Friday, March 21, 2008

Photogenic but...


Sea Bream Carpaccio

I think this carpaccio looks pretty healthy and maybe tasty, too? But the truth is that it didn't taste as good as it looked. My mistake was using a buntan for this dish. Yes, the citrus fruit from my dad's garden. As I wrote in my previous post, buntan looks like grapefruit but its flesh is firmer and dryier tnan that of grapefruit, so when we (my family members) eat it, we usually tear and open up each segment like this photo below and bite the flesh off from the membrane. And we call the opened-up segment "baby chick." Cute, ha?


Anyway, for this carpaccio, I made a simple sauce with olive oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and black pepper. Then I added some freshly-squeezed buntan juice, thinking that citrus juice would give a refreshing kick and go well with the sea bream. But I was too lazy to take the flesh out of the segments and squeezed the flesh and white parts together, so the sauce turned out a little bitter because of the bitterness from the pulp(?).


I also added some chunks of buntan flesh to the vegetables. Actually this was not a terrible idea, I would say. The sauce and the citrus chunks tasted pretty good together. But I just thought the buntan and the sea bream would definitelly taste better when eaten separately, and couldn't see any reason why they should be mixed together like this. Hahaha...


Nevertheless, they look nice together in these photos, I think... ;)
Oh, BTW, this sea bream is not the one in the photos in my last post. I bought a pack of sea bream sashimi for this carpaccio.


Categories:

11 comments:

K and S said...

looks really refreshing!

Marcela said...

The pictures look lovely, full of spring colors. I specially like the second one, the "baby chick". :D and the last one.

Anonymous said...

Interesting that you should be posting about buntan. I just received some from a friend here who got them from Kochi. I have not heard of them before, so I was trying to find out more about them. I think that in English they are called pomelos, but I haven't heard of them either! They were delicious. I would love to make the candied peel - sounds delicious

Anonymous said...

Oh it does look nice! And buntans are called pomelos, in my part of the world anyway :)

During Lunar New Year we have a dish called 'loh hei' with lots of ingredients tossed together...and two of the ingredients are raw fish and pomelo, so this reminds me a little of it!

Allison said...

Well it does look amazing! And the flavor combination sounds amazing too, even though you say it wasn't that great. Fish + citrus +pepper always makes me happy. =)

I think you have a beautiful blog, and your "supermarket chronicles" are so interesting. I am American, but I am currently studying Japanese, and will be interning in Tokyo for 2 months this Summer. I'm glad I found your blog, because I'm interested in learning to cook more Japanese dishes, and yours look so wonderful! I'm looking forward to see what you make next! =)

Anonymous said...

Obachan,
Long time! been busy myself... I love carpaccio! I always made tako carpaccio . I missed the tai fish in Shikoku... buntun too! It looks so good! great combination too.

Anonymous said...

Here in my country we never mix citrus and vinegar. With fish (usually grilled) we prefer citrus and vinegar with salad (especially when it is tomato based)

The photo looked lovely.

Unknown said...

The photos are really quite beautiful!

Anonymous said...

With experimentation comes mistakes -- that's all part of the fun. It certainly looks very delicious though. :)

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

That's a pity! Anyhow, that picture looks great!

Cheers,

Rosa

obachan said...

K & S
Thanks!

Marcela
Yeah, I didn’t think about it when I made this dish, but it does look springy ;)

Lucas
Wow, you tasted our Kochi buntan! Glad to hear that you liked them.
So buntans are available outside Japan! Mmmm.. live and learn. I wonder if anyone outside Japan eats pomelos with our “baby chick” method.
If you like a little bitterness in candied citrus peels, I think you would love those made with buntan peels. BTW, mom said that making them are a lot of work… She boils the peels, drains them, changes water and boils them again, and repeats the whole thing at least two more times, IIRC.

Talith
So you do eat fish and pomelo together there! I wonder what kind of sauce you use for that dish.

Allison
Thank you and good luck with your internship in Tokyo! Almost all my recipes are Kansai versions, so you might find them “different” when you actually start cooking/eating in Tokyo, but finding the differences would be also interesting. Enjoy!

Cocogirl
Ah! Tako carpaccio! Now my mouth is watering…

Eliza Bennet
Oh, really? That’s interesting. Grilled fish and citrus are my favorite combination, but maybe you use different kinds of citrus for fish over there. : )

Lannae
Thank you!

Ric
Yeah, I think I can call it “fun” …even though I’m the only person who have to eat up all the “mistakes” I make. Hahaha…

Rosa
Thanks. Looks really counts, I guess, at least on foodblogs. ;)