prasantrin

Thanks! I think I once had the Romanian version on some chicken. In Winnipeg there's a place that serves Dracula chicken (or something like that) which is just roast chicken with a garlic sauce that isn't really sauce-y. It's nice to know there's a Romanian version, since I'll be there this summer! Except I'll be in the Transylvania area, so perhaps I'll find a Hungarian version, instead!

I forgot....go to Bistro Dansk and have a slice of hazelnut pie. I love their hazelnut pie. It's almost pure hazelnut, except for the large amount of freshly whipped (aerated) cream on top. Mmmm. Their schnitzel is good, too, and I used to love their pate but the last couple of times I was there, it was not quite up to par. Others I know love their Borscht, and I think most of their soups are quite good. Oh, despite it's name, it's really more Bohemian than Danish, though they do have some Danish-style sandwiches and frikadeller (sp?). I would stay away from the Indian restaurants downtown--they're not very good. Instead there's one in St. Boniface (just a leisurely walk away from downtown--if you're staying at the Fort Garry it's even closer) that is quite good. The owners are actually Pakistani. Very good selection of Indian snacks there--all homemade. I can't remember the name off-hand, though...I'll have to get back to you on that.

I asked one of my co-workers about restaurants. Were you looking specifically for the Sannomiya area? She said she hasn't gone for Kobe beef in a few years, but there used to be a restaurant called "Rokudan" that was quite good and reasonably priced. If you're willing to go to Okamoto, there's another place called Lupin that does Teppanyaki. She said there's a wide range of courses to choose from--the cheapest being about Y3000 or Y4000. She said the Y7000 course is a good value. It's in the same building as a handicraft shop called "Hand in Hand" (or something similar) but on the second floor. It's closer to Hankyu Okamoto Station, not JR (though it's still relatively close to JR Okamoto Station, too). I just did a search on Rokudan and I believe they have moved to Harbourland. They're in Mosaic and you need reservations. Hours are 11-3, 5-10 and there was no phone number listed. I'll try to find more information from others. My informant, however, loves food so I would generally trust her suggestions. But it's always good to have more choices!

I'll ask around at work (I'm in Nishinomiya) at see what I can find. Many of my co-workers live in Kobe and grew up there so they know a lot of really great restaurants. If you're in Kobe, do you know of any place that serves Croque Monsieur? Real Croque Monsieur--not that crap Donq or other similar bakeries make. I had the Mariage Freres version but it was not up to par.

Somewhere in　this board is another discussion on Winnipeg food but for now, let me suggest: Siam Thai Cuisine--on St. Anne's near St. Vital Centre. Food quality depends on who is cooking (if it is Samloy, the owner, it'll be great. If it's her sister, less so). My favourites--choochee pla, pla dook foo (which they took off the menu but will still make for me if given enough of a warning), pad phet, golden cups (small serving, but very yummy!). I would stay away from the satay. North Garden--by the University of Manitoba--for Chinese. If you can order off the Chinese menu, to for it. I like the steamed fish with ginger and scallions (except there are a lot of bones). Dim Sum Garden--for the steamed chicken with ginger and scallions. When I tried to get it at North Garden, they gave me boneless chicken that they had steamed with the soy sauce/oil mixture. Dim Sum Garden does it right (except I haven't had it there in a very long time, so my ideas may have changed). For Dim Sum: Last time I went to Kum Koon. It was better than my first post-renovation visit there. Some things are better at Dim Sum Garden, but Kum Koon Garden does har gau and sui mai better. During weekdays+Saturday, Dim Sum Garden has a $1.90/dish special after 2 pm. It's a good deal on Saturdays when they have a full dim sum selection. A new Moroccan place just opened on St. Anne's--a bit farther south than Siam. My mother said it was OK. The people are very friendly, but since the place has just opened very recently, there are some kinks to work out. Some food was very good (she had a dish similar to foul mudammes that was excellent, she said), but some was a bit tasteless (like the beef tagine). Hopefully they'll experiment a bit more with the flavours before they start getting busy. In the same strip mall as North Garden is a Bosnian restaurant. I can't remember the name off-hand, but they make (or at least used to) their own phyllo dough for their pastries. If you're into Ukrainian food, there's always Alycia's. I think it's over-rated and over-priced, but Winnipegers love the place. Gunn's Bakery--go there for the Apple Jacks. And the florentine cookies. Just a regular bakery with no seating, so everything is to go. You might like their bagels, too. Oh, Tre Visi if you're looking for something a little more upscale (Winnipeg generally does not do upscale very well). I love their gnocchi--light as gnocchi could be. Stay away from Amici's gnocchi. Heavy as rocks. (But Amici and it's younger sister, Bombolini's, does other things well). I'm sure I'm missing things. As for hotels, there are no nice hotels in Winnipeg. Even the "nice" ones have a bit of a divey feel to them. Some downtown areas are quite...unfriendly...especially during the summer when the drunks hang out pestering people. Fort Garry, imo, is a relatively safe bet. I like their Sunday brunch. But if you don't care about the appearance of posh, there are plenty of cheap hotel/motel type places that are newer than some of the "posh" hotels, and so don't seem quite so divey. They're usually away from downtown, though, so you'd be taking the bus or taxi. Places in Winnipeg are relatively close (maybe takes only 20-30 minutes to get from one end of the city to the other when there's no traffic) so taking the bus is really not such a bad thing.

The Daiei in my neighbourhood just started carrying these yesterday. They were a bit expensive--Y298 for a tiny bunch--but I'm sick so I splurged. They're cute, so I understand their popularity with children, but they're also pretty tasty. I ate the skins .

I had forgotten I had asked this question! Thank you all for the replies, and to Foodman, especially, for the recipe! I am now in Japan so Middle Eastern food of any kind is hard to come by. I need to be able to make my own! I knew skordalia wasn't quite right because of the potatoes, and I thought aioli (sp?) was too mayonnaise-y. I did check recipe gullet and although many of the other recipes from Foodman's Lebanese class were there, this one wasn't! Hmmm, is there some kind of prejudice against garlic out there? I should have gone straight to the source instead of relying on recipe gullet. Oh well, off to make some garlic sauce! Thanks again!

I wouldn't be surprised if Japanese tourists bought it by the case (if available). Perhaps that the market the producers are targeting. I was at one of the duty-free shops at Vancouver International looking over the icewines. They were quite a bit more expensive than at my local Liquor Mart in Winnipeg. A Japanese man remarked that I'd be better off buying a couple of bottles from Air Canada's onboard duty-free. Slightly smaller bottles of the same icewine (Inniskillin in a grey-ish box), but a better value. He said, "Japanese people are so stupid. They just buy anything without caring about the price." From my experience, it is to a large degree true. Perceived prestige is far more important than price. That being said, a Cdn$50 bottle of icewine can sell for more than $100 in Japan so for Japanese tourists, paying $70 for a bottle at the duty-free shop is still cheap.

Very late add-on, but I remember reading once that the early Jewish immigrants to Montreal were Romanian. The bagels, thus, are not only closer to Old World bagels, but Romanian bagels, specifically. Just what I read...

I'm wondering if the rice may have been in the area with the Vietnamese stuff (rice noodles, fish sauce, etc.). I only looked in the rice section and in that area, they only had Japanese rice. I was quite tired--it was a 15-20 minute walk from the train station to Carrefour, then we walked around Carrefour, then another 5 minutes to Costco and around there. That's a lot of walking! I forgot...I did buy some Jasmine rice from Carrefour. I didn't buy the big bag (maybe 5 kg for just over Y2000) but I bought two little bags of about 2 cups each. Next time, if I still can't find the Jasmine rice at Costco, I may buy it at Carrefour and takkyubin it with my Costco purchases. Maybe it was bulgogi bake and some other kind of bowl? I'll have to check again. But I'm pretty sure it said bulgogi bowl. You don't have plain cheese pizza, either? I wonder why the Amagasaki one would have more variety...

This is an old thread, but I'm bringing it back up because I went to Costco today! I've only been here for two weeks (and two days) but some friends were going so I tagged along to see where it was. It's right next to the Carrefour so we went there, too. Carrefour was great! We got there around 10:30 a.m. so they had a lot of free food samples :-). I bought some soy burgers but I didn't buy anything else because I still had to go to Costco. One thing I noticed was that they had a great Thai food section. I could buy bottles of Golden Boy soy sauce for only Y200 and the small bottle of fish sauce that was at least Y300 everywhere else was only Y150! And coconut milk (Chaokoh brand) was only Y135--the cheapest I've found elsewhere was Y190 and it wasn't even Chaokoh. Costco was like a typical Costco--clothes, books, CDs, movies, etc. etc. What made it different, for me, were the prices. Many of the produce and American foods were much cheaper than what I can get in grocery stores or even discount stores. I was quite happy to find a case of 24 cans of Dad's root beer for only Y700!! I usually pay Y120/can. I also got 6 limes for only Y300 and 5 avocadoes for about Y600. I thought they were very good deals since I saw one lime for almost Y200 at Daiei the other day. My only disappointment was that I did not find any Jasmine rice, which I think Torakris mentioned she can get at the Kanto-area Costcos. I also didn't notice any kosher salt, but I wasn't specifically looking for it. Interestingly, the food court had much the same foods as Canadian Costcos--hot dogs or polish sausage (though the Costcos in Winnipeg stopped carrying polish sausages), pizza (three types--combination, cheese, or seafood--no seafood pizza in Winnipeg)), churros, sundaes, and fruit-flavoured slurpee-type things. No french fries, though, and I don't remember if I saw the chicken bake, either. However, at this Costco (in Amagasaki, Hyogo) they also had a bulgogi bowl and clam chowder! The beverages offered were different, as well--no root beer, but oolong tea instead. The prices were similar, as well--in Winnipeg I would pay $2.99+tax for a hot dog and refillable drink while here it was Y262. Cheap for a hot dog in Japan! One of the great things about the Amagasaki Costco was that they had takkyubin service (domestic delivery). To our area it was only Y400--well worth it when buying large, heavy items like my root beer or the huge bottles of ruby red grapefruit juice my friends bought. They won't deliver perishables but anything else is fine. For those of us who don't have cars, this is a fabulous service! I think I'll be going back .

I believe e-Gullet's own Torakris (this forum's moderator/host) teaches Japanese cooking. As for baking ingredients, pretty much any grocery store carries them. Larger grocery stores in places like Jusco, Daiei, York Benimaru (I'm not sure which ones are in your area) will definitely have them, and foreign grocery stores like National Azabu, Kinokuniya, and Meidiya do as well. I'm actually quite surprised that you didn't find them in Seiyu. The Seiyu in one of my old neighbourhoods carried a wide variety of baking ingredients. Smaller grocery stores also carry things like flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, etc. but if you're looking for more specialized ingredients, you may have to go to a larger store. Department store food floors carry supplies, as well. As for bones, sometimes if you ask at grocery stores they'll give or sell you them. Also at specialized meat stores. I'm not sure where else one might find them, but others here will be able to tell you.

They do in Canada--possibly in the US as well. The burgers, breakfast sandwiches, etc. are cooked ahead of time and microwaved as ordered. I think Burger King in Canada does the same. Not that McD's was ever top quality food, but there was a time when it was better. One thing I noticed about the McD's here in Japan is the choice you get with your set--you are not limited to fries but can choose salad, 5 piece McNuggets, or mini pancakes. There was a group of young boys ahead of me--no older than 12 or 13--and I was quite suprised to see that a number of them chose the salad instead of the fries. I can't imagine very many teenagers or pre-teens in Canada choosing the salad over fries. Interesting...

I went to McDonald's today and saw the McDippers. I was tempted, but went for the Filet-o-fish set instead. I don't plan to make going to McDonald's a habit, but I needed a quick lunch and I wanted to verify a few things: 1. McDonald's in Japan is just like McDonald's of my childhood in Canada. The food is generally freshly made--not microwaved. 2. The french fries are still good--they remain crisp and relatively fresh tasting even after 5 or 10 minutes. In Canada, you must consume your fries within 2 minutes or they're good for nothing but the garbage. 3. This is the most important thing--McDonald's Japan still fries their apple pies!!! I'm in heaven! None of that baked crap they sell in Canada. I took pictures, but cannot put them up on webshots for a couple of weeks (I need more space, first). Despite my assertion that I will not be a regular at McD's, I may have to go a couple of times a month just to get apple pies...

Has e-Gullet signed up with other Amazons yet? I can't order through .com but I can order through .co.jp and would love to support e-Gullet if I could.

At the bottom of every page is a link to amazon--shop now and save, I think it says. If you click on that to get to the amazon site, I think amazon will give commission to e-gullet for whatever you buy. Maybe someone with more details can clarify?

Bringing this up yet again! Apparently the release date for the book was moved up and Amazon has already shipped copies out! I'd do the whole e-Gullet amazon link thing, but don't know how. Maybe someone else can help?

thanks! I can read enough to get the general gist of things, so I managed to find some shows I'd be interested in. My apaato was completely furnished--it is about as well furnished as my last apartment (in Tochigi) but a bit smaller. My clothes dryer in my last apt. was bigger, but my bed here is bigger (semi-double). My last apartment, though, at least had linens, towels, and soap when I arrived, though. This one had none of that! Not even a sliver of soap! Good think I brought my own! I love my range and oven, though! The oven is Osaka Gas and it has three main buttons--I have figured out that one is for the microwave, one is convection oven, and I don't know what the third is (there are no manuals in my apartment, so I've had to figure things out on my own ). There are also three program buttons, but I haven't figured those out, either. The oven is quite large--I can fit a 9x13 pan or a 12-muffin pan in it without a problem! My last oven I could only get a 9" round or 8" square! I think I should be able to roast a turkey, too! If I liked turkey, that is. My only complaint about the oven is the time function. There's a dial to set the timer and it only goes up in increments of 10 (seconds or minutes). So I can't bake something for 45 minutes, for example, I have to set it for 40 or 50. Not a big deal, really, just a small hassle. More kitchen stuff--I'm getting a new, very powerful blender, or so I've been told (also a combo VHS-DVD player). I'm going to make pesto! I have pictures up of the outside of my apartment now, too. Plus pictures of last night's okonomiyaki and okashi. I'm eating my brains out over here . Now all I need is DSL and I'll be one happy camper! (Yahoo BB, here I come!)

Help me, please! I can't find my favourite food-related show--Dotchi no Ryouri (sp?)! Could somone tell me what station and time it is usually on? I'm also on the search for new cooking shows. Are there any good ones out there? I tend to avoid the NHK ones, but I need a food fix so anything will do! BTW, if anyone is interested in where I'm living or what I'm eating, I have some pictures up on webshots under the My Apartment and Japanese Food albums. It took me 5 days to finish that blasted mentaiko spaghetti, but it's finally finished so maybe I can cook something else today!

I'm about to go far off-topic, and I may be severely censured for it, I found the above statement to...reek (unintentionally, I'm sure) of that sort of covert prejudice that pervades PC societies and as a Filipina (OK, half) I cannot let it go by without comment. The city in which I was raised (Winnipeg) has a relatively large Filipino population. There are many Filipino-owned businesses--the first were probably grocery stores and travel agencies but now there are 8+ Filipino restaurants (not bad considering the population of Winnipeg is only around 700 000) and many other businesses. Filipinos are no more or less likely to go into business for themselves than many other ethnicities. I think, however, what they need in order to do so is support from the community (Filipino community) and money. Many (I would even go so far as to say most) Filipinos who immigrate to the US and Canada come from very low socio-economic backgrounds. When they first move here they cannot afford to open businesses nor do they have the education or experience to do so. This in no way means they do not have the desire to do so. In terms of support, some Filipino communities are quite fragmented (I'm thinking of Portland, Oregon, for example) so should one person open a business, who would first support it? In Winnipeg if a Filipino were to open a business, they would know their family, friends, church, Filipino Association, etc. would patronize it so they do not have to worry so much about clientele. There are also clusters of Filipinos in certain areas of the city so if I were to open a business in one of those areas, I would know that I have a large client base to draw from. In Portland, for example, there is no one area where many/most of the residents are Filipino. Where would I open a business which has an established client base? As with most businesses, if there is a need for the service the business will thrive. Perhaps in other communities, Filipinos do not open their own restaurants (for example) because there is no need or demand for them. I doubt it is because they lack "business tradition." And FWIW, many of my relatives in the Philippines own highly profitable sugar cane plantations and other businesses, and are also executives in such companies. Should Filipinos not have much of a "business tradition", who do you think is running the business world in the Philippines?

Looks good, to me! I have not yet eaten okonomiyaki since my return to Japan but I have visited it at the deli (pre-made okonomiyaki from the supermarket) and the frozen foods section. Okonomiyaki (Osaka-style) should be thick--best I recall it can be 1/2"-1" thick, depending on the fillings. IIRC, the cabbage is usually mixed with the batter and Osaka-style batter is thick--like a thick pancake batter. When and how the toppings are added depends on the toppings. When I add cheese, I add it before the first flip and I put a little more batter over it so it doesn't burn after being flipped (that's the same way I do it for pancakes). If I'm using bacon, I just place it on top before the first flip, with no additional batter. I'm not sure how seafood is added--mixed into the batter or placed on top--I've never been keen on seafood with my okonomiyaki. The fillings should be stuck, though, not lightly placed on top, so you were right to add them before the first flip. My favourite toppings/fillings are cheese, mochi, bacon, and pork. Cheese and bacon or pork is an especially nice combination .

Do you think Dean & Deluca, despite its current success, will go the way of Williams-Sonoma? It was also far pricier than its American counterpart and it seemed popular when it first opened. There were a few branches across Japan (that I remember, one in Shibuya, one in Kyoto, and one in Osaka at the very least). I think it only lasted about 4 or 5 years, though (IIRC, it opened maybe in 95 and closed sometime around '99).

I have IBS and I'm lactose intolerant (mildly). When I was younger there were days when I would drink 2L of milk but now I rarely, if ever, touch the stuff. I once drank just 250mL milk in about 30 minutes and I ended up with a surprise poop (for definitions, see What to do when you have to poop at work near the bottom of the page)! I can eat little bits of ice cream and cheese but too much and I'm running for the toilet! As for the IBS, greasy and fried foods do horrible things to my stomach, too, but my motto is "Anything fried is good" so I suffer with the pains . Coffee is bad for my tummy, too, but I never cared that much for it so it's not too much of a hardship for me.

Poor dog! I can't believe they took its food away! I wonder if the "no dairy" rule has to do with mad cow disease, too. I know once Canada had its first case of mad cow, the US banned any kind of beef, cooked or not. One guy even had his roast beef sandwich taken away! I have a sort of funny story about cheese--years ago I bought some cheese in the US, then brought it into Canada, then back into the US. When I was going back into the US the customs officer asked me if the cheese was processed cheese. I said, rather indignantly, that it was not (I do not eat processed cheese!). Customs guy: It's not processed? Me: No. CG" Is it from a farm? Me: No, I bought it at a supermarket. CG: And it's not processed cheese? Me: No! It's cheddar! CG: That is a processed cheese!" Oops! I had always thought "processed cheese" meant Kraft singles or some gross plasticky stuff like that but to customs guys, it includes everything but fresh, unpasteurized cheeses. You learn something new every day!

I was going to use some spongey padding stuff but just roll the glass in it so it could easily be pulled out. Don't know if customs would be willing to do that, though. They may just prefer to cut off the padding (even though it would be more trouble to cut it off than to peek in the top of the roll) so maybe that's not a good idea, either. I guess I'll just stick them in Ziplock bags and wrap them in clothing, as you suggested. I don't have a hard-sided suitcase, but I'm using a big Rubbermaid container so hopefully that will provide additional protection. I'm trying to cut out some of the glass stuff I had planned to bring just for ease of packing/shipping. I don't want anything to break and stain all of my clothes! Thanks for the tips!