many people abroad seem to think that we japanese eat sushi at home. the kind of sushi with a thin slice of fish flesh and a small rice ball underneath. in fact though, we don’t really eat those at home. it requires a high level of skill to which we usually depend on professionals.

an alternative solution for sushi-esque dish for home is this type of 丼 “don” dish with raw fish on top. “don” dish is usually a ball of rice with main course & side dish altogether on top as topping. topping can be anything, doesn’t necessarily have to be raw fish only. it can be tenpura, chicken & egg, beef stew, etc. it is a very practical & efficient dish.

anyway, today’s topping is negi-toro, fatty tuna tartar mixed with leek (negi) chops, along with a few slices of flounder sashimi, decorated on japanese “shiso” basil leaves. as its sauce, i used soy sauce, mixed with grated wasabi & a tiny bit of grated ginger.

for my portion of negi-toro don, one more ingredient was added – my favorite food called “natto”, fermented soy beans, which makes a perfect resonance with other ingredients (so i believe). after living more than 10 years in Japan, my Dutch husband still refuses to eat it, claiming it’s because of the smell. but to be honest i think the smell of cheese is much stronger and unbearable.

with tofu salad as an extra dish.

one evening, my husband brought a surprise guest from Holland, a very good friend of ours who used to live in tokyo. i was in the middle of cooking when they arrived home, and had absolutely no idea that he would bring someone along. he had tried to call, but my phone was in the other room. typical – a moment of panic, but hey, the more, the merrier!

that evening, i was simmering sword fish filet in soy base sauce (soy sauce 2: sake 0.5: mirin sauce 4 and a couple of slices of ginger), and making “hiyayakko”, fresh tofu with some herb garnish on top. ok, now that we had 1 more person at our dinner table, i quickly made vegetable stir fries with bean sprouts, carrots and cabbage, and cooked an egg roll with “shirasu”, whitebait fish inside. as is always the case, there were a bowl of rice and a cup of miso soup (with clams for the night) for each person.

luckily our friend loves japanese food (and luckily i didn’t use any meat that night, as she doesn’t eat any meat) – she seemed to have enjoyed every single dish i offered. thanks to her, our ordinary evening turned out to become a evening of japanese feast. i love a surprise like that…

it’s 35 degrees out, humid just like when taking a bath. the weather worn us out, our appetite getting smaller, but we need to eat something to regain our energy a bit.

so i made cold udon noodles for dinner. prepared with a lot of herb garnish to put in in its cold dipping soup, and some cucumber sticks with miso paste on the side, and grilled pepper chicken sticks for the main course.

and the result? yes, all the plates empty!