Anger Burger

The next item I wanted to share is a something I am very excited about.  I have wanted to make takikomi gohan for a long time now, but for some reason I believed it was much harder than it is.  My mind is like a fruitfly.  Takikomi gohan is “mixed rice” made in a rice cooker and could not actually be any easier at all.  In fact, aside from the fresh vegetables, I have all the ingredients on hand as I type this.  However, one of the items in Amy’s care-package is this thrilling and delicious-looking all-inclusive packet for takikomi gohan:

I don’t even have to add any sauce now.  She’s enabling my laziness!  Have I mentioned that I think I love her?  I’m also deeply pleased that while I was googling takikami gohan, I came across this video:

It’s fucking mesmerizing, man!  The narrator’s voice had me poised between laughter and total devotion for five straight minutes and the woman is so cute and why is she cooking with a dog? Oh my god, I think I’ve found my new favorite YouTube channel.  [UPDATE: Confirmed, favorite YouTube channel.  Spent an entire day learning how to make Japanese food from a woman and a dog and I'm not ashamed.]

At this point I became overwhelmed with how exciting this all is for me and took a self portrait.  The is the first and only unedited shot I took:

See?  I’m insane.  Anyway, the next two packages were sort of what started this whole thing (at least in my mind, I can’t speak for Amy) — my inability to find quality, MSG-free instant dashi.  Dashi is right alongside soy sauce in Japanese cuisine for flavor importance.  It is a stock that can be made from a few different things, but most commonly kombu (kelp) and bonito (a tuna-like fish).  For nerds, dashi is exciting because it led to the discovery of the fifth flavor profile accessible by the human tongue, umami.

And what would I do without furikake?  Be sad, that’s what.  Furikake makes everything¹ better and I don’t need to read Japanese to know that the tiny shrimps and little pieces of egg in this stuff are going to make it my new favorite.

And scallop… powder?  Yes!  Indeed!  Scallop powder (or scallop extract, to be specific) and what exciting mad scientist uses will I have for it?   MWUH-HAHHA-HA-HA!

Once more, my personality is boiled down into a specific condiment: ume salt.  Sour salt, basically, and both my favorite state of mind and my favorite flavor combination.

Last and far from least is this painfully, agonizingly cute container of shichimi, or more commonly seen in America as togarashi.  When you get udon, you know that little red-capped bottle they give you?  Of the spice powder?  Well, that’s this stuff, except, that red-capped stuff is the cheap shit.

I didn’t take a photo of it yet, but the container has a forehead-slappingly simple mechanism for becoming a shaker.

So there you have it!  I’m deeply grateful to Amy for her generosity and tolerance (we basically agreed to meet like three times but my plans kept changing) and I expect to, over the next week, talk about nothing else.

¹ Well, rice, primarily.  A lesser extent to everything else.