prasantrin

How does the strainer part work? Would it carry soup without any spillage? I wonder if I'd be able to use it for something like pho. . .

And even longer, popular eG contributor! Pim hasn't been an eG contributor for a few years now. Still, a published book is exciting. I'm looking forward to Jim Lahey's no-knead book. All variations on the same thing--no knead bread!

This is my next purchase. Most of the time I prepare donburi-style lunches, so it just suits me better. And I'm planning to get this one because you can definitely carry soup in it.

I'd go to Ryugin. Not because the food is so fantastic (it's damn good), but because the service is so personable. They're great with single diners, and since it's your birthday, it will help make your experience more enjoyable.

I don't understand the western aversion to eating that kind of stuff in the morning. When I was in elementary and junior high school, I'd eat stuff like leftover pork chops for breakfast, and my friends would all be aghast if I told them what I ate. I remember once having pork chops and french fries for lunch, and a friend said, "You had that for lunch?" as though it were the most disgusting idea ever (and it was generally one of her favourite meals, but for dinner only). The mention of grilled cheese for breakfast reminds me of my BIL. In my family, grilled cheese sandwiches were our Sunday morning treats. When my sister got married, we were all staying at their house and my mother made grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast. My mother asked my BIL if he wanted one, and he said, "No, grilled cheese is for lunch. I don't eat them for breakfast. I eat cereal for breakfast." We were all annoyed (I'm not sure why, it wasn't that big a deal) and we expressed our annoyance, and finally he picked up half a sandwich, took a bite, and said, "There, I ate it! Are you satisfied!?!??!" Now he eats anything anytime. You can't have stupid food rules in my family.

It helps to make a small batch of cheese sauce and blend it in to reheated mac&cheese. It's still not the same as freshly cooked m&c, but it's creamier than plain reheated m&c. I've also made cheese sauce, refrigerated it, and added it to m&c before reheating. Still not the same as fresh, but a little creamier/saucier. Plus you can never have too much cheese sauce in m&c.

Have the recipes been written down or do other chefs know how to make them (fully)? If yes to either, then I don't think you have any rights. But if no to either, then you're under no obligation to give up the recipes and can do whatever you wish with them.

Canadians eat sweet stuff for breakfast, too. As do the French, though pain au chocolat or some French bread with jam is more common than sugar-laden cereal. I eat anything for breakfast--sweet, savoury. I have no preference for one over the other. What I eat just depends on my mood.

Do any of these look more acceptable? I'm going to be putting in an order shortly, so I could easily tack on another item to my order.

How do you make the sugar stuff for roti sai mai at home? Or do you just use cotton candy? I'm waiting for updates. I need something to encourage my attendance next year.

Personally, I don't think so. I thought about Inaniwa udon at first, which is also slippery (and less wide than kishimen), but I don't think that it can be a substitute, either. Are rice noodles so hard to come by? Fresh ones are. Dried ones are quite different in terms of the texture I want. The dried ones aren't as slippery when they're cooked, and they don't have that nice tender bite to them. Oh well. I'm sure I'll find something else to buy in Nagoya!

Would kishimen be a reaonable substitute for rice noodles (the kind used to make ho fun, for example)? Are they readily available for purchase in Nagoya, specifically around Nagoya Station? ETA--I know kishimen are made from wheat, not rice, but I also read they're sort of slippery, so I thought I might be able to use them to make ho fun.

Could I sign up and pay the fees, but not do any work and just take home some of the spoils? I don't really want to make anything, I just like to watch and eat. (my mother would be doing the same if she came )

I would bet they get it from Costco. The big 2x2kg box of old-fashioned Quaker Oats is just over Y1000 there, and a lot of businesses seem to be getting stuff from Costco and re-selling it (I found Kettle Chips at National Azabu that still had the Costco label on them). My favourite Japanese cookbook for sweets is the one where I got my lemon souffle cheesecake. I've mentioned it before--it's a cookbook for teenage girls that I borrowed from a junior high I once worked it. All the recipes looked great, but I never went beyond the lemon souffle cheesecake. Another great cookbook is one a student lent me. She made some incredible caramel nut tarts for Valentine's Day, and I asked her for the recipe. Turned out to be from a Daiso cookbook! I'd like to get more Japanese cookbooks, but I worry that once I leave, I'll forget how to read them. Not that I can read them all that well to begin with, but I can usually figure out enough of the directions to get by.

Any updates on Nagoya? I'll be there this weekend (I'm going to the Cutlery Festival in Seki, Gifu). I'll be solo for at least one dinner, so single-diner friendly suggestions would be great! I've been browsing through centraljapan.jp, and I've figured miso katsu is a local specialty, but I'm game for anything. And is there anywhere good for lunch in Seki, preferably around the knife festival area?

Which are better, Thai or Filipino mangos? Seriously, I want to know what he thinks. How much of the produce in Thailand is now imported vs. produced locally? I'm not so sure about tempura tuna rolls, but I suppose even iffy tuna rolls can only be improved when fried. I hope you get some fried chicken skins while you're there! And some khao tang na tang! Maybe some krathong thong, too! And roti sai mai!

IIRC, the wattage on small appliances usually refers to the amount of power the appliance uses, not what it produces. Like I said, we made very good genoise with our Japanese mixers. It may also have been because the recipes were for smaller amounts than standard North American recipes, though. I wouldn't have used it for a large cookie dough batch, but I wouldn't use the American-bought hand mixer I have for large cookie dough recipes, either. (Mostly because the beaters are very poorly designed.)

FWIW, in baking class (ABC Cooking School), we used Japanese mixers and our genoise always turned out fine. It was a pink mixer--about Y4000, I think. I used to have one when I lived in Tochigi, but I can't remember the brand. It was pretty common, though.

I need to eat at Hinds Head. And I'd have done what Yoonhi did, too, and just order appetisers. Fried=good! How can you get away with bringing fresh produce and meats into your country of residence? I still get stressed when I think about my mother sneaking in a sweet potato for me! (And I get bummed when I think of how I forgot to bring one this year ) Is it because most foods are imported and not locally produced out there? And it doesn't count if you haven't finished the other stuff first! Humph!

"It's just food. Eat it." --David Chang

My bacon would have been better had I not overcooked it, but it's still pretty good. I ate it with goat cheese scrambled eggs on freshly cooked rice. I'll be making it again, for sure! But precooking a bit to get rid of some of the fat, so it won't be swimming so much in it.

Thanks! Mine is almost out of the oven. It's swimming in melted caramelized bacon fat, but I'm thinking I could probably figure out something to do with that (biscuits, maybe?). Maybe I should have put the bacon on a rack, or pre-cooked the bacon a litle before caramelizing it. Oh well, I'm sure it'll still be good! Oh, I'm about to eat it for my second breakfast with some runny scrambled eggs! I might even put goat cheese in the eggs, because I've got quite a bit I need to use.

I don't have a recipe for fried fruit pie crust, but judging from McD's (they still fry their apple pies in Japan), it needs to be a fairly sturdy crust. I don't know if that means no leaf lard or not, though.

Uni scrambled eggs!! It's just scrambled eggs topped with a piece of uni? I could do that! And how would one make uni carbonara? Perhaps there needs to be a new thread on that. I can make tarako spaghetti (no egg). Is that about the same?

I love that video. I think it's hilarious, but be careful. It's been posted here before, and some people (person?) got a touch offended by it. I think it was taken a little too seriously. I'd love to know who made it.