prasantrin

When Filipinos cook longganisa, oil and water go into a pan along with the sausages. The water helps cook the sausage without having them brown too much, then once the water boils off, the oil is left to crisp them. (Much like how gyoza is cooked, though the process isn't as quick.) It's not oil poaching, but it's a fine way to cook a sausage.

Must not laugh I'd better not comment any further on that one, but bringing it back to pizza, how do people in Italy feel about people who eat all the toppings off the pizza, then eat the crust (or don't eat the crust at all, or eat the crust but not the toppings)? I see people do that in Canada/the US more often than I'd care to, and I always thought it was kind of weird (the perfect proportion of crust, cheese, sauce, and other toppings in one bite is what pizza is all about, imo), but is it bad manners?

Costco does currently sell a FoodSaver model that handles liquids, so that particular point is moot.

I saw someone do that recently. Before eating, she cut her spaghetti up into maybe 1-inch pieces. I had never seen it before, except when parents do it for their very small children, but the diner was an adult in her late 40s/early 50s. I was a little taken aback, but at the same time, strangely awed by her. Why is it so bad? And if a non-Italian did that in Italy, what would people think?

It's not a book, but try the Pakistani section of bararchi.com (quite a good site, imo), and Desi Cookbook. A few titles of paper books (as opposed to online ones), but I've not tried any of them.

When I was a kid, we ate a lot of S&B Japanese curry (still my favourite!). We just put it on top of our rice. And we mixed. But the first time I came to Japan, I ordered Japanese curry at a restaurant and I was so disappointed! I got a plate of rice and a gravy boat (complete with serving spoon) of curry!!! I wasn't sure what to do, but I ended up spooning it onto my rice. My friends later told me it was better to spoon it onto the plate so it was next to my rice, but I didn't really care (and I still scoop it only my rice, but not all over, just a little at a time). So mizducky, what you can do is scoop a bit of the curry and the rice onto the same spoonful, and eat it like that. That's the polite way. Or you can scoop some of the curry onto the rice (but not mix), to get better coverage. Just don't cover all the rice with all the curry at once. That's the not-so-polite way. But if no one is watching, then feel free to mix. It's the really not polite way, but it sure will taste better that way!

Thank you for the advice! I've never made it before, so I need all the help I can get (I'm a little scared, actually!). We don't have half-and-half in Japan (we have "pantry cream" for coffee, but it's still 30%), but I can make my own using heavy cream and homogenized milk. I've been checking out my local Y100 stores for a tsukemono press to use, but haven't found a rectangular one, yet. I'm trying to avoid the round ones because a friend once mentioned round paneer didn't hold its shape as well (around the edges, I guess). Plus the rectangular ones make for more efficient storage! I may have to make the trek out to a real Daiso!

Kris' area seems to have better deals than mine, but it my area, chicken carcasses (very tiny ones) are 20 yen per 100grams! Or maybe 40 yen... Not really expensive, but definitely more expensive than in Canada or the US. I've never even seen chicken backs for sale. Pork and beef bones are more difficult to find unless I go to a butcher rather than a grocery store, so I'm not sure how much those would cost. I'm making that for my mother when she comes! She loves gnawing on bones. Approximately how much curry powder would you use and what size batch of bones? For example, if I have one pound of bones, would I use about 1 tablespoon of curry powder?

Have you ever made it? I'm just wondering what it tastes like--a 16 oz box of powdered sugar seems like an awful lot.

I still don't understand the Hawaiian shirt thing. Perhaps I need to see the episode, but could someone explain why paying a few thousand for a Hawaiian shirt is so much more egregious than, for example, paying a few thousand for a meal including wine (which if you look over some of the episodes, assuming the meals aren't comped, some of them would have ended up in that range)?

Thanks emmalish and Marmish! I made the cake tonight using my last jar of homemade apple butter (apple butter is very hard to come by in Japan, so I got some off a friend in Minneapolis last year). It's sooooo good! I was a little worried, because the batter was very cookie-dough-like. I had to plop it in the pan. I also cut down the sugar to 1 cup, and it's still pretty sweet. I really want to make the glaze (I love glaze!), but I know that would make the cake too sweet for my co-workers. Thanks again for the advice. This cake is a keeper! (If I can ever get apple butter again!)

If you already have a mandoline, you can just use that. Or a sharp knife. My Japanese friends don't use gadgets like mandolines (Benriner or otherwise), but they could easily slice vegetables as thinly and evenly like that with just a knife.

The potato-filled one was probably samsa, the forebearer of samosa, samboosa, etc. Wow! That's simply amazing! I guess it helps that it was at a university, but even at my small college, student-made food items sold at the school bazaar are a minimum Y300. And that's just for one slice of chiffon cake! After seeing all the other booths on your blog, I wish I could have been there! Did anyone in your family try the Thai booth? I couldn't tell what they were selling--looked like yellow chicken curry and rice, which I love (and which is usually a little milder than other Thai curries, so it wouldn't be too bad for spice-adverse taste buds). I could always make my way up next year, but I think the train fare would off-set the food savings. Question, other than the Korean restaurant you wrote about once, are there a lot of other "ethnic" cuisines found in your area? If not, what a great opportunity that festival provided!

I'm looking at chauffeured car rentals, as well, but haven't heard back from any of the companies, yet. Then we could just do what we wanted, and avoid the butterfly and strawberry farms which I imagine are just big tourist traps (the tea plantation, however, I'd like to see, tourist trap or not).

Did you scroll down to the bit that says I think that means it will come back when they're done, and in the meantime, you can use the brochure to order. They also give a link to a US-based source.

Looks like Tim Horton's is downsizing its US operations.

It kind of looked half-cooked, to me. I love homemade chapati, too. I even brought atta from Canada so I could make some. It's soooo easy! Y100 is a steal for each of those dishes, especially considering their sizes (you'd pay a minimum Y500 at a festival in the Kansai area for any of those). At the Central Asian booth--the fried stuff--was it just fried pastry, or was it filled with something? The Filipino dish looks like the Filipino version of congee/jook/okayu. The lemon is a bit out of place, but it's probably there in place of calamansi. Was that fried garlic sprinkled on top? Everything is better with fried garlic!

Ooooohhhhh! That's beautiful! I am reminded that I have some jasmine tea that I picked up in Hong Kong along with a glass tea pot so I can watch the flowers unfurl. Must remember where I put them...

Does it have to be a pie-shaped pie? I was planning on making Pumpkin Pecan Pie Squares for the Chancellor of the school where work. No difficult pastry crust to deal with, and it's pretty much just like a pumpkin pie (except for the streusel topping, which I was planning on leaving off). The oatmeal crust makes it less pie-like, though, so people may complain about that. For the salad, pretty much any dressing can be made up a few days ahead. Just put it in a leak-proof container, so he can transport it along with the rest of the fixings, and toss onsite. I'm partial to coleslaw (which could then be mixed with the dressing the morning of or day before) or any kind of green salad that has mandarin oranges and nuts. You could portion out the ingredients in containers, so all he would have to do is mix.

I'd do that too, but it's hard to stick a 5kg bag of rice in my regular-sized refrigerator freezer compartment, and still have room for other stuff. I recently bought some kind of "medicine" that's supposed to help keep the bugs out of my rice. Haven't figured out if it's working, because I added it after I already had bugs. Oops. I'm hoping it will at least kill whatever is already in there, or at least prevent them from procreating.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll see "fast reply" (for simple replies that don't require any special frills) and "add reply" (for when you want to add links, bolding, italics, etc.) buttons. Then you can reply without quoting anyone else's post. Isn't that kind of like seafood cocktail sauce? I make cocktail sauce with ketchup and horseradish, but no mustard. Do you use regular mustard or dijon?

My source reports that Mise on Corydon has been open for several weeks now. Both my source and her dining partner enjoyed their lunches very much--one had the mussels with sausage (very tasty, wished she had some rice to soak up the sauce), and the other had some kind of angel hair pasta with vegetables (her place was almost licked clean). When we dined at the Osborne location, the bread had been made by the sous chef, we were told. At lunch, they were told the bread (very delicious cranberry bread) had been made by Le Croissant but were not available for sale at the bakery. Le Croissant makes breads exclusively for some restaurants and they do not sell the breads to their retail customers. Of course, my source's ears are not quite what they used to be, and she may have heard incorrectly. It seems Mise's website has not been updated to show a lunch menu, but the new contact information is there. I can't wait to lunch there next summer!

I've seen teeny tiny bottles of bitters. Comes with 4 or 5 bottles to a pack. Can't remember where or what brand, though, but if you konw it exists, you can look out for it.

When you bit into the yolk did it ooze out all over? I love a good yolk--but how do you eat a yolk-y burger without getting really messy?

Don't worry. Just wash well, and if you don't wash well, think of it as extra protein.