A Terrific Non-sushi Japanese Meal at Zōtō Sushi😊

 Twice in a couple of weeks, I’ve had a terrific meal at Zōtō Sushi. 

 at UTC – University Town Center Mall – in Lakewood Ranch. Having lived in Japan for four years, I have certain high hopes when I dine at a Japanese restaurant. Zōtō Sushi exceeded my hopes.

 I had miso soup, shrimp tempura, and maitake tempura. Maitake is a type of large mushroom.

 The shrimp tempura was so terrific the first time I was there that I had to return and have it again. It was equally delightful. It’s the most delicious I’ve ever had. It comes with a wonderful, mouth-watering sauce. The three shrimp were huge. I’d guess they were six to seven inches long. (There are only two in the pic because I had to devour one right away.) $18

 

 There were five very large maitake mushrooms. They came with three spice toppings that one could sprinkle on the mushrooms. I used two. The third was probably a bit fiery. (I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t remember the spice specifics.) I’ve never had maitake. They were incredibly scrumptious. The texture was such that I might have thought they were seafood if I’d been served them without being told what they were. (You will also notice that one mushroom is missing from the pic. Yum!) $16

  

 I normally enjoy miso soup, but I don’t get excited about it. This was WOW! It’s also the best I’ve ever had. $6

The first time I dined there, I had a fruit-flavored sake. It was nice, but I’m not a sake fan. This time, I had an Italian white wine – Allegrini Oasi Mantellini, Lugana DOC, made from Cortese and Turbiana grapes. It’s from the shores of Lake Garda on the Veneto side. It went very nicely with the dishes. (I not only recommend this one, but I love Allegrini’s red wines, such as their Palazzo della Torre Veronese red, which I’ve found at Total Wine, Costco & Norman’s.) $15

 My server was Ty. He was super professional.

While  Zōtō's main focus is sushi, it does offer a number of other dishes. Its menu can be found on its web site - https://www.zotosushi.com/

 I plan to return.

 The only things that could have improved the experience would have been if it had been in Japan with family and/or friends.

 ご馳走様でした (GOCHISÕ SAMA DESHITA = Thanks for the feast – what one says when leaving a Japanese restaurant after a nice meal.)

 I think “Zōtō” is probably “贈答,” which means, “exchange of gifts.”

Easy, Japanese-Style Carrot, Ginger, and Onion Salad Dressing

I found this great and very easy Japanese-style dressing on The Spruce Eats (https://www.thespruceeats.com/onion-ginger-and-carrot-salad-dressing-3863338) I used all the ingredients, including the optional ones. It easily serves eight. I reworded the original directions to simplify.

Ingredients
- 1/4 cup chopped yellow onion
- 1/4 cup chopped carrot
- 1/2 tsp peeled and minced ginger
- 2 tablespoons ketchup or tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1/2 tsp salt (to taste)
- Optional dash of black pepper
- Optional 1/2 tsp of granulated white sugar

Directions
Place all the ingredients in a food processor or blender, and purée. (I used a blender.) 

Chill for 1-2 hours before serving.

Japanese Fruit Sandwich - An Easy, Tasty Dessert

For a recent Japanese-style meal for family, the dessert I served was an approximation of a Japanese fruit sandwich. It was very tasty and easy to make.

Normally, Japanese fruit sandwiches are made with a light, fluffy, slightly sweet Japanese bread known as milk bread (shoku pan) or Hokkaido bread. Since I could not find that bread, I used a butter pound cake instead.

The ingredients are simple:
- A firm bread that will not easily get mushy from fruit and that does not have non-dessert ingredients like garlic.
- Fruit that is not too juicy - kiwis, mangos, strawberries, peaches. I used the first three.
- Homemade whipped cream. Homemade whipped cream is unbelievably easy to make. The ingredients are just whipping cream, powdered sugar (optional), vanilla extract (optional). There are plenty of instructions on line.

The preparation is simple
1. Slice the bread

2. Cut the fruit and place it on the bread. 

3. Spread the whipped cream on the fruit.

4. Assemble the two pieces.

When using the larger milk bread slices, the sandwich is sliced diagonally and the properly positioned fruit looks very nice from the sides.

Delicious Japanese-Style Beef Stew

In searching for a delicious Japanese-style main dish to serve my brother who was visiting from out of town, I found a terrific New York Times recipe by Mark Bittman. I figured it had to be good because it had over 1,000 five-star reviews. I've made it several times now and have been very happy with the results. I serve it with Japanese, short-grain, sticky rice. (My brother really liked this stew and asked for the recipe.)

This recipe serves four and takes me about an hour and fifteen minutes to prepare. I've also scaled it up to serve six people. I've added my comments to the original recipe, which can be found at 

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017398-japanese-style-beef-stew.

Ingredients

- 1 & 1/2 to 2 pounds of boneless chuck cut into 1-inch to 1 1/2 inch chunks. (I use precut chunks of stew beef from Publix.)

- 2 cups of dashi or chicken stock, or water. I use dashi, which is a Japanese cooking stock. It is easy to make with Hondashi, a powder produced by Ajinomoto. For each cup of dashi, mix 1 tsp of Hondashi into 1 cup of boiling water. I bought the hondashi at Kim's Oriental Food, a local oriental store, but it is available on Amazon.

- 1/4 cup soy sauce

- 1/4 cup mirin, honey, or sugar. I used Kikkoman mirin purchased at Kim's Oriental Food. It is available at Publix and Whole Foods.

- 10 nickel-sized slices of ginger

- black pepper to taste

- 1 lemon

- 1 & 1/2 pounds of peeled butternut, pumpkin, or other winter squash or sweet potatoes. I used butternut squash. It was great.

- salt to taste

Preparation

1. In a large, nonstick skillet over medium heat, sear meat until nicely browned on one side - about 5 minutes. Transfer chunks into a medium-size casserole pan.

2. Add stock to the skillet, and cook over high heat, stirring and scraping until all the solids are integrated into the liquid. (This took me less than a minute.) Pour this liquid into the casserole and add the soy sauce, mirin, ginger, and a couple of grindings of pepper.

3. Peel the lemon and add the peel to the casserole. (I had never used lemon peel in a recipe, but I quickly found lots of videos on different ways to easily and properly peel lemons.) Now juice the lemon, but don't add the juice to the mixture yet.

4. Cover, and cook on top of stove (or in an oven at 350 degrees), maintaining a steady simmer. Stir after 30 minutes. Then check meat for tenderness every fifteen minutes after that. I only simmered the meat 45 minutes the first time. That was not long enough. The second time, an hour of simmering worked perfectly.

5. When the meat is nearly tender, stir in the squash and continue to cook until the squash is tender, but not mushy. Add salt if necessary. Then stir in the lemon juice. Serve.

Yo! Sushi! - More Than Just Sushi

During the time we lived in Japan, we enjoyed many types of Japanese cuisine, including comfort foods at mom & pop restaurants and at festival food stands. Some of those delicious dishes are hard to find at Japanese restaurants in the U.S.. However, I've discovered Yo! Sushi (http://www.yosushiusa.com/find-a-yo/sarasota), a British-origin chain restaurant that sells both sushi and many Japanese comfort dishes.

I've recently dined at the one in Sarasota's University Town Center mall twice - once with my wife for dinner and once with a friend for lunch. The three of us enjoyed the food. It's not the same as having these dishes in Japan, but it's the next best thing.

They offer about 80 different dishes, including 18 vegan and 26 vegetarian dishes. They also have seven desserts and Japanese drinks. The dishes range in price from $3.00 to $7.00. Some of the more expensive ones are on sale for $3.50 until January 27.

They also sell the popular Japanese ramune soft drink in a variety of flavors. This bottled drink is also known as "marble soda" because you press down on a marble in the cap to open the bottle.

Examples of the dishes they offer in addition to sushi are: spring rolls, gyoza (pot stickers), chicken katsu, chicken katsu curry, shrimp tempura ramen, chicken yakisoba, shrimp yakisoba, spicy seafood udon, miso soup unlimited, and spring rolls.

There are two ways to get the dishes you want - either the traditional way from a server or off of a constantly moving conveyor belt. You can also do a combination of the two.

So if you have a craving for Japanese comfort food or want to try it, I suggest you give Yo! Sushi a shot.

Goichi - Great Authentic Japanese Ramen in Sarasota

One of the dishes we loved in Japan was the flavorful ramen, a fast food in large bowls that came in many varieties. The noodles and the ingredients are very different than those found in ramen cups sold in American supermarkets. Until recently, there were only two restaurants in the U.S. where I'd found a typical large assortment of delicious, authentic ramen - Katana-ya in San Francisco (http://viaggiviniecucine.blogspot.com/2011/10/delicious-japanese-ramen-katana-ya.html) and Matsuchan in Canton, MI. 

Now we've discovered one in Sarasota - Goichi Sushi Cafe, which is owned by Goichi Matsumoto, (http://www.goichisushicafe.com/), which offers 32 kinds of ramen (http://www.goichisushicafe.com/#!cashandcarryramen/c1qsl)

We recently had the Tokyo Ramen and the Sapporo Ramen. Both were delicious and authentic. The Tokyo Ramen has sliced pork, hard-boiled egg, spinach, scallions, fish cakes, and bamboo shoots in a soy broth. The Sapporo Ramen has sliced pork, fish cakes, corn kernels, butter, bean sprouts, and garlic in a spicy miso broth. (It was spicy.) 

The ramen noodles are made with an antique, pre-1938, Japanese ramen machine.

Normally, the ramen is only sold as take out, except on Monday nights, when it is offered in the restaurant. The ramen sells for $10 per order. We discovered that a single order can easily feed two people.

Goichi's web sit has a video about it's ramen-making.

There is another type of dish that I intend to try - donburi, which is a bowl of rice with other ingredients on top. Goichi has five of these, two of which are on our list to try - Gyu Don, which has beef, and Ten Don, which has shrimp, fish, and vegetables. These are described as, "Early Bird Rice Bowls," and they sell for $7.95.

The restaurant also offers many types of sushi and 19 types of interesting-sounding Asian salads. Among the sushi rolls are nine types created by their customers.

The restaurant is very small inside - with only about five tables and two chairs at the bar.

Goichi is only open from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. It does not accept reservations.

Goichi is located at 4563 Bee Ridge between Honore and McIntosh.

御馳走様でした。大変おいしかったです！

Chicken Katsu - Tasty and Easy Japanese Dish

One of the types of dishes I enjoyed in Japan was Katsu dishes such as Tonkatsu (Ton = pork), Katsudon, and chicken Katsu. Americans who are not vegetarians usually enjoy katsu dishes. What many don't realize are that the original Japanese katsu dish, a beef dish first created in Tokyo in 1899 are Japanese versions of western dishes. Katsu is an abbreviated Japanese pronunciation of the English word "cutlet" (katsuretsu) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonkatsu#History).

I decided to try making Chicken Katsu. I found an allrecipes.com recipe that was very easy, and the results were excellent (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-katsu/). The author of the recipe says it can also be used to make Tonkatsu (by replacing the chicken with pork.) I plan to give that a try.

This recipe serves 4 and should take less than half an hour to prepare. I served it with Japanese-style short grained sticky rice.

Ingredients

- 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded to 1/2 inch thickness. (I avoided the pounding by purchasing thin-sliced chicken breasts.)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1 cup oil (I used canola oil) for frying

Directions
1. Season the chicken breasts on both sides with salt and pepper. Place the flour, egg, and panko crumbs into separate shallow dishes. Then:
- Coat the chicken breasts in the flour, shaking off any excess.
- Dip the chicken breasts into the egg.
- Press the chicken breasts into the panko crumbs until well coated on both sides.

2. Heat 1/4 inch of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Place the chicken in the hot oil, and cook 3 to 4 minutes per side, or until golden brown.

3. Serve with rice and tonkatsu sauce. (You can often find tonkatsu sauce at oriental food stores. The brand we prefer is one called Bull-dog sauce. Tonkatsu sauce also sounds very easy to make. Google "tonkatsu sauce recipe" to find recipes for the sauce.)

A Mostly Japanese Meal - Sunomono and Okonomiyaki

Last Monday, I prepared a mostly Japanese meal, with help from my wife and my sister. The objective of this meal was to introduce a couple of Japanese dishes to my niece who will be moving to Japan with her husband for a tour with the U.S. Navy. We had three Japanese dishes and American desserts.

The main course was Okonomiyaki. It was accompanied by Miso Soup and Sunomono. The dessert was a non-Japanese combination of mango kiwi tart and cookies.

Okonomiyaki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki) is a wonderful dish that means something like "what you like - cooked." It is a sort of dinner pancake that can have a wide mix of ingredients - things like pork, shrimp, corn, bacon, potatoes, etc., etc.

There are at least two styles - one from the Osaka area and one from the Hiroshima area. The Hiroshima style adds a layer of noodles. I have never had the Hiroshima style. My wife, my daughter, and I have enjoyed Okonomiyaki many times when we lived in Japan.

Although my wife normally makes this dish at home, I tried making it on this occasion. It is very straightforward and relatively easy to make. We use a modified version of a recipe from a book entitled, "Japanese-Style Family Recipes" by Hiroko Urakami and published by Kodansha in 1992. The book was a gift from our daughter.

We modified the recipe by adding corn, omitting pork strips, using frozen salad shrimp rather than dried shrimp, and omitting dried bonito flakes/seaweed. (These modifications would all be fine in Japan.)

We also increased the amount of ingredients by to serve more people. The version below contains 25% less of all the ingredients than the version I made. The version below would probably serve six-eight diners.

There are many other recipes on various Internet sites.

Ingredients

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
12 eggs
1/2 head of cabbage
one 8 oz. package of small salad shrimp
one 11 oz. can of Del Monte Summer Crisp corn
12 tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce
12 tablespoons of ketchup
mayonnaise

Preparation

Cut cabbage in half with core side down. Turn one half on its side and cut thin slices. Then cut the slices cross wise.

Mix the flour, eggs, cabbage, corn (drained), shrimp, and a couple of pinches of salt in a large bowl until they are well blended.

Mix the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.

You can cook the mixture in a frying pan or on a hot plate.

Heat the hot plate of frying pan over medium low heat and spray some Pam or put some vegetable oil on the cooking surface.

Ladle a good sized scoop of the batter onto the cooking surface for each okonomiyaki pancake. We could do about 4 pancakes at once in a large frying pan.

Cook each pancake about 5 minutes on the first side. Then flip over and cook for another 2 minutes. You can tell when each side is done because it will brown.

Brush one side of each pancake with the ketchup-Worcestershire Sauce mix.

Keep the cooked pancakes warm in an over heated to about 200 degrees until all the pancakes are cooked.

Serve the pancakes hot.

Fill a dish with mayonnaise for those who want to top their pancakes with mayonnaise. (Most diners like this topping.)

Sunomono

This dish is tasty, healthy, and incredibly easy to make. I found the recipe at http://allrecipes.com/cucumber-sunomono/.

Ingredients

- 2 large cucumbers, peeled
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar
- 4 teaspoons white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 & 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger root

Directions

1. Cut the cucumbers in half lengthwise and scoop out any large seeds. Slice crosswise into very thin slices.

2. In a small bowl, combine vinegar, sugar, salt and ginger. Mix well. Place cucumbers in the bowl and stir well so that cucumbers are coated with the mixture. Refrigerate the bowl of cucumbers for at least one hour before serving.

Miso Soup

We took the easy way out on this dish. We used Kikkoman instant Tofu-Spinach Miso Soup, which we purchased at an oriental store in the Gulf Gate area of Sarasota. Each package of this soup contains three individual packets of soup. For one serving, you put the ingredients of a packet into a small bowl and pour in hot water. It tastes very good if you like Miso Soup, which we do.

Dessert

My wife purchased the wonderful mango-kiwi tart and the cookies at Floribbean Flo's tropical bakery - http://floribbean.com/bakery.htm.

Delicious Japanese Ramen - Katana-Ya

One Japanese dish I love is ramen. These are not the tiny, short noodles found on U.S. supermarket shelves. Rather these are long noodles served in large bowls with a variety of ingredients. I had ramen in many small ramen shops throughout Japan during the 4 years I lived there. I always loved it. It was best in winter, when the hot soup warmed body and soul.

Ramen in Japan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramen) is served in different broths. The major types are miso, soy (shouyu), salt (shio), and tonkotsu (not tonkatsu).

Toppings in the ramen can include things like pork slices, seaweed, onions, corn, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, boiled eggs, etc.

There are many Japanese restaurants in San Francisco that serve Ramen. My wonderful niece, who lives in the area, recommended Katana-ya, which means something like, "Sword Shop."

The night before last, I followed her recommendation, and went to the restaurant at 430 Geary St., about a block and a half from Union Square. My wife, who was tired from our long trip to San Francisco, decided not to join me.

When I walked up to Katana-ya, there were a number of young people, mostly Asian-Americans, waiting outside for tables.

I walked up to a stand just outside the front door, where there was a waiting list. One of the people next to the stand said I should write my name on the list. I did that. Next to the names on the list was a column for the number of people in the party. All of the other names on the list had parties of two or more. That was fortunate for me, my name was the next one called.

I was put at the sushi bar. I ordered a bowl of Corn-butter Ramen for $9.50 and a 16 oz. Sapporo draft beer. The ramen was in a huge bowl as it is served in Japan. The ingredients included long ramen noodles, green onions, two slices of tender pork, corn, butter, greens, and several other ingredients. It was fantastic! The total cost came to $15.73.

At least three of the servers spoke Japanese, so when two of them asked me at different times how the ramen was, I told them in Japanese that it was wonderful.

ご馳走様でした大変おいしかったです！