BON

Jason: Thank you for the explanation. jhlurie: Sorry for my misunderstanding. I bet most of under-rated sushi restaurants are in residential areas in Metropolitan Tokyo rather than in busy towns like Ginza, Shibuya or Roppongi. The most reliable gourmet magazine "Dancyu" has digged out and made them rated or well-known in the last several years. But as you know we have as many sushi restaurants as stars (few stars are visible in tokyo, though!). We have more stock. A usual Japanese family has at least one regularily visting sushi restaurant. In my living zone, Ooimachi which is next station to shinagawa, one of the largest terminal in Tokyo, Arimura is my recommendation.(Let me know,if you need specific data.) It is quite difficult to compare these restaurants located in each residential area because no one has ever tried all of favorite of local people. I could be of your help if you specify in which part of Tokyo you need info or where you are gonna stay. If this were about ramen, I would be able to tell you where to go instantly.

Hi! Bradley The ramen shop, Yamato, in Brusselles, is one of the best-reputed among ramen shops found outside of Japan. If I were in Europe, I would never fail to visit. Please let me hear your review if you have a chance to try. Name:Yamato Address:Rue Francart 11, Bruxelles Tel:02-502-28-93 Days Off:Sun, Mon Business hours:12:00-14:00, 19:00-22:00 Sat. 18:30-21:30 (Edited by BON at 10:53 am on Nov. 7, 2001)

Jason: Year, it is tough. Sushi restaurants in TOKYO exceed ramen shops in number. Even out of them which are receiving the ultimate praise, it still is difficult to tell which is the best. Here are some lists which I have been dreaming of visiting. They must be really good, but quite expensive as well. BENTENYAMA MIYAKO 2-1-16 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo 81-3-3844-0034 SUKIYABASHI JIRO 4-2-15-BF1 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 81-3-3535-3600 KOZASA ZUSHI 8-6-18 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 81-3-3289-2227 If you are looking for the cost-perfomance, the best choice is DAIWA ZUSHI in Tsukiji fish market.Though you must wait in line, it's worth. 5-2-1 Tsukiji,Chuoku, Tokyo 81-3-3547-6807 The quality of sushi is basically depending on the freshness of NETA(seafood material). In that DAIWA ZUSHI is enjoying the advantage of its location.

There is a chance that they will make special edition, but not on regular basis. Frankly speaking, the memories of Iron chef have already faded out.

When eating outdoor, Japanese often brings rice balls(see the pic below). They are equiavalent to the sandwiches in Western countries. They are designed to keep for a fairly long time, since the rice and the fillings used are seasoned with salt. Popular fillings are broiled salted salmon, cod roe, pickled plum,,,and so on. Since you can fill anything, the variations are infinite. They are usually wrapped in a black-paper-like sheet of NORI(dried seeweed). It might look weird to you, but tastes good. Rice Balls are sold at "convenience stores" in urban area in Japan, as they are popular for quick lunch.

Found an interesting potato chips! They are with ramen flavour! Taste? Mmm...taste potato chips.

Jason: Thank you for explaining Negimaki. BTW, Okonomiyaki is a thin, flat cake of unsweetened batter fried with various ingredients, such as seafood, meats (pork is most popular) etc. according to your choice. Pic and recipe are in Mos-Burger'>http://www.bob-an.com/recipe....-Burger is the second largest hamburger chain in Japan.(The largest is Mac as well as in US.) Mos-Burger is competing with taste and quality rather than convenience location or cheap price. I rarely eat hamburgers but like Teriyaki-Chicken burger of Mos.

jhlurie: Negamaki? Is it Negimaki? Negi means spring onion? Is it a kind of sushi? Hope you don't feel to be kidding. Will you describe it?

Continuing from "English restaurant menus in Japan" Please let me know your favorite Japanese food. I am expecting a lot of "foreign" Japanese as well as traditional ones.

Thanks to sushi robots, Tokyo is replete with Kaiten sushi -as the conveyor-belt sushi restaurant is called - where customers pick up the delicacies they want from an assortment on a machine-driven conveyor belt. Their qualities have been getting better. Above all, they are cheap!

Bux:FYI, I suppose they are not crickets, but locusts, which are eaten boiled down with soy. It is rare to see them on family table nowadays. Young generation does not know they are eligible. In my life, I tried it once. Taste? Forgot. I was too many years ago. Another nasty ingredient which I recall is Fu-Yu, fermented bean curd.(Detailed explanatin is available at http://www.foodsubs.com/Soyprod.html) Its smell is intoleable as well as that of Natto. But it is good and gives rich flavor when it is used as a part of seasoning of Tantan-men, Chinese noodles with in hot-chili soup.(See Noodle variation page of http://www.worldramen.net/) I heard it is used for rice gruel in Hong Kong and Taiwan.Umm...how is it? (Edited by BON at 1:22 pm on Sep. 1, 2001)

It's frighten to say this, but I don't eat Tomato raw. It's perfectly OK when it is cooked with heat. With herb like garlic is more preferred. As well as Natto, I cannot stand fresh Tomato smell.

Not actually ingredient, but nasty food for me is Natto, fermented soybeans.It is sticky and with pungent odor, which I hate. But I am not exception among Japanese. Majority of those living in Kansai district, where Oosaka and Kyoto are located, do not treat it as food. My former turtor, who is from Boston, liked it. His claim was Natto smells like blue cheese. I didn't agree with him, though.

I have found another ramen recipe page in English. This one is of Miso Ramen. http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Temple/9151/ramen.html

mamster: They are called "Curry Pan" in Japanese. "Pan" is bread though it sounds weird to you!

anil, I agree with your thought that there is no "authentic" indian curry in that there is no pre-blended spices or standardised spice mix used in India, netheir at reataurants nor households. On the other hand, most of conventional curry restautrants and households are using curry powder or curry roux in Japan. Then I used the word, "authentic curry"to express curry cooked by Indian chefs who mixed spoices on their own to distinguish from the others. I suppose curry rice @Sapporo uses curry powder or roux, though I have no idea for other restaurants you mentioned. If the curry rice@Sapporo hints something different, they may be using stock of dried bonito or kelp, though this is just a quess.

mamster, Since curry was brought in Japan over 100 years ago via UK, it seems we are sharing the common picture of curry. The one you described "general" is the most common also in Japan, and most curry specialty shops are offering this type. This type of curry is often cooked for family dining with the help of curry roux. At fancy "Western food restaurants (I am not making fun of you. We have the genre of restaurants called so.)", the "general" curry has become sophisticated adopting consomme for soup base. It is called "European style" curry in Japanese. We also have Indian authentic curry as well as Thai, Ethiopian, and Indonesian ones. All of them are offered at ethnic restaurants of each country. So they are not casually eaten in Japan. There are some variations using curry. The famous ones are curry bread and curry udon. Curry bread is deep-fried bread with thicker curry stew stuffed in it, and curry udon is udon noodles in soup covered with curry stew. Curry stew is mysteriously goes well with udon's dried-bonito stock and its soy sauce taste.

At sushi restaurants, I usually start with vineger-pickled medium-sized gizzard shad, then move to some white fish, some shell fish, yellowtail, fatty tuna ... continue as my stomach allows. But my highlight in the course is always sea urchin. What topping are your favorites?

Are the Iron Chefs-to-be famous in US or in NY?

Japanese like both Curry and Ramen very much. How much do Japanese like them? Much enough to build up museums totally devoted to these two cuisines.No joking! Look at the following links. http://www.raumen.co.jp/english/ http://www.matahari.co.jp/curry/ (Japanese only) Interestingly, both are originated in foreign countries. I know that curry was born in India, spreaded into surrounding countries,then later became local cuisine in those countries as well. But I am bit curious whether it is also popular in US, Europe, Australia and other countries or regions? At least I have never encountered any good curry restaurant in Illinois where I stayed for a few years.

The TV show, "The iron chef" was epoc making in Japan, since before this show there were few who paid attention to who was the chef. Their concern was more on names of restaurants. So the chefs who participated in the show had nothing to lose, since they could gain publicity at least by exposing themselves in mass media.Then the production side could invited renowned chefs successully to the show. The things are bit different in US, aren't they? BTW does US version of "Iron chef" has an chef of Japanese cuisine? Anybody knows?

ihlurie: Main confusion lay between ramen and other noodle dishes originated in China. This is because the word, ramen is used for not only my beloved bowl-dish (Is this correct English?) but also a genre of noodle dishes with some Chinese traces in Japan.(FYI Soba is also used for noodles in general.) To tell you the truth, many Japanese also confused distinguishing ramen from the others. Additionally it is quite difficult to define "what is ramen" by its spec because it has been developing day by day with each shop's differentiation effort. Moreover, even though they are called ramen commonly, ingredients of the soup and noodle types vary by region even within Japan. However, as a serious ramen lover, I have been trying to develop my own definition of ramen. Here is it. "Ramen is noodle dish with soup originated in China, which has been developed and reformed adapting essences of Japanese cuisine (such as using soy sauce or miso-paste as seasonings, and adding to soup stock made of dried bonito or dried small sardines). Speaking of physical difference, noodles of ramen are firmer than the original Chinese noodles. This is considered to be the influence from soba's texture. The easiest way to tell whether it is ramen or not is its name. As long as it is ramen, it must have "ramen" in its name like "Corn ramen" or "Miso ramen." On the other hand, Non-ramen Chinese noodles remain their Chinese identity in their names. This rule can be applied to most cases though there are few exceptions. (Pls see the pages of "ABC of Ramen", "Ramen Variation", and "Noodle Variation" of my web site liked below.) It is sad to find such influential medium wrongly describing ramen as instant noodles, although I like them, too. But pls keep in mind instant ramens are tips of huge iceberg of the world of ramen. Jason: Thank you very much for info of "Ramen" and "Larmen." Yeah as you mentioned, in Japanese language, we have no clear distinction between "R" and "L" sounds. Sometimes this makes us to catch the words correctly. (Edited by BON at 6:41 am on Aug. 10, 2001)

Replying to Jason's query on the ramen soup recipe in "Taipei" thread on the "Off the Beaten Path"board. Hope many of you do not mistakely believe ramen is an instant noodle. If you do, pls vist my web site linked below. You can find ramen soup recipes in the following web sites; http://www.bob-an.com/recipe/dailyjc/ref/ramen/ramen.html Please'>http://www.bob-an.com/recipe/dailyjc/basic...n.html Please keep in mind they are just basic recipes. And well-reputedramen shops are using much more elaborated recipes. Otherwise they cannot compete in a severe ramen battle field. Believe it or not, we have more than 5000 ramen specility shops solely in Tokyo, not including chinese restaurants offering ramen in their menu. One of the examples to differentiate from others is to make blended soup stock with one of pork or chcken bones and one of dried bonito or small sardine both of which are commonly used for soup of Japanese cuisine.

Jason: Let me reply to you in the new thread on "General" board, please. <Jason> BON: I moved it to Cooking. Thanks.

Forgot to mention. In Taiwan, Japanese ramen has been in the boom. If you need a quick dish, it might be good to taste one, Mamster. Shop info. is in my website. (Edited by BON at 9:53 am on Aug. 8, 2001)