One Bite Salad

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Japan for a short vacation. Even though I missed the beautiful Cherry Blossoms, everything was wonderful there. It wasn’t cold or hot, but very comfortable with only few degrees (in Celsius, of course) difference in temperatures between day and night. The only and biggest regret was that I wasn’t completely in healthy condition during the entire time I was there. Oh, don’t worry, it wasn’t the Swine Flu. I just have a weak stomach and I get upset stomach every now and then if I’m not careful. My appetite was way below 25% of what I usually have and couldn’t try various foods. Fortunately, Japanese food in general is low fat, small portioned and not spicy at all, so I had no problem finding something that I could eat. It took about until a week after I came back to finally start feeling better.

This past weekend, I went grocery shopping in Berkeley, to be specific the Berkeley Bowl. If you live in the East Bay, you are probably familiar with this wonderful grocery store or maybe you shop there all the time. They have the most impressive selection of whole foods - produces, grains, seafood, meat, herbs, nuts, mushrooms and etc. That place is always so busy and I can never find a parking even during weekday afternoons. It’s also better (definitely for me) to have a shopping list before going there, otherwise if you are like me, you could spend hours comparing a mind-boggling array of tomatoes.

This time I did have a shopping list, but kept adding more things after I started shopping. This Wild Salmon Roe was one of them. My original intention for buying this was to make some Sushi for next weekend when I’m expecting a visitor from L.A. But the salmon roe came in a 4oz container, which was actually a lot. So I decided to use some today making an appetizer dish just for fun. It’s super easy and can be entertaining for a small cocktail party.

Recipe of the Day
One Bite Salad with Salmon Roe & Daikon

Ingredients:
Salmon Roe (Ikura)
Daikon
Radish Sprouts (Kaiware)
Ponzu (Citrus Soy Sauce)

Cut Daikon into julienne strips, soak them in cold water. Prepare however number of clean spoons you need and line them on a plate. Drain water from Daikon very well and place them in each spoon. Top with Salmon roe and radish sprouts to garnish. When ready to serve, drizzle a tad of Ponzu over each spoon. If you don’t have Ponzu, you could substitute that with soy sauce and fresh lemon juice. Eat all together in one bite!