shinju

I notice that many ramen restaurants in the US use thicker style ramen noodle. Is that what you are looking for? I prefer thinner ramen noodle and haven't found those in the US yet. Also, are you looking for straighter noodle or those with lots of kinks and easticity?

That is awful looking!

Have you had any good results making ramen soup from scratch yet? I have been trying to duplicate the soup for a while too, but still not there yet. There is a distinct taste in many ramen soups that is missing in my soups. I usually start with roasted chicken bones, onion, carrots, celery, ginger, garlic, sometimes apples, and sesame oil. Mine stock does not have the complexity usually found in good ramen soups. I see that in many of the recipes for making ramen, both soup or stock is separate from tare.

Anyone have any idea when taco rice came about in Okinawa? There used to be a very tasty taco joint at the end of Gate 2 street in Koza called Charley's Taco or something like that, but it was before taco rice introduction.

The Korin site is very nice - lots of good info there - thanks. I purchased my yanagi from Kappabashi almost a decade ago for use in slicing fish. At the time, I was looking at knives around $150 and found it there that I like very much.

OT, shinju -- what do you do with yuzu miso? I picked up a squeeze bottle of it last week and am contemplating... Coincidentally, I also tasted some durian gelato yesterday in SF Chinatown -- it was on display with all the other gelatos, not separately. Very creamy, but still distinctively durian flavor. ← I usually use yuzu miso as a dip for cucumber spears or incorporate it into sauces and dressings. Whenever I have some free time in Japan , I like to browse through this place in Kameido (yuzu miso is second from bottom): http://www.sanomiso.co.jp/dearcargo/goodsl...tart=20&bc_id=1

Thanks for this info. My brother's family has only been in Maryland (live in Combia and work at U of Md) less than 1 year. They have spent most of their time together in Bay Area with abundance of Asian food and was very hard for them when they moved to Ithaca for 3 years. My sister in law tells me they found one good Japanese restaurant but can't remember the name now. What she said was that most Japanese restaurants near them are usually run by Korean Americans and food is not quite right in most cases and though she is Korean American she got used to eating more or less authentic Japanese food being around my mom and my brother so she can spot them. She is very happy though to find more Asian veggies in Korean markets now. I'll keep in mind with Matuba (or is it Matsuba?). I'm hosting some old Japanese friends for a month and we will be staying in my brother's area for a week in September. The Mrs S does not eat meat and she does not eat much Western food either.

Sheena - really enjoy reading this. Can't wait to see what other food you will introduce to us. BTW, your picture taking is great. My brother is married to Korean American woman and also live in Maryland. My sister-in-law was happy to move there after spending 3 years in Ithaca which had very limited Asian food products. She tells me there are several very large Korean markets nearby where she can shop. Unfortunately, it is not the best place for Japanese food according to them. Hard to find good Japanese restaurants in Maryland. I'm thinking of sending my brother some Japanese food.

Hiroyuki - I'm really glad to hear you and your family are doing ok after the earthquake. Stay well!

I grew up loving umeboshi and because my old friends in Tokyo know this I am always given tubs and tubs of umeboshi when returning from Japan. Because of that I'm also always looking for other uses of umeboshi and like you I've made umeboshi ice cream in the past. I did soak the umeboshi in water with several changes of water though.

Here is another dish I came up with using umebishio. I had a half container silken tofu and wanted to use that as a filling for fresh anaheim peppers. I often order chile rellano when going to Mexican restaurant and borrowed a bit of that here without adding any fat like cheese or frying. Although I enjoy when different flavors all meld together like stew, soup, braised food, etc, I also enjoy foods where you can actually taste the individual components. I mixed silken tofu with umebishio and minced nira as a filling for 2 anaheim peppers. Baked for 25 minutes only. Peppers were still crisp but not hard and tofu filling really complemented the crispness and taste of anaheim well. I can still taste tofu, umebishio, nira and anaheim separately.

Thanks for this information......more fun food related things to occupy myself instead of doing things I need to such as cleaning, gardening, cleaning, gardening.

Yuck on most! Can't imagine these are actually marketed. I've seen sweet potato, rice, and corn ice cream though but haven't tried. Those fish ice cream sounds so disgusting! ← ← Sweet potato does sound very nice. Did you use Japanese satsuma imo? Also, miso ice cream might work very well. A little bit of miso goes a long way so ice cream made from miso should taste very much like sweetened miso. I like yuzu miso and addition of yuzu, lime, mikan, orange or other fruits to miso might work very well in ice cream. When you think about it, azuki beans sweetened may sound terrible for some non-Japanese tasters. So, if beans can be made into ice cream, then why not others. I've not tasted rice gelatto. Can you actually taste the rice? I also like the sound of nasu-eggplant, but I wonder if the taste comes through as nasu-eggplant? I've made azuki ice cream many times, but I cannot quite get the concentrated azuki taste so far. My ice cream tase more like vanilla ice cream with azuki and not wow.....it's azuki.

Yuck on most! Can't imagine these are actually marketed. I've seen sweet potato, rice, and corn ice cream though but haven't tried. Those fish ice cream sounds so disgusting!

I didn't consider the dough to be that slack, but I've gotten used to working with slack doughs (pourable like foccacia), so my perspective may be warped. I would say my dough was even slacker than pictured in your first photo. Did you knead in a mixer? I know that particular Pullman recipe is designed to be mixed using a bread machine (or mixer), so the slackness would be a non-issue. I didn't notice any more gassing or bubbles than usual, but the one loaf that I baked without a cover did have unwanted holes. Still, it looks like you got an even texture with your loaf, no? The kanimayo buns look great! ← Sliced the bread lastnight and this morning I made a toast with it. My impression at this point after letting the bread rest is that I think this bread has lots going for it with some minor changes. These changes may be due to my own taste preference, etc. Also, possible that I made some minor mistakes with weighing of ingredients. I would reduce the amount of salt next time - I can taste too much salt. I also added 1/2 cup more flour to the recipe because it was so wet that I could not work it at all. After letting it sit overnight I realize this bread really resembles challah bread that I buy at our local Japanese market. It is more moist than challah though. The crumb is wonderful but bread itself is moist. But because it is moist, it toasts up great with lots of nice crunch (just like having some moisture settle, food fries up better). I like how the crumb tear - more like pull. Overall, thank you for sharing this recipe Sanrensho. I plan to work it more.

No photos! I badly misjudged my portions and ended up with a regular loaf (non-Pullman) and a dwarf Pullman made by placing a baking sheet over the loaf pan. Next time I'll weigh and try to post photos once I have a presentable loaf. ← Ok, I had a second go at this recipe and again, I ran into problems. The dough is very, very wet. Not sure if that's how it supposed to be, but I had to add maybe 1/2 C or more flour while kneading. Even then, it was quite wet and slack. Very hard to work with. Another thing I noticed with this dough is that it was gassing a lot. Lots of small and large holes. I haven't seen that before when making breads. I decided to go ahead and bake it anyway. Knowing I had more dough than needed from my first attempt, I deleted 1/3 of dough to make Japanese style kanimayo pan (crab and mayo bread). I had some crab I needed to use from last night's meal. I also added some camenbert and dill to the mix. I was very happy with the results of kanimayo pan. Only thing I would do differently next time will be making a small indention and forming a dough more around the filling. For these, I just placed the filling on top. This is what the dough looks like. See how slack it is: I placed the crab/mayo/camenbert filling on top. Letting it rise a bit more. Results of kanimayo pan - a closeup. To celebrate the success of these, I had a glass of wine with it. Delish! The bread resting The final result. The bread stuck to sides again. Not sure why. I did oil the pan but perhaps it's because it's very wet? Perhaps it needs some flour after oiling? The taste is good (perhaps need a bit more sugar). The texture is almost there, but not quite. When it comes to bread making, I usually have to make several attempts before I'm happy with the results and this is no exception.

Those are very nice pictures. And, you have two tamagoyaki pans!

Red Konnayku and grilled natto are this week's food obsession with me. When I was in Kyoto (I think it was Kyoto) in April, I picked up a few packages of red konnyaku in shoyu flavored sauce. The color is bright red and it looks kind of strange for non-dessert food. I wasn't sure how I was going to use this, but the taste is addictive and goes well with beer. Here is what the package looks like: I have some several varieties of leafy green growing my yard and used some to make this side dish. Some of the greens were already flowering and needed to be used pronto, but thought it's pretty to add some flowers to the mix. Has anyone seen drama Long Vacation? There was a scene of barbecuing or grilling natto and using a lettuce leaf as a wrap. That scene intrigued me and since then I have been grilling natto using a frying pan until partially browned and adding some of the sauce that comes with a natto pack in the end. I also like to use slivers of lime skin (I have lots of lemon and lime growing my in yard). This is so, so, so good! Sorry for the lousy picture.

Yes, I acutally made the bread last week but was too embarrased to show photos. I used the pan with it's own metal top and that was a big mistake on my part. I should have left the top off completely. My bread rose way too much and stuck to the top while baking. I could not pull it off smoothly. Also, having the top on, I think the timing needs to be increased. My bread was almost there as far as the taste the coloring, but not quite. It needs perhaps 10-15 more minutes of baking. Because of the top on, I could not judge it's appearance while baking at all. The taste the texture was quite good. I'm going to attempt this bread this week and will report back again.

I'm glad to hear that your umebishio worked out ok. Yes, I also soak umeboshi for 8-10 hours first (changing water 3-4 times) to get rid of the saltiness. To make ume pasta, simple add umebishio to butter and minced or chopped shiso and/or spinach. Toss with pasta. Very, very simple. I sometimes use minced and sauteed panchetta to the mix as well. Umebishio works very well with making salad dressings, ume tsuyu, etc.

What a great website! My computer doesn't type Japanese characters (kana or kanji), but it was interesting browsing through the different categories. I'll definitely be using that site again, so thanks for the pointer! Do you think kuzu manju is similar to warabimochi? I've never had kuzu manju, so I don't even know what it looks like. ← Hi Rona - since it's not easy to find warabimochi in US, I often make my own. I've never thought too much about where warabiko comes from, but after reading some sites it looks like many places are using potato flour, tapioca or kuzuko for warabiko. Apparently warabiko is very expensive. I have a package of Shirakiku warabimochiko with kinako. This set makes 8-10 servings. The package says it's sweet potato flour (warabimochi set) and shows nutritional facts per serving as 3g total fat (5%), 1 g sat. fat (5%), cholest 0, sodium 20 mg (1%), total carb 53 g (18%), fiber 2 g (8%), sugar 36 g, protein 7 g, iron 10%, calcium 8%, vitamin C 4%, vitamin A less than 2%. Serving size is 2.64 oz.

According to this site http://library.thinkquest.org/22403/data/m...s/rockfish.html akauo is rockfish. It's one of my favorite fish that can be caught in Northern California water too as you can see from the map above.

You might want to ask around the local Japanese American community. I'm sure somebody has it in their backyard. It grows like a weed and requires no care to speak of. And is easy to divide, so anybody that has it should be willing to share. Same for myoga (I have both). ← Thanks Sanrensho, I will ask around. I also have myoga growing in my yard too - and you are right very easy to divide. Mine is usually ready to harvest around September in California. Myoga in miso shiru is divine! Hiroyuki, I received the book within a week from Amazon Japan. So far I've tried the oden ratio. It's 1:1:15 or 4 T soysauce (both light and regular), 4 T mirin, and 4 1/2 C dashi.

Usually drying time occurs in mid July after the rainy season is over in Japan (not here in California - lol). I believe it takes 3 days of drying outside. When dry enough you can pick one up with your fingers holding the skin only. Good luck on your move to Tokyo.

Yesterday, I made ume spaghetti using the umebishio I made. This is the 4th time I made this within a month. I used both shiso and spinach this time.