prasantrin

I'm not good at that sort of stuff! I'm just a wee girl, after all! I'm pretty sure the ham will be OK, but I think I'm going to juice and zest the lemons/limes and just bring those parts. I'll preserve the zest in the juice. I'm sure it'll last the total 8 hours including transit time that I'll be traveling!

I'm going to the Philippines next week. Some relatives have asked me to bring certain hard-to-get food items for them. I've been searching for lists of foods that are banned from import, but haven't been able to find one. Are there any Filipinos here who can point me to such a list, or who can tell me if the following are safe to bring? Citrus fruit (lemons and limes, specifically) Cooked ham (not canned) I know in the past, family members have brought cured sausages into the Philippines, so I would assume the ham would be OK. But I don't want to take the risk of bringing these things only to have them confiscated. I'm not really looking forward to my trip, except for the possibility of eating all that good tropical fruit!

But you must get them while you can. At the Beard Papa closest to me, the matcha and chocolate ones are not available all the time, and they rotate the two. Sometimes they have them on alternating days, sometimes alternating weeks. They also seem to be seasonal at my Beard Papa (in Japan). It could be because it's just a small one in a train station (you have to go through ticket gates to get to it)--I don't know about larger Beard Papa's. But yes, they are divine! They dust them lightly with icing sugar and a touch of cocoa powder, while the matcha ones are dusted with icing sugar and matcha.

If you can get a cocoa one, get it! I love the green tea ones, but the cocoa ones are out of this world! The custard cream reminds me of chocolate soft ice cream...

Ikari sometimes has them, as does the little foreign food store at Hankyu Umeda Station. I've also found them at CicoMart, which is small but I think a chain. To bring this back on topic, because it's the end of the year (fiscal/school), sobetsukais (farewell parties) have put my food spending for the month over the top! It's only the middle of the month and I've spent a bit over Y45 000!! About Y20 000 of that is for three different farewell parties (one at Y8 000, one at Y6000, and the last was just over Y5000). End of the year...not always a good thing!

Aaaaaahh! I want some! I'm not scheduled for a Costco visit till next week, though, and then two days later, I'm off to the Philippines for 10 days! Crap! What are you going to do with them?

If only I were so smart. I had a feeling it was too much, but I have a very bad habit of taking recipes as gospel so I thought if the recipe said it would be fine, then of course it would be fine! I was also wary of what I used to grease the pan, and thought I should stick to my own method, but again, I followed the recipe and the cake stuck! The odd thing is, I made the sour cream and lemon pound cake from epicurious using the same bundt pan. That recipe calls for a 16-cup tube pan, and the sour cream chocolate cake only calls for a 12-cups pan. Luckily, I have very kind friends and they offered to eat the cake even if it was a) ugly and b) slightly overbaked!

I made the CI Sour Cream Bundt cake tonight. I had some problems. Firstly, even though I used the melted butter/cocoa powder combination to grease my pan, it stuck and came out in pieces. So much for giving the cake to my students as a thank you present! (It's White Day in Japan tomorrow, and I owe a lot of students who gave me Valentine's presents!) Secondly, I thought I had a regular-sized bundt pan (which is what was required) but either my pan is smaller or I somehow managed to end up with much more cake batter, because although the cake didn't overflow, it rose past the top of the pan, especially around the middle where it almost overflowed. It took about 60 minutes to bake. I think that was related to the almost overflowing batter, but I don't know much about these things... From what I could tell, though, it was moist and flavourful. The batter was very, very good but I haven't tried the cake yet (except some bits that fell off, and they were good).

How long ago was it? In my residential area in a small (medium?)-sized city, a karaage teishoku, for example, is about Y900. It includes karaage, rice, pickles, and a little bowl of ramen or udon. Y700 would be very cheap for teishoku around here. I do remember a time when I could go to Gyoza no Osho and have karaage teishoku for about Y600. That was 15-ish years ago and the price has gone up since then.

Get thee to Costco. Still expensive compared to US or Canadian prices, but much cheaper than supermarkets (100% ground beef, for example, is less than Y100/100g). Junk food is particularly cheap. I'm headed their on the 21st (during the daytime, though), so you're welcome to tag along! Edited to add: I forgot to mention, shopping at Costco and owning a Tilia FoodSaver has really helped my food budget in Japan. Although Costco is cheaper, the portions are huge for a single person. The Tilia has allowed me to buy in bulk and freeze things in small portions for extended periods of time.

Are we talking groceries or restaurant expenses, as well? Last month I spent just over Y34 000 on food, but that doesn't include Costco grocery purchases (which would probably add another Y5000-10000. And that's just for one person (but includes costs of parties at restaurants, etc.). As a percentage, I spend a 10% of my gross monthly salary on food--looking at it that way, it's not too bad, is it? I do tend to spend more on food than any other item, though. I buy a few Thai mangoes every week and those, alone, are Y300 each, and I eat out a lot.

Mmmm! I love chewy apple-flavoured things! I'll have to pick some up next time I go to the grocery store. They have lemon ones, too, but I haven't tried them, yet. I'm still addicted to the matcha ones (and I wish they came in a bigger bag, too!).

You can get a refund on your Costco membership if you're not satisfied with it. From their website:

There's an adjoining room? I didn't know that!! I'll have to check it out the next time I'm in MSP (we go there every visit and stock up on Mexican groceries). About El Burrito Mercado, when the workers say something is "hot" they mean hot! We had the taco combination and for one of the fillings, my mother ordered a spicy pork filling (can't remember what it was). It looked spicy, and my mother was prepared for that (after being married for 35 years to a Thai person, she can handel spicy), but this filling was really spicy. Delicious, but after two bites my tongue was numb, so I couldn't taste anything anymore. We also ate at El Amanacer mentioned by MSPD, since the first time we visited El Burrito Mercado it was closed for an employee picnic (it was the last day of our trip, too! We were so disappointed!). It was OK, but EBM or Mercado Central would be a much better choice. I have some pictures of the food at both El Amanacer and EBM in my photo album on webshots. The EBM stuff was mostly leftovers, so they look a bit unappetizing and are blurry, to boot. I also have some pictures from Mercado Central, but haven't organized them, yet.

How brave a driver are you? I'd never have driven in Morocco, but I'm a bit chicken. If you do drive, I would recommend getting some very good insurance, just in case. The roads/drivers are crazy there! But I suppose that depends on your frame of reference. I would skip Casablanca, personally, except perhaps to see the Mosque. Fez and Marakesh are great (I prefered Fez) but I really enjoyed Essouira (sp?). It was beautiful, despite being winter when I was there, and very relaxing. Plus you can pick up your argan oil while you're there (a little more cheaply than elsewhere). With just 10 days, though, unless you're willing to cram things in, I would probably do Marakesh and Essouira OR Marakesh and Fez, but probably not all three (unless you're flying from place to place).

Does it have to be a restaurant or is a food court/cafeteria-type place OK? I've eaten at both El Burrito Mercado (in St. Paul) and at the food court at Mercado Central and both were great. Primarily (almost entirely) Mexican clientele at both, but many of the vendors at Mercado Central aren't as fluent in English, so it helps to be able to speak a little Spanish (if you're just ordering off the menu, the language-thing is fine, but if you want detailed information, it can be a bit difficult with just English).

If you can't find a similar one in Vancouver, why not just buy a bunch and freeze them? They give detailed instructions on freezing and thawing on their website. I know reheated from frozen bread isn't the same as fresh, but it's better than no bread at all!

This may have been mentioned in the Marrakesh thread, but in case it hasn't, be careful at the Djma el Fnaa. We had great food there, so that isn't the problem (we just sat at a place we thought looked good). As we sat down, though, we were warned by a Moroccan couple next to us to refuse anything we didn't want--bread, olives, whatever. At many of the stalls, they set bread, olives, or little snacks in front of you as soon as you sit down, but these are not free, so if you don't want them you're welcome to say so, and they'll take them away. But what's a Moroccan food experience without bread or olives?

I forgot about one other thing...did you make three throw-away pots before making a drinkable pot? I can't remember if that was in the instruction manual or in the video, but they tell you to make three pots of coffee and throw them away. Sometimes I think it tastes weak, too, but I'm not really a coffee drinker so I figured it was just me. Maybe I need to try Illy dark roast instead of Lavazza. Even though it tastes weak, it still makes my heart go all pitter patter-y and keeps me from falling asleep if I drink it after 3-ish.

In my 15-ish years exposed to Japanese, I've never been able to learn all the counters and the proper phonological changes. Therefore, I always use basic numbers (hitotsu, etc.) and never buy more than 10 of the same thing! Hey, it has always worked for me...

Are you making milk coffee or the "cappuccino"? Either way, make sure you screw the top part on tightly. Even when I thought it was on tightly, it wasn't and the water leaked out. And if you're making cappuccino and not milk coffee, make sure you use the water amount for cappuccino. I accidentally used the milk coffee amount the first time I made it, and it spilled out over the top! Finally, they suggest cleaning the pot asap because of the milk. I suggest running the whole pot under cool water to cool it down, then remove the black pressure thing, then screw off the bottom. The bottom does not come off easily unless the black pressure thing is off. I learned that the hard way! I'm almost done with my pot of Illy, and am planning to try Lavazza next. Even a large-ish tin of Illy doesn't last very long with this pot. I've been using the regular roast, but I find the flavour of the coffee to be a bit weak, so I'm going to try the dark roast after the Lavazza. Last thing, watch the video if you haven't already and if you don't have any kind of moka pot experience. I had no idea how to use the pot, and found the instruction booklet to be a little confusing, but the video was very clear.

The last time I was in Minneapolis/St. Paul, I bought a Daim cake from Ikea. For a commercially made cake, it was pretty good! I'd have bought some Daim, too, but they were relatively expensive. I'm still eating my pound cake. I'm a little worried because I'll have to make another one soon--this one is almost gone!

I endulged, breaking two of my rules (no eating after 8pm, and no eating after flossing my teeth!). It was great, and I was able to find enough will-power in myself to stop from eating a third slice. I still have about 1/3 cake left, and all but 1 slice has been eaten by me! Here's a too-dark picture of a slice of cake And a close-up of the crust The crust was the best part, but the entire cake is absolutely delicious. Even now, one week later (I can't believe it's only been a week--I feel like such a pig for eating so much of it!), it's still moist and tender. I'm going to make this cake again, but will leave out the lemon next time. I want to try it as a plain (vanilla) pound cake.

Having recently visited my favourite teppanyaki place, I felt it needed it's very own topic. My favourite teppanyaki place in Kobe is a place called Lapin (website is only half-working right now). It's very reasonably-priced, especially at lunchtime. They were celebrating their 7th anniversary and this was their lunch course--priced at only Y2000! Soup--I can't remember what kind it was--some kind of green--kikuna? It tasted ever so slightly of dill to me. It was great! The soup is always served in the same kind of cup, but the soup itself changes every so often. It always makes use of a seasonal vegetable. Salad--complete with a peeled cherry tomato! The salad and dressing don't usually change, but the garnish does. This one had a fried lotus root garnish, but I've had other vegetable garnishes in the past. Grilled tofu with aioli and fried garlic, and grilled konnyaku shaped like a rabbit. Always a favourite with me, and cute, too! Up to this point, everything that has been served is on each level of their lunch courses (they have three or four of varying prices). But now we diverge. Three types of seafood--salmon served with some kind of peppercorn sauce, cod shirako, lightly brushed with with yuzu/soy dressing, on a tiny little riced potato cake, and a scallop served with pesto. Grilled shirako is ever so slightly like foie gras in texture--much nicer than shirako served as nabe (ick!). This was an a la carte dish I ordered--oysters grilled with butter and soy, served with aioli (I think). It's one of my all-time favourite dishes and I order it whenever they have it available. That's all for now. Next I'll post the meat dishes and dessert!

I open up potato chip bags and use my finger to scrape up every last crumb and flavoured greasy oil bit. I do this especially with Old Dutch Bar-B-Q potato chips, and Old Dutch Nacho Cheese and Taco flavoured tortilla chips. But that's not just for frugality's sake...