Izakaya Menu 2 Yaki-nasu

Yaki-nasu It’s been a while since I posted about the food we serve at the izakaya where I work last time. Here’s another one: Yaki-nasu (grilled eggplant). We grill eggplants on a grid until tender, then cool immediately in water, peel, pat dry, make deep slits, sprinkle bonito flakes on top and serve with grated ginger and soy sauce (or dashi+soy sauce.) As many cooks recommend, at our izakaya we grill eggplants directly over the flame of the gas stove. It is said that heating this way to burn the skin brings out better flavor and fragrance from the eggplants. The only thing is that you have to keep an old, dirty grid designated for this use only. (This photo was taken in my kitchen, but what we do at the izakaya is basically the same. My gas stove looks like this-- the one on top.) At our izakaya, yaki-nasu is the menu for summer season only and we just started serving it last week. It has been my favorite since childhood. When I was small, the typical weekday lunch in my family in summer consisted of yaki-nasu, miso soup from breakfast, tofu and grilled himono (dried fish) with rice. BTW, today I did another thing that I haven't done for a long time. I painted a watercolor.