Fall is my ultimate favorite season. With its arrival comes brisk weather and rich, vivid shades of red, orange and yellow. I love to inhale deeply the cold crisp air and feel it fill up my lungs, giving me a surprised shudder. To be shocked by the coldness! How alive one feels!
The season also invokes fond memory of places traveled, specifically Beijing and Seoul. When I studied in Beijing, I bought a lovely scarf that reminded me of Fall — carmine, deep orange-red). It matched the color of Forbidden City. As for Seoul, Fall is forever linked with the unbelievable fall foliage witnessed at Seoraksan.
The season, closely linked with harvest, calls for a feast. But instead of hearty meals, I crave something fresh, something simple…
Homemade tofu! Aburiya Kinnosuke, a mid-town Japanese restaurant, serves their tofu cold or hot. Cold tofu comes with three types of salt: ponzu, truffle and wasabi.
The tofu, firm, smooth, and clean-tasting, provides the perfect blank canvas for salt sampling. Ponzu salt, the least intrusive of the three, calls to mind sweet-sour plum powder. Both truffle and wasabi salt are full in flavor, the former fills your palate, nostril with nutty truffle fragrance whereas the latter offers a sharp kick.
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Fall… Why tofu though? Why not something hearty such as a nice moose roast with vegetables? Although, the tofu dish mentioned in the article does sound appetizing…
Desire, when it comes to food, is subjective and at times, whimsical. I guess it’s something in the air — clean, crisp, fresh, it made me crave for a “taste” that is equally untainted. But moose roast sounds exciting! I would give it a try!
Punzu…?
Ponzu…?
What’s the difference?