Mind Your Manners & Hold the Soy… {Sushi Etiquette}

Did you know there’s a right and wrong way to eat Sushi? It’s true. Temperature, speed of eating, amount of condiments used, etc. can all affect the way your delicately prepared sushi is experienced and enjoyed.

Below are some standard rules to live by while enjoying this delicious raw fish concoction, compiled by tips straight from the source: Sushi Chefs:

1) ALWAYS USE CHOPSTICKS. This should be pretty obvious, and there is NO exception to this rule. Ever. If you bring a sushi newbie to a restaurant and they grab a piece with their hands, you may need to give them a little refresher outside the public eye before they can be re-introduced in front of other sushi loving patrons.

2) Do not drown this delicacy in Soy sauce! You’re ordering this dish for a reason, right? The raw, complex flavors of fish and vegetables should not be out-shined by Soy sauce.

3) Eat the sushi in one bite. Not only does breaking it apart get messy, but it’s considered extremely bad etiquette. Good, quality sushi should always be the perfect size to enjoy in one bite (ie. tightly rolled, not overly stuffed. No Monster Rolls here.)

4) Think outside the California Roll. Diversify yourself! After you’ve tried all the run-of-the-mill rolls, get busy becoming a sushi connoisseur and opt for things you never thought you’d try before. You never know what you might like!

5) Do not drown the wasabi. Instead of adding your wasabi directly to your Soy sauce, administer it directly to the fish you are about to consume. You’ll get more bang for your buck and you won’t get a watered down version of this amazing spice.

6) Pickled ginger is a palette cleanser and should not be dipped in soy or applied directly to your sushi. Enjoy it on its own between bites.

7) Do not wait too long to eat your sushi. Eat as quickly as is comfortable for you in order to not disrupt the taste by the change in temperature.

These are just the basics, folks. Eating sushi is not like eating anything else; it is a journey, an absolute culinary treat from start to finish. So remember the rules the next time you’re at Moksa, and see if it makes your sushi dining experience a life-changing one. And don’t forget! All You Can Eat Sushi starts here at Moksa next Monday night @ 5pm and every Monday night until we think you’ve sufficiently gorged yourself 🙂

 

Giving Thanks…and dumplings.

               

 

Thank you Boston Marathon Runners and Crew! Thank you for your bravery, commitment, and dedication to rising above and preparing to represent this amazing city this Marathon Monday, one year after the attempt was made to break us down.

This weekend, Moksa restaurant is celebrating your strength and showing our thanks by giving away a free order of Pork or Vegetable Gyoza to Marathon Runners and staff with the purchase of another food item. Valid from this Thursday, April 18 until we close our doors on Monday, April 21 at 1am, when you show your valid runner tag, staff tag, or registration documents you will receive our gratitude in the form of warm little pockets of love! Dumplings = LOVE.

We will also have Sapporo draft specials all weekend long through Monday, and we’ll be showing the race on all our screens. We look forward to rooting on all the brave runners who have trained so hard and fought so much adversity to do what they love, for a city that they love. We hope this small token of appreciation will show that although we won’t be running next to you, we always stand with you. BOSTON STRONG.

 

 

 

The Meaning of “Moksa”…

 

As a loyal customer to Moksa, or even as someone just passing by our restaurant, have you ever wondered what exactly Moksa means?

Moksha (Sanskrit; मोक्ष mokṣa) means emancipation, liberation, or release. In a psychological sense, Moksha promotes freedom, self-realization and self-knowledge. Some people tirelessly strive to achieve Moksha their entire lives…

 

In Hinduism, Moksha is one of the four aspects and goals of overall human life; the other three are Dharma (virtuous, proper, moral life), Artha, (material prosperity, income security, means of life), and Kama (pleasure, sensuality, emotional fulfillment). Together, these four aims of life are called Purusartha.

The definition and meaning of Moksha differs between various schools of Indian religion. It is not just the absence of suffering; some schools of Hinduism explain Moksha as the oneness with the Supreme Self in a state of knowledge and peace, a way to believe that the Earth is part of you, and you can rise above violence, misunderstanding, and ignorance from others in it.

Among the Samkhya, Yoga and Vedanta schools of Hinduism, if you are lucky enough to reach Moksha, you are called a jivanmukta (self-realized person). Such a liberated individual shows characteristics such as:

• he is not bothered by disrespect and endures cruel words, treats others with respect regardless of how others treat him
• when confronted by an angry person he does not return anger, instead replies with soft and kind words
• even if tortured, he speaks and trusts the truth
• he does not crave for blessings or expect praise from others

So…in this crazy world we live in, how does one achieve Mokhsa? Two great ways, even if only temporary,  are through daily Yoga and Meditation; being as close as possible to your internal self and releasing the stress of the external world. But we think another great way is walking through our doors, sitting down with friends, and leaving the stress and madness of the day behind you. Our hope at Moksa is that you will feel content, happy, and secure with the decision you’ve made once you come in to see us. LIBERATION & LIBATION…are there two better reasons?

Sunshine Wishes, Patio Dreams…

“Summertime…and the livin’s easy…”

We are REALLY excited that Winter is over and patio weather is on the horizon – who’s with us?! Ignore those last few brown and crusty snowbanks on the roadsides that just refuse to die – Summer. Is. Coming.

In honor of our love of Vitamin D and our gratitude for surviving one of the worst Winters in years, we at Moksa are throwing a celebration to commemorate this long-awaited season in the only way we know how – by throwing a party. And you’re invited.

Save the date! On April 28, join us for sun (fingers crossed), fun, food, booze, and entertainment, Moksa-style. We will be hosting an Asian Barbecue, grilling items to order (who else has an outdoor open kitchen? BAM!), serving up tunes to make you bob your head and chair-dance, and mixing craft cocktails to get you in a Summertime frame of mind…

We’ll have some exciting additions & changes to our patio this season, and we can’t wait for you to see. Besides our daily patio lunch and dinner service, this outdoor space will be available for private events and family-style dining.

We want you to feel like you’re somewhere else, a land far far away where snow shovels and parking bans don’t exist. Where everyday is a vacation and every night is date night.

So break out the flip flops, embrace the sock bun, and get ready for hot days and warm nights on Central Square’s best patio.

 

Getting ‘Jjigae’ with it

Sometimes, the puns just write themselves.

 

Order jjigae while it’s a special at Moksa, if only to have the pleasure of pronouncing it (gee-gay).  The stew is the cornerstone of a traditional Korean meal, a staple of the emperor’s table since at least the 12th century. Its great flavor comes from its complexity. In one bowl, you’ll experience a harmonious medley of ingredients you might never have heard of.

Photo courtesy of wikipedia commons

Our chef walks us through his take on seafood jjigae. Quality kimchee is crucial for the dish, so cabbage gets fermented in a spicy brine for a few days beforehand. The stew has a base of clam broth that’s been seasoned with gochujang, a fermented red chili paste. It’s not seafood jjigae without shrimp, mussels, and clams! Enoki mushrooms, glass noodles, and diced tofu are also thrown into the mix.

Jjigae is traditionally served along with other dishes and shared. The obvious choice at Moksa are the ribs with tamarind glaze. We also recommend the wonderful Naruto roll. Every bite is a delightful mix of tuna, salmon, crabstick, tobiko, and avocado wrapped in cucumber.

 

The Daily Dumpling

The pierogi of Poland.  The manti of Turkey. The pantruca of Chile. A dumpling by any other name tastes just as great!

At Moksa there’s a new dumpling in town.

The momo hails from Nepal and gets its name from a Chinese loanword meaning “steamed bread.” Probably brought over by traders from nearby Tibet, they were originally filled with water buffalo meat. Moksa’s take is stuffed with cabbage, carrots, scallions, sesame, cilantro, potato, garlic, ginger, and curry. They get steamed to perfection, and are served with a tangy tomato chutney.

The momo joins our dumpling lineup, where many Asian varieties are represented.

Shumai comes from the term for “on the side.” But with its beautiful garnish of fish roe, these gorgeous shrimp dumplings can certainly be the star of a meal! And if you have some leftover, you can enjoy them like they do in Huhhot, Mongolia: for breakfast!

Japanese pork and vegetable gyoza are great with miso soup. These pot stickers get their browned bottoms and complex taste from the magic of a Malliard reaction. Then water gets added to the pan, steaming the little packets of deliciousness.

We also get creative in the kitchen. Check out these green dumplings, filled with edamame!

In China, dumplings are eaten to celebrate the New Year because they symbolize wealth (since they’re shaped like gold ingots). But whenever you eat them, you’ll agree that they’re rich in flavor!

Ramen Rundown

Happy National Noodle Month!

You’ve probably already booked your ticket to visit Japan’s ramen museum and rented Brittany Murphy’s finest work, The Ramen Girl.

And what better way to enjoy the occasion than with a bowl of pure steaming comfort?

Miso happy!

Noodle dishes have a long, slurpable pedigree in Asia, migrating from China to Japan.  Atop the base of hearty noodles (“lamain” means “hand-pulled” in Chinese, probably giving the dish its name) a lot of great ingredients give great contrast in taste and texture. Ramen bars and carts are a staple of the Japanese food scene, with each region showcasing their own twist on the dish.

During post-war hunger shortages, businessman Momofuku Ando experimented with flash-frying wheat noodles for easy consumption. Ando’s company Nissan introduced Cup Noodles to the United States in the 1970s, for anyone who could boil water to”enjoy.”

Ando ate them daily, which he claimed let him live to 96.

Ramen really took off in America in 2004 when David Chang opened the first great New York ramen bar, named Momofoku after the noodle pioneer.

Want some reasons to not settle for the 89 cent version from the convenience store? Fantastic enoki mushrooms. Sweet corn. Shredded sea vegetables. Roasted pork. Boiled egg. Slices of pink-edged cured fish called komoboku. Miso gives the distinctive unami, or savory taste to the broth. Ramen should be a experience, greater the sum of its parts.

No more Cup Noodles!

Come in for a bowl: it’s the culinary equivalent of a warm blanket on a cold day!

How to Speak Sushi

Sushi. It’s what’s for dinner. And lunch. And your next catering order, if you know what’s good for you.

“Don’t be afraid…It’s like a taco of seaweed and rice.” -Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto

A sushi menu can literally and figuratively be a foreign language. But as Iron Chef Morimoto said, sushi is nothing to be scared of. You don’t need a textbook, just some chopsticks.

Tuna, salmon, yellowtail, and eel.

In sushi, rice seasoned with sweet vinegar and any number of fresh ingredients all get wrapped up in a seaweed sheet called nori. And the options go far beyond raw or cooked fish. Creative examples include our NomNomRoll: sweet potato, cream cheese, cucumber, mango, avocado, and Sriracha sauce.

The NomNom Roll was recently
BostInno’s Dish of the Week.

Or maybe you’re low-carbing it. The true carnivore can enjoy sashimi, which is thinly sliced meat that ranges from tuna to eel to yellowtail. Traditionally, sashimi is served as a first course, great paired with our pickled vegetables or miso soup.

Yellowtail sashimi, topped with garlic and chives and garnished with seaweed.

Here’s some more vocab:

Maki: rolled with seasoned rice

Uramaki: inside-out rolls

Temaki-Sushi – Hand rolled cones containing rice and toppings

Inari: soy poached tofu

Oshinko: pickled daikon radish

Tobiko:  flying fish roe

(it gives great texture to our popular Spider Roll and Shrimp Tempura Roll)

Tempura: fried in batter

Yasai: fresh vegetables

Gari: Sweet, pickled and sliced ginger

Yaki: grilled item

Unagi: freshwater eel

Ebi – shrimp

Hamachi: young yellowtail

Hotate-Gai: scallops

Kani – crab

Otemoto: chopsticks

Bento: box with small compartments to hold parts of a meal

 

Sushi art.

Congrats, you’ve graduated from sushi school! Command respect at the table when you confidently go beyond the classic (and delicious) California roll.

Musings on Masala Chai

You might have gotten acquainted with the beverage at Starbucks, a box of Equal Exchange’s fine blend, or drank it as a perfect end to a great feast at Shanti. Whether from boxed concentrate or brewed from a bag, it’s delicious.

stock photo

‘Chai,’ originating from the Chinese word for tea, has diffused across several languages. Traditionally, leaves were grown and dried in South Asia for their Ayverdic medicinal properties.

But things really got brewing on the  subcontinent around the year 1900 when the British wanted to break the Chinese monopoly on the drink, and grew it extensively in their Indian colony.

all the players in an authentic cup. Image credit mooji.org

The real stuff isn’t made from a bag or box, but comes from a decoction of all the ingredients in a pot of water. Chai gullahs sell their own special brews, and Indian households have their own mix of cardamon, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and pepper. The difference in quality has to be tasted to be believed.

And now you’ll have your chance to do so. Once again, Chef Andy is showing us how take a culinary favorite back to our own kitchens in the second installment of the Cooking Class series. I can’t wait because, like the high tea time that’s enjoyed in India, attendees will get to enjoy pakoras and samosas along with their homemade beverage.

Steep yourself in more tea facts across the web and bookstores:

http://www.chai-tea.org/whatisit.html

Thrifty Amiga

Highlights from Monday night. Creative Mex-Asian bites from Chef Suzu included tuna-nori tacos, curried beans, and kimchee tamales. Enthusiastic movie goers dug in. Loving the hiking backpack full of blankets and pillows!

This Saturday, I thought small. Specifically, I patted myself on the back for all the local purchases I made in the spirit of Small Business Saturday. Instead of firing off my go to two-shot one-pump vanilla latte at Starbucks, for instance, I exchanged pleasantries with my baristo atToscanini’s.  This is a kinder kind of capitalism.

I also hit up Boomerangs in Cambridge in preparation for the screening of the 3 Amigos last night. I had a mustache contest to win, and I really slacked off this Movember.

This song was stuck in my head the whole time at Boomerangs.

The first rule of thrifting is to never expect to find the thing you’re specifically thrifting for. If I had been looking for a fall coat and pleated scarf, for instance, I definitely would have discovered the sombrero and poncho I was seeking. Alas, no mariachi bands had broken up recently.

I made out like a bandit while thrifting. Speaking of: Brian from Angels Envy, Curtis from William Grant Portfolio, and our very own Bar Manager Tyler were dressed the part.

I hadn’t seen the cult classic The Three Amigos. So I dutifully researched beforehand. And couldn’t stop laughing.

You won’t be able to replicate our big screen experience, with Tyler’s creative cocktail (called Son of a Motherless Goat) in hand. At least do yourself the service of renting the movie now. You might even be able to find it in the bargain bin of your neighborhood thrift shop. Get a blanket from Boomerangs, where all proceeds from your fashionable purchases go to the AIDS Action Committee of MA, Inc; the nonprofit is dedicated to providing resources and  preventing the spread of the epidemic.