Cooking Japanese/Asian at our house with guests

Miso soup--

I've made this dish many times over the past 14 years and I still remember the first time I encountered it. I was the Banquet Sous Chef at the Orchid at Mauna Lani Resort on the Big Island of Hawaii. I had to make a batch for a 200 person banquet. I thought this soup was extremely salty and the presense of tofu and seaweed only made it more nasty.

My tastes have grown over the years and today I often hear my son order it from a restaurant menu all on his own.

My Miso Soup doesn't always come out the way I think it should. Here is a shot of another attempt. I will not give up and will someday master the art of preparing Miso Soup.

Making Sushi for the next course...

Just a few rolls of steamed sushi rice with rice wine vinegar, salt, sugar, mayo and wasabi, crab meat, long beans, carrots and nori paper.

From the sushi to these steamed pork buns. These were not created by me, but they reminded me of my days in Hawaii. I used to snack on these Mauna Pua Buns.

Next, we enjoyed steamed Edamame coated lightly with Hawaiian sea salt.

TempuraVegetables. Tempura batter is so easy and cheap. Ice cold water or soda water, egg and a light flour. (maybe rice flour) Stir these together with your chopsticks and keep the batter a bit lumpy. We used a sweet chili and shoyu sauce with scallions for dipping.

Now some steamed Chinese Long beans tossed with Sesame Oil, Shoyu and Sesame seeds. These beans are nutritious, delicious and classy.

Next--are you getting full????? We deep fried a wonderful batch of Coconut Shrimp. This may not be traditional Japanese cuisine, but they sure went great with our meal! Sauce consisted of chiles and guava jelly.

Our meal included steamed rice, the long beans and the coconut shrimp. We paired it with a great Riesling from Chateau St. Michelle and ended with this bottle of Ty Ku Sake. Oh yeah!