Blog from the Future Past

Pearl Harbor Day is a major family holiday for us. It's the only 'day' both our cultures have in common.

When the war ended, my Dad was in Manila, staging for the million-man invasion of the Japanese home islands, while my future mother-in-law, a middle-school student, was being trained to charge the American invaders with a sharpened stick.

In honor of what might have been, but never was, what better dish to celebrate the day than the cultural synthesis of Pot Roast Japonaise.

A few years ago some friends from Japan were in town for a business trip and we invited them over for dinner. I suggested we have a pot roast (the high end kind described in the addendum to this article), sort of easy to make and bullet-proof even for the inevitably inebriated chef. May suggested I make it with "a Japanese taste".

I came up with a cool compromise, taking some hints from, well of course Sukiyaki; plus a related beef, potato and onion soup/stew. I've tinkered with the recipe over the years, but on that first try I somehow nailed all the basics, meaning it all came out pretty much as planned.