the Compleat Tsuribito

The fish were taking the bait so often I stopped fishing at 1.30pm; I think I took more than enough for the day.  It was shallow enough (about 10 metres) to use my bamboo kisu rod, for the first time this year.

　南蛮漬け。

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I was due to go fishing at Omaezaki today, but the recent typhoon put paid to any ships leaving harbour in that part of Japan. Since I had already taken the time off work, and the weather on Tokyo Bay, while poor, allowed fishing, I went to Kanazawa Hakkei and spent a half-day fishing for delicious aji.

One fun thing about fishing the Bay is the huge volume and variety of shipping you can see. Today I got a close-up view of CV-63 USS Kitty Hawk as she was brought into Yokosuka naval base. She will be retired soon and replaced at the base with a nuclear-powered Nimitz-class carrier, much to the concern of various anti-nuclear and peace activist groups in Japan. However sport anglers should be concerned for another reason as the surrounding Bay area will be dredged to accomodate the much greater draught of the new vessel; this will probably greatly impact the local fish stocks, especially the rich shirogisu and makogarei shoals that populate the sea-floor near Yokosuka.

Thanks to the fishing boat Benten-ya for their friendly service as always.

Made my second trip in two days for shirogisu (whiting).  It was hot and sunny, I should have worn my Tilley hat.  My catch was pretty much the same as Sunday’s, only I didn’t manage to snag any aji, and I gave half of my bag to my fishing companion, who had rather more hungry mouths waiting at home than I.  I also gave some of my catch to my neighbours, while still leaving me enough to make breadcrumbed whiting for my dinner.

 They came out all right.

行ってきました。外道に大きなアジ（３３センチ）釣りました。

　釣果はこんなもん。

　アジはたたきみたいなものを作りました。

　キス天。

時期になっている結果か最近多くのアクセスはイシガレイ釣り・料理の検索から来ているのでもう少しイシガレイ料理の写真をのっけます。ポストごとに画像の数に制限あるので新しいのを作りました（前編をご覧になって下さい）。

昆布〆

皮とえんがわのから揚げ

鰈（カレーじゃないよ）コロッケです。

塩漬けにしたあとで一晩干した骨。これから骨煎べいをつくる。残念ですができたものを写真とるのを忘れました。

With my holidays starting today, I was due to go out fishing but the weather didn’t hold out.  I made Punjabi food for lunch.

　まずは浅蜊を剥きました。道具は愛用の竹ハンドルの浅蜊剥き。

　剥き浅蜊とシメジのソースを作ってfettucineのパスタにかけました。

ご近所にけっこうなものをけっこうな量いただきました。いつもありがとうね。こんな殻の色の浅蜊はなかなか市販にない。今晩はあさりパスター。

The coming of spring in Japan means the sprouting of so-called sansai, or ‘mountain greens’. This is a generic term referring to edible wild plants that grow in the mountainous countryside, that locals pick and prepare in a variety of traditional dishes such as tenpura, boiled, grilled, wind-dried or in this case, made into confectionery.  Collecting and eating sansai is not for everyone; this year a man in Hokkaido was mauled and partly eaten by a bear, many people get lost in the thickly forested mountains and probably worst, not all varieties are edible, with some being fiercely poisonous or containing carcinogenic compounds.  One variety of sansai that is both palateable and easy to gather is called yomogi (Artemisia princeps). When the young leaves are crushed between the fingertips, they release a wonderful sweet menthol-type aroma. It just so happens one day in the grounds of my workplace, in Saitama Prefecture, I came across a huge patch of these plants growing, with nobody seeming to notice.  I picked a bunch and decided to make the traditional spring confectionery known as kusamochi. 

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