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Playing with knives
I have a small collection of kitchen cutlery (I have a slightly larger collection of more generic cutlery, and a smaller one of weapons grade cutlery).
One of the specialty toys I own is a Kikuichi knife for sashimi. The style is yanagi, i.e. willow leaf, and it's the classic blade for making bite-sized pieces of fish.
Last year I got a book, morimoto The New Art of Japanese Cooking. Last week I had reason to play with fish, so I took out the fancy knife, touched it up a bit, and attacked three pieces of fish.
Some hamachi, maguro, and saki were obtained, and attacked.
It was educational. Hamachi cuts like butter. The tuna (maguro) was resistant, and the grain was really important. The salmon (saki) was easy, but that was a problem, because it dragged. A bit of playing with where I put my thumb was the trick. If I'd figured that out before the tuna (i.e. if the hamachi hadn't been so easy), the mess which was made of the fish would have been a lot less.
I need some excuses to keep playing with the knife, because I really enjoyed it. When one looks at what gets done with fish, and the different ways the feel against the knife... so much fun to be had there. I may have to start travelling with it.
One of the specialty toys I own is a Kikuichi knife for sashimi. The style is yanagi, i.e. willow leaf, and it's the classic blade for making bite-sized pieces of fish.
Last year I got a book, morimoto The New Art of Japanese Cooking. Last week I had reason to play with fish, so I took out the fancy knife, touched it up a bit, and attacked three pieces of fish.
Some hamachi, maguro, and saki were obtained, and attacked.
It was educational. Hamachi cuts like butter. The tuna (maguro) was resistant, and the grain was really important. The salmon (saki) was easy, but that was a problem, because it dragged. A bit of playing with where I put my thumb was the trick. If I'd figured that out before the tuna (i.e. if the hamachi hadn't been so easy), the mess which was made of the fish would have been a lot less.
I need some excuses to keep playing with the knife, because I really enjoyed it. When one looks at what gets done with fish, and the different ways the feel against the knife... so much fun to be had there. I may have to start travelling with it.