Asian American/Canadian
Hijiki: Surprise in Guanajuato
I haven’t had hijiki in about 5 years. In fact, I might have cooked up some of the last hijiki in Canada. Okay, that’s probably an overstatement - others probably had a better inventory than I did. I don’t think my parents were the only ones who squirreled stuff away, bought a lot on sale, and generally liked to keep a cushion of stuff in the house, a trait I share. Think I once read that holocaust survivors had that tendency, and I wonder if the uprooting and internment of Japanese Canadians - albeit a less devastating event - had a similar effect. But back to the present - last week, I again had hijiki, in a lovely little restaurant in Guanajuato, in the highlands of colonial Mexico. What a delightful surprise - both the restaurant and the hijiki.
Pacific northwest autumn fare:
Halibut and matsutake
I’ve been away from the website, getting ready for a road trip. Before we left, I vowed to eat through our deep freeze. Top of the list was the halibut I bought this fall from a fisherman in Richmond. Each fish was tagged, weighed and the sale recorded in a notebook. Len filleted our 32 pound fish….
Low-carb moment of truth:
How’s that cholesterol level?
In January, my doctor said that my LDL (low density lipid) levels were too high - a known risk for heart and cardiovascular disease. He suggested statin medication. I immediately countered by asking for a reprieve - I wanted to try drastically cutting my carbs to see if my blood lipids fell. I had read the autobiographical stories of Dr. Richard K. Bernstein (Type 1 diabetes) and Dr. Jay Wortman (Type 2 diabetes), how their cholesterol dropped with their blood glucose on ultra low carb diets. Right after that doctor’s visit, eight months ago, I eliminated all sugars including honey, molasses and maple syrup. I no longer ate grains in any form - no more whole wheat flatbreads on the BBQ, pasta, cookies, brownies, flour, organic brown rice, barley soup, oatmeal. No more corn including cornmeal, polenta, cob corn or cornstarch. I stopped eating legumes and pulses including dosa, dal, black bean chile, humus, edamame (fresh soy beans) and puy lentil salad. I ate more protein and a lot more fat, nuts, avocado, eggs (whites and whole), and whipping cream, so much so that Doug dubs it the whipped cream diet. I could see from daily finger pricks that my blood sugar was down. Instead of morning numbers in the range of 6.5 to 7.5 mmol/L (117 to 135 mg/dL), I was generally in the mid-5s to mid-6s (99 to117 mg/dL) . Thus, it was not surprising that my A1C was down a little from 6.4% to 6.2%, closer to the 4.5 to 6.0% range which is considered normal. What I was really worried about was my cholesterol while eating all that fat, much of it saturated. Well, after 8 months of low carb living, the results are in.
Truth or Fiction:
Rice is a traditional Japanese food
I always assumed that my ancestors were rice-eaters, and that rice was naturally good for me. We ate mashed potatoes with our turkey at Christmas - a dutiful interpretation of the mainstream holiday. A few hours later, mom clicked on the ricecooker. Over time, Mom gave up, and eventually, we could skip the mashed potatoes and go straight to the Japanese rice and gravy - the best part of those celebratory days. It made sense - Japanese have eaten rice pretty much forever, right? Only recently have I wondered, exactly when “forever” began. In grade school, we learned that agriculture began near the Euphrates River, transforming hunter-gatherers into farmers around 10,000 years ago. What was happening in Japan, where my ancient ancestors were figuring it out? Turns out that rice was a latecomer to the table of my progenitors.
A New Leaf for 2009 - an ultra-low carb diet
I am not one for making New Years Resolutions, but this year, I’ve found myself embarking on a new diet. It was a recent blood test that sent me searching for a new path. My low-density lipoprotein (LDL) was high, at almost 4.5. For someone with diabetes, the lab report and College of Family Physicians of Canada recommend it stay below 2.0, to reduce the risk of heart disease.
Asian American? You may be fatter than you think!
While I was aiming for a BMI of 25, it turns out that someone moved the goalposts for Asian Americans.
I am a carb addict
Growing up in Toronto, we ate gohan every second day, Japanese rice, that is. Everything tasted better with rice, including canned salmon, and cold roast beef, and Christmas turkey with gravy. I loved rice, and would eat many bowls. In my vegetarian phase, rice and other grains formed the base of my food pyramid. That seemed to be the concensus for eating well - lots of grains on the bottom, and other stuff on top. Little did I know that I was feeding my addiction.
Gravlax
I am enjoying a small forest of volunteer dill plants in my garden this summer. Here is a dry-cured salmon which calls for a handful of dill. It is a delicious way to enjoy salmon over a period of days, up to a week, especially handy if your household is small.
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