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EdS

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Everything posted by EdS

  1. The reference is to kabocha, otherwise known as Japanese pumpkin or Japanese squash. It's a common Japanese ingredient.
  2. I'd suggest using saikyo miso if you weren't already as it's less salty. It's what I use and I marinate two or even three days without excess saltiness.
  3. Mongolia. Seriously. Escape From Mongolia., Far Far Far East Travelog
  4. I think amakara explains why the Japanese put sweet corn on pizza, ketchup on eggs, and mirin and sugar in their meat-and-potato stew.
  5. Well, this thread forced me into an early dinner and I can confirm everything Kristin says.
  6. My book didn't mention anything about ofukuro no aji but I can see how opinionated someone could be about a simple dish like this that one might have eaten since childhood. Growing up with a mother from Hawaii meant being served many dishes that were sort of Japanese but not quite. The closest thing to nigu jaga was a hamburger and potato stew with soy sauce and sugar. She managed to burn it most of the time. I have no plans to duplicate my mom's "niku jaga". I've been using waxy potatoes so they don't break up. Is this one of those things people argue about?
  7. I hadn't made niku jaga in ages but got the craving last week and made it three times. I think I had some catching up to do. I made it twice with beef and then tried it for the first time with pork. I have to say I like them both. One of my cookbooks has this to say about niku jaga: One of the most popular Japanese dishes. The taste of this home cooking is especially relished by men. I relish niku jaga.
  8. EdS

    Rice Cookers

    I have that Sanyo. I use it almost every day. I've had it about a year and a half and I do not have a single complaint. It's reliable and delivers. The non-stick coating on the thick bowl is still like new. I think Sanyo got this one right. I'm a former Zojirushi owner.
  9. Thanks, everyone. I have both a Chan Chi Kee 1102 (230mm x 120mm) like Andy's and a 1301 (240mm x 100mm). They are of carbon steel, take a nice edge, and work very well, keeping an edge better than say a Wusthof, IMHO. They aren't like some of the real low quality cleavers I've played with before. Experiencing the CCK's made me curious about whether China produced other cleavers like it. I also have one of those high-end cleavers from that Japanese site. The steel is in a different league (harder, better edge retention) but of course the price is a lot more too so it's not fair to compare them. The CCK's do hold their own and impress me for price/value. I'm going to seek out some of the other ones that have been mentioned.
  10. The Chinese and Japanese have left their mark on Peruvian cuisine. I know the Chinese arrived in the 1800's. The Asian influence isn't just some modern thing but a real part of the cuisine. I know that lomo saltado seemed to pop up at every restaurant I visited. I rather lked it and would order it again and again. It then hit me that I was eating a stir-fry with soy sauce but also other popular local ingredients like potatoes of which there are seemingly hundreds of varieties there. There are chifas, Chinese restaurants, but the Chinese influence appears in the mainstream as well. There's Peruvian soy sauce at my local Latin market.
  11. The highest quality Chinese-made cleavers that I have been able to find here in the U.S. are made by Chan Chi Kee of Hong Kong. Are there any other kitchen knives made in China at this quality level or higher?
  12. EdS

    Uses for a cleaver

    You pretty much keep the tip in one place and chop radially around that axis, back and forth.
  13. The way I deal with approaching new stinky foods is to do the opposite of what I do with say wine and avoid taking in their scent first. Once the taste registers on my tastebuds, the smell seems to be less, if any, of a problem. There are some cheeses that I wouldn't want to go around sniffing but once I get a bite into my mouth, I love them.
  14. EdS

    Mandolines

    I like the Benriner. I have the regular size but if I had to do it over again, I would buy the wider Super Benriner. The regular one is too narrow to slice a full-sized round onion, for example. The handy Benriners are found in professional kitchens and are often preferred over the more complex European mandolines though the latter can do some things the Benriner cannot. I've never cut myself in the kitchen but the closest I've come to doing serious damage is with a mandoline. Be careful.
  15. More often than not, when I see someone wearing gloves at a place like a sandwich shop there's no correlation between them being used to handle the food, the money, or both. I try not to think about it.
  16. I used to think there were foods that were better than sex. That ended at about age 15.
  17. How does one here get horsemeat for human consumption? I haven't seen any horsemeat at any butchers around here. Anyone have any experience ordering horsemeat through a butcher?
  18. Boiled meat for everyone! Actually, pot-au-feu's pretty good.
  19. As an Asian-American, I have seen WAY too many of my friends and relatives eating ice-cream, putting cream in their coffee, eating cheeseburgers and pizza, putting milk in their cereal, or just straight up drinking milk for that figure to be correct. 50% seems like a more reasonable figure to me. ← I do all those things too but I have to limit the quantity that's in my system at any one time. I suspect a fair number of those people you see are the same way. It's not an allergy where one mere teaspoon's going to get me sick but if I go past a certain limit, things aren't so nice. If I were to have a bowl of cereal with milk, you won't catch me having ice cream at lunch, for example. Not to gross you out or anything, but I've run experiments to see if I really was lactose intolerant and to what extent. I've tried like one cup of milk one day, then two cups the next, etc. There's a point where a problem appears and then more will make it worse. I then repeated with that lactose-free milk and found no problem with that. My point is that it's not like people who are lactose intolerant have to avoid lactose completely. Being part Asian and knowing too many of my Asian friends with this issue, I can't really question the 90-percent figure. If it's not that high, I'm sure it's still pretty high.
  20. I had to think a moment about this. I use "a coffee" as informal shorthand for "a cup of coffee." This morning to a young lady I chat with often at a local coffeehouse... "Hey, how's it going? I'll have a coffee and a scone." On the other hand, I would speak differently to someone I did not know... "Good morning. I would like a cup of coffee and a scone, please." I've never been to the UK and have lived all my life in the SF Bay Area.
  21. One idea is to reduce your sauce and then swirl cold butter in at the end. Another is to add a vegetable puree. I know the GI increases as the particle size decreases so I think a vegetable would likely have a higher GI as a puree than what would be listed on some general chart. You could use heavy cream or creme fraiche. You could add something gelatenous like a pig's foot, if you're doing a braise. You could even forget about thickening and serve the sauce as more of a broth and serve in a deep plate or bowl. I don't know the comparative GI's of these.
  22. The symptoms appear and become more severe depending on the quantity of lactose consumed. Some people who are lactose intolerant avoid all milk products simply because they don't want to take the risk. Others, like myself, know they can have some amount before there are any symptoms or the symptoms become too much and thus will moderate their intake. Being lactose intolerant means one doesn't produce the lactase enzyme needed to digest lactose. A substantial majority of people in the world no longer produce lactase by adulthood. The exception would typically be people with ancestry in parts of Europe, the Middle East, India, and parts of Africa where milk has been historically consumed. Lactose intolerance is the norm not the exception. It just happens that most people in the U.S. have ancestors from milk-producing parts of the world. By the way, there is very little lactose in aged cheese. I eat it freely. Information at the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse
  23. Mermaids?!? If I could run down to the market and pick one out of the tank, she's not going into the stockpot if you know what I mean. This thread is completely insane. Now, if Barney counts as a mythical animal, I have a very dull cleaver with his name on it....
  24. EdS

    Cutting Boards

    Actually, if you picked up what I think you did, it's made of rubber. I bought one of the 1" thick Sani-Tuff Cutting Boards shortly after Ms. Hesser's review in the NY Times. It's nice and heavy, doesn't move around, cleans up nice, but it's a little pricey. On the other hand, I've had it for almost 7 years now, and it's not showing any signs of wear. It's probably the last cutting board I'll ever buy... ← Oh yeah, I know about those boards. No, this one was the straight white poly like you'd find at Target but thicker. I think it was about $15.
  25. EdS

    Cutting Boards

    I picked up a 1-in. thick rectangular poly cutting board at a Chinese restaurant supply house. Most poly boards are thinner than this. They even had thicker round poly chopping blocks. I use my poly board for raw poultry and then toss the board in the dishwasher.
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