March 4, 2010

Furikake, etc./ふりかけなど

I told someone that I would post photos of some of my favorite furikake, and here is one photo.
好きなふりかけの写真を載せると或る人に言ったので、一枚載せます。

Top, left to right: Ryoku Ou Yasai (Green and Yellow Vegetable) Furikake of Ohmoriya Co., Ltd., which contains ten kinds of green and yellow vegetables.
The remaining four are products of the same series, Mazekomi Wakame of Marumiya Corporation. They are salmon, cod roe, takana (a type of leaf vegetable), and wakana (another type of leaf vegetable) flavors.
Strictly speaking, these four products are not furikake (something that you sprinkle on rice); they are meant to be mixed with rice (to make rice balls), as the word Mazekomi (mix in) implies.
Bottom, left to right: Noritama, Sukiyaki, and Aji Doraku (all of which are products of Marumiya Corporation) and Yukari Goma Iri (red perilla with sesame seeds) and Nameshi (containing three types of leaf vegetables) of Mishima Shokuhin Co., Ltd.
Yukari is a registered trademark of Mishima Shokuhin Co., Ltd.
Strictly speaking, Yukari and Nameshi are not furikake; they are meant to be mixed with rice.
Noritama remains a long-selling product, so is Sukiyaki. I have liked them both since childhood.
上、左から右へ: 大森屋の緑黄野菜ふりかけ。10種類の緑黄野菜が入っています。
残りの4つは、丸美屋の同じシリーズ「混ぜ込みわかめ」の製品です。鮭、たらこ、高菜、若菜味です。
厳密に言うと、この4つの製品はふりかけではなく、「混ぜ込み」という名の通り、(おにぎりを作るのに)ご飯と混ぜるものです。
下、左から右へ: 丸美屋ののりたま、すきやき、味道楽と、三島食品の「ゆかり胡麻入り」と「菜めし」(3種類の葉野菜が入っている)です。
「ゆかり」は三島食品株式会社の登録商標です。
厳密に言うと、「ゆかり」と「菜めし」はふりかけではなく、ご飯と混ぜるものです。
「のりたま」と「すきやき」はロングセラーです。小さい時から好きでした。

***
I bought a pack of these wagashi today 50 yen off the regular price: Domyoji sakura mochi (with tsubu an in them) and kinako (toasted soybean powder) kusa (mugwort) mochi (with tsubu an in them).
今日は、和菓子を1パック、通常価格から50円引きで買いました。道明寺さくら餅(つぶあん)と「きなこ草餅」(つぶあん)です。

I think these kinako kusa mochi are a cheaper substitute for uguisu mochi. I don't remember having had decent uguisu mochi in my entire life. You have to go to a wagashi shop to get uguisu mochi.
このきなこ草餅はうぐいす餅の代わりだと思います。これまで、まともなうぐいす餅を食べた記憶がありません。うぐいす餅は和菓子屋に行かないと買えません。

I also bought one pack of boiled firefly squid (hotaru ika in Japanese). They are now in season.
「ボイルほたるいか」も1パック買いました。今が旬です。

11 comments:

Stacy D said...

Hello!
Wonderful post about furikake and Mazekomi, I found it very interesting to see the photo of all your favourites - thank you!

Amato said...

There are few kinds of furikake I have and like too.
But, do you know which kind I like most? Magic furikake. :-)
I made mine with tuna, can’t get same canned fish you use.

I made uguisu/wrote a post few days ago( instead a wagashi shop you can visit me, you get uguisu mochi too.) ;-)
Hm, I don’t think kusa mochi is cheaper uguisu mochi- or is uguisu this expensive/special?
It’s only very soft gyuhi with tsubu an and green kinako. Nice, but nothing “spectacular”, sakura mochi is waaay better.
Is looks like kusa mochi is own thing and seams to be also connected to hina matsuri.
To be honest, Hiro, I think kusa mochi tastes much better!
The taste of brown kinako is better than green (in my opinion)

Hiroyuki said...

Stacy: Thanks for inspring me to post about furikake. I hope you can find some of them in your area.

Hiroyuki said...

Amato: You mean my magic furikake? If so, thanks for trying my recipe!
But if you haven't made magic furikake with canned mackerel, I hope you will do so some day. The taste is totally different. I have made magic furikake using tuna several times before, but I know it doesn't have the magic power that mackerel magic furikake has.
If you have a pressure cooker, you can cook mackerel in a way that even the bones turn soft and edible.

I have a fond memory associated with uguisu mochi. When my son was younger (4-5?), he wanted to have all the monthly wagashi presented in a TV show aimed at children, and we went to two or three local wagashi shops, but none of them had authentic uguisu mochi. We ended up buying uguisu mochi-like wagashi.

Amato said...

Of course I mean your magic furikake. Are there other magic furikakes?? :-)

I had the feeling it also had magic power, I felt better. Really, I’m not kidding. But maybe it was your positive karma.
Thank you for the tip with cooking mackerel in pressure cooker. I have one, bought not a long time ago but I don’t use it much, some how the pressure makes me nervous (silly, I know).

Oh, the story with your son is very cute. :-)
I saw some uguisu made of nerikiri too; are there more uguisu shaped wagashi?

Hiro, could you please take a look on it, is this canned mackerel I could use?
They also have “saba miso ni”, I assume mackerel in miso sauce.

http://www.dae-yang.de/epages/62238787.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/62238787/Products/ak02901

Amato said...

Sorry, silly me, I just realized these are Korean products...

Hiroyuki said...

Amato: If it's "saba mizu ni" (lit. mackerel simmered in water),
さば水煮
サバ水煮
鯖水煮
it's OK. It doesn't matter if it's made in Korea or Japan.

As you say, saba miso ni is mackerel simmered in miso. I like to have it with rice, too, but I can't use it to make my magic furikake.

Uguisu shaped wagashi? I'm not sure but I think so. There are always "sosaku" 創作 (creative) wagashi, besides traditional wagashi.
Here are the results of a Google image search for
uguisu wagashi in Japanese (うぐいす 和菓子):
http://images.google.co.jp/images?hl=ja&source=hp&q=%E3%81%86%E3%81%90%E3%81%84%E3%81%99%E3%80%80%E5%92%8C%E8%8F%93%E5%AD%90&btnG=%E7%94%BB%E5%83%8F%E6%A4%9C%E7%B4%A2&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=

Amato said...

Thank you for the link, uguisu nerikiri looks very cute.


I absolutely don’t mind to use Korean products, no.
What I meant, I thought you maybe look at this picture in the shop, but then I realized it is Korean, and I can’t expect you can read Korean letters.
I felt like an ignorant westerners ;-), you know, many people think like this: „Asian letters are all the same“ so Japanese can read Chinese and Korean and vice versa.
Of course I know it isn’t true. Netherlands and Germany have similar languages too, neither can I read dutch nor understand somebody who speaks it.

Hiroyuki said...

Amato: You really should join eGullet because, if you post a question like that in an appropriate forum on eGullet, you will get some answers from fellow eGulleters who can speak both English and Korean.

Amato said...

Hiro, I`m joining now, and write my "statement". :-)

regarding the basil:
Hiro, I totally missed you have a garden and grow many veggies!
You know this is great!

I bought some Japanese seeds last year; German sellers start to sell some. But, there wasn’t enough information about growing this kind of plants, because it is very new, only since 2-3 years.
German gardeners don’t have much experience with it, and I run soon into problems.
My red shiso didn’t grow at all. Green shiso was fine, also mitsuba and mizuna. Yomogi didn’t grow and rape flower were eaten by bugs.
I also got a small sancho pepper tree (big problems) myoga (even bigger…dead...) a ginko tree (small) and 2 Japanese sakura trees. I hope they are all fine after this strong winter we had.
For this year I would like to try again and will buy some seeds- I hope you have some tips for me.
Maybe I will start a thread in forum about growing japanese plants?

Hiroyuki said...

Amato: You're joining? That's great!

You don't have to start a new thread; we already have one:
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/52956-growing-japanese-food-plants-herbs/

Helen (helenjp) will be your great source of information!