Another recent trip to Seattle (for The Boyfriend to look at a school) landed me back at Uwajimaya's.

In the previous visit I had purchased a donabe 土鍋 (literal earth(dirt/earthen) pot). A donabe is an earthenware pot that is unglazed on the bottom of the outside. This allows you to put it over an open flame (or a portable and therefore tabletop gas burner) with no problems. The upsides are that you can cook and eat at the table creating a very nice bonding experience. The downsides are that if the outside gets wet while it is still hot, it will crack and you will have to buy a new pot. According to the internet, the best thing to do with a cracked nabe is to give it to your cat because they like to sleep in them. Seriously, if you like cute pictures of cats, google "neko nabe".



Anyways, I still have not purchased the gas burner and am leaving that up to The Boyfriend.

This trip tricked me into buying the book "Japanese Hot Pots" by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat. So far the recipes make sense and the pictures are fabulous. The only problem that I have had with the book so far is that they use the word "umami". Now umami is a new fad word (bolstered by Big MSG) to denote an extra sense of deliciousness having to do with amino acids and such and has been declared "The Fifth Taste". Now, as a partaker in subbed anime, I have heard the word "Umai!" (which would be the adjective form) as just "delicious!" to accept "umami" as anything more than "deliciousness". Also, the way the authors describe this word makes me think of it more as a "wholesomeness" than as a separate taste. Bah fads.

My distaste for fad words aside, the commentaries are fun, there are neat pictures and everything sounds delicious. http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Hot-Pots-Comforting-One-Pot/dp/158008981X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283018315&sr=1-1

I will be showing some hot pots once it gets colder and I have my gas burner.

The Almost Daily Sarah