prasantrin

I thought they'd be like adzuki kitkat, and since I know those don't taste like anything, I didn't bother with them. I was wondering if they'd do the mochi like Tirol chocolates. I like the Tirol chocolates with mochi (like the kinako one). I don't often look at Hi-chew, but I bought a pack of Lychee recently. They tasted just like lychee, but the texture was like chewing plastic. Has Hi-chew changed recently? I remember them being better than that.

Are you looking for angelica? I've seen it at Tokyu Hands, but just one or two short sticks of it for maybe Y500? I can't remember now.

Chinese Turkey with Eight-Treasure Stuffing. The New York Times also had a full Thanksgiving dinner that was influenced by Chinese flavours. I saved the recipes when they came out, but I think they disappeared along with the hard drive of the computer I saved them to. You might be able to find them in the archives.

Regular Hershey's isn't dutched, but is natural cocoa. Using different cocoas (or combinations of cocoa) could account for the differences in your cookies, unless those differences occured in the same batch (I wasn't clear if you had differences in height within the same batch, or between batches).

Thanks! I just polished off my first batch (5 biscuits)...these biscuits are crazy good! I think it's the thyme...But that little bit of sugar helped give them a very very nice crispness. They were kind of flat, but I think I patted them out too much. They were supposed to be 1/2-inch high, but I probably patted them to a little less than that (Im not so good at judging those types of things). Plus I made them as regular biscuits rather than a biscuit topping, so I probably could have made them thicker. I have 7 unbaked biscuits in the freezer. I don't know if they'll actually get frozen, though. I'm already craving more! (The reason I baked 5 rather than 6 was because I suspected I would eat as much as I baked, so I was trying not to be too piggy...)

I saw full-sized oshiruko kitkat at Family Mart the other day, but I haven't seen them anywhere else. I also saw a large box of some other flavour, but I think they were mini-kitkats in the box. Strawberry something?

I want to make Dorie Greenspan's Herbed Buttermilk Biscuits, but I'd like to add cheese--maybe 1 cup shredded or chopped cheddar. I might add a bit of parmesan, too. With the additional fat and heaviness from the cheese, do I have to add more leavening? Also, she says you can freeze the biscuits and bake from frozen. If I add cheese, can I still freeze the biscuits in their raw state? I've posted the ingredients and amounts below (I added the weights in, too.) if anyone is interested. 270g 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon dried or 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, crushed between your fingers 84g 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces 3/4 cup cold buttermilk, well shaken

Yuzu KitKat. I splurged and bought a bag, but haven't yet tried them (nor have I gotten around to opening the shoyu, zunda or kinako ones...in case anyone was wondering...).

If you compare cities, London has something like 47 stars for a population of about 7.5 million (Greater London Area) while Tokyo has 227 stars for 12.4 million (Greater Tokyo Area, though Tokyo itself only has 8.3 million). London has 6.3 stars/million people vs. Tokyo's 18.3 stars. Once Michelin does an Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe guide, you can expect the number of stars in Japan to rise a great deal (I doubt the Kansai area would approach the number of stars in Tokyo, but I would expect at least 150). Other areas may add a few stars here and there (mostly Nagoya and Fukuoka, I would guess, but there are little gastronomic havens all over Japan) I think only France, Italy, and maybe Spain take food as seriously as Japan does, generally speaking. That being said, I've had crappy food in Japan, too, though it's usually the Japanese version of western food that's crappy, not Japanese food, itself. Bad Japanese food is usually just mediocre, not horribly bad (in my experience). (The Starbucks phenomenon can only be explained by cheap coffee--coffee used to be about Y700 for a standard cup with no refills, so Y400 for a large coffee really is cheap in Japan--and comfy chairs. And young people with no taste. ) (I'm actually a "she", though my username is that of a "he" )

Have you ever been to Japan? It's very easy to understand why Tokyo has so many stars once you've tried some of the top restaurants. In the top restaurants (and many non-starred places, too, I'm sure), Japanese pride themselves on using top-quality ingredients, and they are meticulous in all aspects--from food preparation to service. The Michelin guide for Tokyo not only covers Japanese cuisine, almost half the 3-stars are French restaurants.

Not all are nuts, but I like: kinako butter pumpkin seed butter black sesame butter cashew butter I can't remember the others that I particularly like.

I'm not much for steak, either! The food at Antonio's seems to be French-influenced. Is that right? I sort of doubt I can get any kind of French-influenced food in the Phil that's better than what I can get in Japan, but I think the price in the Phil would certainly be cheaper! I am curious about what they can do in the Phil, though. Quite honestly, I have a very bad image of food in the Phil, other than "commoner" food. There are a few other places in that direction that I've read about, which is kind of why I want to head out there (like a place that has good native chocolate). What did you have for breakfast? Any tocino? I'm looking for an awesome tocino/longganisa place. Even raw would be OK, because we'll have somewhere to cook it! Well, we'll have somewhere the maids can cook it...

That isn't necessarily true. From Silk Road Tea: The range of caffeine in black tea is much greater than in coffee, so you could actually have more caffeine in a cup of tea than you would in coffee, but you could also have much less. Either way, you'll never know how it affects you until you try. If experimenting with black teas in the evening, I'd start on weekends when it's not as important to get up early the next day.

I've eaten raw chicken in Japan, and have not come down with salmonella poisoning. I'm in no hurry to try it again, though. It wasn't in any way bad, but it wasn't anything special, either.

Thanks! Luckily my brain has a special program for translating food Japanese. I actually missed most of the program, but that unaju looked so goooooood! I was also curious about LA BETTOLA da Ochiai, but apparently it's very difficult to get reservations there. Their uni cream spaghetti might be worth it, though!

Maybe a teeny bit of balsamic. Or apple cider vinegar, maybe, or just ordinary rice vinegar, but I'd personally stay away from any kind of citrus. And any acid added would have to be just a wee bit.

Cumin? Hmmmm....must try that, soon. I've never thought of using cumin in fresh salsa. Whole seeds or ground?

Is anyone watching ＜カスペ！＞超豪華！超激安！今、絶対食べたくなる最強グルメ86連発！ tonight on FujiTV? I've been browsing through their website, but can't find a list of the restaurants they visited, and what was served. Some of them seem rather gimicky (the kakeage donburi with something like 20 or more kakeage), but some of them look really good! Is there such a list out there?

You can stir-fry it. I'm not sure about the details, but one of my mother's friends made stir-fried celery for a dinner party once.

Lee Valley has a very nice cooling rack like that, but it's the kind that is expandable. I like mine, though it's a little heavy.

No way! It was still on their website, so I assumed it was still being made. There's an industrial strength Dawn De-greaser on their professional website, too, but that's only for businesses, not for us common folk. Thanks for the offer! She's leaving for the Philippines next week, though, so it probably wouldn't arrive in time. I vaguely remember seeing some Barkeepers Friend in Tokyo once, so I'll look around if I make it up there next month. It'll probably cost an arm and a leg, but it'll still be cheaper than buying a new pot! Thanks again!

I'll take a look around. Japanese houses don't usually have dishwashers (other than little countertop types), so it might be difficult, but I might be able to find something like it somewhere. Thanks!

He probably used his brain...he's Japanese, you know! nakji--I finally made the kabocha miso parmesan mash. I like it! But my parmesan was a bit stale (powdered Italian parmesan from Costco--a step up from Kraft, but definitely not like freshly grated). I might try it without the parmesan next time, and there will definitely be a next time!

Back to the grease cleaning thing... I've got a stainless steel pot with grease stuff on it--you know, when you're cooking popcorn in a pot and the oil gets a bit too hot and it kind of sticks to the pot like residue... Well, I've scrubbed and scrubbed with Comet-like cleanser, and it still won't come out. This pot isn't mine (it belongs to my employers, as does almost everything else in my apartment), so I need to save it (I could replace it, but I'm a cheapskate and just don't want to put money into this place). I've read through this topic, but I've got some problems. 1) Can't get Dawn Power Dissolver in Japan (did I mention I was in Japan?) 2) Can't get Barkeepers Friend in Japan 3) Can't get oven cleaner in Japan 4) I'm afraid of ammonia and don't have a big enough balcony to use it, anyway. I can't get 1-2 in Canada, either (I thought I'd ask my mother to bring some over, but my research has shown #1 is not available in Canada, and #2 is very difficult to find), and #3 is not transportable by airplane. Boiling water in the pot hasn't worked, either. Is there anything else I can try? Would steel wool damage the pot if I decided to give it a try? What about vinegar? Or baking soda?

I like the Chinese version of this classic (especially when I want some comfort food). Fried eggs on steamed rice, drizzled with oyster sauce. ← Or with fish sauce! ← Or Sriracha!