd go to if you had a timber framed house that was 300, 400 or 500 years old. He understood them and the wood used. As for the chopping board, we were at a festival and he had lunch with us and picked up the chopping board that the food had been on and said something about it being nice to see one made of sycamore wood as that was always the traditional material for them.

You could throw any question about wood at him and get an off the cuff answer; useful if you wanted to know Young's Modulus for Ramin and so on. The old rules of thumb and lore were a fascinating subject once he got talking.

My wife and I have the same knives (identical) each and dislike using the wrong one.

Anyway, I suspect I've bored the pants off of everyone and will shut up now.

Regards, David
 
Some dishes can only be prepared outside the kitchen, in the open air.



"Banh chung", a cake made with sticky rice, pork and beans which is wrapped in banana leaves and slow cooked
over a charcoal fire for about 12 hours. A typical Tet, or Lunar New Year delicacy in Vietnam.




Another example of slow cooking over a charcoal fire: the preparation of "lạp xường" or "Chinese sausage".

 
Fujifilm X-Pro2 - Fujinon XF 18mm f2 R WR lens
Astia film simulation
Yokohama, Japan - September 2019

Picking up a bento (box lunch) from the best bento kitchen in town.
DSCF3743.JPG


All the best,
Mike
 
Mike, I'm always keen on a good bento. I might be back in Yokohama in November. Could you tell us where that place is?
 
pyeh said:
Mike, I'm always keen on a good bento. I might be back in Yokohama in November. Could you tell us where that place is?
Click to expand...

Peter,

Put this address in Google maps.
〒231-0002 Kanagawa, Yokohama, Naka-ku, Kaigandōri, 1-chōme−1 昭和ビル 2F

The map will show it as a cafe or french restaurant, that’s the second floor. The bento shop is the first floor.

If that doesn't work for you, it’s on the left side of the Nihon Odori entrance to Zou-No-Hana park.

I usually buy my bento and then take it to the port operations building by Osanbashi pier and eat it there. The port ops building is only a few minutes walk from the bento shop and it has plenty of seats inside and a very clean restroom too!

Lastly, on monday - friday if you wait until around 11:45 am they have 500 yen bento lunch specials ready to go on the counter - they’re the best!

I hope this helps.

Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom