Thinking Positively

and eating Japanese!

Feb 01, 2022

∙ Paid

Over the last month, I switched up my diet. It all started with breakfast. Honestly, I got bored. I was done with eggs and bacon. Over oatmeal. Cheerios. Pancakes. Half a grapefruit. Grain bowls. All of it. Anything on the front of a cereal box to qualify for a complete breakfast wasn’t doing it for me anymore.

Am I crazy? Nah. I think starting my 34th year of eating a normal American breakfast every day is a perfect time to change. So, I bought a few cookbooks, some of which I can’t read because they are Japanese, and I traded in Corn Flakes for Nori.

Since the first book came in, breakfast has been rice and miso soup with pickled veggies. Every so often I’ll add an egg or a simple omelet if there is enough time. This morning I had Omurice, a rice omelet topped with a dark sweet sauce. But I didn’t stop there. I let it take over lunch and dinner too. This week I made tsukune, shrimp with glass noodles, and shabu shabu—it's been great.

I wasn’t just bored with the flavor of American breakfast, I was disenchanted with the ingredients. I was unable to think positively about them and in turn the flavor, sustenance, and nourishment became tainted by my attitude.

In Cocktail Techniques by Kazuo Uyeda, he talks about thinking positively while making a cocktail. He speaks of mindset as almost another ingredient that is just as important as the base spirit. Come to think of it, mindset is more or less our base spirit.

I know you don’t come here to read about food and philosophy—don’t worry. The cocktail styles have followed suit. I have fallen down the Japanese cocktail rabbit hole before, but this time I am coming at it with a calmer mind.

Stick with me — recipes at the bottom!

"Respect the process of cocktail making, not the finished product."
—Kazuo Uyeda

All too often, I am concerned about the finished product. Heck, I would say with most anything! Car trips are all about getting there, cooking is to get to the eating part, and making a cocktail is all about getting to what wine we are having with the meal. That is the other part of this diet switch—paying more attention. Just the other day I cut a slice of carrot, popped it in my mouth and exclaimed “Woah! Babe, you have to come try this carrot!” I wouldn’t have done that a month ago. It would have just gone in the pot with the rest of the ingredients to get to the finished product. Perhaps it is the daily washing of rice that helps slow me down, though it could be the chopsticks.

Oh, and aside from food changes, my ice making process has received a major upgrade! I now have more ice than I know what to do with.

Last year, I ordered this giant ice mold system called Ghost Ice, and it came in earlier this month. This thing makes 48 cubes...er... rectangular prisms at a time, crystal clear, and 2inX2inX3 in size. I have a small chest freezer in the basement that holds larger meats for BBQing and frozen dog food. Turns out there was enough room to fit this ice contraption, and now every 48 hours I’ve got 48 beautiful ice cubes. Life is a dream.

First batch after 36 hours. I have since changed to 48 hour freezes.

I should let you know it's a rather expensive tool, but when I told my wife that it would actually cut down on making ice all the time, she was sold. We go through a good bit of frozen water at my house.

Cocktail Doodle

Thinking Positively

and eating Japanese!

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