Hiroyuki

I don't have much to contribute to this thread, but I'd like to post links to Ranking list of chocolate shops in Toyko (3 pages in total) and A guide to chocolate shops in Tokyo Sorry, both are in Japanese only.

Sorry for responding late, but it took some time to determine whether dried warabi required akunuki (harshness removal). I think that depends on whether akunuki was performed before drying. Maybe you can ask a sales person whether dried warabi requires some treatment before use. If your dried warabi requires akunuki, then boil water in a pot (large enough to hold warabi when reconstituted), put warabi in, turn off the heat, let it sit overnight. (Change water several times to quicken the akunuki process.) No baking soda is required. I found other akunuki methods, but the one described above is the easiest to do. One caution: Don't attempt to remove aku (harshness) completely. Otherwise, you would lose all flavor of warabi. This goes for all other sansai too. (Dried zenmai is quite popular in Japan, but dried warabi isn't. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've never seen dried warabi around here...) Although kyara (agilawood) buki is quite popular in Japan, I have never heard of kyara warabi or any other kyara + sansai combination. Kyara buki is heavily seasoned (it's essentially the same as tsukudani), so if you prefer light seasoning, I'd recommend recipes such as: http://www.nipec.niigata.niigata.jp/sozai-...view.asp?id=276 http://www.imabari-cooking.jp/recipe/r026.html (Japanese only)

Thank you for pinning this thread, Kris. I know I shouldn't crowd this thread with too many sites, but here's a really good one and I have to post a link: e healthy recipe http://www.sankyo.co.jp/ehr/ 1500 recipes with videos! Awesome! One drawback: You need some Japanese language skills to navigate through the site. Let's take a look at this month's recommendations: http://www.ehealthyrecipe.com/recipe-webap...on=1&todo=ready

I found this corporation g-chef. They say they accept all kinds of food-related requests. To contact them, access this page and click the e-mail address. Good luck!

It's silly, but the video doesn't say how much water to put in a bowl. So, all I can say is to put some water in a bowl, referring to the video, add one tablespoon of salt, and soak one pack of tofu for 15 minutes or longer. The video says that the resulting tofu does not differ in taste or texture from unsalted tofu... Really? Will I try that trick? Probably no. Besides, I found a site where a person says that the trick didn't work for her. She says that the tofu was salty and crumbled.

Thanks, Helen. Anyone else interested in posting their favoriate movies? Kewpie no 3-pun kan cooking (Kewpie's 3-minute cooking) http://www.ntv.co.jp/3min/indexx.html

For me and for most other Japanese as well, the taste of wasabi is that of fake wasabi. When I first tasted real wasabi in my teens, I wasn't very much fascinated by it. I don't know how to describe real wasabi properly... It's gritty when grated, and it smells and tastes like soil, plus it is pungent, of course. As I suggested above, fake products are used in most households and restaurants. Prices vary according to size and quality. According to this Rakuten (online shopping site) page prices range from 280 to 3,350 yen per piece. As you can easily imagine from the price range, it's a big deal! It is interesting to note that the pungent component of wasabi is the same as that of karashi (mustard). The only difference between them is that karashi lacks the fragrant component called "green note". from the Wasabi edition of the TV program, Mega Ten. In the program, people were served nigiri zushi with mustard, but none of them noticed it was mustard.

Was it simply sweetened with sugar or seasoned with soy sauce and mirin and/or sugar for "ama-kara" flavor? I find it hard for me to answer your question because I can't tell what type of dish it can be, so why not just reconstruct the dried warabi in lukewarm water first and then season it according to your taste. As for "ama-kara" flavor, I think that recipes for kyara-buki (simmered fuki stalks) will provide some suggestions. 400 g fuki (butterbur stalks) 80 cc soy sauce 100 cc mirin 50 cc sake 1 tbsp. sugar 200 cc dashi from http://mamacita.milkcafe.to/recipe/wagaya/kyarabuki.htm

Oh, that's easy enough. Just make strong coffee and pour it into a glass full of ice cubes. If you use a dripper (in Japan, french presses are much less popular than in the States), just place a glass full of ice cubes below the dripper, and the coffee will be cooled instantly.

Salt. 5 g of salt for two onions. I have tried this urawaza (trick) once to make curry (well, the Japanese type of curry), and the resulting curry turned out to be rather salty. That was inevitable because I used store-bought curry roux. As for the gyoza trick, put cold water and drain it when it boils, by tilting the pan with the cover on.

Thanks again, raji. Eating it more like pasta... I think this goes for ramen, too.

I found this wagashi site: http://www.okashi-net.com/recipe/

Another question: How many of you are actually capable of slurping up soba? I saw a rerun of the TV program called Gaia no Yoake (Japanese only) today that featured Morimoto in New York. I could see some Americans eating soba, and I found none of them slurping up soba.

Talking of dumplings (gyoza), if you get tired of the same old ones, I recommend making hanetsuki gyoza. From here http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=887700 You can see the photo here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=895571 You will be amazed at how such a common ingredient as flour can make a difference to the same old gyoza.

Right, salt. But remember, just a pinch of salt! 0.3 g per cup and no more; otherwise, the coffee would become salty.

How can you wait for 5 minutes in front of a computer...

What's the popular type of soba in New York? Regular yabu soba or more refined, whitish sarashina soba? How about whole-grain inaka soba?

Benihana oil is touted as healthy, but it's so expensive I've never bought it myself. It is popular as o-chugen (mid-summer) and o-seibo (year-end) gifts. I have received several cans of benihana oil from my mother before, but I can't tell any difference from regular salad oil. I myself have never seen the flowers used for garnish. Benihana plantation is quite popular in Yamagata prefecture. In fact, benihana is the prefectural flower (kenka) of that prefecture. Dishes and foodstuffs using the flowers and leaves seem to be quite popular there, such as benihana men (noodles), benihana zuke (pickles), and benihana cha (tea). I found this site, which contains prize-winning dishes using benihana (Japanese only). To view those dishes, I recommend that you scroll down and click the pfd adobe icon or the photo of pages next to １～２ページ (pages 1-2) and so on, rather than clicking the 創作紅花料理レシピ集（全ページ)..., which appears at the lower right corner when you first access the site. Somehow, this link doesn't work for me. Not that I know of. Maybe in Yamagata..., Edited to add: Oh, Helen, I didn't know you were here too. I was one minute late this time.

Oh, TV Tokyo! I can't watch your show here in Niigata.

Next, http://gourmet.biglobe.ne.jp/movie/standard/index.html The title is "Douga de Recipe" (Recipes with Movies). There are six menus to select from: 定番メニュー teiban menu (menu of routine dishes) ダイエットメニュー diet menu (menu of diet dishes) 冷っとデザート hiyatto dessert (cold desserts) ホームパーティメニュー Home party menu (house party menu) サラダセレクション salada selection (salad selection) 電子レンジメニュー denshi renji menu (menu of dishes made in a mirowave) Click a desired menu from a list to the left of the orange plate. Again, if you have any questions about a specific recipe, post them here.

From the March 13 editorial of the Yomiuri Shimbun I do hope that the efforts do not become obtrusive. Is that what the government should do?

You are right. Today I found tako for sashimi (sashimi-you) at the supermarket, and it wasn't fresh but boiled. Come to think of it, I had never thought about whether tako for sashimi was fresh or not... I should be ashamed of myself...

Japanese usually make sunomono (vinegared dishes) with kurage (jellyfish). We like the korikori (crispy) texture.

How about sperm sacs (shirako) of cod and other fish? People in Shinshu in central Japan eat bee larvae, inago (grasshoppers), silkworm chrysales, and so on. My father comes from Shinshu. Finally, how about natto?

Kris, you showed Japan's equivalent of Food Pyramid here (second photo in this post), but do you know the Shokuji (Dietary) Balance Guide? In June 21, 2005, the Food Guide Kenkyu Kai (Study Panel) released the guide. Among the panel members was Dr. Hattori, and it was his idea to turn the pyramid upside down. He said, "In everything, what counts most is on top, so let's turn it upside down." Finally, the guide was shaped into a spinning top. Here is the original Japanese version of the guide: http://www.myfood.jp/Education/hattori/001_01_balance.pdf And here is an English version: http://www.maff.go.jp/food_guide/eng_reiari.pdf Both are pdf files. Here is a link to a GAIN Report on food education in Japan and the guide (also a pdf file), if anyone is interested.