Making home-made sparkling green tea in my kitchen.

I took a unique green tea in a day when I visited Uogashi tea shop, located near the fish market Tsukiji. It was in the late spring, and I felt the atmosphere of the summer at that time. So their special sparkling green tea, fresh but dense taste, helped me refresh, and since I was so curious, I asked them if I could make it in my home. The answer was "yes" and they kindly told how to do it.

So.... I'd like to show you the way :)

What we need are...

                1tsp of green tea leaves

                500ml of sparkling water

                1 empty tea bag

If you can't find an empty tea bag, you can replace it to a tea strainer.

 1 First, grain the leaves a bit so that it can be extracted well enough in sparkling water. Then, place the leaves to the empty tea bag.

 2 To make some space for the tea bag, remove some amount (50ml or so) of sparkling water from the bottle, and put the leaves with a tea bag in it.

 3 Keep soaking it in a cool place for a day, then pull out.

 4 Take the bottle, and up side down once with care. Slowly and softly, to make sure it's mixed equally.

If you use a strainer instead of a tea bag, you can directly put tea leaves in a bottle of sparkling water, and leave it for a day as well. When you drink it, get some empty bottle, and use a strainer to filter the leaves :)

Now,  enjoy :) 

Cooking a milt of cod and a goosefish's liver.

 It often looks disgusting to have some of traditional Japanese foods like fermented soybeans Natto. But I have to admit they also have other things make people awful. For the past weeks I cooked some of them, and I'd like to introduce about it.

 The first was a milt of cod that is seasoned with salt, boiled, then sserved with vinegar. It was the first time for me to both cooking and eating a milt, and to be honest, I had spent whole my life without any interest in it. I knew we could find it easily in the local supermarkets, especially around this season in winters. But that didn't mean I knew well about it. They're usually cheap if it's imported one, such as $4 for the amount of two people. After coming back to my home from the supermarket with it, on the other hand, I still had no idea how to cook. So I checked some recipes from books I had, and found that I just put some salt on it, wait for 20 minutes (it helps get rid of smell out of it), then dip it in the boiled water for a while. Although it was unique taste and texture, milky and smooth, I fairly like it :)

Another odd food I had at the same time was a liver of goosefish, which usually lives in the bottom of the sea. Many people like eating with pots in cold nights, and they even have a special traditional goosefish restaurant near Tokyo Station. But how can we cook the liver? I also checked the same recipe book I referenced in milt, found that I just put salt as the same way as I did with milt, then steam for a while. (It depends on the amount and size, and I steamed around 20minutes, for the record)

I prefer to it than milt by the way, haha. As many people refer, the taste and texture was like foie gras. But sure, not the same.

After cooking myself, my desire to eat 'the real one' grew rapidly, so I visited a sushi restaurant to have it.

 Sushi style, and,

here it came, fried milt. Apart from too hot at first (my tongue got burn-injured), I like this style more than boiled one.

 I have to admit they were way better than I cooked. Well, it's okay, because I always enjoy to figure out how to cook something I've never had :) Since it's been a while I ate raw fish last time, so I needed to eat much more :D

  crab paste, salmon caviar, and sea urchin. I would drink some sake only if I didn't came by car!