Welcome to TigerSalad
If anyone ever accuses me of being a good writer, I will use this website to defend myself.
I built this website for sharing pictures, sounds and writing about travel, cooking, music or anything else I think is worth documenting. I wanted to have somewhere to do this without the distraction and noise of popular social media. Please take your time here: read, look at the pictures and listen to the sounds.
I have been a professional chef for most of my life and for the last decade I have been studying Korean food, language and culture. I have traveled to Korea many times to eat, explore and practice language. Cooking posts will mostly focus here.
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Alone Together
I read a short story in which a woman goes to write in the hotel lobby where her sister works the front desk. Her sister is not allowed to have visitors at work but she tells the woman about the one sofa in the corner that is just out of view of the CCTV cameras. The woman sits there and writes at night while her sister works. They don’t speak or interact at all. They are just there together. And their presence is enough to fight off the loneliness and boredom that they would feel if they were apart. This made me think of people in my life that I have done this with and what kind of relationship we had.
You can only do this with another person who makes no demands on you and has no expectations. And you must be the same way with them. You both know and trust each other deeply enough to be completely at ease in each other’s presence, without any awkwardness or pressure to interact. Knowing that the other person is there is enough to make you feel safe and cared for. Just their silent presence can do all of that. This is especially potent when you are feeling worried or upset. Maybe you don’t want to talk about it and maybe you want to be alone…but with someone.
This is not the same as two strangers sitting in a coffee shop. Or two people working quietly in an office. In a situation like that, the two people just happen to be in the same place. Or, in the worst case, they are tolerating each other. Instead, you want to be with the other person….not to get anything from them….but just to feel safe in their warm presence.
This is a rare and precious relationship. Who could this be for you? I guess family members could qualify, although definitely not all of them would. Couples in a long relationship? I hope so but not necessarily. Old friends, especially from childhood…that’s a possibility. Whatever the relationship, I think it depends on the personalities of the two people and their ability to meet in perfect balance and unconditional acceptance. At least in that moment.
Maybe this ability in itself is a good measure of a healthy and mature relationship.
And a perfect antidote to all the world’s noise.
Alone together.
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Late Winter / Early Spring in Toronto
***your phone will crush these photos-this will look much better on a laptop***
It’s been a long time….
…since I have put up any pictures. I have been taking pictures but very few seem worth sharing.
Day to day, I walk the same familiar paths and see the same things over and over. I pass by the same trees, the same houses and the same streets with the same stores. Walks through nature become routine as well, especially during winter when almost nothing changes. When you experience the same things over and over, they lose their impact and you kind of stop seeing them altogether.
This makes me think of my last trip to Tokyo where everything was new and everything that I saw was interesting and beautiful in some way. It was so easy to take pictures and the pictures themselves were so absorbing. When it came time to post up the days’ travel diary, I had a hard time choosing between the photos.
The Tokyo natives must have thought i was insane, photographing every vending machine and bicycle and sewer cover! But, I think the same thing when I see tourists in Toronto taking pictures of black squirrels and pigeons and geese. Why are they taking pictures of such ordinary things?
The normal Tokyo things were interesting to me because they were unexpected. And so, they sparked that wonder and excitement that only new things can. Like hearing a new song or meeting a new love.
I haven’t travelled in well over a year and I think that partially explains my lack of inspiration. I have been too lazy to put in the effort to look at my own environment from a new perspective. Just like relationships with people, your relationship to your home environment takes effort and imagination to keep it fresh and engaging. Comfort and familiarity are important but almost never inspire creativity and passion. You need to find a balance by looking at your familiar home with fresh eyes and an open mind, experience it in some new way. This article is an exploration of that idea.
Photographer as witness…
Sometimes things just happen in the environment and they are so unusual and striking that no effort is needed to get a good image. This winter, some weird weather made for good pictures. I was happy that, for a change, we had a little more snow than usual and a couple of really powerful snowstorms. The first one was such a white-out that I didn’t even take my camera with me when I went out in it.
Sometime towards the end of winter, there was one unusually hot day. Suddenly, the temperature was close to 20c while there was still deep snow everywhere. This hot, wet air crept over the cold snow and set a thick layer of fog low to the ground. In the cemetery, where the snow never gets cleared, the fog was especially thick and eerie.
The last big snow…
Spring arrives in full colour….
This spring has been mostly cool and wet with a few big blue sky sunny days. Toronto is a city that can go from winter to summer in a very short time: one week you are shovelling snow and the next week you are sweating buckets while stuffing the air conditioner back into the window. So it has been nice to see a cold and snowy winter followed by the slow and steady warm-up of spring.
Spring trip to Leslie Spit
Tommy Thompson Park on the Leslie Spit is a natural wonder of Toronto and an urban wildlife sanctuary. It is made entirely of rubble, cement, brick, tile, metal rebar and other construction/destruction detritus from Toronto’s development. Nature has gradually taken over and thrived along this area of the lakeshore. I won’t go into it too deeply here but, if you are interested in reading more about this area, I wrote about it in this article last year.
About looking at familiar things from a different perspective…
Yesterday was a grey, cloudy and cool day. I set my mind to going out and making some spring photos around Evergreen Brickworks park, a place that I have walked around and photographed hundreds of times. Everyone thinks of spring as a time of renewed colour with trees and bushes flowering out and halo of bright green in the forest canopy. After seeing the above pictures, I thought it would be an interesting challenge to try to capture spring in black and white.
I love going to Brickworks often but I really felt like I had photographed everything I wanted to. So…I knew that this would be difficult and I would have to try hard to look at things with a fresh perspective. Here is what I got…
The idea for the next photos came to me in the moment and they are a perfect example of trying to see ordinary and familiar things from a new perspective:
I am not going to say anything about them other than they are some of the best photos I have taken recently.
When I got home to look at these, I wasn’t sure what I would find. So often, I go out and capture what I think will be good images only to be disappointed in the result. Not this time. This last handful of pictures make me really happy. I thought really hard about how to take a dreary day by the water and turn it into some compelling shots.
I came to the realization that while sometimes the world just hands over great images to capture, other times, you have to turn the world on it’s head to find them. In these photos, I consciously tried to see things in a different way, photograph things that I would normally pass by and photograph them in a way that I have never done before.
If you think you know how the last group of photos were made, please leave a comment below. There are definitely hints in the photos (and text). If you guess right, I will buy you a Pocari Sweat next time I see you.
If you enjoy the content and would like to contribute towards website maintenance and development, you can make a donation here. As always, thank you for reading TigerSalad.
Yudofu (Japanese Hot Tofu)
Strange Weather in Tokyo
I first heard of yudofu while reading a book by Hiromi Kawakami called “Strange Weather in Tokyo”. The main characters are an elderly, retired professor and his former student (now in her late-30s). These two lonely people meet by chance and, over time, they develop a close friendship. Tsukiko and “Sensei” tend to spend a lot of time in small neighbourhood bars drinking and eating. It is here that yudofu comes up over and over (maybe it is one of the author’s favourite snacks?). They seem to enjoy it so often that I wanted to try it myself, as if i was sitting on the barstool next to them and listening in to their conversations.
Japanese Cooking
I have been a professional chef for most of my life. During that time I have had the opportunity to see some elements of Japanese-fusion cooking while working in fine-dining kitchens. And, of course, I witnessed the late 90s/early 2000s sushi boom in North America. But, apart from that, this cuisine always seemed kind of mysterious to me. I was learning to cook at a time when big, bold flavours were en vogue and high-intensity was paramount. So the more subtle and straightforward flavours of Japanese cuisine were much less familiar.
My Japanese Kitchen
During one period in my own restaurant, through a mix of circumstances (many working-holiday visas and increased eligibility for permanent residency if you were a cook), I ended up hiring a kitchen brigade of mostly Japanese cooks. At the same time, the front-of-house ended up with a large number of temporary Japanese support staff, running food and clearing tables. We had so many workers from Japan that, on more than one occasion, I had to ask them to please speak English (instead of Japanese) so that I could keep up with what was going on in my own kitchen! haha
The most inexperienced cook I have ever hired worked so hard that she quickly became the best and most reliable cook I have had through the kitchen. As my second in command, Ayuko brought weird and wonderful specials to the night menu: ethereal jelly dishes, made to order fresh spring rolls: so popular that it may have been the first time I ever heard her swear in English (“oh fuck..more fucking spring rolls?!? fuck”) Happy days!
As a chef, these were some of the most happy, relaxed and productive days I have ever spent running a kitchen. The food was cooked with pride and precision. The plating was clean and beautiful. Everyone worked hard together as a supportive team to produce the best plates possible everyday. And all with no pushing needed from me. What a dream! On top of this, the staff meals the cooks produced were outstanding. It was here that I first tried things like ochazuke (rice with green tea) or really premium grilled onigiri (rice balls). It opened my eyes to how something subtle but still delicious could be made with just a few fresh ingredients.
Where to find good Japanese recipes in English
Considering how popular Japanese cuisine has become, it is surprisingly difficult to find good sources for recipes (for English speakers anyways). So, I was happy to discover the website Just One Cookbook. This is a wonderfully organized site with picture-heavy directions (just like mine) and logical, step-by-step recipes for hundreds of Japanese dishes.
There are not many cooking sites that I would personally recommend but, this one is truly outstanding. The recipe I am posting here is adapted from their website. The sauce is almost identical. All credit to Just One Cookbook. I am posting my recipe here because I eat it so often and want to make it part of my own personal recipe collection. Go check out their website. There is so much to learn and so many good things to eat!
Yudofu recipe
This is a very straightforward recipe, the one I make all the time. It is very easy and quick and delicious.
Ingredients:
- 1 block (around 400gr) silken tofu
- 3-4 small squares of kombu
- 1 teaspoon diamond kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons sake
- 1 or 2 green onions
- 500ml water (or enough to cover tofu in pot)
I like the texture of silken tofu and, if handled carefully while preparing, it won’t fall apart. Once it is cooked in the broth it firms up enough so that I can easily pick it up with chopsticks. If you can’t find silken tofu or if you like a firmer tofu, you can use that instead. Experiment with different brands and find one you like. I use this organic Pulmuone tofu which I can get easily at the local Korean grocery. They also make a “sprouted tofu” which is slightly sweeter with more nutrients and protein. It is worth trying too if you can find it.
Leave out the green onion or substitute it with another herb if you like. I have tried flat-leaf parsley and minari (korean watercress) which are both very good in this recipe. I have also tried mitsuba (Japanese parsley) which was delicious but hard to find and expensive.
Kombu is dried kelp. You can find it in little squares or big sheets in any Asian grocery store.
Process:
To make the broth, soak the kombu in around 500ml of fresh cold water for about 2 hours. If you are short on time, you can also make this by dropping the kombu into barely simmering water for 15 minutes or so.
After the cold or warm steeping time, remove the kombu…
Chop green onions
Green onions, sake, salt and tofu. I like my tofu in bite sized pieces that I can pick up with chopsticks but you can cut it any way you like. You can even cook the whole block of tofu and scoop it out with a spoon later.
Heat the broth until just boiling then add 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Add 2 tablespoons sake
Add tofu and green onion white parts. Turn the heat down to medium low and let it go until tofu is warmed through. With the tofu I am using, it usually swells up a little and starts to float to the top.
While you are warming your tofu, you can make the sauce. This can also be made ahead of time and stored airtight in the fridge for a long time. You won’t use the whole recipe for one tofu block so store the leftover sauce for next time.
The Sauce
This is the sauce recommended on Just One Cookbook and it is a perfect accompaniment for this hot tofu. I add just a bit more mirin…
Sauce ingredients:
- 1/2 cup bonito flakes (katsuobushi)
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) sake
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) mirin
- 1/4 (60ml) cup soy sauce
Use a good quality Japanese soy sauce. I like this made-in-Japan Kikkoman for cooking. It is very tasty and not too expensive. The sake I used is a little fancy for cooking but my local booze shop was out of the cheaper one that I normally use. Avoid using “cooking sake” which is salted and tastes well…bad. If you wouldn’t want to drink it, I would avoid cooking with it. I would say the same thing about wine in Western cuisine.
about mirin…
At least around me, good mirin is very hard to find. Hon-mirin is a real fermented rice wine. It is delicious as it is and is great to cook with but…nearly impossible to find and expensive. Aji-mirin is in most grocery stores. This is a cheap cooking alcohol, sweetened with corn syrup and flavoured to taste something like mirin. It is not ideal but it is most often the only one around. If there is no alternative it works fine here.
Sauce process
Serve with your favourite sides…
I am having yudofu with a side of fresh salad and white rice. Sauce is in the little pitcher and togarashi spice for a touch of heat.
When I eat tofu, it is usually as a side or as a minor ingredient in a bigger dish. This yudofu is the only time that I really enjoy tofu as the centre of the dish. The warm and creamy texture with the savoury salt of the bonito and soy sauce is incredibly satisfying. I eat this almost once a week these days.
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them in the space below. I always look forward to hearing from you. If you want to know where I found real mirin in Toronto, send me a message through the contact form.
If you enjoy the content and would like to contribute towards website maintenance and development, you can make a donation here. Thank you for reading TigerSalad.