Thursday, December 8, 2016

Slicing finger nail

I was doing very thin slice of green onion, and my finger nail was sliced off instead of the green onion.
I was very lucky, and the small portion of the finger nail is totally came off, and it is kind of soar, but no blood came out.

I usually do not sharpen too much, but this yanagiba is often used as natural medium grit and fine grit stone try-out exams, so it was very sharp.

I have experienced cutting my finger tips very deeply like almost cutting through 1/4 or 1/3 of fingers several times, and every times, I felt I do not want to work this job (cook) anymore, and I also thank God to give us finger nails. If we do not have finger nails, it is much easier to reach the finger bone or cut it off.

I have never seen someone lost the finger during the jobs, but I have heard many sushi chefs lost fingers, and they left their jobs, because sushi chef does not have a finger making sushi in front of customers making scare the customers. It sounds joking, but it is serious story.

The most of people cut off fingers have done with cutting frozen ingredients.

It is slippery and hard, so we should leave a half day or over night in refrigerator or if we do not have time, use running water or micro oven to be at least making it little softer.

It is good thing to put on clean towel between cutting board and the frozen ingredient to prevent the slip.

One of my boss used to always tell me "do not sharpen the knife all the time".

"Try to cut the ingredient by guts or fighting spirit"

He had sharpened his honyaki yanagiba once 2 or 3 months.
It is hard to understand, but if I translate it, we should cut it by technique and concentration, etc.  If we sharpen it, we have to sharpen really good.

Once we cut finger deeply with very sharp blade, it is hard to stop the breeding for at least a half an hour, so we cannot stand in front of the customers until stop it.

Especially, really busy time, over control the orders, it is happened.
In that situation, it is mentally screwed up before cutting fingers.

It is going to be very big trouble after cut the finger, so I think that at sushi bar, we need the sashimi knife that is sharp, but not cut into the finger by light touch or hit.

When I had worked sushi restaurant in Ikebukuro, Tokyo about over 20 years ago, there are so many sushi chefs work in the sushi restaurant, because the restaurants had several different locations.

One of sushi chef probably age 60 years old or older is very popular sushi chef among customers, but his yanagiba is stainless steel cheap Yanagiba, and it was very dull edge, but he is very charming and very fun to talk with him, so he was popular, but young chefs laughed at his knife.

He did not care for how dull the knife, and he sliced the fish with the dull knife more like slicing as sharp edge knife.

Recently, I worry about many people or retailers showing how sharp the blade edge to slicing tomato or round onion as sharpened extremely sharp edge, but even $20 cheap knife can make very sharp.
More important thing is how long it lasts, and how easy to sharpen.

 Be careful your fingers during using sharp edge knife!

Yes, I will so.

Thank you.

 

Friday, September 30, 2016

Masashi Kobo is looking for helper

Masashi Kobo is established in 2013.

Mr. Masashi Yamamoto had worked Yoshikane as one of three blacksmith until December 2012.
His older brother took over Yoshikane business, and Mr. Masashi Yamamoto started on his own business (Masashi Kobo) from the scratch.

It has been about three years now, and my orders has made over 8 months ago, but I have not got them yet, so his business is so busy, and he needs a helper to make productive volume larger.
He is looking for someone under 30 years old.  I guess that it will take many years to be a blacksmith, and younger person learns faster and stronger (blacksmith is very hard work).

Mr. Masashi Yamamoto is able to make lots of variety knives, and he makes from scratch like forge welding the soft iron and the steel.
He is also sharpening wheel whetstones to hand sharpening.
His finish of the blade is also very beautiful.
If we want to be a blacksmith, I guess that he is the one to learn.

Overall, he is very skillful blacksmith.

If I am still 20 something years old, definitely,  I want to learn from him.

I guess that we cannot get working visa as an apprentice in Japan, but if someone is able to stay and work in Japan legally, it is great place to learn the blacksmith skill.

If you really want to get the job, please let me know it.

I will let him know it.





Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Dragon Fruit flower bud

Two years ago, I got some pieces of branches of dragon fruit (without root) from my ex-boss who owned Izakaya restaurant in Honolulu. The flower bud is getting bigger now, and it had last year too, but it fell apart before opened the flower.  Hopefully, it will get fruit in this time.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

A huge tree



I do not know even the name of the tree, but it is very common tree in Hawaii.
It is a huge and wide tree.  The roots come down from the branches and getting wider and wider.

If it is in neighborhood, kids always would play around there.  I guess that it is too big for own yard.

It was a hot day afternoon,  but it was very cool under the tree.

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Beech Wood Cover for Aritsugu Santoku Japanese Chef Knife

I have got beech lumber from my ex-boss who is cabinet maker a couple months ago, and he told me that it should be great wood for cooking knife handle and wood cover, so I tried to make it.

It is heavy wood like hard maple (hard wood).  It might be little heavier than even hard maple.
It is hard wood, so it is not easy to cut and sand, but it is clean look and it is easy to keep on accurate shape, and it is very nice wood pattern.  I love it all.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Shobu Suita Japanese natural sharpening stone



http://aframestokyo.com/shobu-suita-japanese-natural-stone-1188g--21188210.html
I have got this Shobu kiita as Shobu iromono (kiita), but to check it out the four sides of layers, it has suita layers that might be included in renge or momiji.

Monday, March 21, 2016

Cherry Blossom in Nagoya


horsetail



We eat it as early spring taste in Japan