Thursday, June 29, 2017

Tsukemono


Kid time, I swear we used to call tsukemono "kon kon" (こんこん), but I can't find any reference to "kon kon" anywhere. I did find "ko ko" referring to takuan, but that's the closest I ever got.

I think I could just eat kon kon and rice for a meal. No need anything else. And it seems that lately, even if I don't eat rice, I still like to have my kon kon.

I made the cucumber tsukemono below using a powder that I previously blogged about here. I originally thought that it was too potent for me, but I actually like it a lot.

For the won bok, I just salted it and pressed in my tsukemono press. I add a little bit of shoyu before eating . . . very simple. 

The lower right kyuri tsukemono I bought from Marukai. It's made in California and is kinda expensive . . . around $5 for a small tray. It's not as spicy as it looks. I like the taste and the crunch.

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12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ohhh...you have me craving for tsukemono! They all look delicious.

Izsmom

Unknown said...

Jalna, your posts really bring back memories of when we were kids in Kapaa. We also used the term "kon kon" generically in referring to tsukemono. I also remember the term "ko ko". My grandma from Honolulu introduced us to kim chee sandwiches when she came to visit -- kim chee between 2 slices of white bread with mayonnaise. We loved it. Poor kids nowdays - don't know what their memories will be.

Honolulu Aunty said...

We used to call our tsukemono "ko ko". My mom used to make it with the tsukemono press. So did my mother-in-law. They would put the burnt part of the rice from the rice cooker in the press with the cabbage or wonbok.

Only thing is, now with the perfect rice cookers, rice cooks evenly and I don't have burnt rice anymore. Ah well. Maybe I'll try again one of these days.

Anonymous said...

We didn't eat much tsukemono when we were kids but we did eat takuwan which we called kon kon. Your tsukemono looks delicious! ~e

Susan said...

I love tsukemono, I think I've said that on your blog several times : ) I like how you can kon kon just about any vegetable, maybe some may just need a quick steam or dunk in hot water before seasoning it. And yeah, I can eat it with hot rice without meat too!

K and S said...

yummy...we called it ko ko, but I know some people who say kon kon, so it might be a dialect thing, where your ancestors are from.

Chet Colson said...

Tsukemono( I believe) like kimchee, has probiotics for good gut health. I not a rice eater either, if I do eat it, it's brown rice.

jalna said...

LOL, Izsmom!

Ooooh Lorna, I used to love kim chee sandwiches.

Honolulu Aunty, I read about using burnt rice!

E, I think mostly it was takuwan and rakyo back in the day for us. And we called it "rankyo".

You too, Susan! Cool!

I think you're right, Kat.

Ooooh Chet, I wish I didn't like rice so much. But even just watching people on those Japanese programs on TV shoveling huge portions of rice into their mouths makes me ono for it.

Kay said...

Oh yum!

Leslie's pics said...

mee too. I can eat that for days. My cucumber lasted 2 days i think!!

Anonymous said...

j: My Japan born mom called it kon kon too...maybe that's the correct term and the locals here adapted it? Like bocha for bathing, it's a local Japanese slang. I never heard of it until I learned it from local born Japanese. I remember mom mentioning that the Japanese spoken here is accented differently. To me it all sounded alike but to her ears it was very different. But then she could tell city born versus country born Japanese too. -N

mmiissee said...

ooooh, yummy! I love tsukemono.