Dad's Cooking (7): Hosting my brother visiting from abroad with a home-cooked meal
Hello. I'm Hotateman, a whimsical chef approaching sixty who gets withdrawal symptoms if I don't cook once in a while.
Well, this time I'd like to introduce the meal I prepared for my younger brother and his son (my nephew) who visited my home the other day. My brother, who currently lives with his family in the suburbs of Chicago, USA, was back in Japan for about two weeks to help his second son, my nephew, enroll in a university here. Between administrative and bank procedures, helping him move into the dorm, buying daily necessities, and attending the entrance ceremony, he seemed extremely busy, but he managed to visit my home on Saturday, the day before he flew back. Of course, my nephew, who won't be seeing his family for a while, came along too. As an uncle approaching sixty, I rolled up my sleeves for the two of them.
This time, I decided to go with my specialty, BBQ, and some seafood. I was planning to pull out my prized BBQ smoker grill and cook it the usual way, but my wife suggested using the microwave oven instead, saying the preparation and cleanup would be too much work. I'd lose the smoky aroma, but considering the effort, I decided to give the microwave oven a try. First up were chicken gizzards and pork hearts.
I love offal, so chicken gizzards and hearts are my favorites! It seems they didn't quite resonate with my brother, who's used to American food.
They didn't seem used to this either, and didn't seem to eat much of it.
The bottom left is Chinese-style roast pork. The burnt part on top is long onion. I remove it before serving. The other three are chicken breasts. The seasonings are curry, butter chicken style, and Japanese style.
In addition to the meat, I made steamed clams with sake, stir-fried garlic sprouts and fish cakes with soy sauce and butter, pig's trotters (my favorite), and mixed rice using the meat marinade. Although not in the photo, the grilled tuna collar was also popular, I think.
I plan to introduce the alcoholic beverages in a separate article later.
That's all for the cooking I did to satisfy my withdrawal symptoms. It was fun to talk about various things with my brother for the first time in a while. As for my nephew, since he's in Tokyo, I think I'll be supporting him if he needs anything.
I wonder if I'll cook again this weekend...