prasantrin

I was starving after going to the gym on Wednesday, so I dropped by CocoIchiban. I had the beef and vegetable curry, with a side onsen tamago. It was much tastier and more filling than the curry served at most family-style chain restaurants in Japan. I could actually see chunks of beef in my curry. The curry itself was Y780 (beef curry is Y580, vegetables an additional Y200), and the onsen tamago (served in a separate bowl, but I dumped mine on top of the curry) was an additional Y70. I'd go back, but I'm not sure it was all that different from my favourite S&B curry roux.

What bothers me most about this picture, is that it looks like there's a little bit of carpet fiber stuck to the pinky of his claw. It makes me think the poor little guy was running around the house when they snatched him up from the carpet to make lunch... But I'd still eat him!

I use his recipe for Bolognese sauce all the time, and the fresh tomato sauce, too. Other than the bechamel recipe (I keep forgetting proportions...), that's all I've really tried, and I've had the book for years...I guess it's time to experiment more!

Which restaurant? I'm just a hop away from Osaka, and I love yuzu!

I've entered the Azuki Shortbread Bar recipe into Recipe Gullet if you'd like to give it a try.

Tsubushian (mashed azuki bean) Shortbread Serves 48 as Dessert. This recipe was given to me by a Japanese co-worker, who in turn got it from a former Japanese-American co-worker. It's not too sweet, and is perfect with a cup of green tea. 2-1/2 c flour 1-1/2 c sugar 1 c butter 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 3 eggs, slightly beaten 12 oz can tsubushian (mashed azuki beans) 1 c chopped nuts (any kind) Preheat oven to 350 C. In a bowl, combine 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup sugar. Cut in butter. Press mixture evenly into a 13x9x2-inch pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Sift the remaining 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup flour, baking powder and salt. Mix in eggs, nuts, and tsubushian. Pour over baked crust and bake for 40-45 minutes. Cut into bars while still warm (I wrote 48 bars, but you can cut them larger or smaller if you like). *Tsubushian is mashed cooked azuki beans and is available in cans at Japanese markets or other Asian food stores. It's coarser than anko, so you can easily make your own if you can't find the canned variety. You can use a recipe such as this one. Keywords: Dessert, Easy, Brownies/Bars ( RG1955 )

Nuoc cham is always one of my favourites. If you can get a jar (or recipe) of the sauce for Hainanese chicken, try that, too. Spicy and delicious!

Since most rice cookers in Japan are not available outside Japan, and since this topic has been covered umpteen times in the Kitchen Consumer forum, you might be better off searching there first. There's: this thread, started just last month, this one, also from last month, and this one from last year, to start you off.

I'll be all over the place, just wandering around. It turns out my friend actually lives in Sharjah, though she works in Dubai. I'll be spending most of my free time in Dubai at all the typical places--spice souk, gold souk, Wafi City (to go to Goodies!), Carrefour, that date shop arbuclo went to in her blog (Salehia? Salenia??), the perfume souk, Bastakiya area (I'll be in Bur Dubai often, I think, as I have friends in that area, too), Jumairah Mosque (on a Thursday or Sunday for the tour!), Deira covered souk, etc.. If you know a few really great places that you'd highly recommend, I'd actually be willing to plan my daily itinerary around them! I'll have all the free time in the world, and am not really scheduling anything! It's supposed to be a relaxing holiday, so that's just what I'm going to do...relax!

After browsing through their website again, I thought that might have been the case. Do you know if it is the same chef and style of food as when it was Retro? It seemed like an interesting place to dine when arbuclo wrote about it, but if it's changed much, I might give it a pass.

I found a copy of the 25th edition of the Shizuo Tsuji tome. It was shrink-wrapped, as I imagined, but it turns out bookstore clerks will open books up for you if you ask! There's a new foreword by Ruth Reichl (the old one by MFKFisher is still there, too), there is a new preface by Tsuji's son (and the old one by Tsuji is still there, too). Aside from that, I think there were some new pictures (a few), but that's about all. So if you have the old one, you don't need to rush out and buy the new edition.

Prior to the influx of HK-Chinese into Vancouver and the Toronto area, Winnipeg was *the* place to get good Cantonese-style Chinese food. It still has many of the same restaurants, and the quality is just as good as it was back then. Vancouver may have more variety, but with just a few exceptions, it doesn't necessarily have better food.

Did you use your Turbo Oven to bake it? If so, I think that would explain your hard on top, watery on the bottom thing. Thanks so much for doing this blog. I really enjoyed it, and it's nice to see an honorary Visayan out there for a change!

It's natural to dwell on negative comments, I think. Even if 99% of the people love your food, the 1% that don't will probably stand out for most. But as a teacher, one thing I learned was not to look at negative comments as criticisms, but as learning opportunities. That's why it's so important to get formal feedback (in the form of a questionnaire, for example) from the seniors, if you haven't already. About the lasagne, it's possible that people didn't want either, but felt they had to vote for one, so they chose the lesser of two evils. Would it be possible to do a non-tomato sauce lasagne, or some kind of Minnesota hotdish noodle thing? It's still baked, but the flavours might be more similar to what they like, and you can still put your own twist on it.

Is there really a difference between food-safe cellophane (i.e. cellophane marketed specifically for candy packaging) and non-food-safe cellophane? I cannot find food-safe cellophane anywhere (need it for wrapping caramels). I can, however, get some cellophane for wrapping gifts. Can I use that, or do I really need to get specialty cellophane? Is there something I can use instead? I can get foil for wrapping candies, I think, and I have parchment paper. Any other ideas?

I posted about vanilla salt a few months ago when I was home for the holidays. My mother made some by accident (as she discovered when she used it to make leche flan...). I didn't try to use any, but perhaps I'll bring some back with me next summer. I think it would be nice on caramels, and others suggested some more interesting (and savoury) uses for it.

I'm hoping for better pictures, but the only change I know of (from the ad) is a new foreword from Ruth Reichl. I hope there's more to it than that, though! I'll see if I can find a copy to browse through when I'm in Kobe today. I hate it when bookstores put shrinkwrap on books so you can't look through them!

Mine is like this one. If I rest it, the caramel stuck to it gets wasted, and at the time I thought that was a bad thing.

But the fresh caramel is just so tempting! The burn mark on my thumb, and the blister on my middle finger will remind me that temptation can be a bad thing... And I have more than 300 papers to mark still...It hurts just holding a pen! (typing isn't much better...oh the pain I will endure for eGullet... )

I will never ever again, no matter how tempting, use my fingers to clean off some very hot caramel from a metal probe thermometer that I just pulled out of a hot pot. OK, I admit, this isn't the first time I've done it, but it's definitely the most painful!

About the spiciness, for a lot of people, black pepper is spicy enough. I've been told by the seniors around me that though have seem to have lost the ability to taste many different flavours, the flavour of black pepper has become more pronounced. There seems to be ground black pepper on the zucchini, and you mentioned black pepper on the chicken. That could have been too much black pepper for some.

Dubai doesn't get much traffic on eGullet, it seems, but does anyone have any updates on the food scene there? I'll be there for about 2 weeks visiting friends. I've gone through arbuclo's blog and have picked up some recommendations there, and also have some from other UAE topics here and there. High-end, low-end, Lebanese, local (Emirati), etc. I'm looking for pretty much any kind of food in any price-range, as long as it's good. Forgot a couple of things... I'm especially looking for lunch places where I can eat a meal solo. My friends will be working during the day, so I'll be on my own most of that time. I want to eat well, but won't be able to eat at places that serve family-style, since it will just be me. And, one of the places arbuclo mentioned in her blog was Retro at Le Meridian Mina Seyahi. According to their website, there's no Retro onsite. Did it close or have a name change?

In Japanese it's called "mabo nasu".

I think it depends on what you want to buy and how often you want to buy things. If you don't care about selection, and would only buy things once or twice a year, then Flying Pig is probably a better option than a Costco membership. But, for example, I buy almost all my meats and cheeses at Costco for a substantial savings, even when factoring in the membership and transportation costs (but I live fairly close to Costco). The cheese alone is about Y30/100g more expensive on Flying Pig than Costco. (I paid Y79/100, on Flying Pig it's something like Y120/100g). That Le Creuset pot is about Y2000 cheaper at Costco than on Flying Pig. I restock on meats, cheeses, and eggs every month, so it adds up to quite a bit of savings. I think Foreign Buyers Club might be an even better option than Flying Pig. Membership is only Y1000/year, shipping is cheaper than Flying Pig, and the Costco/Kirkland items are just a touch more in price than Flying Pig. Plus you can buy a lot of other things, too. I used to get cases of stuff and share with friends. Some things aren't much cheaper than if you buy them at Meidiya or other foreign food stores, but many things are quite a bit cheaper (like root beer!). For me, I would choose a Costco membership over an FBC membership, but an FBC membership over buying from Flying Pig. But living farther away (more than Y300 or Y400 one way), then my order of preference would be FBC, Flying Pig, then Costco (or maybe Costco then Flying Pig, depending on what I really want to buy).

Thanks for the empanada tutorial! Can the dough recipe be used for fried empanada, too? I should bake things more--better for my health--but anything fried is good! Turbo broilers--my grandparents used to have one. They seem to be very popular with ex-pat Filipinos, but I don't remember seeing them much in the Philippines. They're great for people with no ovens, or for just "roasting" a few pieces of chicken. I'd never ever thought of baking other things in it, though!