Reub's journey

25 June 2013

A night with scallops

 John is gone this week, on the other side of the state with his class of American and Japanese students. They're completing the US component of a study focused on rural communities; next month they'll head to Japan for three weeks of the same. It's an unusual and very cool opportunity. I'm a little jealous because last year I had a really good time in Japan. 

An unsurprising urge to eat Japanese food drove me to the seaweed salad recipe contained in a recent article about scallops, which also happen to be John's favorite seafood.  It seems a bit vengeful, doesn't it, to whip up a fancy Japanese dinner involving scallops while he's gone this week.

But I had my doubts about the choice of seaweed salad.


That's because: 
Raw + Seaweed = Possibly Disgusting?

However:
Possibly Disgusting = A Good Thing To Make When Alone

Turns out I already had all of the ingredients except for the dry-packed scallops, of which I bought 4 at $1.25 apiece. They were labeled a "product of USA" and also "from Japan" which might mean that I'd just bought something caught here, shipped to Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, purchased by a US buyer, and sent to Oregon. This happens with sashimi-grade fish and I hate to think I might have participated. Arhggg. Perhaps it was a labeling error?





The seaweed was a bit slimy. Anticipating this, I'd bought a couple of spring rolls that could be counted on in case the salad was too weird. And I added waaay more cucumber, because who could argue with that? Despite these attempts at off-setting a bizarre dinner, it was still a tad strange with its sticky kelp and raw scallop.


It was wise to have sacrificed only one of those spendy scallops on the salad.





I  sauteed the remaining three in butter and parsley, serving them to myself with garlic bread. Ah, that's more familiar.

The whole dinner was like a culinary analogy to John's class: half Japanese, half American,  me easily identifying with the familiar part. Happily, it was all fun.


17 comments:

  1. All wise choices, including whipping up this dinner while John is away. You are dancing in shamanic alignment with the situation. This is skillful, not vengeful.

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    1. Thank you. I will expunge any feelings of guilt. :)

      I had a weird little feeling that this was what was going on, although no name for it.

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  2. i would definitely have had to saute mine!

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    1. Nothing like being sauteed in butter, right?

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  3. OMG!! This looks great! I love Japanese food in all its sliminess and freshness.

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    1. Ahh Tabor, if only you didn't live so far away. I would have shared.

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  4. when our cafeteria (its an amazing place) has its sushi chef there is a seaweed salad made with seaweed and sesame seeds .. its not icky at all .. i wonder what they do to it

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    1. That does sound like a classy cafeteria. That's New York.

      The seaweed that I used was a Korean kelp, large dried leaves of it which had to be soaked and sliced. I bet there are other kinds of seaweed that would have been better, but the end product wasn't too terrible. If I were to make this again I'd get different seaweed though:)

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  5. hm. i am afraid that i am - with the exception of roasted nori and the slice of kombu i put in my beans - a little seaweed-phobic. hajiki salad has been offered to me many times and though i love the idea of seaweed, so gorgeous and unusual, there is just nothing i find that i like about eating it! maybe if i went to japan...hmmmm....and sadly, scallops are the one food i've found (the hard way) that i'm allergic to, so i would have happily been chomping on your spring rolls had i been fortunate enough to join you for lunch!

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    1. The spring rolls were great & you wouldn't have missed much by passing on the salad. I wish you could join me for lunch. Anytime, just say the word & I'll have you beamed up from Ohio to Oregon:)

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  6. I eat the seaweed but not the scallops. I very much like the taste of seaweed.

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