Hiroyuki

On Nov. 3, my family went to Shiozawa Sangyo Matsuri (Industrial Fair), which is held every year on this day (Bunka no Hi or Culture Day) on the premises of Imaizumi Museum (Japanese only). My son and daughter participated in the wagashi making workshop, offered free of charge. Wagashi made my my son (shown at the bottom) My daughter's turn:

In this situation, we say (Douzo, douka) yoroshiku onegai shimasu (どうぞ、どうか）宜しくお願いします rather than Arigatoo gozaimasu. After your request is granted, you will say (Doumo) arigatou gozaimasu (or gozaimashita) (どうも）ありがとうございます（ございました）. ← Ah! We hadn't learned that yet. Thank you very much for the information. Or should I say, doumo arigatou gozaimashita? どうもありがとうございました ← Perfect!!

In this situation, we say (Douzo, douka) yoroshiku onegai shimasu (どうぞ、どうか）宜しくお願いします rather than Arigatoo gozaimasu. After your request is granted, you will say (Doumo) arigatou gozaimasu (or gozaimashita) (どうも）ありがとうございます（ございました）.

Glad to hear that. 日記 (nikki, にっき) means diary.

This one here. ← OK, thanks. 1. Deep-fried wanton mochi: Wrap diced mochi in wanton skins and deep-fry quickly. Eat with ketchup and so on. 8. Diced and deep-fried mochi: Make "arare" (sembei-like snack made from glutinous rice) by deep-frying diced mochi without coating until crispy, sprinkle some salt, ao nori, ichimi togarashi, and so on. The age mochi (deep-fried mochi) that my mother used to make when I was a teenager was kiri mochi simply deep-fried without coating. I used to eat it with soy sauce. *** I found an error in 3. above. Not "Izobe" but "Isobe". 3. Izobe (nori) mochi with butter

I'll let you know tomorrow... I've got some curry in the freezer and I'm planning to eat it for lunch! ← Sorry, I'll let you know today. Curry can be frozen, but you are recommended to remove potatoes before you do, because freezing will change the texture of potatoes considerably.

Which post of mine are you referring to?? Anyway, no coating. I wish I could eat it now, but it's too high in calorie, I think.

No!! It's a soup of vegetables and a small amount of meat. In my childhood, meat was kind of a luxury item. Basically, store-bought roux contains white sauce, stock, and MSG.

I was born in 1960, fifteen years after the end of World War II, when most Japanese were still poor. In those days, stew was nothing more than carrots, onions, potatoes, and a small amount of meat stewed, seasoned with salt, and finally thickened with flour. According to this page of House Foods Corp., this company released Stew Mix (powder form) in 1966, and since then, "white stew" and "cream stew", not found in Western cookery books, have become popular. P.S. I think the terms "white stew" and "cream stew" are used interchangeably. I think I use "white stew" more often.

Oh, was it? Which brand do you use? Japanese and Korean curries thread, which you started.

As I mentioned somewhere else, my father owns one of those machines. He wanted to get a second-hand kine and usu for a long time, but now he is quite satisfied with his machine. I think that a mochi-making machine will be a good investment if you are going to organize such an event regularly. Otherwise, mochiko sounds more practical.

Helen, Check out this site (Japanese only) to determine which brand to buy. Echigo Merlot 2002 of Echigo Winery won a silver medal in the European variety, red category.

Sorry, I don't know. Basically, funori functions as a glue, and I don't think that nori can have the same effect. Anyway, you can make soba without using funori. As I mentioned before, funori is a special ingredient used only in the Uonuma district in Niigata.

The commercial product, Yukari, contains red shiso, salt, sugar, seasonings (amino acids, etc.), and malic acid according to its label. I remember I made shiso furikake only one from the shiso leaves used to make umeboshi that my mother had sent me. They were already dried, so I just put them in an I-wrap bag and crush them by hand and added some salt. The resulting furikake was not as flavorful as the commercial one, but my son, who was three or four years old at that time, liked it.

Great photos! They are not gross at all. I have one question: What is the dipping sauce? I usually mix soy sauce and vinegar at a ratio of 1:1. I hate rayu (sp?) because it's too piquant for me, and never put it in my dipping sauce.

Shiso (red shiso) furikake, often called Yukari (product name), is usually a byproduct of umeboshi making. You just dry the shiso leaves used to color ume and then crush them fine with a mortar and pestle or in a food processor http://www.yamaguchi-farm.com/yukari/01.html (Sorry, Japanese only) I found a webpage that describes how to make Yukari from fresh shiso leaves, but it requires ume zu (plum vinegar). http://www.kanazawa-city.ed.jp/nagasakadai...siso_ryouri.htm (Sorry, Japanese only again) You wash shiso leaves, soak them in salt water, rub them with salt, and soak them in umezu. Then, dry them in the sun and crush them fine. I wonder if you can get ume zu...

All the sashimi purists: If you have leftover sashimi, turn it into zuke!

Honey mushrooms I ask the same question here: Do you ever eat honey mushrooms?

Yes! Click this and look at the first photo. You can see a bag of amandare あまんだれ. ← I notice in that picture they are 水煮 (packed in water), are they usually sold that way? ← Yes, and they are mostly imports from China. Fresh ones are sold only when they are in season.

Yes! Click this and look at the first photo. You can see a bag of amandare あまんだれ.

Sorry, now I know naratake are called honey mushrooms in English. On October 8, my son and I went to Mt. Makihata (one of the Hyaku Mei Zan (One Hundred Famous Mountains) in Japan) for mushroom gathering and found naratake. As usual, I made kinoko jiru (mushroom soup), using some of the honey mushrooms, daikon, carrot, satoimo, and gobo. I put the rest of the mushrooms in I-Wrap bags to freeze them. The next day, we went to a small festival in Yuzawa, where a kinoko kantei kai (mushroom identification session?) was held. We've been to this kantei kai for three years in a row, and we have learned a great deal about mushrooms. ONE QUESTION: DO YOU EVER EAT HONEY MUSHROOMS??

As a native Japanese, I find it so hard to go beyond the combination of sashimi, soy sauce, and wasabi. I thank torakris for starting this thread anyway, because it has made me realize that you can be creative and imaginative as to what is foreign to you. That is exactly why the Japanese people are so creative and imaginative as to pizza toppings. I've been reminded of what Pumpkin Lover wrote about my question: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=796957

I'd like you to give them a try and report back!

The primary use of funori in the Uonuma district was warp sizing. This snowy region, especially Shiozawa and Tookamachi, is very famous for its fabrics. Website describing Shiozawa fabric: http://www.kougei.or.jp/english/crafts/0109/d0109-5.html But, little is known about when they started to use funori as a binder in soba making. Like I said before, I am now a huge fan of hegi-soba.

Yes, it is. Hegi-soba! I can't find the right words to describe the texture of hegi-soba... It's sleek and smooth, and is probably little chewier than regular soba. And it won't go floury. The hegi-soba served at Tabata ya (a local soba ya we often go to) is greenish and glossy (probably because of more funori), and has good nodo-goshi!