Day two of the Kinosaki Onsen retreat: heavy rain and sukiyaki LT
The first day of this retreat ended in rain, and the forecast for the second day was also heavy rain. The Otani River no longer had the usual feeling where you could see the riverbed; it had become a raging muddy stream. As a result, we spent most of the time at Kinoie.
For reference, the first-day report is here.
The highlight of the day was sukiyaki for dinner. We planned to buy the sukiyaki beef at a nearby butcher shop and eat Tajima beef. We had decided to make it Kansai style, but none of the participants had ever eaten Kansai-style sukiyaki.
We learned how to make Kansai-style sukiyaki on YouTube. Apparently, with Kansai-style sukiyaki, you first grill the beef with soy sauce and sugar and eat it. After that, you add vegetables and simmer them. Since we still did not really understand, we went to the butcher and bought Tajima beef loin and lean Japanese black beef. We did not know the amount either, so we asked for a generous amount and left it to the shop. It ended up being 300 grams per person, but we did not know whether that was a lot or not.
During the day, I thought with a notebook in hand, tried soaking in hot springs, explored a stylish area, and then bought vegetables in the evening.
Eventually dinner time came. We all began cooking nervously. First, following the steps, we put beef fat on the hot plate and tried grilling thinly sliced beef. We had planned to use soy sauce and sugar, but the butcher recommended a sauce, so we took a slight shortcut and poured that on. The meat cooked almost instantly, and each of us dipped it into a bowl with a cracked egg and tried it.
It was shockingly delicious. The sauce was charred, the meat was slightly rare, and it was both fragrant and juicy. Later, comparing it with the sukiyaki itself made me realize again that the meat grilled with only sauce poured directly on it had incredible punch. The meat from the sukiyaki version did not have as much impact as that first grilled meat. The water from the vegetables probably diluted it. I also suspect that the meat being simmered rather than charred reduced the punch.
So that night I understood very well why you first grill and eat the meat. We kept eating, and although the meat disappeared, that was where we gave up. Originally, we were supposed to add udon at the end. Even delicious meat becomes hard when there is too much, so we concluded that next time we should hold back a little.
Incidentally, last year we had crab suki hot pot, and that also became an enormous amount, so we have not learned much. Maybe food-related learning does not progress in Kinosaki.
After sukiyaki, we continued the LT session from the first day. It had enough time per person that LT almost seemed to stand for Long Talk. There was a lot of private content, so I will skip a detailed report, but I felt like I absorbed plenty of things as nourishment for my life.
Many people are doing many different things, and there was a lot to think about. I became sleepy around midnight and went to bed, but perhaps I had thought too much, because I had a nightmare and woke up around 4:00. At some point, the sound of rain had disappeared.