prasantrin

I'm not any of the above people, nor can I read Korean, but just out of curiousity I did a search and found this mirin which has the same characters as yours. So....you have a winner!!

Check out the Weight Watchers and Low-Carb threads for many, many ideas on eating well while trying to lose weight.

If you have a bulk food store near you, look there for unflavoured protein powders. You'll find either whey protein isolate or whey protein concentrate. I can't remember the differences between the two. But it will be much much cheaper than buying ready-made flavoured powders, and then you can do your own thing with it. If you drink mostly chocolate milk, anyway, you can just add the powder to that and you'll have a chocolate-flavoured protein drink!

Even though there's only a 50% chance I'll make it, can I vote for the weekend of the 8th? The weekend of the 1st is a long weekend for many Canadians, so travel will be hell-ish going to and from the US, especially for those who will be driving. But since I'll be on holidays, either of those weekends would work. edited 'cause I can't spell...

Even better! A double dose of carbs! I'd have to sandwich some cheese in there, though, to get some protein. One must have a well-balanced diet, you know.

And just what are "scotch chips"? I think I need some! They look just like pancakes cooked with oil instead of butter--I love using oil to cook my pancakes!

When I opened up this topic and the first picture popped up, I exclaimed, "Oh my god! Look at that!" I think my mother's mouth started watering because I heard her swallow as she asked what was in them. I love your pictorials, ChefCrash!

Neither my sister nor her husband have any food allergies, and though both her children were breast-fed (in her older child's case, fed with expressed breast milk), and though she ate pretty much whatever she wanted (at least throughout her first pregnancy), the youngest has allergies to milk proteins, and nuts (legumes and tree nuts). My mother, however, is allergic to milk proteins, and sometimes has allergic reactions from peanuts. I think food allergies are kind of a crap shoot. Having a close relative with food allergies may increase the chance of your child developing them, but you'll never know...So eat and enjoy whatever you like (within reason), and screw everyone else.

Marlene--I love that you and yours love the fat parts of roasts and such. I always cringe when I see people trim theirs off and throw it away. That's the good stuff, don't they know! And you always get yours so nice and crispy on the outside...a fat lovers dream! Is that gravy made from the pork roast drippings? It's so nice and dark.

I don't have a recipe nor have I ever made it, but you get sick of eating pear-related things, you can make some pear butter with the rest and can it for later use. I love apple butter, and I love pears, so I think I would love pear butter, too.

sanrensho--good to know the liqueur is being put to good use! I found some little bottles of the Dover matcha liqueur if you're interested in doing a comparison. The store doesn't always have the matcha in stock, but I can always keep my eye open! And thanks for the info on the beans--those sweet kuromame are actually one of the few ways I like to eat beans (generally speaking, I hate beans). Hiroyuki--Less than Y400 for one wasabi root? I don't think I've ever seen that price where I am. One of the things I really miss about living in the sticks is all the cheap produce. In my case, I used to get huge bags of home-grown foods for free from co-workers--kiwi fruit, persimmons, yuzu, rice...I never get that where I am now! There was a little plot of land near the school where I work that was farmed, and the owner used to sell his produce quite cheaply (most things were about Y100 or Y200), but he sold out and an apartment building is going up there now.

I really hope pork was on the menu, just to screw with her mind a little more!

I looooooooooooooove these! I'm so jealous that you had them! When my mother and I had tempura in Kyoto, I thought she would be served these since I was served them during my last visit. No such luck. I wonder if the price you paid for your omakase was the regular price, or a special price for "regulars". You certainly should qualify for a "regulars" price! Too bad they don't have a point card. This topic is great for me, though, because I never know what to order when I go to sushi places. Now I can just browse through and write down the ones that interest me. It's very helpful that you give both the Japanese and the English for the different fish. Thanks!

For lunch on the 21st, we went to Ten-you (the bento.com site spells it "Tenyu", but the restaurant, itself, transliterates the kanji as "Ten-you"). It's owned by the famous Tawaraya Ryokan which is oft visited by the famous and fortunate of the world (rates start at roughly Y50 000 per person, regardless of how many people are sharing a room). I have no pictures, but I love this shop. Although I doubt Ten-you is the best tempura shop in Japan (though I do prefer it to Ten-ichi), I still love it. It's really the shop, itself, that I love. The word "genteel" comes to mind when I think to describe it. The decor is so very simple simple yet sophisticated. And I always feel as though I am a very special guest when I am there. Some might think of it as a place for snobs, but it's not pretentious in any way. It's pure Kyoto, and I mean that positively. I had the tendon kaiseki (Y3600 or thereabouts)--a huge bowl of tendon preceded by three other dishes. I can't remember what they were, but they were delicious. The tendon was good, but I prefer a sweeter sauce. My mother had the cheapest kaiseki set (which was about Y5500). I can't remember how many pieces of tempura she had (served piece by piece as they were fried), but the highlights were the shrimp (including her beloved shrimp head) and the scallops. She still talks about how sweet the scallop was, and how perfectly it was cooked. After lunch we walked around a bit, then went to Daimaru (my favourite department store in Japan, and the Kyoto branch is my favourite branch) to pick up some treats. I love packaging in Japan, as wasteful as it is! M. Debailleul used either dry ice or ice packs for their treats, plus a nice padded wrapper to protect my goodies. I bought two coffee macarons (packed with dry ice) and one pistachio something--dacquoise (packed with an ice pack)? They were excellent. I wish I had bought more, but I can always go back! Enfant had really wonderful Florentine bars. The crust was rich and buttery. I ended up eating most of the two bars I bought for us. Angelique is based in Tokyo. I bought brown macarons, and more brown macarons. Actually, I think two were caramel and two were coffee. They weren't very good, and we still have three of them in my fridge. I suspected they might not be very good, because they weren't refrigerated when I bought them, and I wasn't given any sort of cooling system with which to carry them home. The folks at Debailleul gave me very strict instructions for the care of my goodies (definitely put them in the fridge within 90 minutes, don't jostle them around, etc. etc), but this place didn't seem to care how I handled them. I could have sat on them and farted and they probably wouldn't have cared. Perhaps that would have improved their flavour... Just a few more shots to show from the following day. On the 22nd, we attended my student's piano recital (she won a competition recently). May I mention not-so-briefly about the talent of Japanese musicians? The performers in this recital all placed in or won their categories for a piano competition in the Takarazuka are of Kyoto. We had intended to go later, since my student would be the second last to perform, but we ended up arriving there on time. The first performer was an adorable little boy somewhere between the ages of four and six. When his name was called, he ran onto the stage with a huge grin and bowed dramatically. When he took his place on his much propped up piano chair (and put his little feet on his very cool pedal extender, the likes of which I had never seen before), we were prepared to be bored to sleep with his version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars or whatever beginner piece he would be playing. He was a pre-schooler, after all. But this little boy played a piece more difficult than we expected with such musicality that my mother and I were stunned into embarrassment. We were not only embarrassed for thinking his performance would be boring, but we were also embarrassed for our own meager talents. My mother was quite a good technical player when she was young, but these kindergarten and grade school children blew her out of the water! We couldn't help but laugh at ourselves. It makes me wonder if so many more Japanese have an innate talent for music than, for example, Canadians, or if it's that they are given more opportunities to have that talent nurtured. On to my food. One station away from the hall of the recital was a little counter selling roll cakes. Gokoku can only be found at two locations, neither of which is particularly convenient to me. That's actually a good thing, because if either were closer, I'd be really large. The cakes are soft and delicate, but flavourful. Strawberry Millefeuille (look at that cool box!) Earl Grey Souffle eta pictures of brown macarons

On December 21st, we made our way to Kyoto again for the Toji-in Flea Market. Held on the beautiful grounds just outside the temple area, the flea market is quite different from what it was way back when I first lived in Kyoto ('93-'95). Back then it was a couple of dozen stalls selling mostly used goods of varying interest and quality. Now, however, it was a jam-packed with goods of all kinds. Right from the beginning, food was a big part of the market. Lots of beans Anyone know what these ones are used for? They were a beautiful shade of purple. and other things This stall was selling those little fish, like the ones used for chirimen jako. See the lady behind the umbrella? She's standing in the line for this stall. See all those people behind her? They're also in line. There are about a dozen more people around the corner that you can't see, and I think we counted about 30 people in total at one point. I'm not sure why this particular stall was so popular, but it was doing scads more business than similar stalls. Mom ate the suji from this stall. She said it wasn't very flavourful, and the suji was still a bit tough. She also complained that other people got more suji than she (she had a lot of konnyaku in hers), and that she needed rice to really appreciate it. I had these mochi dango. Still warm from the pit, they were perfect! A tai-yaki stand. These weren't as detailed or as neatly made as the ones Peter Green had in Korea. Wasabi was only Y400 per root! And those piles of ginger were only Y200 each! So much cheaper than the supermarket, but I didn't buy any. This woman was selling 6 or 7 types of chimaki, but after having just steamed my own sticky rice in lotus leaves that morning, I didn't want any. My mother, on the other hand, happily obliged in buying an unagi chimaki, with its teeny piece of unagi and nice plump sansho. Scads of mentaiko. Mom would have liked some, but we were going to be out for many more hours, so we passed. We bought a few non-food things that day--some old kimono (three for Y2000), Nishiki indigo-dyed fabric scraps, and my mother's beloved geta-like sandals. We almost bought them at a store in Arashiyama, but she decided against it, then promptly regretted not buying them. As we were leaving Toji-in, who should we see but the guy from Arashiyama selling the same sandals for the same price! We couldn't pass them up this time. On our way to the bus stop, we passed a shop selling freshly-grilled unagi. It looked and smelled delicious, but we were on our way to lunch so we had to pass.

Plus most brands size their clothing differently now than they did even 10 years ago. I wear a size 8 in a particular brand, but I'm nowhere near being able to fit into their size 8 jeans I bought 10 years ago. Clothing size and weight--neither are particularly good indicators of thinness or health. Christine--you mentioned needing more ideas for beverages. I sometimes bring a thermos of milk and some protein powder (whey powder, I think) to work if I'm planning to go to the gym. After working out, I dump in the protein powder, give the thermos a quick shake, and I'm good for an after-workout protein fix. In your case, it would give you added calories, too (you can probably use water and flavoured mix like chocolate, if you don't care for milk too much). There are also other permutations of such powders--like protein:carb blends, etc.

Fill the container with bleach water and let it sit for awhile? That's what I usually do, and it seems to work.

Eeeek! I must hang with a better crowd because until this point, my most embarrassing dinner companion took a call on his cell phone in the middle of dinner with the college chancellor. Now I realize it was nothing! (Although the chancellor never did invite us to dinner again...)

mmmmmmm...peppermint caramels! I ended up using about 1.5 tsp of peppermint essence for about 2/3 batch of caramel (used Kerry's recipe, and I was aiming for half-batches, but I screwed up a bit when I was pouring it out), and I think it's perfect! Next time I'm going to try my yuzu essence.

Someone on eGullet once posted about Vocation Vacations. Most of their vacations are 1 or 2 days, and those in the food industry are limited, but if you let them know what you're looking for, they might be able to put something together for you. There may be other similar agencies, but I couldn't locate any others.

What? No spit-roasted piggy? During Folklorama (festival celebrating multi-culturalism in Winnipeg), we always visit the Slovenian Pavilion just for the roast pig (they do one every night!).

More than one month later, an update. My mother saved me a bit of the Collins St, and saved two (I ordered 3 1-lb cakes) of the Claxton cakes--one for me and one for my landlord and her family. When she arrived in Japan, however, there was only one Claxton cake in her suitcase, and no Collins St! She's convinced that someone must have stolen them, but I think she just forgot to repack them during one of her many repacking episodes (who's going to break into a suitcase and only steal fruitcake? ) I gave the sole cake to my landlord for Christmas, and I had none. I wasn't sure if she would like it, though, because usually North American sweets are much too sweet for Japanese people, but I wanted her to have it, anyway. Today my landlord mentioned that she brought the cake to her painting group and everyone really enjoyed it! They all commented on how delicious and moist it was. In Japan panettone and stollen are more common than fruitcake (though fruitcake is available), so it was quite a treat for them. Thanks to all those who chimed in with their recommendations. I'm going to try some of the others next year!

I'm in love with your life and the way you live it! I can't believe you and your friends were able to produce a meal like that with a fridge as empty as yours. Did the brik master make the pastry from scratch? It looks a bit like a spring-roll wrapper to me, which would be great because then I could make it, too.

eGullet ChefCrash posted about his family making some wonderful Lebanese breads in this topic.

Many of the President's Choice line products are very good, but they have limited distribution in the US, I think. There's a topic somewhere in eGullet specifically about PC products. Also, there is a difference between generic brands and store brands. Generic brands are "no-name" products, cheaply-produced products, usually with very simple packaging (two colours), and they are much cheaper than store brands. Store brands are often re-branded private label products, or goods manufactured by the stores, themselves. They're usually on-par with national brands in terms of quality and price.