shinju

BTW, Hiroyuki, your shiso tempura looks deelish!

Hi Cookwithlove - if you like to explore miso and different ways of using miso I would highly recommend "The Book of Miso" by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi. Fab book - one of my favorite! It was published in 1976 and may be hard to come by, check different sources.

Ohhh, umeshiso and aojiso ponzu - I haven't seen those in US yet. Torakris, would you say the ume/shiso and aojiso taste is quite pronounced or more subtle? If I can't find them, I was thinking about making one up.

Hiroyuki, I think you are right about the origin of yakisoba. My step-father is 2nd generation Japanese American. His father came to the US in the early 1900 and his mother around 1920's. All his family calls most things soba or udon. Ramen is soba. Used to really confuse me when he would say he wanted to go eat soba. I thought he meant Japanese soba, but noooo, he meant ramen. Most of his contemporaries still call ramen soba. On the other hand, my mother is Japanese and she did not call ramen soba and neither did I growing up in Japan.

Another bilingual book I like is "Recipes of Japanese Coking" or Eigo de tsukuru washoku by Yuko Fujita and Navi International.

Very informative post Hiroyuki and glad to hear that your wife is coming home soon. I just ordered the book you mentioned along with few more today. Thanks for the recommendation. How long do you normally cook your oden? I would love to duplicate the taste of oden from some of the better places in Japan. My oden either taste too strong or not strong enough.

This has me wondering about the taste of sakura. What is it? Not cherry. Taste of preserved sakura leaves and flowers? Has anyone ever preserved leaves or flowers before? It's definately Japanese taste.

Wonder if this is similar to sakura shio and ume shio that was served with tempura while I was in Japan in March. Sakura shio had a nice taste of sakura leaf and ume shio had taste of umeboshi.

Oh, this looks so good. I've been thinking of this dish for the last two days since seeing the photo. Only thing that would make it better for me is addition of little shoyu drizzled on top. I even eat umeboshi with shoyu. Regarding akebi called kinome in your region, does it come with flowers too? I don't recall ever eating akebi (akebia) and what I see after googling is a climbing vine with flowers.

So, you can read Japanese! ← Yes, my first language. BTW, how is hospital food for your wife? Are you able to bring her any food from home?

Just started reading your blog tonight. It's a wonderful blog Hiroyuki. Thank you so much for taking time off from your busy, busy schedule to show us a bit of your family life and food you and your family eat every day. Also, here's hoping for your wife's good health and recovery! You are a handsome man! You look very much like my father when he was your age. Being a umeboshi nut, I also like the traditional salty and drier type too. BTW, I copied your ume joyu from your notebook! I do something similar with shiso too. Since you first mentioned the ume katsuo a while back, I've been making it and really enjoy it. Beautiful pictures and beautiful area you live in.

In the stateside, you can order uni directly from this source. I've ordered their items, and all excellent. http://www.catalinaop.com/

Torakris - that gobo looks so good. Never thought of deep fried gobo with soba. Great combination!

Hi Rona - been a long time again. How are you doing? Are you still attending cooking school near Osaka? I was always hoping we can get together sometime, but difficult to do since I usually come to Japan with a group of people (especially the last 4 years or so) who rely on me exclusively because of language needs. Our coming trip is also the same. Maybe one day! Nona

I've been seeing fresh yuzu in Nijiya market here in Bay Area, CA for a while now. However, price is high and I figured someone is growing them and so for 5-6 years, I've been searchng for yuzu tree to grow. I finally struck it rich last year and found one online coming from Southern California. The tree is very happy in my backyard now. No fruits yet, but can't wait. BTW, I also have two ume trees. They are now about 15 years old and produces two type of ume - one larger and one smaller. I use them for umeshu and umeboshi. Crazy I know, but I also started Kyohou grape vines from seeds I collected and planted after soaking them. My vines are flourishing here.

Very interesting observations from everyone. I do not like Kewpie mayo at all. I used to think mayo was terrible food when I grew up in Japan and used to scrape it off. Then I was introduced to Best Food mayo (or Hellman's) in the US and I slowly started to enjoy mayo. Now I like it just fine. When my Japanese nephew was staying with us in the US for his school he could not get used to American style mayo and wanted his kewpie mayo. So, I went to the store and bought one for him. It has been a long time since I tried it on it's own. I put a small amount of Best Food mayo and Kewpie mayo next to it. Sliced up cucumbers for taste testing. For me, Best food mayo was 100% better than Kewpie. Kewpie had a funny aftertaste that I cannot place. It was oilier and not fluffy and light like Best Food mayo (almost pasty oily). Much more vinegar in Kewpie - quite a strong taste not associated with mayo - maybe a hint of dashi (scratch made mayo). In my mind Kewpie mayo is a spread like sandwich spread found in the US - similar taste. As far as what foods I like in Japan better than originals. Ramen. I also enjoy Japanse style hamburger (not better than Western style), but jood and different than Western. I also enjoy gratin dishes (again not better than West), but good just the same. And Spaghetti Napolitan - although I love Italian food found in Italy, I also think Japanse style relatively good and intersting take on originals. Japan does really good job with pastry - very nice all around.

Great pictures of supermarket oden selection Hiroyuki. But, I just can't warm up to chikuwa suffed with cheese. Do you eat this too?

Just wanted to give you big Thank You for providing these sites. I keep going back to them ofen and love them. I miss Docchi no ryouri......sob.

I am really enjoying reading this thread. I'm not the only one who makes umeshu and lycheeshu! Once you make your own umeshu, it's very, very hard to go back to the commercial stuff. I also find it interesting that other people use brandy and gin for making other types of drinks. So far I've made umeshu, lycheeshu, and berry infused brandy (gorgeous taste and appearance). I've tried making my umeshu and lycheeshu with bothy sake and shochu and I prefer sake to shochu for the base. Can you please tell me how you make your gin infused with matcha? I like gin (I'm a gin and tonic type) and no doubt I would enjoy this too. I have two ume trees in my yard and this year was not too productive for us (probably too much rain during pollination). It would be fun to try other fruits too. Also, I'be been throwing together different shochu sour drinks (no recipe, just going by taste), but I would love to know if anyone has a good recipe for shochu sour made with umeboshi?

I've also wondered about this very common seaweed salad found in most US Japanese restaurants. It's sold in bags imported from China (Shenyang Export) and is called hiyashi wakame. But, I'm not sure about the wakame part at all. The texture is all wrong for wakame. It isn't kombu. Ingredients listed as you stated (misspeplled agar agar to arga arga) - can't figure that part out at all. Unless wakame is somehow all dipped in agar agar to make them chuchy (I doubt it, but why agar agar). But, that does not explain why the wierd green color - it seems too green to me (a bit artificial color to me - I don't know though). Could this be something from the river? I wonder how stringent food import law to US is. Maybe this hiyashi wakame is mislabled.

Why do you know what I don't know? I learned that oboro dofu is also called kumi dofu, sukui dofu, and yose dofu. How to make them? That's easy! You already have. This blog (Japanese only) is interesting in that it shows you how to make oboro, zaru, and momen dofu in that order. In 40 minutes after bittern is put in, you scoop up some and put it in a pack, and oboro dofu is made. Then, you scoop up some and put it in a zaru (colander), and zaru dofu is made. Finally, you break down tofu in smaller pieces, put it in a mold, and put a weight on it to drain, and momen dofu is made! ← That blog is great Hiroyuki! That's the kind of silken tofu I'm aiming for - big chunks of curds and not small tiny bits of curds. I have to study this much, much more. Even when making regular momen tofu, you need to get large chunks of curds into pressing container instead of small curds like cottage cheese. You get small curds when not properly made.

Here is the instruction on making homemade silken tofu (not pressed silken tofu) 1 1/2 C soybeans, soaked in 4-6 cups of water for about 10 hours 1. Place a deep, 6-8 qt pot in sink, set a large colander in mouth of pot and line colander with a moistened pressing sack approximately 15 in by 15 in made of coarse weave linen (with a mesh big enough to poke a pin through), or coarse 2 foot square dish cloth. 2. Divide soaked beans into 3 equal parts. Preheat plastic or glass blender bowl by pouring in 2-3 cups of hot water first to warm the bowl. Discard the water. 3. In the blender combine 1 portion of soaked beans with 2 C boiling water and puree at high speed for for 1 minute, or until very smooth. Pour puree into sack or dish cloth in colander. Puree remaining portions of beans with 2 C hot boiling water each and pour into sack or dish cloth. Rinse out blender with 1/4 C boiling water to retrieve any puree, and pour into sack or dish cloth. 4. Twist mouth of sack or dish cloth closed. Using a a glass jar or potato masher, press sack repeatedly against bottom of colander to extract as much soymilk as possible. Shake solids (okara) into one order of sack, twise further closed, and press again. Open mouth of sack wide in colander, stir okara briefly, then pour 2 1/2 C boiling water over okara. Stir again. Twist sack closed and press repeatedly with jar. Transfer pot containing soymilk to stove. Reserve okara for other use. 5. Bring soymilk to a boil over medium high heat, stirring bottom of cooking pot constnatly with a wooden spatula to prevent sticking. When milk comes to boil (foam will suddenly rise in pot), reduce heat to medium and simmer for about 7 minutes. Remove pot from burner. Coagulant for 3 1/4 C rich homemade soymilk (1) For delicate, subtly-sweet silken tofu - 1/2 tsp magneium chloride or calcium chloride; 3/8 tsp granular or powdered natural nigari; 1/3 to 1 tsp liquid nigari. (2) For firm, mild silken tofu - 1/2 tsp epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) or calcium sulfate 6. Place a 1 1/2 to 3 quart serving bowl on a firm surface and pour in freshly made hot soymilk; cover. In a small cup mix the coagulant with 2 T water and stir until dissolved. 7. Stir soymilk back and forth briskly for 3 to 5 seconds, then quickly pour in all of the coagulant solution. Continue stirring soymilk for 3 to 5 seconds more, making sure to stir to bottom of container. Stop spoon upright in center of soymilk and wait until turbulence ceases; lift out spoon. 8. Let soymilk stand uncovered and undisturbed for 20-30 minutes while it cools and solidifies. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled. 9. To serve, ladle the silken tofu individual serving dishes. ***I've used both nigari and epsom salt and still can't get silken tofu to set properly. I'll try calcium sulfate next time. Thank you very much for any information. It would be great to perfect this recipe so that I can share the recipe with others (like me) who do not have the access to great tasting silken tofu available in tofu shops in Japan.

Thank you for replying. Hiroyuki - I'll check those sites when I get home (I can only access Japanese encoding at home). Helenjp - since I make momen tofu (from beans) often, I've experimented with granular nigari, liquid nigari, epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) and different proportions. So far, I really like granular nigari the best for momen tofu. I''ve used "Book of Tofu" recipe for making my tofu, but strayed away a bit from their direction since I normally do not like very stiff tofu, and their recipe make tofu too stiff for my liking. For making silken tofu, their recipe calls for making rich soy milk (more beans than regular momen tofu) and using nigari, magnesium sulfate or calcium sulfate (this latter is best for pressed silken tofu according to the author). I've tried 4-5 times (not pressed silken, but in the rectugantular container type) using both nigari and epsom salt - disaster - more like soy milk potage. I'm hesitating using calcium sulfate because it just sounds awful to me. It is gypsum right....I've worked with gypsum boards when we remodeled our home and I can't imagine using it for cooking. When I get home, I'll post the recipe I used for making silken tofu and perhaps someone can see the problem area. I've not seen any recipes for making tofu using microwave, but it sounds intriguing. Have to check that out too. BTW, is oboro and sukui tofu similar? Any idea on how to make them?

I live in Northern California and although we can find several store brand tofu (terrible tasting generally) and one rather quite decent local momen doufu, I wanted to recreate great tasting tofu I used to get in my hometown - Musashikoyama. So, several years ago I decided on making my own and have been happy with the results of momen doufu. I make tofu 2-3 times a month. Unfortunately, I like silken tofu more than momen doufu, but have not been able to make successful homemade version. It just does not set properly. Has anyone been successful in making silken tofu? Any ideas? Any recipe sites? Thank you!

Wow, just started reading this forum and wanted to tell you that your pictures, instructions, and dishes look outstanding. Thank you so much for sharing these.