Friday, June 6, 2008

Garlic! Living in a Japanese "Italian Kitchen" in Nature




My village is famous in Japan for growing garlic. Next week the garlic in the fields around where I live will all be harvested. I happened to catch the farmers that grow the garlic right behind my house... Japanese country living truly is awesome!
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

21 comments:

  1. jo la ranitaJune 6, 2008 at 5:16 AM

    interesting i like your accent in japanease!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jose IglesiasJune 6, 2008 at 5:17 AM

    Cool...You're getting better at keeping it to the point. Is there a way you can get the translation to play over the footage thaqt's being discussed?. Does your software allow you to "layer" so you can place your voice over accordingly?. go out there and shoot the harvesting. BTW..did you pay for that garlic?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cameron SwitzerJune 6, 2008 at 5:55 AM

    JI - Nope. My software does not allow layering. And I have not found any in a reasonable price that do, either. I got it for free. What are you drinking, anyway?

    ReplyDelete
  4. kristen nagelJune 6, 2008 at 6:57 AM

    Asian cuisine uses much more garlic then italian, we tend to use more fragrant herb's in our dishes, we do use some but not so much that its coming out of our pores and on our breath such as the case with alot of Asian people Ive noticed. . Also in central California we have a town called Gilroy that grows alot of garlic and everyear they have a garlic festival they serve all kinds of innovative dishes using garlic, even garlic ice cream.

    Its nice that they gave you that beautiful garlic for free , they were very generous with their harvest. Try roasting a whole head ,with olive oil its absolutely delicious the garlic will get soft and taste sweet.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cameron SwitzerJune 6, 2008 at 7:05 AM

    Kristen - Yes, if only we could roast here.... I did learn from my italian friend how to cook bruschetta, and to make the toast, then take the peeled garlic cloves and rub them back and forth over the abrasive toast until the garlic disappears. Then to add tomatoes and basil on top. Yum!

    Also, I gave some away and she said that they love to just take an entire head and deep fry it (they do a lot of deep frying in Japan, in the homes, too so it's easy for Japanese to do.

    Thanks for the suggestions!

    ReplyDelete
  6. kristen nagelJune 6, 2008 at 7:10 AM


    You dont have an oven or toaster oven or anything that resembles that????

    ReplyDelete
  7. Linda MJune 6, 2008 at 1:09 PM

    Yummy!!!!!!!!

    Oh, and the garlic too....

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cameron SwitzerJune 6, 2008 at 2:14 PM

    I am transfering these comments over from the blog that popped up while I was asleep. If only it would have happened while I was awake I could have deleted it!

    Robin Wrote: My friend Damon smokes all kinds of stuff - when the garlic is ready at farmers market I am going to get him to smoke me some braids. Takes about 40 hours, but OH MY GOD! It is to die for!

    Carrie Wrote: garlic
    right in the same catagory as
    BACON!!!

    Jen Wrote: That would make a neat ristra, or garlic braid.

    I should have tried some again this year. The one other time i tried i had poor results.

    Nice post, Sweety.

    ReplyDelete
  9. kristen nagelJune 6, 2008 at 2:20 PM


    I cant even begin to imagine the STENCH that would make!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. jen adamoJune 6, 2008 at 2:30 PM

    Mmmmm... delicious stench!

    Love the garlic... i do!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Cameron SwitzerJune 6, 2008 at 2:36 PM

    Kristen - Not to do an entire head, no. But we have peeled out the individule cloves and toasted them in the past so that they are buttery soft, then spread them on toast.

    ReplyDelete
  12. kristen nagelJune 6, 2008 at 2:37 PM

    Okay does he smoke the garlic or smoke it as in drying it out and smoking it in a makeshift joint?....its been a long day.

    ReplyDelete
  13. kristen nagelJune 6, 2008 at 2:38 PM

    Try the entire head, you can actually get ceramic dishes with lids perfect for this or you can wrap the entire head in tinfoil and then roast it

    ReplyDelete
  14. Robin :)June 6, 2008 at 2:46 PM

    Smoking garlic in a smoker over a low, smoky flame for approx. 40 hours. The taste is out of this world!

    Don't know how you'd get garlic to light...

    ReplyDelete
  15. kristen nagelJune 6, 2008 at 2:51 PM

    I dont know either but your smoked garlic sounds really good, Id love to put some of it in a roast chicken and sausage and onion dish, Or add it to some Red potaoes, sweet potato's red bell peppers , red onions and smoked garlic, what that could bring to the rest of the dish!!!!

    Or even better a pork loin or a leg of lamb with some rosemary!!!, Mmmmm!!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Robin :)June 6, 2008 at 4:11 PM

    I am going to make some roasted tomato chutney with smoked garlic. We had some from the garlic farm on the Isle of Wight and it was absolutely incredible! YUMMY!!!

    ReplyDelete
  17. kristen nagelJune 6, 2008 at 5:11 PM

    Oh that sounds lovely!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Julie CoweJune 10, 2008 at 10:54 AM

    The farmer had an amazing, deep voice. I bet a garlic field does smell a million times better than a field of cabbage or brussels sprouts.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Sharon Mahoney-LecouteurSeptember 10, 2008 at 7:04 AM

    Yeah I loved his voice he sounds like he should be in movies lol , Yummm garlic , it almost looks like onions, You must tell us what you did with it , did you have to hang it up and let it dry off and wither before you cut the tops off like we do with onions ? Everyone seems so friendly there !!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Cameron SwitzerSeptember 10, 2008 at 7:45 AM

    We gave a bunch of it away, Sharon. Ate some, froze some, and some are still sitting in the shed.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Cameron SwitzerSeptember 10, 2008 at 7:45 AM

    P.S. If we are friendly, then those around us become friendly. It's how the universe works.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)