ウド：鬼さんとの山遊び
またやって来た、編集室の窓から覗いてくる大森の優しい鬼、鬼さん。
今日は特別にニコニコしている、何かいいことを教えに来たのに違いない。
「いそがしいか？ウドを取りに行こうか、仙ノ山にたくさんあるで〜」
ウド？なんか聞いたことあるな〜なんだっけ？山菜っぽい感じがする。採りに行きたい、でも仕事が。。。いくら自由な編集室でもいきなり山遊びはできないよな〜
「じゃあお昼後にするけ〜」
早速、お昼にウドを採ることになった。
「キンコーンカーンコーン」
お昼のチャイムを一緒に鬼さんが編集室にまた来てくれた。なんか手に持ってる笑
「これうまいけ、ほれ、おまえさんもたべてみんさい」渡してくれたビニールの袋からはイカめしが出て来た！鬼さんはとにかく優しい。
よく見るとイカのゲソをつかんでいた。
鬼さんは、歯がちょっと少ないのがチャームポイント、だからイカめしを食べるために口の片方だけがもぐもぐしている。
鬼さんは仙ノ山によく遊びにくるみたいだから、道のくぼみをなどをスイスイと軽トラで避けて山を登って行く。
てっぺんに着くと、鬼さんは早速棒みたいなものを軽トラの後ろから取り出す。押しても切れる、引いても切れるホームセンターで買える雑草の根っこなどを取ることのできる道具らしい。棒の先にはフック型の刃物がついている。めちゃべんりだから今度買ってみよう。
ウドは冬に枯れて、春に地面の下にある芋のような根っこから新芽が伸びてくる。鬼さんはその枯れた幹を探してその周りを掘って新芽と根っこがつながっているところを上手に切る。
ウドを切るとふわっとミョウガのような爽やかな香りが周囲に広まる。
３０分ぐらい黙々と集めていたらかなり採れた！
早速その夜天ぷらにしてたべてみた。大森にいるとお昼に山菜採り、夜はそれを食べる。。。最高！
味を説明してみるとアスパラガスとミョウガを足して二で割ったような感じ。
茎は柔くて少し甘い、そして噛むとウドの爽やかな風味が口から鼻へ抜けていく。
今度はピクルスとか作ってみてサラダの上にでも乗せてみたいし、なんとなく生で刺身と一緒カルパッチョ風に食べても美味しそうな感じがする！
今度は、鬼さんは何を取りに連れて行ってくれるかな〜？
While I work at my office, I see a familiar face looking through the window. It’s the nicest ogre of Omori, One-san. He was grinning while he came into the office, so I had a feeling that he had something to tell us.
“Wanna go get some Udo with me in the mountains?”
Not sure what Udo was, but I had a feeling it was some plant’s new buds that were good for eating during the spring. I really wanted to go, but I had work so I asked him if we could go during lunch.
The bell for lunch rings in the town, and Oni-san once again appears at my office to take me up the mountain.
When I walk in he was holding something in hands and hands me a plastic bag with something in it. When I look inside of the bag, I see Ikameshi which is simmered squid with rice stuffed inside of them. Again proving that he is actually just the nicest person in Omori. When I look closer at Oni-san’s hands he was actually holding boiled squid legs!
Oni-san kinda lacks teeth on one side of his mouth so its a little entertaining watch him fight the squid inside of his mouth. All adds to his charming character.
Oni-san seems to go to the mountains frequently so he smoothly navigates the mountain roads dodging the little bumps and holes in the road.
When we arrive at the top of the mountain, Oni-san pulls out a metal stick looking thing with a hooked blade at the top. Apparently this is a little tool used to dig out weed from the ground. You can essentially push with the top of the blade to cut roots as well as cutting while pulling with the hooked blade.
The Udo plant withers during the winter and in the spring its potato like root shouts new shoots that poke out of the ground. Oni-san expertly finds these little patches of the Udo plant and digs around the little sprouts. He then uses his tool cut where the scouts and root meet.
When he cuts the sprouts, the fresh scent of Japanese Ginger or myoga spreads around in the area. We scavenged around for about 30 minutes and were able to find a bunch of them!
I love being able to go scavenging for quality ingredients during lunch time, and being able to cook them for dinner the same day.
Udo is known as mountain asparagus in English, and as the name implies it tastes like asparagus with the fragrance of Japanese ginger. The stem is slightly sweet and as you chew the fragrance of Japanese ginger leaves through your nose. I feel like this will be super yummy as pickles or even on top of carpaccio.
I wonder where Oni-san will take me next time!