Japanese calçots

Balcocue… balcony grilling.Sunny, 22 degrees. Perfect. No smoke, not too much smell, the street seems empty. If the neighbors notice me… I’m homeless, chased out of town. That’s baaad manners. But I take the risk. They are voting today, they should be busy there, no ?

Calçots are a sort of big Catalan Winter leek scallion green onion… well sweeter than leek anyway.
Then you burn them. That’s why they are called like that. As “calciner” means burning in French and the Catalan word must be very close.
You grill them in your fireplace or directly in the field…

These are Shimonita negi. They are very similar to calçots and I thought they were some local imitation. Actually it’s a local negi leek from Gunma Prefecture that happen to be cultivated similarly, late in the season and buried in the ground.
That doesn’t matter it’s not the authentic ones. They are delicious.

My field : Yep, that’s on my balcony. I have pink clogs.

Oh noooes, they burnt ! That’s not what you think. I should write : oh yeah, they burnt !

the special sauce
(a post about it here)

Taka away the black layer, it’s like a banana peel.
Dip in sauce and mmmmmm…