Broiled Sanma with Kimpira

We've been planning a food blog for months now, and we keep forgetting to take pictures of our meals before we eat them. But today is the day.

Oyako literally means mother-child in Japanese. It's the name of a Japanese dish called oyako donburi, which is chicken and egg. And it's what Paul Simon was alluding to in his song Mother and Child Reunion. So this is the food blog for Kristen and Kristen's mom.

Friday nights in our house are always special meals-- usually Japanese dishes, always with rice. Tonight it was broiled sanma, known (if it is known at all) as "saury pike" in English. We cooked this shio-yaki, which just means sprinkled liberally with salt and broiled. The fish is oily, dark, and delicious. If you bite into the part that is the guts, it is bitter, but a tiny touch of that bitterness is part of the experience.

On the side, we had kimpira, stir-fried gobo and carrot with some seasoning and red pepper, as well as grated daikon, which is the perfect and necessary complement to fish. Eaten on the patio on a cool summer evening--what could be better.

Cooking by Mama, photography by Kristen.