Anger Burger

I hope you don’t mind, but I’m just going to load you up with photos today.  Think of it as inspiration for what you can do with a pot of boiling oil other than submerging BP executives in it.

The tofu goes into some miso soup, the eggplant, okra and Okinawan sweet potatoes (beni imo) go straight into the oil, no batter or breading.  That such a thing was even conceivable was news to me.

Kelp and little dried fishes that made for flavorful miso stock.

Eggplants.  Dry them carefully first or they’ll spit!

Okra fried whole!

This was raw daikon radish and carrot finely julienned and then topped with simple sesame dressing.

Incredible: karaage, or Japanese fried chicken.  I’ll write about it later, but here’s basically what I’ll tell you.

And those fried veggies again, though after they’ve been deep fried naked and then left to their own devices in room temperature dashi broth, which made the veggies soft and flavorful, but still fresh and not at all deep-fried tasting.

So there you have it.  The entire above menu was crafted by my friend Junko Yamamoto, who happens to be a renowned artist as well.  Here’s the part of the evening where I was a big ol’ whitey:

me: “What do you call okra in Japanese?”

Junko: “Okura.”

me: “Oh.”