COVID-19: Two Netflix Series on Japanese Food, Compared to My Cuisine

From Worldometer,  COVID-19 new deaths:

           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil   India   South Africa

June      1      638    3189           480      223         40

              2      730    3053           732      200         22
              3    1134    4669         1232      221         50
             4     1083    4928         1269      259         37
             5     1031    5511         1492      275         56
             6       975    4906         1008      286         60
             7       706    4253           910      297         44
             8       586    3157           813      266         82
             9     1093    4732         1185      246         82
           10       982    5163         1300      388         48
           11       904    4951         1261      394         74
           12       791    4603           843      389         70
           13       702    4229           890      309         69
           14       331    3263           598      321         57
           15       425    3415           729      395         88
           16       849    6592         1338        ?           57
           17       809    5264         1209      341         49
           18       747    5123         1204      342         63
           19       719    5066         1221      366         94
           20       573    4428           968      307         46
           21       267    3338           601      426         53
           22       363    3880           748      312         61
           23       863    5465         1364      468        111
           24       808    6071         1103      424        103
           25       649    5179         1180      401          87
           26       663    4893         1055      381         48

Summary:

• The USA is #1 again, in terms of new cases, an all-time high of 47,341, exceeding the previous record, which came the day before.
• Let's see now, if the 5% mortality rate holds, two weeks from now, the new deaths total should be 2367.  However, if the actual mortality rate is 0.5% (see analysis of yesterday--just scroll down to the next posting), then there will "only" be 234 deaths.  I would be surprised if on July 11 this figure is less than 1,000, matching the new deaths number from June 9.

On June 20 my posting was on Gourmet and Simple Foods, where I mentioned stumbling across a gem of a series on Netflix entitled Midnight Diner, about a simple izakaya in Japan.  Today, I report on my cuisine again, and compare with yet another Netflix series I found called Samurai Gourmet, this one about a recent retiree in Tokyo who finds a new life through eating.

Here are their Rotten Tomatoes ratings:

                             Reviewers  Audiences  Me

Midnight Diner          100              94        A-

Samurai Gourmet          ?             98        A-

Samurai Gourmet has 12 episodes, 16-22 minutes long, in its first season.  The program features a recently retired Japanese company man who just did not know what to do with his new life...until he found food.  In the background is his inner persona, a wandering samurai warrior from the past.  They are totally different personalities, but our protagonist feeds off this gruff character in different ways.  Sort of, what would a badass Ronin do?  While I watch the show because of the variety of meals he has, this is a comedy, not a foodie exhibition.

As in Midnight Diner, where the highlighted meals are limited to chazuke (something over rice unto which green tea is poured), egg omelet, ramen, grilled hot dog and the like, Samurai Gourmet delves into cold bentos, simple ramen and similar fare.  They make fun of cuisine like wagyu beef and foie gras.  In short, I would be laughed out of these series.  The dominant dish in MD is freshly prepared hot rice, onto which a teaspoon of butter is placed, allowed to melt, and topped with a little bit of soy sauce.  For several weeks I've been drooling to try this, but have not, mostly because I am on a kind of diet which avoids rice as much as possible.

So what have I had recently?  You might say Japanese fusion delicacies to match with those two Netflix series:

Steak and poki on sea asparagus, with a Bordeaux, beer and hot sake.

I then enhanced a Japanese meal provided by 15 Craigside:

I had a memorable meal on my lanai:

Steak and veggies for pan frying, with ahi sashimi and ikura (salmon eggs) on rice, with beer, chilled Niigata sake and an outstanding 8-year old Stanford Pinot Noir:

Note the JBL bluetooth speaker to the left.  As the Sun was setting, on came Wakare No Isochidori, Ghost Riders in the Sky, Some Enchanted Evening and Honolulu City Lights.  These last few moments were so memorable, that I decided to repeat it two evenings later, but with the perfect crystal, a Riedel Sommelier Burgandy glass.  Burgandy derives from the Pinot Noir grape.

For Father's Day, 15 Craigside provided (we still can't go down to the dining room--all meals are delivered to my door) rack of lamb with mashed potatoes.  I enhanced the meal by lightly frying two pieces (they gave me four, so I have two in my freezer) of lamb, while sauteing some onions, trumpet mushrooms and asparagus, and preparing a Chinese cabbage and onion salad (in mayonnaise), topped with slices of avocado:

The wine was a 16-year old Stanford Pedroncelli Cry Creek Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  You always worry about how well any bottle ages.  This one was almost a miracle.  I would swear it was, at most, 3 years old.

On the way home from shopping, I dropped by Au's Garden and ordered eight Shanghai Soup Dumplings for lunch:

First carefully microwave the dumplings to warm it.  Get a large spoon and place the morsel upside down so the soft bottom shows.  Make a small hole and pour in some of the vinegar ginger sauce, then a teaspoon of cognac.  Heavenly with beer.

Next an Okinawan pork and daikon (turnip) meal was improved by frying the pork in wagyu beef fat, then adding some natto on to the rice, served with tsukemono (Japanese pickles) and ahi sashimi on salad.  I've recently become more probiotic in my diet.

15 Craigside delivered a salmon, miso soup, rice and salad meal.

Here is my contribution:

Note the drinks:  Niigata sake, Kirin beer and a martini made from Roku gin.  Suntory makes this gin, and it's higher in botanicals like sakura and tea.

I will later today add my two major meals of this Saturday:

• Lunch:  loco moco with, a gift from a couple living here, yellow-fin tuna and abalone sashimi
• Dinner:  chicken katsu, and the rest of the sashimi

The Year is 1953:

• Hank Williams dies at the age of 29 in his car from alcohol, drugs and spina bifida occulta, on his way to a concert.
• President Harry Truman announces the U.S. has a Hydrogen Bomb.

• Pravda publishes a story alleging that many of the most prestigious physicians in the Soviet Union, mostly Jews, are part of a plot to poison the country's senior political and military leaders.  The country breaks off diplomatic relations with Israel after a bomb explodes in the Soviet Embassy.
• Marshall Tito is chosen president of Yugoslavia.

• 71% of TV sets in the U.S. tunes in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth to Little Ricky.  This record has not since been broken.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower sworn in as 34th POTUS.
• Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya.
• James Watson and Francis Crick of Cambridge announce their discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule.
• Joseph Stalin has stroke and passes away.
• Dag Hammarskjold becomes Secretary General of the UN.
• Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.
• Ian Fleming published first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.

• Mickey Mantle hits a 562-foot home run, the longest ever in Major League Baseball, till today.  However, Joey Meyer of Hawaii hit a 582-foot home run in Mile High Stadium, Denver, as a minor leaguer in 1987.  He made it to the major leagues the following year, but struck out 88 times in 103 games and hit only 11 home runs.

• Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal become the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• Queen Elizabeth II is crowned queen of the UK.  She is now in her 68th year.
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed.
• First Chevrolet Corvette.
• End of Korean War.

• Soviet Prime Minister Georgi Malenkov announces that they also have a Hydrogen Bomb.  In 1961 they explode the Tsar Bomba, an H-bomb of 50 megatons of TNT, the most powerful ever.
• The U.S. CIA helps overthrow the government of Iran, and retains Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi at the top.
• U.S. returns to West Germany 382 ships captured during WWII.
• First recognition of REM sleep.

• JFK marries Jackie Bouvier.
• Rationing of sugar ends in the UK.
• Konrad Adenauer re-elected German chancellor.

• First Playboy magazine published by Hugh Hefner.  The centerfold is Marilyn Monroe.  Copies cost 50 cents.
• VP Richard Nixon visits Iran, sparking riots.
• FCC approves color television.

Top hits of 1953 in 25 minutes.  The #1 song of the year is The Song from Moulin Rouge (Where is Your Heart).

As the focus today has been on Japanese food, here are some photos showing how the Japanese are different, and better:

Here is why Japanese people live longer:

However, Japanese men in Hawaii live longer than Japanese men in Japan?  Why?  They work too hard.  About why the country has the highest longevity, the reason is mostly the food they eat.

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