Hiroyuki

Interesting! Here's a wellknown proberb regarding akinasu: Akinasu wa yome ni kuwasuna 秋茄子は嫁に食わすな Don't let your daughter-in-law eat akinasu. There are at least three possible interpretations of this proverb: 1. Akinasu are so tasty that you just can't let her eat them. 2. Akinasu are seedless; don't let her eat them, or she may become infertile. 3. Akinasu cool a human's body; eating them is bad for her health. I think that interpretation 1 is correct while 2 and 3 are just pretexts for not wanting your daughter-in-law eat them.

How about imokenpi then? http://www.kochikc.co.jp/ohashidori/tuhan/kenpi/ http://chie.wschool.net/chie15/showart.php...529a7a80c0a211f You can make daigakuimo youself. http://japanesefood.about.com/od/sweetpota.../daigakuimo.htm Making daigakuimo seems easy, but coating the potato chunks with syrup is rather difficult. You may need to make some experiments to do it right.

Just out of curiosity, what will/do you use a tetsubin for, fiftydollars and andiesenji??

Yeah, I know. What we do with English (see this thread) they do with Kanji. Visit this blog, which is really funny.

The character means sheep in Japanese, as you say. I looked it up in my Kanji dictionary. It says that the Chinese pronunciation of it is yang. I can't tell whether the character has a different meaning in Chinese. Maybe you should start a new thread in the China Forum.

I think you are right. Jaana is a colloquial expression used by males. Compare: じゃあな　jaa-na (used by males) じゃあね　jaa-ne (used by both males and females) (じゃあ means then.) You can also say: またな　mata-na (used by males) またね mata-ne (used by both males and females) (また means again.) As for "sayonara", I think it is just like "good-bye", but as you point out, it can have such a connotation when spoken bluntly or strongly.

Wo is pronounced as "o"??? Thank you so much for telling me!!! Otherwise, i'll be running around saying Uni WO kudasai... ← One webpage explaining this: http://homepage3.nifty.com/idehara/en/jtm/jtm01.htm You will get more by googling with "actually, pronounced, o".

Is it understood that を (wo) is actually pronounced "o"?

Yes! I found this recipe (Japanese only). Just drain and freeze. Koya dofu is also called shimi dofu, especially in places like Shinshu (aka Nagano), where my father was born.

My family went to the Expo on September 17, one of the most crowded days for the event. While we enjoyed all the pavilions we visited, the foods that we had on the site such as banana soft ice cream, curry rice, and hot coffee were just so so. We didn't go to Wanpaku Treasure Island simply because my son was not interested.

Some info that I found on the Internet: The first one is Mansaku no Hana, a daiginjo aged for two years or more, according to the brewery's website http://www.hinomaru-sake.com/ (Japanese only) The second one is Oku no Matsu. The website of the brewery in English: http://www.okunomatsu.co.jp/english/index.html The last one is Dassai, a sparkling(!) nigori zake http://asahishuzo.ne.jp/english/index.html Watch out when you open the bottle. Sorry, I'm not a big fan of Japanese sake. Do you need any more infomation?

I made kuri okowa (glutinous rice cooked with chestnuts) for yesterday's dinner. The ingredients are 4 gou (1 gou = 180 ml) glutinous rice, 18 large chestnuts, 2 tablespoons sake, and 1 teaspoon salt. So simple, yet so delicious!

Sorry for a belated reply. I just mentioned the state of the art in the world of kaitenzushi because I thought that that's what you wanted to know, and I think you are quite right. Most kaitenzushi restaraunts in Japan still keep track of each plate visually, I think. According to here (Japanese only), the number of plates disposed of was 100 before the system was installed and increased to 800 after the installation. Thus, Kura developed another system called a "manufacturing management system": When customers go into the restaurant, the cashier enters the number of them-how many adults and how many children. Based on that information, the difference between the number of plates that the customers will eat within 15 minutes from now on and the number of plates currently on the conveyor belt is determined. If additional plates need to be prepared, a blue signal will be displayed to the cooks; if not, a red signal will be displayed.

In a word, a sushi ya is men's salon, as described in this article: I'll post the rest of my comments later.

Juugoya falls on September 18 this year. As I stated here, I usually don't celebrate Juugoya. How about you?

From http://mytown.asahi.com/hokkaido/news02.asp?c=37&kiji=189 At Kado ya, which specializes in serving grilled whelks, they quickly boil the whelks, pull out the flesh a little, and remove the salivary glands before grilling. Here is a better photo of the salivary glands: http://www.iph.pref.hokkaido.jp/Tokushu/To...oku/kaidoku.htm Scroll down to the bottom, and you will see the photo. This webpage says that the pair of glands is pale yellow to milk-white in color, and can easily be removed by hand.

Yankee mama finally made a reply on Nontan's Bulletin Board. Here is a rough translation of her reply: Miso soup doesn't taste good without dashi. Foods from seas are good. I wonder if kelp is available. I think it's good if you have dried fish. I wonder if instant dashi is sold. It's the easiest to use. You have only to put tofu and wakame in it. You don't need tofu if it isn't available. Button mushrooms may be good. Mushrooms are good. Putting too much vegetable will make the miso soup taste bad. If you put in pork and leek to make 'buta jiru', you won't need dashi. Putting shellfish is also good. You can get dashi from shellfish, and that's just fine. Isn't MSG sold? It may be good to sprinkle some. It will be a substitute for kelp. Is the hatcho miso the real thing? There are those with regular miso mixed in for beginners. It will make more drinkable miso soup. You may not appreciate the tastiness of pure hatcho miso unless you get used to eating it.

Sorry, I don't know much about tsubugai, but Japanese-language sources warn that the salivary glands of tsubugai contain a toxin called tetramine and must be removed before cooking. http://www.pref.osaka.jp/shokuhin/baigai/baigai.html Scroll down; the red circles indicate where the salivary glands are located. Another webpage: http://www.city.sapporo.jp/hokenjo/f2syokuhin/f111tubu.html Again, the red circles indicate where they are located. Can anyone find English-language sources?

I did make my yakisoba on September 10. It had turned out that we could not go to Aichi World Fair on that day. I made two types of yakisoba, Chuuka-fuu (Chinese-style) yakisoba and yakisoba with the powder sauce that came with the yakisoba noodles. The ingredients were quite similar to those that I mentioned here. After I stirred the yakisoba noodles, I divided them into halves. I added the powder sauce that came with the yakisoba noodles to the first half. Then I made a special sauce by following this recipe: http://www.h5.dion.ne.jp/~china/newpage33.htm 2 tbsp chuunou sauce 1 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp oyster sauce The recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon MSG, but I didn't add it. I added the sauce to the other half. Results: Right: Chuuka-fuu yakisoba Left: Yakisoba with the powder sauce that came with the yakisoba noodles I found the Chuuka-fuu yakisoba more flavorful. It's worth giving it a try.

Thanks to MomOfLittleFoodies and robyn for their replies. Zip top bags... I think I know what they are. Are'nt they a little too thick to ensure thorough mixing of the contents? As for the typhoon, yes, Typhoon 14 was really a big one, comparable to Katrina in scale, killing at least 23 people.

I think that those of you who live in Japan are familiar with I-Wrap. It's a plastic bag for cooking purposes. I am a regular user of I-Wrap. When I make chicken karaage, I put equal amounts of flour and katakuriko (potato starch) in an I-Wrap bag, add chicken chunks, close the bag with one hand, and shake the bag with the other to ensure thorough coating. I use an I-Wrap bag when making light cucumber pickles too. Do you use I-Wrap on a regular basis? Do you have products similar to I-Wrap in your country/area?

I know what you mean. According to this webpage (sorry, Japanese only), tonkatsu (one serving) contains 12 g of oil, French fries (M size) 20 g, and tempura (one serving) 15 g. When I buy tonkatsu at a supermarket, I usually wrap it in a sheet of paper towel and put in the toaster oven to reheat it. You will be amazed at the amount of oil coming out of it.

As I stated here, arare is made from mochi gome (glutinous rice) while sembei is made from uruchi mai (regular Japonica rice).

The September 4th edition of Tamemono Shin Seiki http://www.nhk.or.jp/t-shinseiki/index.html featured Ishizaka Maitake http://www.nhk.or.jp/t-shinseiki/syoku.html (Both sites are in Japanese only.) (The edition was actually a rerun of the May 29th edition.) It's much denser, thicker, and firmer than Yukiguni Maitake. The only problem is that it's also more expensive; a 100-g pack sells for 198 yen.

torakris's daughter is quite right. It looks delicious! One question: How did you cook the salmon?