Hiroyuki

I know nothing about American or Canadian varieties, but how about annou? Is it similar in color, taste, and texture? Have any of you ever tried it? Me? No. http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~seed/veget.htm Fourth one from the top

Japanese soy sauce is a little different. Manufacturers recommend that you refrigerate the bottle once you have opened it and use it up within one month or so to enjoy the flavor of the soy sauce. Many consumers, including me, do not practice this, though. I store my 1.8-liter bottle in the under-the-sink storage space and use it up in two or three months.

I'm glad that you got a good book, but what about your initial question? I read the whole thread again, carefully, and I noticed that I still hadn't answered your question fully. Any native Japanese could easily come up with phrases such as: Wabi sabi no (of, relating to wabi sabi) Wabi sabi teki na (same as above) Wabi sabi teki ni (in a wabi sabi manner) Wabi sabi-ppoi (wabi sabi-ish) Wabi sabi no you na (wabi sabi-like) Wabi sabi no you ni (in a wabi sabi-like manner) I googled and found that these phrases were hardly used in connection with food. I think that most traditional (and many contemporary) Japanese dishes are best described by the words assari (bland, light, not fatty, plain, etc.) and sappari (refreshing). The opposite of assari is mattari or mottari, as in mattari shita tonkotsu soup (fatty, rich porkbone soup) and mottari shita cream cheese (thick, heavy cream cheese). You talked about something about experimentation. The blandness of traditional Japanese dishes does not necessarily mean less experimentation, because the blandness is deliberate, as I suggested in this thread. One of the characteristics of Japanese cuisine is to make the most of the natural flavor of each ingredient. We just can't spoil the flavor of the ingredients with excessive seasoning. Soy sauce has enabled us to establish and follow that tradition because it is such a perfect, all-purpose sauce. What compensates for the blandness, and monotony, is, I think, seasonal emphasis. In Japanese cuisine, the use of seasonal ingredients is required, not optional, just like a haiku requires one seasonal word. Traditional Japanese dishes would be too dull to bear without some seasonal ingredients. Anyway, I hope that the book you just bought will answer many, if not all, of your questions.

I was looking at the Helsio, it says it is 26L but it was really tiny. It is all height and no width, you would never be able to fit even a small chicken in there. I am also not that concerned about cutting all the fat (and flavor ) out of my food. ← I was wrong. Nano steam is superheated steam. Hmm... Healthy Chef of Hitachi looks attractive. If only it were in the 20,000-30,000-yen range...

This Hitachi? I was looking at it too, but I couldn't find it any of the 3 electronic shops I went to. I did care for any of the Hitachis that I looked at. They all had that really high rack that will only hold a tiny bit of food and I will never find a place to store. For some reason also the Hitachis also jsut seemed more flimsy to me. I know flimsy is a weird way to describe an oven but that is the only word I can think of. The roast pork was fabulous! Better than the one I made last week in my old oven. Sorry I was really busy and didn't get any pictures taken. I did discover something else I do like and another thing I don't like... When you are baking and you pull the pan out to check it, when you close the door the oven stays on, just the timer stops. My old oven would stop and I often worried about how much heat it was losing. The bad thing is if I have the timer set for 15 minutes and I pull it out at 13 and then feel it needs 5 more I couldn't figure how to add 5 more minutes to the timer. I had to wait for it to finish out the last 2 minutes and then start it over again for the last 3. This problem may be solved by actually reading the inscructions though. I will keep you all posted. I may have sold two women in my cooking class today on the oven.... ← Thanks for the link, torakris. I first thought that nano steam was the same as superheated steam, but I later found that it wasn't. According to this page, Helsio (sp?) is still the only oven that can cook with superheated steam only.

How has your life changed since that fire? Getting up earlier in the morning?... What else?

Interesting question, but I think we'll have to wait and see whether this show will become popular in Japan. No reply from anyone yet. As I said before, the official website of Senjo no Restaurant is updated every Thursday, so is the the website offering streaming video. This week's battle (battle 10) Team Black: Kurahara Harutoshi, Grill (teppanyaki and okonomiyaki) Yamane Daisuke, Italian Team Red: Yanagidate Isao, French Chantana K. Saito, Ethnic (Thai) Theme ingredient: Black rice Sub-ingredients: Duck, turnip Plates: Green bamboo log, Japanese-style square plate Enjoy!

Re-evaluate bou-dara? I've never been a fan of it since I moved here.

I think that English-speaking people are incline to emphasize the third syllable. Thus, o-ma-KA-se.

One thing is for sure: If Inoue is ever unfriendly to anyone in any way, it's Inoue's fault. There is no excuse for that. As a sushi shop owner(?), he has to be attentive to every detail of the shop, including the feelings of his customers, not just the freshness of the ingredients he serves. If any of you suspect he is, please tell him that I said so. I want some explanation from him.

It's not that Korean nori is inferior. Korean nori is a different variety called 'iwa nori' in Japanese. Edited to add: I like to eat nori by dipping it in a special sauce, which is easy to make - Just mix one part soy sauce and one part mirin (well, fake mirin, to be more exact) together and heat the mixture in the microwave for 20-30 seconds. My children also love the sauce.

You are right, partly because many consider nori to be something that you eat for breakfast and mainly because you can't fill your stomach with it. I recently found a nori tempura snack at the local 100-yen shop, which I find quite good.

Thanks! I thought of this drama when I first read this thread, but I just couldn't remember the title. I'm so forgetful these days...

I'm pretty sure that there are nori snacks in Japan, like these. Maybe there were no such snacks while you were in Japan.

If you ever want to see and experience (and eat) food and dining that embody and represent wabi and sabi in present-day Japan, I would suggest that you go to a traditional Japanese restaurant that serves cha kaiseki dishes. Or, maybe you could make some cha kaiseki dishes by yourself. Examples of cha kaiseki dishes are http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~kousaian/page64/page.html

I realized that I hadn't answered your question fully. I thought about it, but I just can't come up with a right answer. After all, to my mind, there can be no food or dining that can represent the concept of wabi or sabi.

I don't think the terms wabi and sabi are used to describe food or dining. They are usually used to describe tea ceremony rooms, tea-making utensils, plates, and so on. Note that wabi and sabi are both nouns. Shibui is an adjective having two meanings. One is cool in a subdued manner, and the other is astringent, as in shibui kaki (persimmon) and o-cha (tea). Nigai (bitter) is used to describe the taste of coffee and chocolate.

I like the name caulifower fungus better than the second name they gave at that site, "brain fungus". I does look like a fresh version of shiro kikurage, does it have that same kind of bit that kikurage does or is it softer like a regular mushroom? ← I may be wrong because this is the very first time that I've ever had hanabira take, and I made sure that I could keep its texture by using a technique I described in the takikomi gohan thread, but I think its texture is quite like that of shiro kikurage. Note also that I have had only dried shiro kikurage so far, which I usually buy at the 100-yen shop . (This mushroom happens to be a favorite of my son's, and I keep buying it there.) Anyway, it's not expensive (I bought a pack for 198 yen), so I think you can always try it.

I usually don't eat hoshi-imo unless it is heated in some way. My favorite way is to heat it in the toaster oven until scorched a little.

the egg omelet type of thing. i've also heard/read that you can judge a sushi chef by this. i don't believe that any more than i believe any other generalization. ← Thanks. It's called tamago yaki (fried egg) or simply tamago (egg) in Japanese. Sushi chefs call it gyoku. I didn't know it's called tamago sashimi in your area/country.

Akiko: Do post a picture or two of the variety available in your area, as well as a typical local dish using it, when you have time. AzianBrewer: Thanks for the information, but I confirmed that Bai-Mu-Er is shiro kikurage in Japanese (white wood ear in English?). Hanabira take is called cauliflower fungus in English. From here: http://bcmushrooms.forrex.org/ntfp/pages/s...ispa_image.html Hanabira take is considered healthy because it contains three times more beta-glucan than agaricus. But I'm really disappointed by the lack of flavor of this mushroom. I don't think I'll buy it again.

What is tamago sashimi? Could anyone describe it? I've never heard of it even though I'm a native Japanese. By the way, fascinating photos, Jason.

I made takikomi gohan with hanabira take and enoki. I was disappointed by the lack of flavor of hanabira take. The takikomi gohan itself was tasty as usual, with the same old soy sauce/mirin/sake flavor and the same old ingredients (carrot and aburaage). For this takikomi gohan, I tried a new technique: Put hanabira take and enoki in a pan, add soy sauce, mirin, and sake, plus some water. Bring to a boil and stop the heat in a few seconds. Drain and put the liquid in the rice cooker, but not the mushrooms. After the rice is cooked, put the mushrooms and mix well. This way, you can keep the texture of the mushrooms intact and prevent them from turning brown. I highly recommend this technique. I learned it from this webpage more than a year ago. I should have tried it much earlier.

Oh, yes, interesting presentation, but it's SWEETENED, I suppose. I don't know why Japanese people like to sweeten eggs...

I made three different versions: Left: Western style (3 eggs and milk) with processed cheese in it, with pizza sauce I previously made Middle: Sweetened version (3 eggs and 2 tbsp kaeshi) with nori in it, with grated daikon and soy sauce Right: Unsweetened version (3 eggs, soy sauce, and dashi powder) with fake crabmeat in it, with ume chirimen (a type of furikake with pickled plum) I must say I wasn't impressed with any of them. I'm convinced that atsuyaki tamago should have nothing in it and should not be sweetened. My regular atsuyaki tamago recipe can be found here on RecipeGullet.