Hiroyuki

I can assure you that cumumber rolls (called kappa maki in Japanese) are quite authentic. As I suggested somewhere else, it's tough being a vegetarian in Japan, but you can find websites on Japanese vegetarian dishes by googling "shojin-ryori", such as: http://www.btinternet.com/~bury_rd/japanese.htm

Grating it finely is a good practice. Did you put the grated nagaimo in a suribachi (mortar) and knead it well with a surikogi (pestle) until sticky? Maybe the problem is the quality of the nagaimo. Wild nagaimo (called ji-nen-jo 自然薯 in Japanese) is quite sticky when grated, and is also very expensive.

I found coffee ramen totally abhorrent at first, but a webpage has changed my view. The webpage that Kristin provided a link to provides a link to that webpage, which is a serious report on coffee ramen. According to the webpage, coffee ramen is available in the wintertime only. Coffee mori soba, coffee hiyashi chuuka (cold Chinese noodles), and coffee salad men (noodles) are available in the summertime. Surprisingly, coffee ramen is a trademark and is also process patented, so you can see that the shop owner is serious. The reporter seems to have given up finishing coffee ramen because of its bizarre taste. You can see a photo of packs of dried coffee ramen at the bottom of the webpage. The shop owner says that the ramen is good to eat if you boil it in a normal way and dip it in store-bought men-tsuyu just like soba. I don't want to have coffee ramen unless it is offered for free, but I'm interested in dried coffee ramen. I like cha-soba (buckwheat noodles containing green tea powder), so I think coffee ramen may be as good. John: I want to see that movie, but I wonder if a video rental shop carries it...

Tampopo... It's here on eGullet that I learned that the movie was that popular overseas. I haven't seen the movie myself, but I once read on one site that there was a scene where a sensei (master) told someone a proper way of eating ramen. I can assure you that there can be no proper way of eating ramen other than this: Eat it quickly and slurp it up!

Not that I know of. I got about 684 results by googling "牛肉ラーメン" (beef-ramen), but most of them refer to beef ramen in China and Taiwan. I found some ramen shops that serve beef ramen, but I failed to find a single shop that specializes in beef ramen. We do like beef, but somehow the combination of beef and ramen doesn't sound very appetizing.

Wow, doomo arigato gozaimashita Hiroyuki san! That was some great info on Koshihikari there. Unfortunately, the Japanese characters are showing up on my Mac as wierd characters and I will have to find another computer to properly load the webpages. But I'm both saddened and surprised to see Hoshihikari only being available for a limited time That is one amazing beer and if only for one time, I'd urge anyone who loves beer to splurge on it and savour it. I think the spring water gives it a unique crispness, taste and superior thirst quenching properties. Strange seeing how alcohol actually dehydrates. For those who haven't tried Hoshihikari....gogogogo, get it b4 its too late. ← I thought I should post some more information about their availability, so I sent an inquiry to the company. I'll post a reply here.

One more thing: According to this site (Japanese only), both Koshihikari lager and Baisen Koshihikari lager (roasted (malt) Koshihikari lager) are available for a limited time only.

Thank you for responding, however I can't read Japanese so I can only guess. I can see the matsumaezuke has carrots and the kombu but do I see shiratake in it, too? Do you rehydrate the kombu before adding to the other ingredients? ← I bought a bag of kizami kombu at the 100-yen shop! The instructions on the package say to soak in water for 1-2 minutes and rince well. What may look shirataki (you mean shirataki not shiratake, right?) is actually dried squid (surume). I'll post a picture here when I make some dish with the kizami kombu.

Thanks for sharing your experience, alvis. You did a great job. I know I have to try one of those recipes I previously submitted to RecipeGullet. I'm thinking of making the broth in the garage...

How about this one? ← Bingo! Thats the one! Do you know what company produces it? Ahahahahaa thanks for finding it, Hiroyuki.......now you're making me thirsty! ← Sorry for a late reply. http://www.e-ippin.jp/70sankei/index.html seems to be the only site from which you can buy a set of Koshihikari beers. See the third photo. It says: Koshihikari set: Enjoy the two Koshihikari beers, refreshing Koshihikari lager and flavorful roasted (malt) Koshihikari lager. Set of six 330-ml bottles Price (including tax): 2,625 yen The company called Sankei produces these and other beers under the brand name 日本海夕陽岬ビール Nihonkai Yuuhi Misaki Beer (lit. Japan Sea Evening Sun Cape Beer). They have a brewry called 日本海夕陽ブルワリー Nihonkai Yuuhi Brewry The official site of Nihonkai Yuuhi Brewry is here: http://www.yuhibeer.com/ Information on Sankei: Location: Nozumi, Teradomari, Nagaoka city, Niigata Phone: 0258-75-4966 E-mail： brewery@yuhibeer.com According to the site above, the company produces beers with both spring water from Todo no Mori and and deep sea water from 200 meters below sea level. A brief description of Todo no Mori can be found here: http://www.city.tochio.niigata.jp/school/a...i/2319todo.html The spring water is one of Japan's 100 remarkable waters: http://www.mizuhiroba.jp/en/meisui/hyakusenlist.html You can see photos of the beers produced by Sankei here: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~iv9y-ymmt/beer...gata/yuuhi.html The third and fourth photos from the left show roasted (malt) Koshihikari lager and the fifth photo shows Koshihikari lager. In the International Beer Summit http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~keika/sake/goldbeer.html (Japanese only), Koshihikari lager won a silver award in the American style premium lager category and roasted (malt) Koshihikari lager won a silver awardin the scottish style ale category. I didn't know anything about these beers. I wish I could have them, but considering the price,... well I think I should stick to shochu and "third beers".

How about this one?

My kids (9 and 6) usually drink milk with their meals, which is something people of my generation didn't do in their childhood. For me, the combination of rice and milk just doesn't sound right. Drinking milk after a meal or with a snack is perfectly alright, though. On other occasions, they have a choice between milk and barley tea. My wife and I seldom buy juice. They can't drink green tea yet because it contains caffine. When our first child was smaller, we tried to feed him with additive- and MSG-free foods as much as possible, but not any more.

Was it this? I found some others too, such as this and this.

Just thinking of mizuame makes my mouth water! Natsukashii!

Sorry, my translation must have been confusing. What they put in is mizuame. Here is a description of mizuame: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizuame

how very enticing and appetizing ... ← Maybe a homonym problem... "Koshikake" means stool as in falling between two stools. But I'm sure the name is more appetizing than bahun uni (horse dung sea urchin).

I think it's a mushroom called reishi, also known as "saru no koshikake" (monkey's stool)" in Japanese.

I made some takoyaki with a mochi/cheddar cheese filling the other night. The cheese was natural cheddar, and it turned out pretty well. It melted quickly, but the cheese that "escaped the takoyaki formed a sort of crust on the outside that kept the rest of the cheese in. The combo of mochi/cheese was good too, very gooey. Here are some pictures: ← Thanks. Very interesting. I will try natural cheese on our next Takoyaki Day.

Congratulations on your success, and nice-looking chopsticks!

It is possible. I received cutting from a friend's plant but they died... probably because I sort of forgot about them. I am not sure how easy they are though because I can kill aything. ← What I learned from a quick google search is that sansho is on the top ten list of hard-to-cultivate plants... from here (Japanese only)

Oh, I think of heard about this of practice. It's to avoid contamination in the sake, isn't it? ← The farmer says that natto-kin (bacillus natto?) is so strong that it kills all the yeast in the taru (barrel).

Todays's edition of "Me Ga Ten" featured warabi. They say that warabi ko (flour) costs 20,000 yen per 1 kg (2.2 lb.) and its starch particles are small and spherical, giving warabi mochi its smooth texture. A wagashi maker at Ikko-an kneaded warabi paste for 30 minutes with a pestle-like tool. You can see a photo of warabi mochi of Ikko-an here and here. I have never eaten real warabi mochi... Now I crave it .

In today's edition of Shin Nippon Tankentai, aired from 6:30 to 6:45 a.m. on channel four (NTV), I saw a farmer making doburoku. He runs a minshuku (a type of inn) and serves his doburoku to his guests. He says he abandoned eating natto since he started to make doburoku althogh he likes it. This is true of professional sake brewers.

Two people (eGullet members!) say here that natto tastes like coffee.

虹 = Niji (rainbow) に = ni (to) thus, 虹に = to (a/the) rainbow What does it mean?