u/JapaneseChef456

Finally, after much drama, these three stones arrived. Similar color schemes. Second one was sold as Ebisu, a neighbour mine of Natsuya. Third one as Shirosuita. First one looked to have yellow stripes, which pointed at Odori but when I had it live, in my kitchen, I dropped that thought immediately. There was one hint that got me thinking: wrapped in Shizuoka prefecture news paper. There are not that many named Shizuoka mines out there. And one that fit this one perfectly is Izu Yoneyama, if one can say perfectly with only 4 different pictures of this stone on the whole internet.
All stones are fast, self slurrying stones. Ebisu is slightly harder than my other Natsuya. The Shirosuita lines are not toxic, but there is a bit with some dark spots on the left side that will need more investigation.
First picture is dry, second wet, third has Aogami2 Kiridashi marks, directly on the bottom, with diamond plate slurry in the middle and pure slurry on the top.

As the book is old enough to have no more copyright, I’ll share these interesting recipes from this interesting book. At that time Korea was a Japanese colony, so finding them in a book on regional cooking from all Japan was a surprise, but only a small one. Interestingly the only Korean food presented are pickles.
I used google translate for quick translation. The book uses such a small font and some antiquated script…

2. Korean-style Pickles

Salt-cured Vegetables

Gyeongbuk Girls' High School (Korea)

(Pickling period: November to December)

(Consumption period: December to March)

Ingredients

Main ingredients: Napa cabbage (70%), Daikon radish (30%) — Total: 100 parts.

Secondary ingredients: Daikon radish; 10 small bundles of water dropwort (seri); 3 large bundles of green onion.

Red chili paste (or powder): 2 *sho*; Garlic: 2 *go*; Ginger: 2 *go*; Pine nuts: 2 *go*; Pears: 4; Chestnuts: 1 *sho*; Croaker fish: 30 (count); Raw oysters: 3 *go*; Raw *gaji* (eggplant): 3; *Su-song* (seaweed/kelp): 1.5 *sho*; Squid: 5; Pacific saury: 4 (Note: Raw oysters or *gaji* may be used as substitutes).

Salt: 3 *sho*.

[Method] Main ingredients: Select large Napa cabbages with tender hearts. Remove any damaged outer leaves. Prepare a brine solution (ratio of 1 *sho* of salt to 1 *to* of water).
Carefully handle each head of cabbage, pouring the brine so it penetrates all the way to the heart, and let soak for 24 hours.
Once the salt has fully penetrated, remove the cabbages, wash each one carefully, and place in a colander to drain. (Note: While cabbages are usually washed before brining, they are easily damaged during washing.) Treat the daikon radish similarly: remove leaves, stems, and root hairs; wash thoroughly; split lengthwise; coat each piece in salt; and stack them in a pickling jar.

Secondary ingredients: The mixture stuffed inside the cabbage or radish is called "*so*" in Korean.
Cut the daikon radish, water dropwort, and green onions (reserve one bundle of onions) into pieces approximately 1 *sun* (approx. 3 cm) long and of appropriate thickness. Slice the green onions particularly finely. Wipe the red chilies thoroughly with a clean cloth, keeping them whole. Cut the daikon radish into strips, cover with a warm, damp cloth, then take three strips at a time, stack them, roll them up, and slice them into uniform pieces (using the specified amount of daikon).
Finely chop or grate the garlic and ginger. Peel and julienne the pear and chestnuts; remove the inner skins from the pine nuts. Cut half of the *miru* seaweed (a long, slender, dull-green seaweed) into lengths of about 1.5 to 1.8 cm.
Wash the raw oysters and raw ark shells thoroughly. Remove the shells from the ark shells; cut the bodies into strips about 3 cm long (adjusting the thickness as appropriate) and cut the feet into 3 cm lengths, then pour boiling water over them.
Remove the croaker fish from its pickling brine, remove the scales, head, and tail, and wash thoroughly. Fillet the fish; cut half of the meat into rectangular strips (or slice thinly across the grain, leaving the bones attached) and leave the other half whole.

Once the preparations above are complete, first mix the daikon with chili pepper and about 270 ml (1.5 *gō*) of the croaker pickling brine.
When the daikon turns red, add all the other prepared ingredients and mix thoroughly, seasoning the mixture with the croaker pickling brine to create the filling.
Next, carefully pack a portion of the filling between the leaves of the napa cabbage (sprinkling with salt if the filling lacks sufficient saltiness). Then, wrap one or two outer leaves around the cabbage to secure it (this prevents the filling from spilling out).
Packing into the jar: Arrange the prepared cabbage in the jar, placing about ten heads per layer. Lay about five daikon strips on top of that. Then, place three or four whole pieces of the reserved croaker meat, five or six whole scallions, and about 180 ml (1 *gō*) of *miru* seaweed evenly over the layer, and pour on about 180 ml (1 *gō*) of the croaker pickling brine. On top of that, stack the white chrysanthemums again, repeating the process just described. Once everything is in, take the outer leaves of the napa cabbage... ...cover the top completely with the leaves (salted), place a weight on top, seal with paper, and put on the lid.

How to pour the brine: After about a week, boil and thoroughly cool a liquid made from croaker, salted shrimp, or salted *suzuki* (sea bass). Mix this into water at a ratio of 5 *gō* (approx. 0.9 liters) per 1 *to* (approx. 18 liters) of water, and pour it in generously until the contents are fully submerged. Remove the top covering and shift the contents to ensure the liquid penetrates; then, wash the covering in brine, place it back to cover everything completely, seal with paper, and secure the lid tightly.

Storage: Keep the jar in a cool place if possible. It is ready to eat after about two weeks.

In cold regions where freezing is a risk, bury the jar in the ground, wrap it in straw, or store it in a cellar.

(Optional addition) In addition to the above method, you may add beef or pork (using lean cuts) cut into large cubes (approx. 3 cm). Boil the meat thoroughly and let it cool—skimming off the fat by placing paper on the surface while it is still hot—before adding it to the mixture.

Notes: When packing the jar with radish, if the seasoning seems insufficient, sprinkle salt as you layer the pieces. For kimchi intended to be eaten the following spring, make the seasoning saltier. Since the balance of salt and chili pepper depends on personal taste and actual preparation technique, feel free to adjust the amounts to your liking.

Depending on local availability, ingredients such as raw oysters, raw octopus, or abalone may be omitted (as they can be expensive).

Got myself some old cookbooks from Japan, with an interesting historic timeline. The first 3 are about regional cooking, the 4th is more general with some regional cooking chapters.
Book 1 was published in 1937. Japan started the Chinese invasion in July.
Book 2 was published in 1941. Japan entered the 2nd world war.
Book 3 was published in 1944. Japan by then had been suffering from one defeat after another.
Book 4 was published in 1952. Japan was slowly but surely recovering from the economic collapse after losing the war.
Will be checking if there are dishes with recipes in all 4 books, how and if the ingredients changed due to external influences.

My biggest knives in the collection, all unused except of the salmon slicer.
From left to right:
Misono Swedish steel 330mm Gyûtô

Misono Stainless steel 360mm Salmon Slicer

Ittôsai Kotetsu Aogami Honyaki Yanagiba 330mm

Ittôsai Kotetsu Aogami Honekiri 300mm

On Ittôsai Kotetsu, this is a premium brand by Takahashikusu from Sakai who as far as I understand buy blades from regional blacksmiths and then sharpen them, put a handle on, order a Saya.

Geht das Paket hier einfach zurück nach Japan? Sind nur Schleifsteine drin, Mehrwertsteuer vor bezahlt… HS Tarif Nummern sind auch angegeben.

Smallish 970g stone sold as Iyo Akaboshi. Initial reaction, this looks like my Komogawa/Seto stone, just in smaller and without handsaw marks. When using though the difference becomes clear. Slightly coarser and the diamond plate slurry is a whitish grey here, pink with the Komogawa/Seto.
Another reference stone for the library.

Kleines Päckchen aus Japan macht kurzen Ausflug nach Westpreußen…

Got myself a set of 5 different Aoto from Japan back in June. They were from an auction lot with really bad photos, so it wasn’t so sure what these stones would actually, apart from the second stone, which was/is clearly an Aoto. The first and second stone did have some breakage during shipping, but nothing too serious, and these were not the reason I did bid on them stones in the first place anyways:

Stone 1: Generic Kyôto Aoto.
When it arrived it looked pockmarked, as if it was a side broken off from a bigger stone that had originally been used against the layers, not on the layers. As the stone is too thin to use against the layers I now have to use it on them, just like a Suita.
This one is fairly soft (2.5), with a grit of around 1000. Around 1kg.

Stone 2: Generic Kyôto Aoto.
This stone had some chunks broken off from the main surface. Some rusty kawa shining through at those breaking points. This one is used on the layers, which are lightly warped, which can be seen by the way the stone broke off, leaving me with some Nagura. Soft (3), grit of 1000, still 2.1kg despite some levelling. To level this one completely would take off around 200g, so I basically create a zone that I can use and then slowly use it up till it is level. I do expect some toxic lines in this one.

Stone 3&4: Kôzaki
These stones were the main reason to bid, despite not being sure what they actually were. Mined using chisels and clearly used against the layers, as can be seen on the last picture, which shows the front or backside of the stone. The top layer is gray with black dots, a typical pattern seen in Kôzaki Aoto. I’d rate both at 3.5 hardness, 2000 grit for No 3, 2500 for No 4. 2.1kg for 3, 2.8 for 4. The kanji on the side of stone 3 declares the stones to be part of a house building company, which can be seen with different levels of legibility on all but the first stone.

Stone 5: likely Kôzaki Chûma
Visually this stone is very close to the other Kôzaki but it behaves like a complete different beast, which is why I assume it is a Chûma, a special, hard layer in the Kôzaki mine, sitting between the Honkuchinaori and Aoto layers. Hardness 4.5, it does self slurry, eventually. Grit 6000. 1.4kg.

All in all, Aoto are not the most sexy stone out there with colours ranging from grey, brown to black. Some will have dotted patterns, others might have lines (of the different layers). Although they are mostly associated with Kyôto, another area in Japan would be Kantô, with stones like Ōizumi, Sukegawa, Arauchi. Grit can be anything from 600 (Saeki, Miyamachi) to 6000 ( eastern Ōizumi, harder Okabana).

Today’s dinner consisted of these two tins: Cornish dines in Tomato and Caper sauce, French aged dines in olive oil, about twice the price than the top tin, but bought sometime around 2019.
Only two big pieces of fish in the tomato sauce. The fish itself is slightly dry but not excessively. Capers, one of them in the tin can’t be tasted. Probably not a rebuy.
The 2017 vintage ones are 4 smaller ones, melt in the mouth, despite not having been deboned. Light Umami. The oil, soaked up with the bread is not too fishy but full of Umami. Got a second tin of this brand plus some more 2017 vintage ones from other French producers.

Habe mal versucht die Blutwurst aus dem Hendersons in Edinburgh nach kitchen impossible nachzukochen. 2 Dosen schwarze Bohnen, abgetropft und zerstossen. Eine Schalotte mit klein geschnittener rote Beete und Portwein weich gekocht, eingekocht, zu den Bohnen gegeben. Mit haferschmelzflocken angedickt, Salz, und viel Gewürz: Pfeffer, Nelke, Muskat, Zimt, Oregano, Ingwer. Dann das Ganze zu einem festen Brei kochen, klein geschnittenen Räuchertofu (dennree Mild geräuchert , 1 Packung aus dem Doppelpack) dazugeben. Auskühlen lassen und patties formen. Die dann scharf in viel Öl anbraten.
Im original war anstatt klein geschnittener Beete Rote Beete Saft, der mit Portwein runter reduziert wurde. Insgesamt fehlte mir das Fette einer Blutwurst, das hatten dann die kleinen Stücke, die beim Braten abgefallen waren.

lightly sweet Pét Nat from Maconnais. Balanced acidity.

Some people have been waiting for this review, so unlike my usual modus operandi of buying a tin and aging it in my lair, I opened it today while still on vacay. These are sardines with Figatelli, a cured sausage from Corsica using raw liver and pork throat.
The tin is tightly packed with smallish sardines, well cooked, the bones are melt in my mouth. The Figatelli taste is somehow subdued in the fish, they do have a more aged/Umami taste. Underneath the fish, thin slices of Figatelli. Their taste has been mostly leached out into the oil, which has a light livery taste. The slices themselves are a bit harder, compared to the dines, but not rubbery.

Would I rebuy? Probably yes. But age it for a couple of years, allowing the fish to truly soak up the liver goodness.

After having had basically most of the open whites. Rosé and bubbles, first bottle. Great Chenin,
Long, light wood, nice acidity. Steal at 18€ TA.

Some more summer rosé, a blend of Müller and Pinot Noir, educated guess? Juicy, lightest tannins, red currants, cherry.

The verdict: crunchy. Mustard flavour is strong in this one. The others can be tasted if one knew the flavour. Overall, tasty.

Not sure if I will rue that I bought one tin or just one tin. These contain the Corsican pig liver and throat sausage, Figatelli/Figatellu. A strong and acquired taste as the liver is used raw when making this dried sausage. Bought today at the market hall in Séte.

Carignan noir, old vines. 2018 vintage. 2025 degorged. Oxidative bubbles, juicy. Acidity is balanced, on the lower side. 11.5%.

Herbal pet nat at Le Quai d’ Enface

When in Marseillan Plage…. Bring your own wines. Vintage 21 & 23. José is the better wine today. Blueberry and chestnuts. Pink is generally fruity. Easy to drink. Both at 12.5%