Dave’s favorite Japanese salad is Daikon Salad. Daikon is a very large white/pale green radish. The salad also has Mizuna, a type of lettuce. Here are the main ingredients for the salad. Notice everything is in Japanese. I had tremendous patience at the Japanese grocery store today while I translated everything with Google Translate.
The Daikon is the white thing on the left. I was able to purchase half of one. I used my Veggitti to slice the Daikon. Then I soaked it in ice water to remove the bitterness and make it crisp. The recipe I found told me to do this and last week during our Sushi lesson, Miki did the same.
I washed the mizuna and cut the stems into bit size pieces.
Also included in the salad is bonito flakes (dried fish flakes), nori pieces (seaweed), and salmon roe.
The recipe to make my own dressing includes rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce and salted plums.
And then I found this while I was working my way through the oils at the Japanese grocery store. It has a Daikon on the label. I thought it might be the dressing already made!!
With our Daikon salad we are also having miso soup. Put one packet of miso paste and one packet of garnish in the bowl and add boiling water. So, easy. Check out my super cute Mt. Fuji bowls.
With a side of steamed edamame.
A complete Japanese meal. I must give myself kudos for taking the time (a long time) to work through Google Translate to find the correct oils and vegetables at the Yorkmart (Japanese grocery store). It was a task I found very intimidating a few months ago. Now going to the Yorkmart is like going to the Food (Dog) Lion or to Harris Teeter (the Teet). I’ll know I have completely acclimated when I have a nickname for the Yorkmart-O (when said by a local).
One last picture of our prepared Japanese style meal.
Dave and I agreed this was a good first attempt for making the daikon salad. The nori strips I bought were really salty. Next time, I will share a pack between the two salads. Also, Dave mentioned the Daikon didn’t have quite the crunch. More research is required to figure out how to get it crunchier. All in all, no one left the table hungry and we didn’t have to order a corn covered pizza!