Search for the best 淡水魚

One of the challenges I face as a Japanese living overseas, is how to cook Japanese food at home using what you can get from the local supermarkets. I tried going to Japanese food shop, but that's a 15 minutes drive and ended up in a bit of a disappointment. So I go to Jelmoli sometimes if I ultimately need something, but as a rookie chef trying to please the one and only guest every evening (Tom), there are still examines and practices to be made.

In a country where there are no sea but lots of lakes, it seems difficult to find seafood in supermarkets. But this isn't true. Although expensive (well everything is expensive here anyway), you can get seafood and last evening I had tried making 西京焼きat home.

Never had I went to a local supermarket (Coop or MIGROS) to buy fresh fish yet but only in Globus which is expensive, I tried MIGROS at Lowenstrasse. The seafood section was quite big, with fresh fish in the showcase, but they were filled with fish from the lakes.

Even difficult to find out what the fish are since it's written in German anyway, I had no clue whatsover but to pick something, especially having an old man behind the showcase waiting for me to pick something.

So I did.

The 2 fillets on the left are from the same fish. Just as the guy started cutting the fish, and how much he was putting strength to cut it, I had to pick another fish just in case the first one could be bad. The 2 fillets are actually, and surprisingly, from the Lake of Zurich which I pass across by tram every morning. I do not know the name of the fish...The second fish, I am not aware of where it's from, but the fish had a name "Colin".

Have to admit the fish from the lake smells. I marinated with salt for far more than my mom had told me, but the result was still the same. But take a look;

献立：

チューリッヒ湖原産、淡水魚の西京焼き

切り干し大根

野菜のスープ

ご飯

I was right - the non-Colin fillets were so hard it was like chewing gum. The skin was somehow sticky, and Tom had hard time trying to wipe the skin which sticked on his fingers. The bones were so big and there were lots of them, it was difficult to taste the fish cause the bones got in your way, even though it was tasteless. On the other hand, Colin was perfect. The fish had been marinated at the same time, for more than 5 hours, and the taste of miso was perfectly simmered onto Colin, whereas non-Colin hardly.

So one thing I know, go for Colin.

But I guess there needs to be some more experiments to be made on the fish from Lake of Zurich to make a final decision, not to go for the fresh fish from the Lake of Zurich!!

To be continued...

Yipeeee

I must say first of all, that who ever reads my blog... I LOVE YOU!

I bookmarked couple of my friends' blog and I love to read them, and I have to wonder myself how good my blog is, cause my friends' blog are so detailed and it's funny and it's something that I wouldn't forget to read from time to time. I tend to get satisfied by the fact that now I have a blog where I can brag and don't even think about updating the look of it and stuff, but I am completely happy if someone's reading this :)

Tuesday night I went to watch ice hockey for the first time in my life.

I've always dreamt of watching NHL live, but this one's the Swiss one, Biel vs Zurich.

Hmmm the season has just begun, and this was supposed to be the 8th game out of 80 something (?) in the season, so it's quite understandable that the stadium was a bit empty. But what was more concerning was that there's a gap in between the link and the spectators! Hey that's not what I had imagined, I want to see them closer!!

20 minutes and then 10 minutes break. Loads of guys smoking around the corridors and I just hope Switzerland will eventually ban the smoking indoors so I can avoid having myself completely covered in nicotine. Honestly. They just had a national vote and it's been decided no smoking in restaurants, but this is just the beginning.

The next time, we will go to Bern to watch the game there as the stadium and the crowd will be lot bigger. That night Bern played against NY Rangers and lost 1-8.

I liked watching them live, so I think I will go again soon. Beer and a bit of yelling and screaming (for me) should be exciting once in a while!?

Tomorrow I think I will write about cheese or the smelly fish issue.

Peace out.

It's Autumn

My good friends in Japan update me from time to time on what's going on in Japan, but I hear the temperature is winding down and gradually seeing the change of season?

Well the same is going on in Zurich as well. Today was such a windy day from the start, but was a sunny day. I was feeling good, just standing and waiting for the tram at Bahnhoffstrasse how the weather was nice, and suddenly noticed the color of the trees had all changed to yellow, with the sound of rustling leaves...

Wow, time do pass by quickly. It's now 3 months since I left Tokyo and here I am in Zurich.

I say to some, I don't miss Tokyo yet. 3 months have passed so quickly and I haven't had the chance to fully discover this city or the country. And I don't want to sound like a loser if I had told them I do miss them, cause the juicy part is still yet to come. I haven't made great friends as I have had back in Tokyo, so I am definitely not looking back!!

Peace out.