Hiroyuki

I have just confirmed that kirizai is a local dish of the Uonuma district in Niigata. (I should have done that earlier.) Kirizai is written as きりざい in katakana. (I thought it was written as 切り材.) You can view a photo of kirizai here (pdf file) http://www.naash.go.jp/kenko/kankou/pdf/ji...jiba-okazu3.pdf (Japanese only)

Here is a photo of the suribachi and pestle and the grinder. The suribachi is 10 cm in diameter and the pestle is 12.5 cm long. We also have an electric sesame seed grinder, which my wife was given as a gift. We once used it, but found it was so hard to clean that we have never used it again since then. The suribachi and pestle work the best!

I have a similar one, which I bought at the 100-yen shop. I used it a couple of times only. Now I use a set of very small suribachi and wooden pestle, which I bought at the 100-yen shop.

Great job, Kiem Hwa. Edamame are green soybeans. Soybeans are daizu 大豆 in Japanese. I like all sorts of soybean products. I can live on rice and soybean products for days and still be happy! Another Japanese ingredient that is usually considered healthy is umeboshi! http://home.iae.nl/users/lightnet/paramahamsa/umeboshi.htm It's sometimes tough for me to eat old-fashioned, salty and sour umeboshi (the kind that my mother still makes and sends to us), so I often turn them into a paste.

Almost every Japanese I know has a toaster oven but none of my foreign friends do, sometimes I think they only exist to make pizza toast (with corn ). ← OK, smallworld and torakris, I'll let you know how versatile toaster ovens are. I'll start a new thread in a day or two. I'm sure you will cry out, "I want one!, I want one!"

How to pronounce 幡ヶ谷?? Hatagaya. It's a place name, of course.

I don't have a recipe, but post #30 on the thread that petite tete de chou provided a link to might give you some ideas, as he mentioned . Just replace cod roe with mentaiko. I personally don't like butter in my code roe spaghetti. Some mentaiko spaghetti recipes call for butter and even fresh cream! Others call for kombu cha powder (kelp tea powder); I tried adding some powder several times, but the flavor of store-bought men tsuyu was so strong that I found this unnecessary.

I don't have a recipe for that. Typical ingredients include ham, onions, and green peppers. (You can add corn if your like. ) I make mine with canned tuna (I'm a fan of both fresh and canned tuna), onions, and mixed vegetables (corn, green beans, and carrot cubes). Fry all ingredients in oil until done. Boil spaghetti until soft (not al dente! ). Add the spaghetti and mix well. Then, finally, add as much ketchup as you want. (I tend to add a lot of it.) This results in a dish like this: http://www.eatsmart.jp/do/search/detail/Se...e/9002010000006 Enjoy!

I use a bamboo skewer for use in making yakitori, rather than a toothpick. It's bigger and easier to handle. Are 'tawashi' brushes available in your area? http://www.asahi-mullion.com/mullion/colum...30827index.html (top left photo) Two of the sites I found recommend using a tawashi. One of them says to wash a suribachi with neutral detergent and a tawashi. A suribachi is of course porous, so I rinse it immediately with water after washing it with detergent.

I have a question. What type of toaster oven do you use? I use a small-size, 830-W toaster oven (oven toaster in Japanese). The tray is about 24 cm x 14 cm in size. Believe it or not, I place the toaster oven on top of the refrigerator (because of the limited kichen space, of course) and I use it for a variety of purposes such as grilling fish.

I'm not an uni lover myself, but my father is. I remember I once bought him a bottle of uni (probably neriuni), but he said it wasn't very good. He added he liked yaki uni (grilled sea urchin). Here are links to some sites featuring yaki uni (sorry, all in Japanese only) http://gourpara.com/shop/yamauchi/yakiuni.html http://www.pref.iwate.jp/~hp6017_1/bussan/suisan/sui02.html http://www.rakuten.co.jp/unimatsu/417156/419117/ Have any of you ever tried yaki uni?

Today's lunch for me: Right: A slice of bread with potato salad on top, with a bit of mustard and a dab of Bulldog sauce. Left: A slice of bread toasted with pizza cheese, onion slices, corn, and a few drops of mayo on top. Don't think I'm mean. I just wanted to show you some good examples of corn uses in Japan. And of course, I like them both. The salad is a leftover from last night's supper. http://hiroyuki-shiozawa.at.webry.info/200501/article_4.html

A blog you provided a link to on the Japanese food blog thread had a better picture of asari no sakamushi, along with a recipe! http://kokonuggetyumyum.blogspot.com/2004/...-sakamushi.html A copy from that blog: Many recipes on the net seem to use minced ginger & garlic and soy sauce, but I personally like the simpler seasoning when using fresh Asari and good Sake. I agree with this comment. Asari, sake, and salt, period. No more ingredients needed!

I can respond to this part of your question only. The original meaning of kappou is simply cooking. Kappou is spelled 割烹 in Chinese characters, the first character of which means to cut and the second to simmer. But the word has come to mean 'real' Japanese cooking. One person defines kappou jokingly as the 'face-to-face selling of dishes' (at the counter), but that style of serving dishes is not unique to kappou restaurants. And there are itamae kappou (itamae = chef), taishuu kappou (taishuu = ordinary people), and kappou ryokan (ryokan = inn).

According to one site, good funazushi smells like cheese. According to another, funazushi smells like Camembert cheese. Hm... Sorry, I'm not much of an adventurous eater. This thread has finally entered the Kansai (Kinki) area. I hope that Kansai-based members contribute more to this thread from now on. *** Just wanted to add that Keiko-san speaks highly of your work here on her bulletin board http://www.kitada.com/keiko/cgi-bin/keiji.cgi (Read the last paragraph of post #174.)

Great photos! Homemade datemaki, using hanpen! That sounds nice. Store-bought datemaki is just too sweet for me. Your wife is quite a cook. My wife? I guess she would make osechi ryouri for me if I asked her to. The fact is, I ask her NOT to make any!

I googled to find that the friend's statement is true of some households especially those in the Kansai area. I also learned that maru-mochi are formal while kaku-mochi are semiformal. That sounds fine. According to one source, mochi pounding is practiced on events such as o-higan (equinoctial week), gods festivals, housewarming, and sekku (seasonal festivals). Sekku include Girls' Day and Boys' Day.

Sushi Douraku is the only kaiten zushi restaurant we have here in Shiozawa. When we go there, we don't sit at the counter but sit at one of the tables on the tatami (straw mat) floor and order sushi items one by one in advance. Sushi Douraku: http://www.citydo.com/prf/nigata/guide/sg/205000122.html http://www.iijnet.or.jp/shiozawa/insyokute...usidoursku.html Some people say that the vinegared rice here is quite good for a kaiten zushi restaurant. When you sit at the counter and watch the sushi on the plates go round and round, you are likely to eat more. According to this site http://www.ktv.co.jp/ARUARU/search/arukaiten/kaiten2.htm people eat an average of ten plates of sushi, but tests have shown that when the sushi plate do not go round and round, people eat an average of 4.5 plates. When moving, sushi look fresher and more delicious, stimulating your appetite.

On January 1 and 2, a total of four people, all elderly, died from choking on mochi in the Kanto area alone. I think you already know the risks of eating mochi, but just in case you don't, make sure you cut mochi into small pieces before serving them to the elderly and small children. Don't let a wonderful experience with mochi turn into a tragedy...

Clear broth with beef... I have a feeling that personal differences outweigh regional differences. I should have posted mine here. Here is a copy from another thread: My wife made zouni with hakusai (Chinese cabbage), daikon, chikuwa (type of fish paste), salmon, yaki dofu (grilled tofu), and soy sauce (not miso). I always grill mochi, but my wife prefer to boil hers. She says that people here boil mochi rather than grill them. Note that Niigata is in the salmon culture area. My wife usually puts salmon to zouni.

When I lived in Tokyo, I almost always ordered yakitori (skewed and grilled chicken) and nikujaga (meat and potato stew) at an izakaya. While yakitori was passable at any izakaya, nikujaga greatly differed from one izakaya to another. It's no exaggeration to say that I have never had nikujaga exactly to my liking at any izakaya.

Sorry, text later. We're going to have an asa buro (morning bath) first! Edit to add: Taking a morning bath on New Year's Day is something I have inherited from my father. I always want to hold our New Year dishes (osechi ryouri) to a minimum, and my wife buys some ready-made items at the supermarket. (As a native Japanese, I am already sick and tired of most osechi ryouri.) First photo: Top left: Fukumame (simmered and sweetened broad beans), Top right: Kuromame (simmered and sweetened black soy beans) Bottom left: Kamaboko, red and white, and datemaki (sweetened fish paste and egg roll) Bottom right: Salmon kobu maki (Salmon kelp roll) Second photo: My wife made zouni with hakusai (Chinese cabbage), daikon, chikuwa (type of fish paste), salmon, yaki dofu (grilled tofu), and soy sauce (not miso). I always grill mochi, but my wife prefer to boil hers. She says that people here boil mochi rather than grill them. Note that Niigata is in the salmon culture area. My wife usually puts salmon to zouni.

Yes, always. We don't want the soba soup to become oily. Now you know you don't have to be jealous of those living in snowy regions. Seriously, though, you will be amazed to see how frustrating and costly it is to live with snow.

I posted a photo of my toshikoshi soba here: http://hiroyuki-shiozawa.at.webry.info/200412/article_2.html Very simple toshikosi soba. The soba is a 300-g pack that I bought at the 100-yen shop! I made two types of tempura, kakiage with onion, carrot, and shrimp, and gyoniku (fishmeat) sausage tempura. How frugal we are!

I'd like No. 37, tuna pizza cheese, please! Seems like you had some snow in Yokohama!