prasantrin

Thanks, Helen! I'm going to look for some of these at my local grocery stores. I hope some of the better ones are more readily available. I hate danshaku and May Queen, and I've pretty much stopped eating potatoes in Japan! BTW, I just noticed your updated status. I'm probably a bit slow, but congratulations!

So, if I understand correctly, these fruit: are marmelo or Persian quince, and these fruit: are karin. I couldn't see the pics in the karin link, though. I think the link is broken. Is that right? The first fruit pictured are quite large--almost like grapefruits. I couldn't get close enough to take a good picture (too many mosquitos around!). The second fruit are small, like medium or large-sized mikan. I'm hoping I'm wrong, though, and that the first picture is karin, and the second is marmelo, because there are two of the latter tree (full of fruit--and one tree has a lot of ripe fruit already), and only one of the former (with only those two still green fruit).

Has anyone tried those big dark red apples? They look like huge red delicious apples. I think they were "akagen" or something like that. I wanted to try one, but they're even more expensive than the other apples (and I'm not a big fan of Japanese apples), so I'm waiting until someone else tries them first. I wonder if they'd be good for baking.

Does anyone know what "ninjin imo" are? I bought a small one, in the hopes that it's like a North American-style sweet potato. But if it's just like a regular potato, what can I do with it? Also, if ninjin imo is more like satsumaimo, which of these potatoes might be more like NA-style sweet potatoes?

Another piece of gossip! Dim Sum Garden's owners have retired! I thought I had seen one of them there last summer, so I don't know when it was sold. But my mother was there today and she said most of the old-time servers are gone, too. She said the food was quite good--better than usual. She still likes Kam Ho's sticky rice best, though.

I had intended on making chicken in oyster sauce with some kind of Chinese vegetable (not bok choy, but smaller and pudgier with lighter green leaves and the same coloured stem) for dinner the other night, but I never got around to it. Yesterday morning, I realized I had no lunches to bring to work, so I quickly made my chicken in oyster sauce. It was frickin' good! I normally just use oyster sauce and cornstarch with water as a thickener. But this time, I added a splash of shaoxing and a bit of soy sauce, too. I'd have taken pictures, but it was almost as ugly as it was tasty.

I baked poundcake Sunday night for one of the office staff who is leaving on Wednesday. Western recipes are generally too large for most Japanese people, so I cut it into slices, and wrapped about 10 of them (half the cake) in little gift bags. That meant I got to keep the other half! Sour Cream and Lemon Pound Cake, my all-time favourite recipe. The crust is the best part! But the rest of the cake is pretty good, too. It's very moist and buttery. It reminds me a lot of Sara Lee Pound Cake, but it's better! I couldn't use sour cream because mine had frozen in the fridge, so I used yoghurt. It's still very rich. I love it.

I'm not helenjp, but I find that in most rice cookers, if you just cook a smaller batch of rice, the rice isn't as good as if you cook a larger batch. I sometimes just want to make a 1/2 cup (of raw rice), and in my old rice cooker, it would cook up harder, even if I used the same proportion of water:rice as with larger batches.

I would probably stick to the Kansai area during Oshogatsu, because you have more options in the area. If you stay in Kyoto, for example, more things might be open because there will be more tourists around, plus Osaka, Kobe, and Nara are reasonably close, and there are a number of different modes of transportation to choose from (potentially making it less crowded). I know a lot of hotels and ryokan are already booked for that period, though, so that might limit your options. Have you considered Hokkaido for your winter food specialty destination? A lot of my students go to Hokkaido during the break, and also to Shinshu (for skiing, but I heard there's good food out there, too). Nagoya is also famous for misokatsu. I haven't had it, yet, but a friend said she didn't think it was much different from regular tonkatsu. It's worth a try, though. I think French food is a very good option in Japan, but I've never been to France, so I don't have much to compare it to.

Did you get them at Big Lots in the US, or Odd Lots in Canada? I'm hoping you meant Odd Lots--my mother loves Cajeta and Dulce de Leche and all that stuff, so if they have it at Odd Lots, she'll be very happy! Anyone know where I can get goats milk in Japan? Maybe I can try making my own here.

One thing about oatmeal for breakfast--whenever I have oatmeal, I get hungry after a couple of hours, compared to 3-4 hours after having a scrambled egg and rye crackers. It's also still important to have protein in the mornings. So add some low-fat yoghurt to your oatmeal, or some lean protein to your breakfasts (or as a mid-morning snack). Something like tuna with Ryvita rye crackers (or the like) are good. The tuna is lean, and rye crackers add fiber (and help keep you full longer). Also, be careful with what soy milk you buy. Stay away from ones like Silk which are chockfull of additives. The ones at Chinese grocery stores are usually better. Or go with low-fat milk (1% isn't bad--skim is gross!). Adding exercise can be easier than it seems. One of my mother's friends started walking during her lunch break, which was only 30 minutes long. She didn't change much else in her life, but just from adding that 30-minute walk, she lost 10 pounds. If you can still manage to eat lunch at your desk while you're working, you can use your lunch (or breaks) to go for a walk, or run up and down the stairs.

Big? If you build it, they will come. Just make sure you have a lot of good staff on hand. A friend of mine is expanding her already very busy restaurant, but she has problems with staffing even now, so I am really worried about what will happen when her new place opens. I'm really bummed that I no longer have friends in Ann Arbor. I have to think of a good reason to go there! Maybe I can do it as a day trip from Chicago--all the way to Ann Arbor just to eat a bacon burger!

Eat more foods high in Omega-3 fatty acids--salmon, sardines, herring, etc. Also tofu, walnuts, and ground flaxseeds. I add ground psyllium husks to my morning smoothies, and it is also supposed to be helpful. Supplements like garlic tablets and Omega-3 may also help reduce blood cholesterol levels. (If you scroll down to the bottom of each of the links I posted, you can see how each herb and supplement rates in terms of effectiveness for helping with certain conditions, based on scientific studies--psyllium husks get an "A", for example, for helping lower cholesterol, but only a "C" in helping with hyperglycemia.) Start exercising more, too, if you don't already, and lose weight if you need to. My good cholesterol had good numbers. but my bad cholesterol was somewhat high. I still ate all the bad foods I ate before (fatty foods are good), but in smaller quantities. I also lost 15 pounds, exercised more, and I started taking garlic tablets and Omega-3 supplements. My bad cholesterol is more reasonable now, but it's difficult to say which helped more--exercise and weight-loss, or the supplements. I would guess the former rather than the latter, at least in my case.

Are either of your round pans 9"? If your poppy seed slice is fairly flat (and it sounds like it is), then a 9" round pan would be closest to what you want in terms of surface area. Then just cut your slices into wedges. 4.5x13.75=61.875 inches squared is the area you're looking for 9x12=108 inches squared 9" square=81 inches squared 8" square=64 inches squared 9" round=63.585 inches squared 8" round=50 inches squared You could also make your own little 8" square pan using parchment paper. I did it in baking class once, and it worked well for the florentine bars we were making (which were similar to your slice in that they were a shortbread crust, parbaked, then topped with nuts and baked again.

I was talking to my mother last night, and she said she prefers fruitcakes with more fruit and nuts, and less cake. That would appear to put the Harry and David cake at the top of the list. But the cake mizducky (thanks!) linked to only has cherries, pineapple, walnuts, and pecans! The green cherries she can do without, but she loves rinds! And there's no rum or any other alcohol in it, either! What's the point of fruitcake if it doesn't have alcohol?? But it's still in the running. Upon closer examination of the Holy Cross Abbey ones, they appear to have a lot of cake (comparatively speaking) in them, so I think I'll cross those off my list. But the Claxton, and the Gethsemani are still in there, too (I've pretty much decided on the Caribbean Connoisseurs, so I'm looking for one more). So is the Collins. judiu, can you tell me about the ratio of cake to fruit and nuts in the Collins? She likes it so the batter is just there to hold the fruit together, so that's what I'm looking for (like the Harry and David one). Holly, how about the Claxton ones? Do they have a lot of fruit and nuts compared to cake? The pictures look a little cakey, but it's hard to tell.

I have a friend that used to bake bread in his toaster oven (not the same as a broiler, but very top-heavy heating). His attempts were successful, but they had to open and close the oven door a lot to help control the temperature. Cakes are more delicate, but it's worth a try!

I'm trying to narrow down (to one, maybe two) places from which to order fruitcake. Jokes aside, my mother loves fruitcake, and I've been procrastinating so she's not getting any homemade ones from me this year. Going through eGullet, I've found the following: Andro's Sweets and Treats--but it seems I can't go through an online ordering system, and I would have to call them to order (I'm in Japan, it's a PITA) Caribbean Cake Connoisseurs--I know my mother loves Black Cake, and her one source back home no longer sells it. Abbey of Gethsemani--I like the way these look, and I'm sure my mother will appreciate my supporting the church in some way, since I no longer go to church. Holy Cross Abbey--same as above Collins Street Bakery--these were the first "gourmet" fruitcakes I remember seeing in ads. I always thought they looked good. When I found the above during an eGullet search, some of the posts in which they were mentioned were quite old. Does anyone have any recent experience with any of the above to recommend them? Right now I'm thinking of going with Caribbean Cake Connoisseurs and either Gethsemani or Holy Cross. But I'm open to other suggestions, as well!

So you skipped the arborio? Mmmmm, it looked fabulous, and I don't even like rice pudding (or I haven't had any I've liked). Was it just cinnamon you sprinkled on top?

Franco, Those cheeses are beautiful! I really envy you your job. Do you get to taste these babies? I'm wondering about that new cheese you saw--Touchtra? Fouchtra? Where was it from and what did it taste like?

I was thinking of that, too! I think Minute Rice is one of the reasons many North Americans think they don't like rice (kind of like me and my KD hatred). The first time I had Minute Rice, I think I might have been in my early 20s. Having grown up eating jasmine rice, I was really horrified. If you don't have a rice cooker, is boiling a pot of water to make rice really much harder than minute rice? Even the cheap long-grain rice is better that Minute Rice!

Neighbour has not been there, either. She told my mother she heard of a new place, and wanted to try it, so when they go in a couple of weeks, it will be both for their first times. She didn't tell my mother very much about it--not the name nor the exact location. I would guess it would be in one of the strip malls near St. Vital Centre, which would make it very convenient. I hope not only the food will be good, but the service, as well. We need good dim sum with good service in the south!

Word on the street (at least our street) is there's a new place that serves dim sum in St. Vital. Our neighbour invited my mother there, but not for a couple of weeks. I thought perhaps our neighbour meant Victoria Seafood, which isn't new, but is practically at St. Mary's and Dakota, but she told my mother this place was new. I will report back once I hear details (like the name of the place, for example )

Another thing to consider about non-stick--have you ever doused the pan with cold water while the pan was still hot? A friend recently told me that a T-fal rep told her not to cool a hot pan with water, because it will destroy the non-stick finishing. This very much explains why my non-stick pans are all no longer non-stick, though I cannot guarantee the same thing applies to Nordiware pans.

We use the PC bags, too, but I don't like them so much. One of mine already has a tear in the seam. The ones from Sobey's/Loblaws are better quality, I think. I also have Trader Joe's bags which are much better quality (though they don't fold up as small as the PC bags, and are a little more expensive). My favourite reusable grocery bag is actually a LuluLemon bag. It has guilt trips written all over it, just like Kent's CM bag (though LuluLemon probably thinks of them as being inspirational rather than guilt-ridden)!

I'm trying to make hoi tod (oyster "pancake"), but I'm not having any success with the recipes I've found. I think it's the batter that's my problem. I like my hoi tod to be a big chewy, but with patches of crispiness on the outside. One recipe I used called for tapioca flour and soda water, but the end product resulted in a mucillaginous mess. At least the middle was mucillaginous. The outside was properly crisp, I thought. But it soaked up all the oil in the pan, and it was quite a bit of oil. The other recipe called for equal amounts of all-purpose flour, cornstarch, and tapioca flour, water, and egg mixed in (the first one had beaten egg poured onto the batter after it has been poured onto a hot pan). This one was more like a regular pancake, so it wasn't right, either. The perfect hoi tod should be like the one in this video (warning, annoying background music). Any ideas how to duplicate the batter recipe?