prasantrin

I've used http://www.ryokan.or.jp/ to look for ryokan in specific areas (both English and Japanese options), but they don't have reviews nor do they book (as far as I can tell). They do direct you to each ryokan's individual website, and they have basic information (price of rooms, etc). I like that, for example, in Kyoto I can specify which "ku" I want to stay in, and the site will only show the ryokan in that area.

Are you using the camera primarily at home for food pictures? One of the reasons I chose my camera (Canon A620, purchased about 2 years ago) was because it used AA batteries. I travel a few times a year, usually for 2 weeks or more each time, and I find AA batteries to be the most convenient. I don't have to worry about getting a convertor for recharging the camera, and should both my sets of batteries run out of juice, I can pick up some alkaline ones very easily. But if you're using it mostly at home, that's not really an issue. I also liked my camera because it could be used on auto setting, or I could set the aperture and speed myself. That would be a nice feature for you, since it's more like an SLR. It's nice to have options. It also has a great macro feature. I really like the close ups I can take with it--they're very clear (when I remember to use macro). However, this particular series of Canons isn't really "pocket-sized" unless you have big pockets. Some of the newer models are a bit smaller and lighter (only using 2 AA batteries, rather than the 4 mine uses), but quite honestly, I've been thinking of getting a smaller, lighter camera with similar features. Pretty much any camera that uses AA batteries will be a bit larger and heavier, though, so I might be stuck for options (for me, AA batteries is a must). A great website for reviews is Digital Photography Review. They offer much more information than I need, so I usually just look at the specs and the "Conclusion" page of each camera for the recommendation (strongly recommended, recommended, not recommended, etc.).

I tired to look at the links, but I couldn't get them to work. I'm sure they looked great, though! Anything with bechamel sauce is good--that's my rule! (one of them, anyway)

One of the estheticians at the salon a frequent has a boyfriend with serious food issues. He doesn't have allergies, just food issues. His breakfast is always the same--scrambled eggs, toast (white bread) and bacon. He can eat plain chicken wings, french fries, hot dogs (with bun, no condiments), and I think that was it. No pizza, no spaghetti, no hamburgers--none of that other stuff you might think a picky eater might eat. The thing about his guy is that he's more embarrassed about his food issues than demanding. They went to a family dinner at a restaurant, and he didn't make a fuss or anything, or refuse to go if he didn't get a special meal. He just went prepared not to eat anything (he doesn't like attention about his food issues). Fortunately, someone in his family explained the situation to the staff beforehand, and someone quietly asked him if there was something simple they could get him. He was relieved, but he didn't expect it or demand it. I think most people are very willing to accomodate guests with allergies or food restrictions due to religion. But when it comes to other food issues, people are much more generous if the guests are not demanding or controlling about their issues. Pushy people don't get very far, at least not in my house. edited: I'm not an esthetician, nor do I play one on TV

I baked the rest of my tiny ninjin imo with some butter and brown sugar. It's not quite like sweet potatoes, but I think it's an OK substitute. I would buy it again if I ever had another craving for sweet potatoes. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would be good enough. I think my mother is going to try to sneak some sweet potatoes into the country for me. I can't wait until Christmas!

I had already let it set up, so there's no pouring it out now. But I could try to reheat it to make it pourable again, and then try pouring it out. I stuck it in the fridge, thinking that if it were hard, I could at least chip it out of the pan. I don't mind eating caramel chips at all! But if that doesn't work, I guess I'll just have to try reheating! Or eating it straight from the pan, which wouldn't be so bad because I wouldn't have to share any! ETA: Refrigerating it worked! I think my caramel accidentally froze because my fridge is too cold. At first it didn't seem like it had worked, but I pried just a little more, and it came out in one piece! Whew! But I think I still might not share. I love them too much!

Let's say, hypothetically of course, that someone made caramels. Normally that someone would use a heavily greased non-stick pan, the bottom of which would be lined with silicone parchment paper, in which the caramel would set. Now let's say that someone was too lazy to cut the parchment paper, and what the heck, it was a non-stick pan, so that someone threw caution to the wind and poured the caramel into an unlined, lightly greased non-stick pan. So now how do you get the caramel out? It's pretty firmly stuck in there (hypothetically, of course). Using a plastic pie server, attempt has been made to pry it out, that attempt was unsuccessful. Any ideas? Short of using a metal anything and ruining the pan. I'm thinking eat the caramel straight from the pan, but that's not very practical.

I know your questions were rhetorical, but I'll give them a go, anyway. I don't really care for sushi. I don't mind it, but I don't particularly like it. I find most places, even places that are expensive and therefore considered "good", use rice that's too sweet, too sour, or too mushy for my liking. And when I eat sushi, I like to taste the fish, so I rarely use soy sauce when I eat sushi, and I certainly don't add additional wasabi. A lot of places use too much wasabi in their nigiri for my liking. This place has perfect rice, and they don't even offer you soy sauce. Each piece is personally seasoned by the itamae, with a light brushing of soy, or a squeeze of sudachi or some other lime-like citrus fruit, and a sprinkling of salt. He uses just the right amount of wasabi for each fish--not too much to overpower the fish, but just enough to heighten the flavours. I think he can't really do omakase because he only has whatever is freshest or at its best, so the choices are limited to begin with. As far as I could tell, there isn't even a whiteboard or chalkboard with the available fish written on it. Which in a way is good, because then you really have to communicate with the itamae and you have more of a chance to get to know about the fish, what's in season, etc. But it's also bad if you don't speak Japanese that well! The itamae and his wife are very friendly and patient, though, so I still enjoyed my dinner there (except for the cockroach that landed on my arm). And this place has not only managed to survive with its 10 or so seats, in Osaka land of "kuidaore", but it has survived for longer than I've been alive! I think...I can't really read that well, but I see a Showa 43 in there, and I was born after that. From Gourmet Walker Thanks! I'll ask for kijihata/akou next time. I actually don't know very many names of fish--in either Japanese or English! My excuse is that I'm from Winnipeg, and we don't have very many varieties of fish out there! Next time I'm going to sit in front of the case (which means I'll have to get there early!), so I can just point at things that interest me. And I'll write down some of the fish you had, so I can ask if he has them, too.

If that included the cost of your children's meals, and the yakitori, then I would say that is very reasonable. If only I could find good quality sashimi and sushi for that price in the Kansai area! The last time I had sushi, I only had 6 pieces in total, and our bill came to about Y2600 each. I didn't order anything unusual, but apparently all my favourite sushi are expensive ones (ikura, uni, anago, hotate, toro, and kampachi--I don't really like kampachi, but my friend wanted it). Are you familiar enough with fish caught around the Kansai area to suggest some unusual ones to order the next time I have sushi? This particular shop doesn't have a menu, and he only has whatever is in his little display case (the shop is teeny tiny, so the display case is even teenier tinier). And you can't say, "Omakase" at this shop. You have to actually choose what you want.

There are only so many ways you can fold a napkin. Chances are there won't be much difference amongst the books which you were looking at, at least in terms of the different designs, so you could probably choose any one of them and find an interesting design. If you're serious about buying a book for this sort of thing, the most important feature should be clarity of instruction--good diagrams, easy to follow instructions, etc. Another option is to go for an origami book. As long as your napkins are square, you could probably do most of the less involved origami designs.

Sounds like she need to get her thyroid checked. Women especially can have "mixed up" symptoms when it comes to thyroid problems. Even though she's not gaining weight, she could very well have hypothyroidism. No, it's still science. It's just different for each person's body.

Do you mean like the Thai hoy tod? (warning, the link is a video with cheesy music...) If it's like hoy tod, my friend gave me a recipe which made hoy tod that was close to the kind of hoy tod I like (kind of chewy, but crispy). I used tapioca starch instead of cornstarch, because I thought it would give me more of the chewiness I wanted. There's no egg in the batter. A lightly scrambled egg is added to the pancake after it has started cooking (when the bottom is already slightly crispy).

I love the salt, too! But I, too, suffer after. However, I don't mind! How do you make your salt and pepper? I want some, and I can't get any good s&p in Japan. Sucks.

I'm from Winnipeg, so I can relate. Just spell it "kuzu". Many people can't hear the difference between "kudzu" and "kuzu", anyway (I can only sometimes hear it). Since you're already doing something with green peppercorns, I vote for something with szechuan peppercorns. I'd drive to Bismarck to try it! (Is Bismarck anywhere on the way to Minneapolis?)

Ya, but Rick Bayless promoted the BK sandwich, and that didn't make it any better (and it affected his reputation, as well)! I think I was in junior or senior high school with the McRib first came out. I was pretty excited, because in Canada you can't get good rib anything! But even at that age, I thought it sucked. I wouldn't mind of McD's brought back their pizzas. I liked those.

Nakji, since you mentioned that you use ice packs, when I have chicken salad or tuna salad sandwiches for lunch, I always pack my filling separately from the bread. Then at work I put the two together (along with tomatoes or cheese if I want them). That way nothing gets soggy, or if the bread gets squished, at least the filling won't get squished out. My favourite is chicken salad blended with cranberry sauce, stuffed into a camembert-filled bun. Yum! And hamburgers, even when cold, are pretty good! (all parts packed separately, of course!) Same with fried chicken! Would he even turn up his nose at cold fried chicken? If you at least have a kettle, you can also do those instant soup things. Our school's store does brisk business in those. They're not just instant ramen, but also instant pastas, wonton soup, etc. I've never tried them, but my students eat them a lot.

I tried a bit of the ninjin imo this morning. I cut a little up into cubes, then threw them into a pan with a little bit of water and covered the pan. First, cutting the ninjin imo was a bit difficult. It was quite hard, and oddly, it started oxidizing as soon as it was cut. I don't remember NA-type sweet potatoes turning black like that, but it's been so long since I've had one that I could be wrong. Second, after cooking, they look like... wait for it.... carrots. Surprise surprise. The have a lighter coloured center, and it sort of radiates the way a carrot's center does. They look like that before cooking, too, but when they're cooked, the outer part darkens so the difference in colour becomes accentuated. And they taste sort of like... carrots. They're more like NA-type sweet potatoes than satsuma imo, but they're not really like NA-type sweet potatoes. They're not as stringy as satsuma imo, which is good, but they're harder than NA-type sweet potatoes when cooked. But that could just be because I didn't cook them as long as I should have. They don't seem to be as sweet, either, but they do have a mild sweetness. That might just be my eyes helping fool my taste buds, though (they look more like sweet potatoes so they taste more like sweet potatoes??). Still, I think they'd be an OK substitute for NA-type sweet potatoes, or at least a better substitute than satsuma imo, if mostly for the colour. I'll try baking the bit I have left with brown sugar and butter. That will be the real test. I took pictures, but I forgot to download them while I was at work, and I still can't find my downloader thing. That will have to wait until Monday!

I had a dentist that did that. Once, after 6 years of going to that dentist, I went to my appointment only to find out that I was late (it was the day after returning from overseas, and someone else had made the appointment for me and given me the wrong time). I had missed my appointment, so they charged me. I was pissed off, not so much because they charged me, but because of the snooty way they addressed the issue (the receptionist's tone was one of anger--"You're late and you've missed your appointment. We'll have to charge you" period). But I was also a little pissed off that I had been charged, because I was a long-time patient who had never missed an appointment or even been late before. I never went back. For restaurants, I think it's a good idea to take a credit card number as a thread. Then you can cut a regular customer a break once, but call them the next day and let them know they missed their reservation. Then tell them the restaurant policy is to charge for no-shows, but this once you'll waive the fee. For new customers, same thing, but they also go on a no-show list. If they call to make another reservation and their name is on that list, let them know they missed a reservation in the past, so they will be charged if they don't show. If they decide not to go through with the reservation, you probably wouldn't want them as a customer, anyway. I hate people who break promises. It's a reflection of the kind of person they are.

Add my echo to the "I'm so jealous" crowd! Question...why did you (collective, not individual) decide to cook the eggs before adding them to the pizza, rather than crack raw eggs onto the pizza and let the oven cook them? I like the egg yolk to run all over my pizza, and I fear those waterbath cooked eggs would end up much too cooked for my liking. Not that it matters, since I didn't get to eat any of your amazing looking pizzas.

I haven't been able to watch any of the shows (still in Japan, and I don't have Discovery or Travel Channel), and I haven't found much about the Osaka show. On the Travel Channel website, there are pictures from his being in Osaka, but there's no travel guide for it. Has the episode actually aired, and if it has, where did he go? I only know about Koyoshi Sushi.

My mother speculates that the people in the area might be more pure Malay, although there are many mestisos (sp?) in the area, too.

I think she might be going this Saturday. I'll report as soon as I hear anything! She's going to my sister's first from Nov. 14 to 25, then she's leaving for Japan Dec. 4th. She's going straight to the Philippines from here, so she won't be back in Winnipeg till the end of March. So you have a very small window of opportunity, unless you want to wait until April! And of course, I'll probably be back in town in July! I just had auditory memory flashes of friends singing "Rona with the Children" back in the '80s. That's not a good thing. . . I don't eat enough to do a blog! Well, I eat a lot, but it'll be the same thing for a whole week! Not a very interesting blog, I think!

What a good idea! International expansion! Except of course you should come to the Kansai area first--there's pretty much nothing in Hiroshima! Magus--I'm so happy that you're doing so well with your burger operation. I think it's good that you've started "small" (like those line-ups are small!), so you can really get a feel of what you need/want (and what your customers want/need) before opening your other location. You're getting used to the demand, the crowds, etc. etc. With all this experience, when you expand it will be with ease!

You're right! Neither were marmelo, and all were karin. The first picture is karin, but a little different from usual karin. The two smaller ones were your average every day karin. I checked the trees again, and there were no spines on the second trees. I found all this out from one of the science teachers (biology/botany), who as it turns out, was one of the designers of the garden (he also has a gardener's license). He said there is a marmelo tree in the garden, and I think I managed to find it. It had three large fruit that kind of looked like mangos from the angle at which I was standing. The fruits were quite high up, though, and I'm quite short, so I couldn't get a good look. I'm hoping they fall out of the tree soon, so I can snag them and make my membrillo (I'm really stuck on making membrillo rather than jelly or some other product). I've been told that said science teacher gets annoyed when people take fruits from the garden, though. He thinks fallen fruit should go to the animals, but hey! I'm an animal, too!

Adobo (soy sauce and vinegar braised meat--usually chicken or pork), crispy pata (fried pig's leg) and lechon (roasted suckling pig) are always popular. I like caldereta (beef stew, sort of), and bbq pork on a stick. These four things are usually sure bets at Filipino restaurants, as it's difficult to go wrong with them (though lechon can sometimes be much too dry), and everyone usually likes them. I love fried bangus--especially the fatty stomach. If you go for breakfast, try tocino. If you're lucky enough to find a place with dishes from Bicol, give them a try. They're much more southeast Asian than other Filipino foods--they use more coconut milk and chiles in the area. Pinangat and Bicol Express are two examples.