one fish, two fish, three fish...Ooo, fish!

This morning I had grilled salmon, mozuku (slimy, sweet vinegary thin threads of seaweed), simmered Japanese pumpkin, rice, coffee (strange match for a Japanese breakfast), steamed okra and enoki mushrooms with a drizzle of soy sauce, and wakame (again, seaweed) soup.

And you wonder why the Japanese have one of the longest life expectancy rates in the world? ^_^ The thought of such a breakfast three years ago perhaps would have made me lose my appetite...but now I love it! Evenings are primetime teaching time so dinner is no longer my main meal of the day, breakfast is!

This picture displays salted salmon on the fish grill, an essential part of any cooking range in Japan. Most people here cook using natural gas, not electricity via coils. The key is to put water on the bottom of the tray, something I didn't know until this past New Year's when Hiro's mom told me about it. I had no idea! The water makes it easy to clean and prevents oil fires...though the likelihood of an oil fire is rather low unless you have a big family and are cooking incredibly greasy things in the fish grill.

This innovation is a wonder in my life...I even throw toast or marshmallows in it from time to time, without much success. (read: charcoal, anyone?) The one downside: IF you should happen to forget to wash this (after having cooked fish) and IF it is a typical sweltering Japanese summer day...THEN the odors wafting from your kitchen will let you know that you have forgotten! Ughhh, it is worse than the time a mouse died under my radiator in my university days...though the odor was strikingly similar!

(about the previous post's pic: sorry Chuck, my arms are scrawny compared to my peak dragonboat days...but with some struggle, i can still pull off the one-handed pushups)