How to Cook Handmade Aquapazza

Aquapazza

Since I got 7 big fish called "Sea Bream", I cooked Aquapazza with a whole fish on a hotplate.
 I didn't have to remove meats from a bone, easy to cook, can have a lot of vegetables and fish oil... All of them are very good for our health!

I used the followings for the ingredients.

A whole sea bream, garlic, celery, potato, onion, small tomato, 2 kinds of mushrooms, short-necked clam, white wine, cubic bouillon and water. ( Shellfish, potato, celery, garlic and tomato are indispensable. )
And I also cooked spaghetti after eating all of the inside, so you need spaghetti too if you want. 

First of all,  put olive oil and garlic on a hot plate and heat it well.
I placed a fish and all the ingredients all over the plate and poured the soup with white wine, cubic bouillon and water. I covered the cap of it soon and simmered to cook the fish well.
Cubic bouillon and clam are salty, so I didn't put salt any more, but you can add it as you want.
After eating all the inside of this dish, I also put spaghetti and the salty hot water after boiling it.  

It was very delicious!! I don't follow any recipes in cooking, so I looked into a recipe for Aquapazza in the net.

《　Ingredients (serves 4)　》

1 fish
2 squids
1 pack of shellfish
10 small tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
salt and pepper
1 cup of white wine
1 cup of water



大きな鯛を貰ったので、一匹を丸ごとアクアパッツアに使いました。
ホットプレートに、オリーブオイルを適量、ニンニクを入れて暫く熱してからの、鯛を真ん中にど～んと置いて、その周りに野菜たちを乗せてから、白ワイン、ブイヨン、そして(子どもも食べるので、白ワインを沢山入れれないために）水も少々入れて、蓋をしてじっくり煮ます。
魚に火が通ったなと思ったら、食べごろ。

具材を全部食べ終わったら、パスタを投入～！
煮汁が足りないなって思ったら、ゆで汁を入れれば大丈夫。
美味しく魚一匹丸ごと頂きました。

今回入れた材料は、鯛、ニンニク、しめじ、えのき、セロリ、じゃがいも、たまねぎ、あさり、プチトマト。ニンニク、セロリ、じゃがいも、あさり、プチトマトは欠かせないですね。
ネットにもレシピがたくさんあるので、是非、やってみて下さい～～

Why Do Japanese Like Bath Time So Much?

Why do Japanese people love to take a bath very much?

I think 3 reasons, from Japanese climate, a volcanic island and a lot of water.

The first of them, we like a bath from Japanese specific climate of having 4 seasons.
We have a cold winter and also humid summer here.
In summer, it's very hot and humid here. When we get sweaty and take a bath, we can feel fresh and good.
In winter, it's very comfortable and warm to put our bodies into a lot of hot water. Moreover, we can get rid of tiredness and it's good for our health.

The next one is because of a volcanic island. There are a lot of onsen all over Japan, we can enjoy many various of onsen. We have been used to enjoying a bath since we are little.

The last is that we have a lot of pure water all over in Japan. We can receive benefits from it. That's why we can take a bath with a lot of water.

That's the reasons that Japanese people enjoy a bath a lot, I think.

We use and enjoy a home bathroom a lot in our daily lives. I will show you some of them next.

The History of Japanese Bath

Japanese like to take a bath, but I don't know about the history of Japanese bath. I looked into it on the internet.

In the sixth century, a bath came from China with Buddhism. Buddhist priests told people that taking a bath got rid of 7 diseases and obtained 7 fortunes instead and allowed them to take a bath together there to spread Buddhism.

People thought taking a bath was good for the health. This type was a steamed sauna in a room of the temple, they wore a special clothes.

This is the start of a bath history. Here is a photo of those days.

In the samurai period from "Kamakura" to "Edo", the old sauna style was gradually changed from a sauna to the mixed way between a sauna and a bath with a lot of steams from poring water onto roasted stones and hot water in the bottom of a bathtub. It was a very cold period and very important to get warm from a bath. Not only temples, but shogun families started taking a bath in their houses individually to welcome their low-class samurais. They treated their subordinates with a bath, dishes and alcohol, too.

And in "Edo" period, public baths opened from the morning to the evening, too.  They were a place people could be relaxed and talk for each other while being naked, though they were mixed ones for both men and women, but there were not much water in a bathtub according to the lower photo.

In the "Meiji" period (1868-1912), the bath style was definitely changed from a Edo-style to a bathtub that can be filled with hot water. And it's an almost current public bath.

Each family had got its own bathtub gradually.

This is old typed home bathtub, called "Goemon-buro".

A bath tub is made of iron and we put water into it and fire woods under it.

We need the round-shaped sheet of woods inside it to put on when we take a bath. Unless we have it, we will get burned soon. And when it was rainy, we had occasions we couldn't burn woods outside, so we couldn't take a bath on those days.

Take a look at Goemon-buro.

After the "Showa" period, we have many kinds of bathes and various ways to enjoy them.

I will explain about recent bathes both for home use and for recreation facilities in Japan next.  

 

日本人って、どうしてこんなにお風呂が好きなんだろうなって思い、風呂を入る習慣っていつ頃から始まったんだろうって好奇心から調べてみました。
結構、私は面白いって思ったので、ここで少しご紹介。

６世紀に、中国から仏教とともに入って来た当時のお風呂は、仏教の布教の場だったそうです。「お風呂に入ることは七病を除き、七福が得られる」と説かれていて、お風呂に入ることは健康に良いと理解されていました。ただ、当時のお風呂は写真にあるように、一部屋に集められて、専用の服を着た状態で入るサウナのようなものでした。

それが鎌倉時代に入り、すごく寒い時代であったのと、暖房設備も乏しかったので、お風呂は寒さを防ぐ大切な手段であったようです。寺院だけでなく、幕府にも、そして次第に個人にもこのお風呂を入る習慣は受け継がれていくようになりました。部下や近所の人を呼んで、お風呂とそのあとのお食事を振る舞っていたそうです。

江戸時代に入ると、朝から夕方までやっている銭湯が登場。熱く焼いた小石の上に水をかけて湯気を出し、上半身を蒸らし、浴槽に膝の高さ程お湯を入れ、下半身を浸す仕組みのサウナ+下半身浴スタイル。上下の区別なく、裸の付き合いが出来る庶民の憩いの場となっていたそうです。この時期の銭湯は、男女混浴だったみたいです。背中を洗ってくれる湯女も現れ、風紀を乱すことも少なくなかったそうです。

明治時代では、混浴だったのが、男女別々に分け、洗い場も広くなり、汚れた水が入りにくく改良され、今のお風呂となったそうです。
そして我らも本や、実際に見たことがある五右衛門風呂の登場となるなるんですよね～。
五右衛門風呂は見たことはあるけれど、実際に入ったことがありません。お湯加減、難しそうですね・・・。

次は、今時の日本のお風呂について、海外のお友達に紹介しようと思っています。
では、また～。