A salted king salmon

The 60 cm-long salted king salmon (chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) is an annual gift from one of my best friend. This year, fortunately, he stopped by my house just after it arrived, so I could taste the fish with him. Though the fish was much salted, the meat inside is not so salty, but quite well fatty with much flavor and taste. As the last night dinner, a hot pot with blocks of the salmon meat, head, and fins, in soy paste soup, was quite delicious and warming for us in this season. This morning, we enjoyed salmon steak too; very nice.

Lab Party

We had a farewell party for Dr. Val Smith in our seminar room. It was also to welcome Mr. Yin (Visiting Fellow from Chinese Academy of Fisheries Science, Wuxi) and Ms. Charlene Fon (undergraduate visiting student from National Univ. Singapore). Students cooked several dishes, including a hot-pot (Nabe) with much vegetables and meat balls, spicy fried meat and vegetables, and Chinese-style dumplings. I served fried octopus dumplings, which are ball-shaped dumplings containing a piece of octopus and small pieces of green onions, red pickled ginger, and small pink shrimps, with source flavored with powder of dried bonito and green sea weed (Ulva).
We also enjoyed several kinds of drinks such as Japanese sake (rice wine), plum-flavored liquor, and beer.
Finally, some sets of cakes were served with a name tag (edible one written with chocolate) of the above people.
I hope their enjoyable trip back and the stay in Fukuoka.