Hiroyuki

Top, from left to right (excluding the bottles): Yakitori (grilled chicken) that I made with the special recipe that sizzleteeth made especially for me: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=61196 daikon, carrot, and canned tuna salad, eaten with either ponzu or ao-jizo dressing leftover udon soup with ham added (silly combination) Bottom, from left to right: Special dipping sauce for the yakitori, tofu and wakame miso soup, Koshiibuki rice, shochu (distilled spirit) with mugicha (barley tea) For a description of the special seasoning, Kanzuri, used to make the yakitori, see posts #46 to #57 in http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...30entry833701

I am not familiar with what you call the wedding hashi. Is it really a thing Japanese? I googled with wedding-chopsticks, and I found some Chinese wedding chopsticks.

Thank you, makimaki! I've been waiting for someone like you! You are absolutely right. Yuba is a Kyoto specialty; I had the first taste of it during a trip to Kyoto in my 20s. Looking forward to your post here.

Thanks for a full description of your (my?) recipe. And a good representation of the dish. I printed the whole thread and read the recipe throughly. Now I'm contemplating... Whether to use a breast or thighs... You stated not just "strawberry jam" but "good quality strawberry jam"... OK, I'll try your recipe tomorrow at the earliest and in one week at the latest, following your recipe as precisely as I can, and post my findings here, hopefully with some photos. (I have already used up 95% of my memory space .) Thanks again for your great recipe.

In Japan, you can eat sushi either way. There are no strict rules to follow anyway. At the counter, we, especially males, tend to eat sushi by hand, for fear of being looked down on by the sushi chef as not being a tsuu (connoisseur). Besides, flipping a piece of sushi upside down, dipping the neta (topping) in the soy sauce, and putting it in your mouth can only be accomplished by hand. Females, on the other hand, tend to hesitate to eat sushi by hand, even at the counter. Note that in the Edo period, when sushi was just fast food sold at a stall, eating it by hand was the norm. People would eat a few pieces, and wipe their fingers on the noren (kind of curtain) as they left. They could tell how popular a stall was by looking at the noren!

We take off our shoes at the entrance, and that's the only reason why I can eat the beans scattered on the floor. Yesterday evening, we celebrated setsubun this way: I put on the oni mask, and tried to attack my children, and they threw some beans at me and beat me! Then, I opened a window and the entrance door, and we all threw some beans from the inside to the outside, saying "Oni wa soto!" (evils out). Then, we moved to the entrance and threw some from there to the inside, saying "Fuku wa uchi!" (fortunes in). Then, we ate some beans, as well as the ones on the floor. It's customary to eat as many beans as your age, but we just can't stop eating more. I think that the way of throwing beans differs from family to family. Links to setsubun-related webpages: http://www.yoke.city.yokohama.jp/echo/0501/c.html http://www.tctv.ne.jp/members/sawanoya/setubun.html

This has to be the coolest thing I have learned on eGullet. Never again will I rub my waribashi together! A. ← Please don't get me wrong. It's just in the eye of the beholder after all. Feel free to do that if you feel you have to (even in Japan). There are a number of webpages describing Harrison Ford doing the waribashi rubbing in the movie Blade Runner. Some say it's funny, but one person says it's shibui (cool). It's really in the eye of the beholder.

Is it considered rude? Like your telling the owner of the eatery you were given cheap chopsticks? The rubbing is smooth out ragged edges. ← In my opinion, that's not rude to the chef or companion(s), but I still think it's in poor taste. I googled to find what other Japanese think about rubbing waribashi together. I found two webpages that doing so is rude because this means that you are given inferior waribashi. They recommend that if you find any splinters, you remove them by hand inconspicuoulsy. I found several others that say that it's a bad practice. I found none that recommend rubbing waribashi together.

A bit of curry nanban (or namban?) Curry nanban was first developed by a soba restaurant called San-chou-an in 1905. (Katsu don was also first developed by this restaurant.) http://waseda-links.com/moguwase/shop/santyou.html The initial curry nanban was a combination of soba and curry sauce containing negi (leek), but the term 'curry nanban' is now quite ambiguous. Some use 'curry nanban' to mean a combination of udon and curry sauce. And, you can hear such phrases as 'curry nanban soba' and 'curry nanban udon'. *** We am not very creative about the uses of leftover curry. We just eat it as it is until it's gone.

I think that the waribashi that comes with a konbini (convenience store) bento is too short for anyone. Other waribashi are long enough (a little shorter than regular chopsticks) and I can handle them with ease. As for the rubbing waribashi together. Some Japanese used to do that, and I think some still do. I sometimes did that, but not any longer. I don't think it's such a good practice. I googled and confirmed that it is one of the don'ts (in Japan): http://www.astro-bio.com/id/manner/manner0103.html (Japanese only)

Many bowls, at least here in the west, have been designed to accomidate this with holes or grooves to hold your chopsticks. Does anyone use hashi rests on a regular basis? I have several porcelain sets in the shapes of fish and birds that I usually reserve for formal dinners. I don't use them outside of formal dinners because, honestly, I can't be bothered. ← We have those too, Korean celadon. We don't use them because our toddler would hurl them across the room. ← Same here. We have some, but never use them regularly.

Thank you for the link. I didn't know much about knives, either. My wife and I use only one knife, bannou bouchou, also known as santoku bouchou. We have more, such as a sashimi bouchou, but stored them in a box for safety reasons when my son (now 8) started to crawl. We don't need them anyway. We can get by with that single knife only, as long as it cuts well. (I am the one who keeps it sharp. My wife never does no matter how many times I tell her to. . Is this a man's job?) *** I think the most striking difference between the Japanese and European (and American?) people is the use of the cutting board. We almost always use the cutting board when cutting whereas European people often use a petty knife to cut vegetables and the like just above the pot. Are you like us or them?

That's true. To be precise, the ones that generate metalic sound (kan kan in Japanese; clank in English?) are the good ones. But, I've never bought katsuo-bushi myself. I think most katsuo-bushi are vacuum-packed, so I wonder if you can use that method...

In Japan, we usually use sai bashi for cooking purposes, like these: http://img2.store.yahoo.co.jp/I/lamd_1831_9918770 They are made of wood or bamboo. For eating, all my family use wooden chopsticks coated with epoxy resin.

I like wasabi-flavored nozawana, but I can't buy it these days because my children can't eat it.

Yeah, I know. It is basically an Osaka thing, and I don't follow that custom.

Well they are usually eating Japanese style spaghetti, which usually doesn't have a heavy tomato sauce. I actually prefer to eat certain Japan spaghetti dishes with chopsticks as well..... ← torakris is quite right, but I can eat any type of spaghetti with chopsticks, and any other type of food for that matter. Suppose that you have spaghetti and other dishes (Japanese dishes) on the table, do you want to switch between a fork and chopsticks? I certainly don't. I'm a typical Japanese in that regard. My parents, who are now in their 70s, do not know how to use a knife and fork properly. No wonder, because they have never been trained. I had to teach myself how to do it in my 20s. You don't want to make silly mistakes in front of your girlfriend at a restaurant, do you? The Japanese would be helpless if deprived of chopsticks. We just couldn't do anything related to food - mixing, making tempura, stir-frying, decorating, and what have you.

Oh, thanks. I appreciate it. But, top 5? I can name only two or three . Strawberry, blueberry, and uh, ... how about kaki (persimmon) and grape jams/jellies/perseves? I'm looking forward to your recipe.

In the 1960s, when I was small, we had a shaver at home, but my mother was not a very good shaver. This was not a problem, because she always used niboshi (dried sardines) in miso soup. (Later, she started to use instant dashi powder.) Shaving is still practiced by fancy Japanese-style restaurants (ryoutei), but I think that there are hardly any Japanese who shave dried bonito at home except for a very few enthusiasts. Most people, including me, are satisfied with the freshness of pre-shaved dried bonito packed with nitrogen. I always buy 3- or 5-g packs, and usually use it up once I open it, so I have no problem with its freshness. (If I can't, I just seal it with a clip and put it in the fridge.) For those of you who have no idea what we are talking about, here are some links: http://www.rakuten.co.jp/chokuhan/394218/395007/ http://www.ninben.co.jp/cooking/kezuriki/kezuriki.htm (Both in Japanese only)

It is considered rude. I don't know the reason why. I can't help it though, I'd drop too much food all over the place. ← And it's considered rude not to do that in Japan.

Thanks for your description of kanzuri. OK, I'll give it a try and report back. Besides, I can't find yuzu koshou yet... ← I bought a bottle of kanzuri for 491 yen today, came home, and tasted it. I wasn't thrilled by the flavor. I had curry nanban (leftover from last night's supper) with a dab of kanzuri for lunch. I still wasn't thrilled. I think I have to find better uses for it. Thank you anyway, torakris and sizzleteeth. I would never have thought of buying it without you guys.

Kujira jiru. I have refrained from posting this one so far--because the main ingredient is whale fat. I don't know why, but people of Niigata love to have kujira jiru (whale soup) in the summer. The main ingredient is whale fat, which is now quite expensive, around 700 yen per 100 grams. http://www.iscb.net/mikio/200107/0724.htm Japanese only. Just look at the photo. http://www.ohbsntv.com/we-i/directory/2002/cook020817.html Japanese only. Kujira jiru recipe. http://www.hgc.co.jp/pitem/39377446 Japanese only. Whale fat with skin. Scroll down until you see enlarged photos. I myself have never made kujira jiru, but have had it several times. I find it very oily and not so delicious .

I made curry nanban. Ingredients: 1/2 pack mixed mushrooms (398 yen) 1/2 onion 1/8 hakusai (Chinese cabbage) 1/4 carrot 200 g chicken breast Store-bought men tsuyu (noodle soup), concentrate type 3 cubes karakuchi (hot) curry roux 1 pack (300 g) soba (100 yen), which I bought at the 100-yen shop. We had curry nanban together with some leftovers (simmered kuruma fu and atsuage, and macaroni salad with corn in it (not shown)). We all loved the curry nanban! *** Some comments: 1. I had to add mushrooms to impress my son. (My primary concern is to impress my children and make them want to eat.) 2. This particular soba, which I regularly buy at the 100-yen shop, is a favoriate of ours. It's an 'inaka' soba, not 'sarashina', which is whitish.

Sorry, I am no wine enthusiast. I have a feeling you will get more response in the Wine Forum. Just some recommendations: Red: Chateau Mercian Nagano Merlot Quaffable and smooth 3,150 yen White: Chateau Mercian Niitsuru Chardonnay Mineral flavor and distinctive 2,625 yen from here: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/ballet/last-night/others/j-wine.htm (Japanese only)

Sorry, there has been no reply from them. When will we hear your instructor's comments?