Fearless

Rugby players must have a certain level of courage to go out onto the field despite the knowledge they will spend the next 80 minutes being battered left and right. Or maybe they just lack sound judgement.

Keizo exhibits similar characteristics off the field as well. For example, he's dating me! It takes courage to enter a multi-cultural/lingual relationship; but people with slightly better judgement might seek companionship with someone who actually lives in the same country as they do.

Keizo also shows courage in the kitchen. He's been preparing his own meals for almost a year now, since moving out of the player's dormitory. And he's come a long way in a relatively short period of time; remember the pie with lattice top crust?!

Last month, he saw these slimy things on sale at the grocery store and bought them (brave? I am not so sure on this one...but it's nice to know that rock hard shells and pungent aromas don't deter him)

They lived in a bowl of salt water in his fridge expelling sand from their tiny guts for a few days before he figured out how to cook them. He ended up steaming them with some cooking sake in a large pan and eating most of them just like that. A few got mixed into pasta too.

Overall though I got the impression that they ended up being a lot of shellfish for just one person to consume, but live and learn. Plus, I wouldn't have helped him with any of them even if I had been there. I don't much care for briny and slimy and I find cooking almost any animal "meat" kind of intimidating. If vegetables are under cooked, there will just be a bit more chewing involved, but if meat is under done, all sorts of unpleasantness could occur.

I will stick the veggies, unless the meat is pre-cooked! I was perusing food blogs while chatting with Keizo on Skype the other day (right after my dinner mind you) and wanting to eat almost everything I looked at. Especially the following from Joy the Baker, which I shared with Keizo.

Look what showed up in my email inbox the next day!

Keizo the Cook's very own interpretation. He's not afraid of recipes written in English either! There's no stopping him, which is great news as far as I am concerned.

Hopefully his game today goes just as well!