April 18, 2016
RECIPE / A.C.E.
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 13
A.C.E. CALENDAR
Continued from page 12
created in response to a car bombing on Baghdad’s ancient
booksellers’ street on March 5, 2007. A discussion follows the
poetry reading. For info, call (503) 786-7580 or visit <www.
milwaukieoregon.gov>.
“Decked-Out”
RICE REPLACEMENT. Smoked Salmon and Parsnip “Rice” Sushi
Rolls are seen in Concord, New Hampshire. Finely chopped and sea-
soned raw parsnips can make a surprisingly delicious alternative to
traditional sushi rice. (AP Photo/J.M. Hirsch)
Can parsnip “rice” sushi hold
its own against the real deal?
By J.M. Hirsch
AP Food Editor
H
YDE PARK, N.Y. — As hauntingly good recipes
go, anything with parsnips as the main
ingredient seems an unlikely candidate. Except
for this one.
During a recent meal at Pangea, a so-called “vegetable-
forward” student-run restaurant on the campus of The
Culinary Institute of America, I was served a sushi roll
made entirely from vegetables. The “salmon” was an
amazing rendition made from slices of tomato. I know. I
was just as dubious. Until I ate it. The rice? Made from
finely chopped and seasoned raw parsnips. I know. I was
just as dubious. Until I ate it.
Let me put it this way: I’m a happy carnivore and I love
real — really good — sushi. But these rolls were so good,
I’d gladly eat them at a legit sushi bar. In fact, I’ll go as far
as to say, I’d gladly have traded the entirety of the rest of
my meal for multiple orders of this sushi. So kudos to the
students (and no doubt their hardworking instructors) for
nailing this dish.
In the weeks following the meal, I found myself wishing
I had more of that sushi. So I decided to see whether it
could be reproduced at home. Because as lovely as the
school’s campus is, most of us can’t get there just for the
vegetable sushi.
After reading the school’s recipe for the tomatoes — a
multi-day marinating process — I decided the tomato
“salmon” wasn’t in the cards for most home cooks. That’s
fine. I like real smoked salmon. And since I’m not
vegetarian, who cares? But the rice? That was totally
doable. In fact, it takes far less time to whip up a batch of
the parsnip rice than it does to prepare true sushi rice.
As long as you have a food processor, the rice can be
prepared in five to 10 minutes. It then can be combined
with nori (seaweed) sheets and whatever fillings you like
to make excellent sushi rolls.
Smoked Salmon and
Parsnip “Rice” Sushi Rolls
Start to finish: 20 minutes
Makes 6 maki rolls (about 8 pieces each)
1 1/2 pounds parsnips, peeled, trimmed, and cut
into chunks
3 tablespoons tahini
3 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
6 sheets nori
4 ounces smoked salmon, cut into thin strips
1/3 English cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut
into thin strips
In a food processor, combine the parsnips, tahini,
rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Pulse for 20 to 30 seconds,
or until the parsnips are finely chopped and resemble
grains of rice.
One at a time, set a sheet of nori on a sushi rolling
mat or a sheet of kitchen parchment. Scoop one-sixth
of the parsnip mixture onto the nori. Wet your hand,
then gently press and spread the parsnip mixture
until it covers about 80 percent of the nori, leaving the
edge furthest from you bare. On the edge closest to
you, arrange strips of salmon and cucumber.
Using the mat or kitchen parchment to help, start
with the edge closest to you and roll the nori up on
itself to create a roll. Before completing the roll, wet
your fingers and run them along the bare nori, then
continue rolling. The moisture helps seal the roll. Set
aside and repeat with remaining ingredients.
When all of the rolls are assembled, use a serrated
knife dipped in warm water to cut each roll into eight
rounds.
Nutrition information per roll: 210 calories (60
calories from fat, 29 percent of total calories); 7 g fat (1
g saturated, 0 g trans fats); 30 mg cholesterol; 300 mg
sodium; 26 g carbohydrate; 6 g fiber; 8 g sugar; 15 g
protein.
Apr 30-Oct 2 (Tue-Sun), 10am-4pm; Apr 30, 10am-7pm
(opening day); Pacific Bonsai Museum (2515 S 336th St, Federal
Way, Wash.). View “Decked-Out: From Scroll to Skateboard,” an
exhibit in which street art and bonsai collide. The display
features skate decks painted by Pacific Northwest urban
muralists in place of the traditional hanging scrolls used in
bonsai displays. For info, call (253) 353-7345 or visit <www.
pacificbonsaimuseum.org>.
Kodomo no Hi
May 1, 10am-noon, Portland Japanese Garden (611 SW
Kingston Ave, Portland). Celebrate children or being a child at
the Portland Japanese Garden’s annual Children’s Day event,
Kodomo no Hi. The family festival features a host of activities and
entertainment including a koi parade, taiko drumming, a
scavenger hunt, and more. For info, call (503) 223-1321 or visit
<www.japanesegarden.com>.
Mike Curato & Ruth Chan
May 1, 11am & 2pm; 11am, Green Bean Books (1600 NE
Alberta St, Portland); 2pm, Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills
Crossing (3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, Ore.). Join Mike
Curato as he presents Little Elliot, Big Family, a children’s book
about Elliot, who feels very much alone. As he explores busy
streets, he sees families in all shapes and sizes in a city of millions
and finds he has a family of his own. Also featured is Ruth Chan’s
Where’s the Party? Chan’s picture-book debut invites readers to
answer to the most important question of the day — Where’s the
Party? — with Georgie and friends. For info, call (503) 954-2354
or visit <www.greenbeanbookspdx.com> (Green Bean Books), or
call (503) 643-3131 or visit <www.powells.com> (Powell’s Books).
Seattle Asian-Pacific Islander
Heritage Month Celebration
May 1, noon-5pm, Seattle Center (305 Harrison St, Seattle).
Join the festivities at Seattle Center Festál’s Asian-Pacific
Koto player Mitsuki Dazai is performing on Saturday, April 23 at the
Beaverton City Library as part of a Music in Small Spaces presentation
held in celebration of National Poetry Month. (AR Photo/Jan Landis)
Islander Heritage Month Celebration. The event includes
cultural dance groups, youth drill teams, martial arts
demonstrations, art, and more. For info, call (206) 684-7200, or
visit <www.seattlecenter.com> or <www.apiheritage.com>.
“Skills of the Ninjas”
May 5, 7-8pm, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Stimson Audi-
torium (1400 E Prospect St, in Volunteer Park, Seattle). Attend
“Skills of the Ninjas,” a talk by Yuji Yamada of Mie University in
Japan about ninjas who actually existed. The lecture shows what
real ninjas were like, based on professor Yamada’s research in
historical documents. For info, or to buy tickets, call (206)
654-3210 or visit <www.seattleartmuseum.org/gardnercenter>.
“May Day is Lei Day”
May 7, 10am-6pm, Clark College, Gaiser Hall (1933 Fort
Vancouver Way, Vancouver, Wash.). Celebrate the arrival of
spring at the “May Day is Lei Day” festival. The event features
live Hawaiian/Polynesian music and dancing, lei-making,
Hawaiian food, shave ice, arts and crafts vendors, and more. For
info, call (360) 718-2100 or visit <www.kekukuifoundation.org>.
Pioneering winemaker finds early success in Myanmar hills
Continued from page 16
statistics showing that
Burmese, per capita, drink
just one-tenth of a glass of
wine per year. Compare
that to eight bottles of wine
per year for Americans, 18
for Germans, and 35 for the
French.
Leiendecker grew up on
a family vineyard in
Germany’s Moselle region
and spent 24 years in the
European wine business.
Like Morsbach, he was
looking for a new challenge
and took a big paycut to
come to Myanmar.
“Today, there is still no
real wine culture in Myan-
mar. It needs one genera-
tion. It takes time,” he said.
“Some Burmese still drink
wine like it was a soft
drink, finding themselves
under the table in 15
minutes.”
Nonetheless, sophistica-
tion is slowly bubbling up
among Aythaya’s prime
customers: the expanding
middle class. “If you want
to show that you have
arrived in society, you sit in
a restaurant with a glass of
wine in your hand, not
beer,” Morsbach says.
The winemakers are also
hopeful that wine and
democracy will prove a
good marriage, further
spurring their enterprise.
Once the right contacts
were made and the bureau-
cratic barriers breached,
they said operating a 70-
year-lease under the mili-
tary regime has actually
proved satisfactory. But
Leiendecker said reforms
are still needed since for-
eign businesses face oner-
ous restrictions, including
an inability to secure loans
if, like Morsbach’s enter-
prise, they are 100 percent
foreign-owned.
“We should hope that the
new government will bring
in international standards
of doing business,” Leien-
decker said of the April 1
regime change to a govern-
ment led by democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s
National
League
for
Democracy party.
The main challenge
ahead is to shore up enough
profits to allow for the
investment needed to turn
out truly outstanding “new
q
latitude wines,” those vin-
tages coming from non-
traditional wine-producing
countries like Brazil, India,
and Thailand, where the
grape is not a native plant.
Aythaya found only
seven of the more than 50
classical grape varieties
able to adapt to the tropics,
where daylight is shorter
and the fungus-bearing
rains are longer and more
intense than in wine-
producing Mediterranean
climates.
Morsbach said they’ve
successfully wrestled with
such problems and condi-
tions are otherwise excel-
lent, especially for white
wines. Some critics agree,
with R. James Mullen,
veteran wine writer for
Thailand’s The Nation
newspaper, saying the
sauvignon blanc “would
hold up to almost any on
the international market.”
“I am convinced that one
day Myanmar can make
the best wine in Asia,”
Morsbach said. “It’s my
karma.”
Vietnam warns
of dire impact
from planned
Mekong dams
Continued from page 16
than $760 million in Viet-
nam and $450 million in
Cambodia. Fish catches
would drop by 50 percent
for Vietnam and Cambo-
dia, and 10 percent of the
delta’s fish species would
either disappear from the
region or become extinct.
The incomes of fishing and
farming villages would
likely fall by half.
Laos is behind many of
the new dams proposed for
the lower Mekong and went
ahead with construction of
the Xayaburi dam in 2012
despite the concerns of
neighboring countries. It
wants hydropower exports
to become a mainstay of its
economy, which is among
the least developed in Asia.
The river commission
said the Vietnamese report
will help its own study,
which was commissioned
in 2011 and is expected to
be completed next year.
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# 16
#25663
Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
through 9 appear one time each in every row, col-
umn, and 3x3 box.
Solution to
last issue’s
puzzle
Puzzle #14529 (Easy)
All solutions available at
<www.sudoku.com>.
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