Len's News, Notes, and Stuff

How I Talked Myself Out of Buying a Suisin Hayate Yanagiba

It may be surprising for you to know that I think about certain men quite often. However, it is because I lust after their handiwork, not after the men themselves. These men are the likes of Shosui Takeda, Shigeki Tanaka, Keijiro Doi and Iizuka Tokifusa. These are some of Japan’s great knifemakers, who hand-forge and hand-craft some of the finest knives to grace a kitchen and kiss a cutting board. Sure, there are really nice knives produced in factories by machine and other really nice knives hand-crafted by lesser-known smiths. However, these particular men are the ones I know, and I know that my knives from them were born by their skill and sweat – the knives retain, as it were, a part of the heart and spirit of the men who made them.

Keijiro Doi is 82 years old and has been making traditional Japanese knives since he was 19. He’s got over 60 years experience making seriously-high-end knives. Thus, I was quite excited by an opportunity to buy a Suisin Hayate 300mm aoniko yanagiba, forged by Doi and selected by him as his amongst his very best work. How much does this expertly-crafted knife cost? US$800 retail. I had an opportunity to buy it for US$600 – still brand new, for a full 25% off retail. Sure, it’s a kasumi blade, not honyaki, but from everything I had read, Doi’s mastery of the forge and steel resulted in kasumi blades that had nothing to fear when stacked against honyaki blades.

I fretted over the opportunity. I wanted the knife, but although $800 doesn’t compare against $2000 for a honyaki, it still isn’t spare change by any stretch (not yet, anyways). I read up on Doi and the Hayate product line. I searched online for all I could find, re-reading much material that I had read a long time ago and which helped me form my opinion of Doi-san.

I even thought about another Doi yanagi other than the Suisin Hayate. Why not the Sakai Takayuki White Dragon yanagiba? After all, it has a shiro-ko (white steel) hagane rather than the Hayate’s aoko (blue steel). Blue has greater edge retention than white, but white can hold an even keener edge than blue, which is no slouch to begin with. This one would only run me US$480 for a 330mm. Unfortunately, I think the engraved dragon looks really cheesy. Plus, if I am to get a Doi yanagiba, I ought to get the best that he’s made.

One of the key driving pressures in this case is Doi’s age. Skilled and experienced though he is, Keijiro Doi will not be making knives for much longer. In fact, he may already be, for all intents and purposes, retired. He has already been transitioning the business to his son Itsuo Doi. There may not be many more Keijiro Doi masterpieces being produced, if he’s even making any more himself now. Thus, I was torn between saving the money for more financially-responsible ends or spending it on a piece of history, an example of masterful craftsmanship from a man whose hands will not produce such works much longer.

I fretted over this knife for several days. For several days, my thoughts turned often to the Hayate. I tried reasoning to myself that I don’t need the knife, that my skill level – as novice as it really is – does not warrant such a high-end blade, and that I would have sibling rivalry in my kitchen as my Shimatani 360mm yanagi vies with the Hayate 300mm for my attention. These are all true, but reason did not work.

Lust is not rational. Desire cannot be reasoned away. It can only be killed by an equally strong emotional experience or else transmuted or transferred in some way.

Thus it has been with my desire for the Hayate – it has been transferred elsewhere. Earlier today, I found out that another knife afficionado owns both a Hayate yanagiba and a Shigefusa yanagiba. Both, he says, are wonderful knives. Both, he says, are wonderfully refined. Both, he says, will make the user very happy. However, the Shigefusa is slightly thinner, slightly lighter, and in his opinion, clearly performs better.

That helped me get over the Hayate. I’d rather have a Shigefusa yanagiba.

Truth be told, I put an offer in on the Hayate, just a little lower to make it CDN$600 for me after conversion. Had the seller agreed, I would not now be writing to you about this – and chances are, I would still want a Shigefusa sometime down the road. In the end, it’s a good thing for me that the seller refused the offer and held firm on his asking price.

Shiggies are hard to come by, though. A new one entails a 1- to 2-year wait, as Iizuka Tokifusa and his 2 sons do everything from start to finish and they can only work so fast while maintaining their quality standards. The last time I saw a second-hand Shiggie yanagiba available, I didn’t want one yet. I had not seen any before then, and who knows how long it will be until I see one on the market again. Until then, I am once again safe from intrusive thoughts about beautifully sharp & agile yanagiba. Until then, I need not think of the men who forge masterpieces from steel and iron. Not as much, anyways.

Longo’s Sourdough Baguette – Where’s the Sour?

Sourdough isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but for those of us who like it, good sourdough is absolutely wonderful and practically inspires moans of appreciation. Thus, it was with some anticipation that I decided to try a sourdough baguette from the local Longo’s today. Admittedly, I feel a little reluctance to eat the entire baguette (with butter!) due to the calorie count, but my colleague today had half an ACE Bakery baguette for breakfast and I just felt an urge to eat some baguette as well. The bonus is that I can do a direct comparison against (a) all the other sourdough breads I’ve had in the past, and (b) the baguette I got from Le Pain Quotidien last week.

First off, let me say right up front that there is no way this bread could be considered sourdough other than the fact that the label says “sourdough” on it. It is not the least bit sour and lacks any sort of interesting kick or gustatory twist that would elevate it above regular bread. Therefore, this is an even more direct comparison against Le Pain Quotidien than I had expected – which is, of course, a huge knock against it right off the start.

How does this baguette fare simply as a baguette? It is enjoyable as a bread, but it fails to exhibit the main characteristics that make a baguette a baguette. The crust isn’t overly flaky, but the problem is that it’s actually a little rubbery. The center is moist and reasonably airy, however it lacks much bread taste or sourdough taste. There is no initial wheatiness and no lingering sweetness. There is, in short, no taste to this bread. What saves this baguette from being total crap is, in my opinion, the fact that it still has a nice overall texture, even though the crust is in no way ideal.

This Longo’s sourdough baguette is utterly forgettable. It isn’t terrible as far as bread goes, but it’s not a bread I would buy again.

There is no comparison between Longo’s sourdough baguette and the likes of ACE Bakery or Le Pain Quotidien. However, there is a cost difference to take into consideration. Le Pain Quotidien comes in at $4. ACE Bakery comes in just under $3. This sourdough baguette costs $2. It’s often said that one gets what one pays for, and it sure seems to be true when it comes to fresh baguettes around here!

In any case, I’m still going to finish this thing even though it essentially serves as little more than a vehicle for the lovely organic butter I got last time. At least the texture is okay and I get a decent, buttery chew from each bite.

Sushi @ George Brown College, Week 3

After 3 weeks, I can now proudly say that my sushi is almost-but-not-quite within sight of halfway-decent. Yes, I know that doesn’r sound very impressive, but if you saw where I started from, you’d acknowledge that this is progress.

This week, Chef Chung taught us uramaki (inside-out rolls) and datemaki (egg “skin” rolls). He taught us how to:

• saran-wrap our bamboo maki mats “tight like wearing speedos”
• make our own egg skins/omelettes for the datemaki
• make California Roll, Unagi Bonito Roll, and Tasty Thai Roll

Another week of rolls? How can we spend 6 hours just making rice rolls? Well, to ask that would be to underestimate the difficulty of making good rolls. Either that or significantly overestimate my maki-making talent. Considering how nicely VL next to me made her rolls, I’m inclined to think the latter rather than the former.

In addition to Chef Chung’s explicit lessons, I learned a few other lessons today:

• Even VL, whose rolls look so nice, said she cursed a lot while making them – almost a record-setting evening for number of “Damn!”, apparently.
• When it comes to maki, Gordon Gekko was wrong – greed is not good – because overstuffing a roll means you can’t roll it up nicely and it looks like crap
• I keep underestimating how much rice an uramaki needs and overestimating how much toppings it can hold inside
• Practice does indeed make perfect: my rolls are getting better (some still fell apart – see previous point – but one or two look good) and my katsuramuki is probably the only thing I do better than my classmates
• There are some things beginners should not do in their own kitchen, like sprinkling sesame seeds with wet hands or piling on bonito flakes onto the outside of a uramaki, or else the kitchen will look like a total dumpsite
• My 210 Tanaka yanagi is sharp enough – though obviously could be sharper still – but not wiping it down after every cut through a maki gums up its sides and makes it cut like crap

As you can see, today was full of all sorts of lessons.

I overheard my classmate to my left comment to her mom (yep, mother and daughter taking this course) that Chef Chung is a great instructor. While I agree that he teaches the techniques phenomenally well, it would be nice for him to walk around and critique each of us as we do the rolls and make our various mistakes.

I still think he is an excellent instructor, full of knowledge and passion for his craft, but there is room for improvement. Frank, who taught me Culinary 1 & 2, was very good about going around and giving us advice while we prepped our food.

My aim for next week is to make my maki actually hold together. It’s a modest goal, but it will be progress indeed. Besides, seeing how I made a hand roll today that actually looked right + held together right, I think the sky’s the limit now.

What the Japanese Nisei Experience of the 1940s Teaches Us Today

Soon after Canada and the United States declared war on Japan in December 1941, both countries took measures to move Japanese-Canadians and Japanese-Americans into internment camps. By February 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 which authorized American military leaders to exclude anyone that they saw fit from large swaths of American territory.

The order authorized the Secretary of War and U.S. armed forces commanders to declare areas of the United States as military areas “from which any or all persons may be excluded,” although it did not name any nationality or ethnic group. It was eventually applied to one-third of the land area of the U.S. (mostly in the West) and was used against those with “Foreign Enemy Ancestry” — Japanese. (Wikipedia: Executive Order 9066)

By the end of March 1942, less than 2 months later, residents of Japanese descent (citizen and non-citizen alike) within 160km of the Pacific Ocean were subject to an 8pm to 6pm curfew, excluded from certain areas and prevented from moving out of others. By May of 1942, another two months later, the military ordered all people of Japanese ancestry still living in the area to report to assembly areas where they would eventually be moved to permanent “Relocation Centers”.

Though very obviously contradictory to his actions, President Roosevelt issued a statement a year later in February 1943 that exclaimed the fundamentally egalitarian premise and foundation of America:

“The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry… Every loyal American should be given the opportunity to serve this country wherever his skills will make the greatest contribution – whether it be in the ranks of our armed forces, war production, agriculture, government service, or other work essential to the war effort.”

The internment camps continued, but with this step President Roosevelt enabled the formation of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Infantry Regiment, two all-nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans) units. Through seven major campaigns in Europe, the 100th and 442nd combined suffered 9486 casualties and won 18,143 individual decorations for valor in battle, including one Congressional Medal of Honor. Over 9000 casualties were sustained for units whose authorized strength totaled only 4,000 men – they sustained over 200% casualties fighting for the United States against Axis forces in the European theatre of war. Given their size and the duration for which the units existed and fought, no other American fighting unit in any war the United States has fought took greater casualties or earned more commendations. The 100th and 442nd earned, with blood and valor, the high praise they garnered from the units who fought alongside them.

More than 33,000 Nisei served in the US military in World War 2, which is a remarkably high number for a total Japanese American population of  just around 278,000. That represents just under 1 out of every 8 persons, counting all men and women, old and young alike. No other population group in the United States so visibly demonstrated greater dedication and sacrifice for the war effort.

It is easy to vilify a segment of the Canadian or American population and begin building a campaign of prejudice when the nation is threatened and at war. We see it in today’s circumstances with the broad brush of suspicion that paints all Muslim Canadians & Americans as potential terrorists who bear watching. We have learned enough from our mistakes in the past to know better – and to know to our bones – not to segregate a people into camps, citing their innate differentness from the rest of the nation’s population and values. However, we may not have learned enough to know just as strongly that the vast majority of those who have chosen their homes in our countries, or those who were born on our soil, are every bit Canadian or American.

Think about the power of the first sentence in Roosevelt’s statement: “The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was a matter of race or ancestry.” While he spoke only of the United States, I believe this also speaks true of Canada and Canadian society.

I hope that we never again call upon large numbers of citizens to serve in the line of fire to prove their loyalty. While we will always have to deal with enemies within our midst, the enemy will not be an entire group of people differentiated by their color, their faith, or their language. We should remember how Japanese Canadians & Americans were treated in a prior time of crisis & conflict and what the example of the American nisei shows us about the hearts & minds of those who have freely chosen to be Canadian and American.

Is This $10 Snack Worth It? – Le Pain Quotidien Baguette w/ Organic Butter

Bread and butter is about as basic as you can get with Western cuisine. In fact, it’s so simple one might not even consider it cuisine. However, to overlook the importance and the significance of bread and butter is to overlook how most of the world doesn’t do bread and butter. It’s a creation of the European corner of the culinary world.

Butter is a foreign material for many people. In fact, I know some folks’ fridges are devoid of butter not because of health concerns but because they honestly have no idea how to use butter. Well, the most basic way is to put a pat of butter on some good bread and enjoy the wonderfully moist yet crunchy, salty yet sweet combination.

That brings up another point about bread. Not everyone appreciates hard-crusted breads like the iconic French baguette. The hard, crumbly crust is new and not-altogether-desirable for people who have only known bread to be soft and moist throughout.

This brings me to the snack that lies here on the desk next to my computer. I have a fresh baguette from Le Pain Quotidien, and some salted organic butter bought from The Health Shoppe nearby. This little snack, as Parisian and as simple as it is, set me back $10. It ain’t cheap to eat artisanal bread with organic butter. To calculate it more reasonably, though, this is probably a $5 snack, because I sure as hell am not eating the entire half-brick of butter in one sitting!

Is it worth it?

Well.. let me take it component by component.

The bread is nice, and is made from very basic, natural ingredients. If you think the part about bread being made with basic, natural ingredients is a foregone conclusion, check out the list of ingredients on a bag of Wonderbread sometime. You’ll quickly realize that at least half of what’s available in the bakery sections of today’s supermarkets only looks like bread but is, in reality, a lab-developed concoction that is made to resemble bread. Bread made just from wheat, yeast, a bit of salt and a bit of oil only exists at the super-cheap level and the good-stuff-comes-at-a-premium level.

This bread from Le Pain Quotidien is nice, and I’m enjoying it, but it’s not wow-ing me. The last and most memorable time that a loaf of bread wow’ed me was a super-fresh ciabatta from McEwans at Shops on Don Mills. That was singularly the best bread I’ve ever had – and it helped that I bought it literally 10 minutes after it came out of the oven.

This bread that I’m eating right now was probably made this morning, and while it’s still good now in the mid-afternoon, it’s not spectacular. It is airy and moist inside, the crust is just hard enough to be interesting without being so hard as to cut into the palate when you chew or to crumble into a billion pieces when you handle it. A bad baguette may be chewy, or may be dried out, the interior may be too crumbly without enough “stretch”, the crust may be too crumbly or too hard, and at the end it just might not have any bread flavor. This baguette right now, though, exhibits none of these faults. It is, in short, a skillfully made baguette.

The butter is nice and buttery. Smooth, silky, a little salty, and psychologically I appreciate that it’s organic. However, I don’t really taste anything special about it – I wouldn’t be able to differentiate it from regular butter. On the other hand, it could just be that I have an untrained palate when it comes to butter.

Is this snack worth $10? Hell no. Is this snack worth $5? Yeah, I think so. It’s a nice, civilized snack in a world of potato chips, chocolate bars, and Tim-bits (you’ve proven yourself to be Canadian if you know what these are). However, the 2L basket of nectarines I also have on my desk only cost me $3.50 – and I think I get more gustatory enjoyment from the nectarines.

It is said that the more basic the recipe, the more important it is to have top-quality ingredients. There are few things more basic than bread and butter. Le Pain Quotidien produces a really nice baguette – but it’s not the best bread ever and faces solid competition from the likes of ACE bakery. Bio Organic butter is nice, but more for the knowledge that it’s organic than for anything that the palate can detect. Combine the two together, though, and you have a nice little treat for yourself. Just try to rationalize, as I’m doing, that it’s not really a $10 snack because you can still use most of the butter for other purposes in the future.