Tachinomi Goreijou - Vol. 3 Ch. 19 - Yakisoba

[MangaDex]

 

[outinthegardener]

No Ringo in sight, and barely any Miko! But the maid is a cute character. I hope she gets to drink with Miko and Ringo sometime.

 

[FeudalGrass]

First time I hear of a finisher. you are supposed to eat after drinking?

 

[Alteraucous]

First time I hear of a finisher. you are supposed to eat after drinking?

I've heard of "finisher" sushis. They are basically really salty and have a lot of flavor. My guess is that "finisher" foods are salty and really flavorful foods that you have when you finishing your time at a bar. So you have one more mug of beer and a finishing plate of food to go with it.

 

[WANgue]

First time I hear of a finisher. you are supposed to eat after drinking?

Yeah, ordering rice dishes or noodles in an izakaya is basically your last serving of carbs before heading out (since most of the booze served is usually brewed or distilled from grains). The idea is that you use the finisher to feel full at the end.

 

[Mitsu13]

I have the same questions as her. Finishers? Why is beer always in a huge glass? The opposite of wine, where they usually have it in a small glass and you enjoy it bit by bit. Also for me beer itself already tastes not good, and the foam is worse.

 

[WANgue]

I have the same questions as her. Finishers? Why is beer always in a huge glass? The opposite of wine, where they usually have it in a small glass and you enjoy it bit by bit. Also for me beer itself already tastes not good, and the foam is worse.

It’s a different kind of flavor profile off different things. Beer is essentially hoppy liquid bread while wine is usually juice-gone-sideways.

Back before refrigeration and municipal protected water sources were a thing, beer was one of the safer beverages that you can consume (since the 4-5% alcohol by volume or the oil off the hops will kill bacteria and microbes), and since it’s meant for the peasantry and made out of grains that would be also used in breads, they are brewed and served in large volumes.

Wine by contrast requires grape juice, which requires land good soil and plenty of labor, so it’s only meant for nobles and the richer merchants out there, so on a per-volume basis the price difference can be more than 6-7x in the past. Nowadays with industrial wine production you can score a bottle at 2 USD (the infamous Trader Joes two-buck-chuck) but boy do you get what you pay for.

 

[Mitsu13]

It’s a different kind of flavor profile off different things. Beer is essentially hoppy liquid bread while wine is usually juice-gone-sideways.

Back before refrigeration and municipal protected water sources were a thing, beer was one of the safer beverages that you can consume (since the 4-5% alcohol by volume or the oil off the hops will kill bacteria and microbes), and since it’s meant for the peasantry and made out of grains that would be also used in breads, they are brewed and served in large volumes.

Wine by contrast requires grape juice, which requires land good soil and plenty of labor, so it’s only meant for nobles and the richer merchants out there, so on a per-volume basis the price difference can be more than 6-7x in the past. Nowadays with industrial wine production you can score a bottle at 2 USD (the infamous Trader Joes two-buck-chuck) but boy do you get what you pay for.

Interesting, I thought it was because of the alcohol percentage

 

[WANgue]

I've heard of "finisher" sushis. They are basically really salty and have a lot of flavor. My guess is that "finisher" foods are salty and really flavorful foods that you have when you finishing your time at a bar. So you have one more mug of beer and a finishing plate of food to go with it.

Well, not always. The finisher is something cheap and substantial that will help you cushion your system against the booze and maybe replenish some electrolytes. Something like fried rice, ochazuke or a big bowl of fatty ramen can/will do the trick. It’s just that some enterprising chef realized that if you boost up the salt/umami levels it might provoke the customer to order an extra round (or at least drink an extra glass of iced water…which helps with the hangover later)

 

[skeletom_]

Thanks much for the TL!

Yakisoba is one of my favorite quick dinners to make at home. In the US they sell bags of undressed coleslaw, thinly shredded cabbage sometimes with a little shredded carrot, which works very well. If you don't have a market that sells thinly sliced pork near you, ground pork works in a pinch. And you can make a decent enough version of the sauce with two to three parts Worcestershire and one part soy sauce with a very little cornstarch slurry to thicken.

On the beer vs wine for peasants question, latitude plays a huge role. In italy and Southern France, where it's nice and hot, grapes grow abundantly and wine was the preferred drink of the masses. Whereas in northern France and Britain, grapes struggled to ripen so beer (and cider, made from apples, particularly in Normandy, Brittany, dorset, and Kent) was the peasant drink and imported wine was a luxury. Even in Roman times, the peasants in Italy drank wine abundantly - the vinegar that a soldier gave Christ on the cross was wine that had partially soured that was part of the standard issue to legionnaires as their ration. Beer is much cheaper than wine today primarily because wheat and grains like barley are staple foods that we've developed highly effective automation in harvesting and sowing. Think combine harvesters and the like. Whereas grapes for wine require more manual farming. Even still, today you can buy wine more cheaply than beer in supermarkets in southern France, often refilling your own gallon or larger plastic jugs from huge kegs in the stores.

 

[Bireus]

Yeah, ordering rice dishes or noodles in an izakaya is basically your last serving of carbs before heading out (since most of the booze served is usually brewed or distilled from grains). The idea is that you use the finisher to feel full at the end.

I can now really see why they are a skinnier society. You fill yourself without going crazy with portion sizes makes sense.

 

[skeletom_]

I made yakisoba for dinner and took a bad photo!

Here's a photo

https://imgur.com/rkmTKFc

Here's the recipe:

Skeletom's "pork never goes bad" extra savory yakisoba

Ingredients (2 servings):

• About 220g or half a pound thinly sliced pork
• 1/2 Large onion, thinly sliced
• About 110g or 1/4lb shredded cabbage
• About 50g or 2oz bean sprouts
• About 220g or half a pound of dried noodles (or twice the weight in fresh noodles. I used dried ramen this time but even spaghetti is nice)
• Some green onion
• Soy sauce, mirin, yakisoba sauce
• Aonori furikake, shichimi togarashi
• Kizami shoga or other pickle (not shown, ours was in little bowls at the table)

Method
1. Marinate the pork in 1/2tbsp soy sauce and 1/2tbsp mirin for at least a half hour, up to 48hrs. If under an hour you can do it in a bowl on the countertop but if you're gonna do longer then do it in a bag in the fridge. Put a pot of water on to boil.
2. Stir fry the pork til it's well cooked then remove to a bowl. I like to use medium high heat and not jostle it too much at first to get a little burnished bronze looking browning, but you're not aiming for a deep Western sear.
3. Turn down the heat a little and stir fry the cabbage and bean sprouts on medium heat til cooked, add to the pork in the bowl.
4. Turn the heat to high and stir fry the onion til the edges are just catching some color and then remove to the bowl with the other ingredients.
5. Cook noodles according to package directions.
6. Just before the noodles are cooked, turn heat under wok to high and return meat mix to wok and stir fry. Season with about a tablespoon of soy sauce and about 3-4 tablespoons of yakisoba sauce. If you taste now it should be a little bit over seasoned because the noodles will take up some of the extra seasoning.
7. Drain noodles and add to wok, stir fry with other ingredients and add more sauce to taste if needed. It should be very tasty now but not over salted.
8. Plate and top with green onion, aonori, and togarashi. Serve with kizami shoga or other bold pickles. Itadakimas!!

It was my favorite dinner in weeks. I highly encourage you to cook yakisoba!!

 

[WANgue]

I can now really see why they are a skinnier society. You fill yourself without going crazy with portion sizes makes sense.

Not according to recent health trends coming out of Japan - their obesity rates are going up…don’t forget that the beer itself is 150-200 calories per pint. It’s just that when you down a pint it’s kinda socially cool. If you sit down at a bar and have an equivalent dinner roll you’ll look a bit ridiculous…

Also, eeeh, imagine sitting down to a large bowl of Jiro-style after hitting an Izakaya…no way anyone will consider that remotely sensible.

 

[EchoGirl]

Had udon before but never soba/yakisoba unless those chow mein things count and even then that's instant lol

Wouldn't mind a fried egg but idk about adding mayo (well I don't like mayo to brig with but a spicy sauce might be nice but u think that's a bit uncommon in JP)

Shame they can't eat together versus from afar lol