Sunomononononomono....

As if I don’t have enough green on my page, here’s some more green for ya. I made sunomono today! It’s a vinegary cucumber salad that probably all Japanese restaurants serve. I remember years ago when I first began eating Japanese cuisine, sunomono was one of my favorite things. One day I decided to ask the waitress how they made it. She didn’t quite seem to know herself, something with rice wine vinegar and sugar she said. At that time I wasn’t quite as ambitious with food so I just left it at that. And I was left only to enjoy this sweet, salty, crunchy, tasty delight at the restaurants. Fast forward many years later and today I am proud to say I actually made the dish that first ignited my love for Japanese food so many years ago.

Sunomono is actually really easy to make. The hardest part is getting ingredients that you may not already have such as mirin (imagine sake with less alchohol) and rice wine vinegar. The rest is a matter of measuring and stirring. I made sunomono with English cucumbers but you can also use pickling cucumbers. The regular cucumbers you usually find at the store has too high of a water content and will not be as crunchy (bleh). I actually followed the recipe from Rouxbe dot com. I just halved the recipe because I didn’t want to make so much. I also cut the cucumber into half moons instead of circles. I added a bit more sugar because I like my sunomono a little sweet. I served it along with fried gyoza.  I still can't believe how easy it is to make! Aren’t you as excited as I am?! You can all have sunomono in your fridge now! Yay for Japanese food! Yay for internet!