A Fukuokan's Notes from Sapporo

This lovely-looking fish called Kisugo in Japanese is my husband’s favourite. He says: “It looks lovely, shows interesting reaction*, and tastes delicious.”

(*When it is caught, the Japanese whiting shakes its head in attempt to be free from the hook, which feels interesting to its anglers—sorry for my disturbing description if you are a fish rights type.)

Being a light and white-meat fish, we usually have kisugo as tempura or bread-crumbled deep-fly. But as I am on my hundredth diet, I asked my fishmonger to only gut them so that I could simply roast them without using fat. In his mind, however, the Japanese whiting might be deeply linked to tempura, so he automatically opened them as though I would cook tempura.

Today’s dinner was determined at this moment.

By the way, when cooking tempura, don’t you tend to end up with unexpectedly big amount of it? I always do so.  When I make tempura at home, I can’t help myself ransacking my fridge and trying new ingredients. Based on my 20-year experience as an amateur cook, basically everything reasonably dry can make good tempura. Today I tried; broad beans, broccoli, new onions, and shiitake etc., which made three-day supply of tempura, and my waist even thicker. Who said Japanese food was healthy?