prasantrin

I'm going to spend my Christmas holidays looking through boxes for all my kitchen gadgets. I still haven't really unpacked since my last return from Japan. I'm sure I have a garlic press and a Polder thermometer to bring along, and I've always wanted a Microplane so I guess this is the time to get one! I'll bring my mixer and some spatulas--the Le Creuset types that are heat resistant. My initial contract will be for two years, renewable in two-year increments. I'm not sure if I'll stay longer than two years, though, since after I left the last time, I had thought five years was enough. I guess I was wrong (and money talks!)! The links were great! I had no idea Costco was in Japan. They have a store near Nishinomiya, so I might drop by just to browse (which is all I ever do here, anyway). I wonder if I can use my Canadian card in Japan... I wish there were a Tomizawa in the Kansai area, but at least shipping is reasonable. No need to bring along heavy rye flour, now! And they have such a huge selection of nuts, dried fruits, and beans! They're a bit expensive (comparatively) but at least I know where to get them should I need to. I wish I could understand more kanji, though, so I could navigate their site more easily! I guess it's time to study again... I think National Azabu in Tokyo carried kosher salt, but no sriracha way back then . However, there was a huge Asian food market near Ueno station that sold SEAsian and Chinese foods very cheaply, including sriracha. It was somewhere down the street where blackmarket goods were sold after WWII. It was in the basement of a big building that, I think, was a department store at one time and a lot of the stalls are run by non-Japanese Asians. I remember I bought a whole chicken there for a very reasonable price. I made roast chicken with it . Way down that same street one could find small stall-like stores that sold East Indian foods. I even found cans of Alfonso mangos (for a price--about Y1000) and gulab jamun, and chickpea flour! Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm modifying my list to take them all into consideration!

I'll be in Kobe. While I know Kobe is very much an international city (Ijinkan is evidence of that), it is unfortunately nowhere near Tokyo in terms of availability of foreign foods. Even Osaka is not quite up to snuff when wanting to buy non-Western foreign foods. And their Chinatown is horrible (not just the food, but the prices are exorbitant!). Coconut milk for Y150? Where were you shopping? I only remember seeing it at that price in industrial parts of Ibaraki-ken, where there were large populations of Thai workers. I used to love going to those areas, since I could have Thai food that was as good if not better than my dad's cooking. It was definitely the best Thai food I've had outside of Thailand. I was thinking of bringing basmati and Jasmine rice with me, but I had hoped they would be more available by now. I remember in the early-mid '90s when Japan had its rice shortage. There was a lot of long-grain rice for sale then, but no one wanted to buy it! Except me, that is . I might bring some glutinous rice with me, too, so I can make sticky rice and arborio for risotto (I did once make it with short grain rice, but that was just so I could make arancini). And wild rice, of course, but that's not really rice. I actually found that I cooked much more in Japan than I do here in Canada. For me, cooking and baking are very much stress relievers and life in Japan can certainly be stressful! I also tended to make things that I craved but couldn't find in Japan. While Indian restaurants are plentiful, jilebi and decent samosas were difficult to find, so I made my own. Same with Jamaican patties and West Indian-style curry and roti. I made pierogi once, but it was a borderline disaster. Bakeries in Japan are wonderful but they generally only have French-style breads, so I was thinking of bringing rye flour to make my own rye and pumpernickel breads. I did a search on Foreign Buyer's Club to see what was available there and estimated costs of foods. While there are many stores in Japan that sell more cheaply than FBC, it at least gives me a gauge of what to expect. It has been 4 years since I last left Japan, so I'm sure the availability of different foods has changed a great deal. And no pseudo-ephedrene for me! I actually did bring some in with me once, unknowingly, but it was not confiscated. I look Japanese, so the custom's officers don't usually bother with me too much . I think I even had some Tylenol with codeine, too! Thanks for the reply!

I'm preparing a list of itchen/cooking things to bring with me when I move to Japan. I know I can buy many things there, but the thought of paying Y300+ for a can of coconut milk that costs less then $1 in Canada goes against my Prairie-girl ethics (I'm also being given a fair amount for moving expenses, so I have money to spend to ship extra things ). I'm thinking of bringing things like coconut milk, curry pastes, my favourite Guyanese curry powder, atta, rye flour--i.e. things that are difficult to find or outrageously expensive in Japan. As for tools, I'm thinking of bringing my stick mixer, tortilla press, and maybe my coffee grinder. For those of you ex-pats living in Japan, what things do you bring back with you after visiting the US/Canada/Britain/fill-in-country-of-origin-here? I think I remember Torakris mentioning having brought back evaporated milk after a trip to the US. I used to bring back butter and cheese when I could, and Thai or Indian ingredients which I found hard to find in Japan. And what about equipment? Aside from Toast-N-Serve bags, are there other things you wish you had? Like a Tilia Foodsaver? A decent hand mixer (the one I bought in Japan was not very powerful)? I know places like Tokyu Hands will have a lot of small appliances that I can buy if I need them, but if there's anything I have now that I can bring, I may as well.

My basbousa/nammoura is in the oven as I type. It smells wonderful and should be ready shortly. I used whole almonds, which I toasted first--probably shouldn't have but it's a habit. I'm not sure if the consistency of the batter was correct--I didn't so much pour it in the pan, but plop it. It was quite thick and took a good while to spread it evenly. I had to use goat's milk and goat's milk yoghurt and I hope they don't change the end product too much. I used a cookie sheet so the basbousa/nammoura will be thin and crispy. Hopefully it will keep until my Middle Eastern Dance wrap-up party on Wednesday...unless I eat it all, first! Thanks for posting your recipe! rona

My Japanese friends use tamago as the yardstick to judge the itamae. They say tamago, though it seems easy to make, is actually quite difficult to do well.

I hate tomato soup. A friend once made me eat my beautiful grilled cheese with a bowl of tomato soup. It completely ruined the experience. Of course, she's also the one who introduced me to eating grilled cheese with ketchup. Evil girl! Another good bread for grilled cheese is fergasa bread. It's a white bread, so it can still fit under the pure grilled cheese genus, but the green onions make it a slightly different species.

Grilled cheese sandwiches need white bread and aged cheddar cheese. Other types of cheese and bread are fine, but they're different animals. Butter melted in the pan, slices of bread go in and are browned. Then more butter is added to the pan and one slice of bread is turned over into the new butter (so the browned side is up). The cheese is placed on the browned side, then it is topped with the other slice of bread (browned side down). Finally, butter and grated parmesan cheese are added to the pan and the sandwich is flipped into them. The parmesan cheese melts and sticks to the bread providing a bit more crunch, and a nice punch of flavour. It is important not to use too much cheese or butter because if you do, you'll need to use ketchup. Ketchup cuts the richness. Otherwise, a grilled cheese sandwich should be eaten as is, with no condiments necessary. Beverage of choice is a glass of milk.

I think it's just a matter of preference. Americans (and Canadians) seem to prefer much sweeter baked goods than Japanese do. Compare something like a Japanese-made Oreo cookie to an American-made one, and you can really taste the difference. I used to reduce sugar amounts in recipes by about 1/3 in order for my Japanese friends to eat them. Otherwise I'd be stuck eating everything by myself. Hmm, green tea, ginger, and ube pound cakes? Yum! Care to share the recipes?

If you're not looking for a traditional pound cake, I found any of the ones that call for yoghurt or sour cream tend to stay moist for a longer period of time. But if the cake is only being kept for a couple of days before serving, I think you'd be safe with a traditional recipe, as well. But I would store it as a whole cake, rather than as individual slices. Are you making a round cake? When I lived in Japan I had a teeny Panasonic microwave/convection/toaster oven that could only fit one 9" round pan or 8" square pan. I found that I could bake two loaf cakes in it at a time (around 4x8). You'd have smaller slices, but it could save you time and the cakes would be fresher.

Quaker Harvest Crunch. Nothing better...

Thanks! I was hoping you hadn't posted it in the archives, yet, since I haven't been able to get there, lately. Not that I haven't tried, but I keep getting the "This page cannot be displayed" message that IE likes to give so often. Your basbousa looked delicious, by the way. I think I need to make some soon! rona

Does anyone know if Cougar Gold at all similar to McLaren's Aged Cheddar Cheese? The McLaren's stuff is sold in a red tub and is relatively expensive--about Cdn $4-5 per 8 oz. I think it's only available in Canada (but perhaps it has limited distribution in the US) and is manufactured by Kraft. I have heard of the greatness of Cougar Gold and looking at the pictures, it looks an awful lot like McLaren's. Since the chances of my getting my hands on Cougar Gold anytime soon are slim, I'd like to think I can come close by buying a tub of McLaren's Cheddar .

Straight (ditto for Thais, in my experience), though I sprinkle them with a bit of salt and eat them with ketchup. Sometimes if I have a particularly large piece of chicken skin, I'll dust it with cornstarch before frying. Yum!

Many people may recommend Chiang Mai Cookery School (also recommended by Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, and other travel guides) but I would stay away from it. I went for the curry paste class and I found their recipes to be a bit...Westernized in their flavours. I'm not just talking about the lack of heat, but I didn't find the same complexities in flavour that I would find in my dad's cooking or friends' cooking. Their foods were typically quite mild in flavour and even boring. However, if you're not so much for "authenticity", then it would be fine. It is supposed to be the best of the bunch in Chiang Mai and if I found their recipes to be not-so-good, I imagine the others might be worse. They do have several days of classes to choose from, so you can choose which menu you wish you make. They have a website, too, so you can see which classes are held on which days. I looked at Blue Elephant's website before I went but I thought their food seemed a bit too fusion-y. I had wanted to take lessons at Benjarong, a restaurant at the Dusit Thani, because they tout their food as "royal" and that was my dad's style of cooking but I was unable to. And there's always the Oriental Hotel. Their cooking classes are certainly "above average" in price, though I cannot say if the recipes are, as well.

It's one of those sickeningly sweet bars served at teas everywhere. I don't think I've been to a potluck that did not have Nanaimo bars. It was supposedly created in Nanaimo, BC (hence the name) so here's the official recipe from the city's website. I had forgotten about Poutine. I like it, but it's only good if the fries aren't. Good fries are ruined by gravy, in my opinion, so the fries have to be pretty mediocre for me to order poutine. I don't think we get those raunchy slogans out west. We're far too puritanical compared to Quebecers . As much as Quebec wants to separate, did you notice that most of the foods thought of as Canadian are from Quebec? Poutine, tarte au sucre, tourtiere, and maple syrup are all very much a part of Quebec (I know maple syrup can be found elsewhere in Canada, but Quebec is the primary producer afaik). The first three are also big in Manitoba (because of the large French-Canadian population here) but they are definitely identified with Quebec first. I didn't know that Pennsylvania produced maple syrup, as well! I spent a year in Vermont, though, so I know how much they like to "own" it out there! I spent a lot of time visiting my sister in New Hampshire, and I don't remember any food being associated with NH except Stonyfield Farms yogurt . Vermont at least had some good food places, but New Hampshire was pretty much a wasteland! If I were to associate it with a Canadian province it would be Saskatchewan (not in terms of geography, but all the other stuff).

I tend to think of roast turkey, cranberry sauce, pecan pie. It sounds like a typical Thanksgiving meal, but to me they are made of things indigenous to the Americas (esp. the US). If I can name 5, I would add pumpkin pie and barbeque ribs. If I were to name three foods that represent Canada (where I am from), I'm not sure I could think of three. I identify maple syrup more with Canada than the US, and perhaps wild rice, too. Aside from those, tourtiere and tarte au sucre might be considered Canadian, but I always thought they were French in origin. Oh, Nanaimo bars, but I try to ignore those.

How about this one, from an article in the NYT by Elizabeth Andoh: I've never been there, of course, but she seemed to like it. From another NYT article by her: Dinner is expensive (though not necessarily so by Japanese standards) but lunch is reasonable. The articles the suggestions are from are 4 and 5 years old, respectively, so the places may no longer exist, and the prices would definitely have gone up, though.

Any chance of posting the recipe to the recipe forum? Basbousa...mmmmmm .

It is usually used cold, often drizzled over salads or in some other manner that won't hide the flavour of the oil. One restaurant we frequented in Essaouira would give it to dip bread in, if asked (otherwise they would give olive oil). There's a sweet spread made with honey and roasted argan seed kernels, too. Here's a link to a NYT article from 2001. There's a recipe for sweet couscous with argan oil on that same site, from the same article. There are many other links out there if you do a google search, but most have the same information. Interestingly, only one site I looked at actually mentioned how the argan seeds are harvested . It was amazing actually seeing goats eating the fruits in the trees. What a sight that was! I still have a bottle or two of unopened argan oil. I fear I won't use it quickly enough so it will go stale before I've finished the bottle. I paid about $6 for 250 mL, but considering I was being paid Moroccan wages in Moroccan dirham, it was a lot of money at the time!

The one we used most often was yellow grouper (or was it yellow croaker?) but it has become very difficult, if not impossible, to find. Most of the jarred ones on the market today are mackerel, as you said, but sometimes we can find others. Today I found red snapper in a jar but did not buy any. The last dried fish we bought was in Thailand, so I don't know which fish it was. We brought some back but can't find it now. Oops! One of these days I'll try steaming rice, too. I can't see it happening anytime before our rice cooker dies, though. Rice cooker=good .

You might also want to consider warning guests of getting hot desserts as take out. When I went to Frontera Grill, I wanted to get the mole to take back to Winnipeg (in my family, we bring food as souvenirs). The waiter told me that he would do it for me, though the owner didn't like to serve the food as take-out food because it should be eaten as soon as possible in order to preserve its quality. I was impressed. Otherwise, I think your idea of separate containers for sauces and reheating instructions is excellent. It shows that you care about how your desserts are served. Of course, the waitstaff would need to explain the need for reheating to the customer when it's ordered, since s/he may not care to go through the trouble of doing it (and would thus order something else).

Since I screwed up so badly the last time I tried to move around quotations, I'll just answer in paragraphs . At the junior high school I worked at, the teachers also ate school lunches and paid for them. I did for a time, but after awhile found that I ended up wasting more than I ate, so they allowed me to opt out of the program. I think I paid about Y4500/month but that was about 7 years ago. Two students would go to the main lunch room every day and pick up containers of food for the entire classroom, as well as the trays, bowls/plates and eating utensils. They would bring them back to their homerooms and dish the food out for each of their classmates. At the end of the meal, any leftovers would get dumped back in one of the original food containers and the trays and dishes stacked, then would be brought back to the main lunch room. Two students also brought food in the same manner to the teachers room (for teacher who didn't have homerooms) but the teachers and other staff members (principal, secretaries, custodial staff) would prepare the trays. Oh, any leftovers were given (sold?) to a pig farm as feed. Interestingly enough (to me), curry could not be added to the leftover pail because the pigs didn't like curry. Pork products, however, were OK . The smell of the school depended on what was being served. Some days were great, some days were not. Our school lunches were made on site, however, and not all schools do so. Some contract out so the schools don't smell as much of food during lunch time. The only special occasion lunch I remember was in July. On the hottest day of the year (or what is considered the hottest day of the year by Japanese people), unaju would be served. I always missed that day, which sucked for me because I love, love, love eel! I think the last school lunch before Christmas, we had fried chicken and Christmas cake (traditional Christmas food for Japanese people ). There may have been other special lunches, but I can't remember them now. As for less fortunate families, they have their meals paid for by the school board. Not just their meals, but other supplies, books, musical instruments, uniforms, etc. We had a dietician at the school who was responsible for making up the menus for the entire year. At the beginning of every month, we would get our lunch schedules. It was great fun trying to decipher what I was going to eat. Some days were great, but some days it was stuff I hated (anything with gobo or hijiki, for example). Some days, when most of the lunch staff were at meetings or whatever, we would have very simple food like nikujaga. Except my nikujaga usually had very little niku in it. I quit our lunch plan when we got a new dietician. Her meals were not as well-planned, so I didn't get much I could actually eat. They would still give me their extra milk every day, though, and bread when they had it. Considering how much those things cost in Japan (at the time, it was about Y200 for a litre of milk), I saved a lot of money that way!

Sigh ! I live in Winnipeg, so there's no chance of finding that here! I was lucky enough to find Lejay-Legoute--a few years ago I couldn't even find creme de cassis at all! Now I'm thinking it I might try pear liqueur, too. I love ice pear wine, so I imagine pear liqueur and white wine would be smashing!

Actually, the conversation was initially about Chinese tea. One person was reading the instructions for brewing the tea our tai chi group sells (Po Lei) and expressed her surprise about the double brewing method. She had never heard of it before so I told my Japanese tea anecdote to explain that it wasn't an uncommon brewing method. Your explanation for why it's done makes a lot of sense. I'll pass it on to them, too. It sounds like it might also apply to the number of brewings. Subsequent brewings allow different flavours and aromas to shine through ?

Thanks! There was another woman in the conversation who lived in Japan for 20+ years, and she doubted my double brewing story so I needed to come up with the varieties. I've never seen genmaicha double brewed, though. My co-worker always served it straight--could it be out of laziness (not necessarily laziness, but perhaps lack of time)?