Hiroyuki

Yakishio = Baked salt According to the manufacturer's website http://www.uminosei.com/syouhin/syouhin_sio.html the salt is baked fully at a high temperature of 600 C or greater for a long time, while keeping the minerals intact. It's made from 100% seawater. Uses: Grilled salt, steak, stir-fries, salad, sunny side-up, tempura (as "dipping(?) salt) I'll work on the soy sauces later.

I received a reply from the shop, which described the difference between 北海道産ライ麦全粒粉 and ライ麦粉　荒挽き, as follows: The former is whole grain rye ground while the latter is rye milled and ground.

Final (but still incomplete) reply. I incorporated my previous replies and gfron1's last reply into this one. 1. Wa No Mishio (dark blue label) Baked salt produced in Tsushima, Nagasaki prefecture. Salt suitable for Japanese dishes. Goes well with tempura, rice balls, white-fleshed fish sashimi, sushi, and tofu. 長崎県・対馬産焼塩。【和の御塩】は長崎県壱岐対馬国定公園の海水を使用して、和食に合うお塩として造りました。てんぷら、おにぎり、焼き鳥、白身魚のお刺身、お寿司、そしてお豆腐にもよく合います。そのまま振りかけてお召し上がり下さい。 from http://syokuko.excite.co.jp/presentation/s...jiVaaVBASDc/794 2. Churaumi No Nigari (bottle) Nigari (bittern) For information on nigari, visit http://www.kameyamado.com/english/how_to_use_nigari.html 3. Kaiken (big white bag in back) Using only seawater from Okinawa as a raw material, it's made by reducing salt content by about 40% with a unique manufacturing method. It's a new type of salt suitable for contemporary people, who care about their health. (Sorry for the poor translation.) 沖縄の海水だけを原料に、独自の製法で塩分を約４０％カットして造りました。健康を気にする現代人にぴったりの新しいタイプお塩です。 from http://www.itoyokado.jp/food/20106/30064/4...e/4905135000641 4. Aguni No Shio Kamadaki (bag with orange glow and waves) Aguni Island is located in Okinawa. Roughly, kamadaki means "fresh from the pot", suggesting that the salt is dry(?). Rice balls and pickles It of course brings out the flavor of grilled fish, tempura, and other ingredients, but it is recommended for use in simple dishes だから、おにぎりやお漬物で・・・。 焼き魚、てんぷらなどなど素材の味を引き出してくれることはもちろんですが、オススメは素朴な料理です。 「おにぎり」や「お漬物」では、素材が少ない分、塩のうま味は最大限に出ます。 from http://shop.ryukyuichiba.co.jp/ryukyu/7.1/959/ 5. Churaumi no Shio (Salt and Pepper)? not labeled in my literature (I don't think it's the type that contains salt and pepper.) Type: Dry Taste: Sweet-flavored (high calcium content, so that saltiness is Particle: Medium Country of origin: Japan (blend of overseas salt and Okinawa seawater) ●タイプ：　ドライ　　　　 ●味：　　　甘味塩　　　 ●粒子：　　中　　　 ●原産国：日本（原料は海外産と沖縄海水のブレンド） from http://www.rakuten.co.jp/cook/104129/232071/ 6. Japan Salt (doesn't say anything beyond this) (hiding behind brown bag) Strangely, the manufacturer's website does not show this particular product. Just regular table salt, maybe. 7. Wa no Moshio (brown bag) It contains two seaweeds, arame (Ecklonia bicyclis) and hondawara (Sargassum fulvellum). Tempura, rice balls, yakitori, white-fleshed fish sashimi, sushi, and tofu. てんぷら、おにぎり、焼き鳥、白身魚のお刺身、お寿司、そしてお豆腐に。 from http://www.fkco.jp/shop/9_48.html 8. Ohotsuku No Shizenen Yakishio (tan label) Shizenen means natural salt. Yakishio means baked salt. Salt fresh from the pot Can be used in any dishes. 釜揚げ塩 どんなお料理にも使えます from http://www.tsurara.co.jp/ 9. Aoiumi Yakishio (bottle) "Okinawan seawater salt, Aoiumi" is baked into dry, easy-to-use table salt. 「沖縄の海水塩青い海」を焼き サラサラとした使いやすい卓上塩に仕上げました。 from http://www.aoiumi.co.jp/index.php?page_id=38 10. Churaumi No Shio Strangely, the manufacturer's website does not show this product, either. http://www.japan-salt.com/salt/products.php

I don't have any tricks, but I would suggest that you can always buy a toaster oven for 2,000 to 3,000 yen. And, how about a grid (yaki ami 焼き網), which you can always buy for 100 yen at your nearest 100-yen shop? Pan-frying fish is also a good idea. Place "cooking sheet" (proper English?) on a pan, and then place fish fillets on the sheet. Cover the pan with a lid.

The former, hatsuga genmai, is germinated brown rice, while the latter, hatsuga genmai arare, is roasted germinated brown rice. From the website: ３割り程度混ぜていただいて炊いてみてください。甘味があっておいしいですよ。 Mix 30% (hatsuga genmai) (with regular rice) and cook. It's sweet and tasty. 玄米茶のようにお手持ちのお茶に加えていただいてもいいですし、お茶漬けなどに入れられてもいいです。チョコレートをからめても美味しいですよ。 You can add (hatsuga genmai arare) to your green tea to make something like genmai cha, and you can also put it to ochazuke. It's also good when dressed with chocolate.

Warning: Different people will give you different answers. The following is my personal opinion. I sometimes buy the type of salmon you described. I simply "grill" it in my toaster oven. A fish grill is OK (I have one), and I think 99% of the Japanese use a fish grill to grill fish, but as for me, grilling fish in a fish grill is rather cumbersome, prone to mistakes (over-grilling, scorching, etc.), and it's really tough keeping the fish grill clean. There is a thread on toaster ovens somewhere in the Japan Forum, started by me. No soaking required. It may be only me, but I find heavily salted salmon hard to find these days. Forty years ago, when I was small, salted salmon was really salty, like other food items such as umeboshi, tsukudani, and pickles. I couldn't possibly eat it now. The last time I happened to buy salty salmon inadvertently, I had to soak it in hot water for tens of minutes after grilling. Grilling is probably the best way to bring out the flavor of the fish, especially, salt-grilling (shio-yaki in Japanense). I like salt-grilled kanpachi collars very much, as I mentioned here in my blog. Grated daikon is a good tsuma (accompaniment), so are lemon slices and hajikami (pickled ginger shoots). Images of hajikami If you decide to use a fish grill, grilling for 6 to 10 minutes should be enough for most fish, but if your fish grill has a heat source at the top only, you need to flip the fish once in the course of grilling. If yours have a heat source at the top and bottom, flipping is not necessary. If you buy a whole fish, you need to wash it throughly only once after you scale and gut it. Otherwise, don't. When we salt fish, it's usually when we salt-grill it. For what we call "ao zakana" (blue fish) such as sanma, saba, and aji, salt them and let them stand for some time (tens of minutes to several hours, depending on the fish) to remove odor. Don't rinse but wipe the salt and water off with paper towels. You can then grill the fish, or you may want to sprinkle additional salt before grilling. For shiromi zakana (white-fleshed fish), salt them immediately before grilling. Maybe white-fleshed fish like cod, but why do you need to rub umeboshi paste on it? You don't want to use umeboshi paste simply as a kind of condiment? Salt-grilling is probably the easiest way to cook fish, but I hope you try other dishes like nizakana (simmered fish), teriyaki, and tempura. ETA: Teriyaki should be easier than shio-yaki. Try teriyaki with buri and similar fish, like I did with kanpachi.

The package says black pepper...

The second one from the left: Nigari (bittern), as Kristin has already mentioned. Third: Unindentifiable from the photo. Fourth: Aguni no Shio. Aguni Island is located in Okinawa. Rice balls and pickles It of course brings out the flavor of grilled fish, tempura, and other ingredients, but it is recommended for use in simple dishes だから、おにぎりやお漬物で・・・。 焼き魚、てんぷらなどなど素材の味を引き出してくれることはもちろんですが、オススメは素朴な料理です。 「おにぎり」や「お漬物」では、素材が少ない分、塩のうま味は最大限に出ます。 from http://shop.ryukyuichiba.co.jp/ryukyu/7.1/959/ Fifth: Churaumi no Shio Type: Dry Taste: Sweet-flavored (high calcium content, so that saltiness is Particle: Medium Country of origin: Japan (blend of overseas salt and Okinawa seawater) ●タイプ：　ドライ　　　　 ●味：　　　甘味塩　　　 ●粒子：　　中　　　 ●原産国：日本（原料は海外産と沖縄海水のブレンド） from http://www.rakuten.co.jp/cook/104129/232071/ Sixth: Unindentifiable from the photo. Seventh: Wa no Mo Shio It contains two seaweeds, arame (Ecklonia bicyclis) and hondawara (Sargassum fulvellum). Tempura, rice balls, yakitori, white-fleshed fish sashimi, sushi, and tofu. てんぷら、おにぎり、焼き鳥、白身魚のお刺身、お寿司、そしてお豆腐に。 from http://www.fkco.jp/shop/9_48.html Eighth: Okhotsk no Shizen En I'm not sure but it looks: Salt fresh from the pot Can be used in any dishes. 釜揚げ塩 どんなお料理にも使えます from http://www.tsurara.co.jp/ Ninth (first one from the right): Unindentifiable from the photo. The one lying flat at the center: Same as the eighth one, right? The one at the lower right: Unindentifiable from the photo.

I'm not familiar with any of the salts you showed. The leftmost one: Wa no O shio (Japanese Salt) Roast salt produced in Tsushima, Nagasaki prefecture. Salt suitable for Japanese dishes. Goes well with tempura, rice balls, white-fleshed fish sashimi, sushi, and tofu. from here. I'll get to other ones later, when I have more time.

Uh, oh -- does your aunt know? Not that I want to revisit unpleasant memories, but what was it like? Anything at all like a raw egg cured in salt? ← Well, actually, I refused to drink it...

Saw dust keeps the gills of these creatures moist, so that they can continue gill respiration. It also makes them lay still. Any other materials should be OK if it serves the same purpose, but saw dust is a material of choice because it is readily available, inexpensive, light in weight (consider the transportation cost!), and can be easily disposed of after it reaches the destination.

Some of those images are amazing to me, the eggs look translucent. Are they cooked first? Will regular 5% acetic acid vinegar dissolve the shell in just a few days? Why have I been peeling my eggs before pickling? ← No, raw eggs. The eggs look translucent because the membrane remain intact. After the shells are dissolved fully, mix the vinegar and the eggs well. I'm not sure of the the proper percentage, but I'm sure that any type of vinegar can be used to make su tamago. An aunt of mine used to make su tamago. Me? I hate it!

As for lobsters, prawns, and crabs, the Japanese way is to put them in a box of saw dust. This keeps them alive for 2-3 days. Images of prawns, crabs, and others stored in saw dust

In Japan, drinking vinegar has been popular at least for decades. Su tamago, which is made by simply putting eggs in vinegar (so that egg shells are dissolved in vinegar in days), is also popular. Images of su tamago

One possible approach is to make tofu either from scratch or from soy milk together with your niece.

The most important thing about purchasing rice is to look for the milling date. Once milled, rice will deterioriote quickly. If you are not a regular user of rice, you should buy just an enough amount of rice.

There are some people who recommend using less water for shin mai because it contains more moisture, and then there are others who say that with modern technology, the moisture of rice is accurately controlled whether it be shin mai or ko mai. I tend to believe the latter. I did some googling, and here are some of my findings: According to one source, it was common in the past to cook shin mai with less water because it contained more moisture, but today, rice is adjusted to a moisture content of 15.5% and stored in such a way to keep that mositure content. Another source says that shin mai is cooked soft because its structure is still immature and soft.

In Japan, such stickers are used in the fall, when rice harvest begins, to differentiate shin mai from ko mai. Shin mai (lit. new rice) means the current year's crop, while ko mai (lit. old rice) means the previous year's crop. In general, as for Japanese varieties of rice, the newer the better. Ko mai is less sticky than shin mai, and is suitable for certain dishes like chahan (stir-fried rice). At many sushi shops in Japan, they blend ko mai with shin mai at a certain ratio to achieve the desired stickiness. You can see a new rice sticker in the second and third photo of this entry in my blog.

Tuna auctions at the Tsukiji Fish Market are now open to visitors. For more information, click here.

Denbu tastes sweet! That's why I hate it! You can often find denbu in chirashi zushi. How is it made? First boil the fish flesh, smash it in a pot, and season with sake, salt, salt, etc.

Yes, they are. Unfortunately, there are only nine episodes in total, so I don't think the episodes can be used as a useful guide. I browsed through almost all the nine episodes, and I found another connection mentioned in the drama: Ueda, Shinshu (aka Nagano) - matsutake mushrooms. Note, however, that the largest producer of matsutake is Hiroshima, and Nagano is the second largest and that Tanba, Kyoto is famous for producing Japan's best matsutake. Note also that the last connection you mentioned is not accurate. It should be China Town in Yokohama - lobster. My city is Minami Uonuma, Niigata prefecture. The Shiozawa area of the city is very famous throughout Japan for producing Japan's best Koshihikari rice. You can see some photos of it here in my blog. The flavor of rice is best appreciated when it is eaten as shio musubi (rice balls with some salt on the surface) or with only a small amount of some kind of "gohan no tomo" (rice's companion) such as pickles. Sorry, I was unable to find detailed information on that episode, dated June 25, 2007.

Thanks Hiroyuki. that was exactly what I was asking about. So basically, melt some chicken skin over low heat to extract the juices, discard. Stirfry mince chicken in the oil. Add mirin and soy. Plate over rice 1/2 and 1/2 with scrambled egg? Sounds really simple. Are there any specialty places for this in Japan? ← I watched the whole episode and realized that you were referring to that multi-tiered box (juubako in Japanese) that the lady brought with her later in the episode. The pink food is called denbu (floss made from white-fleshed fish) and the green food is probably boiled spinach. The lady said that using chicken skin oil would make the soboro tastier. If you don't have any chicken skin available, simply pan-fry minced chicken. I don't think there are any places famous for that particular dish.

Sorry, I have a cold and I'll respond to one question for now. That bento is a tori soboro bento. Here are images of tori soboro (minced chicken seasoned with soy sauce, sugar (mirin), and sake and Japanese scrambled eggs). Edited to add a link to my humble soboro.

Do miso soups count? How about sumashi jiru (clear soups)? And, ara jiru (soups with fish trimmings)? HereHere is a thread on miso soups in the Japan Forum. I usually have some kind of soup at least twice a day (for breakfast and supper), because with a Japanese rice-centered meal ("ichi-ju san-sai" or "one soup plus three side dishes"), soup is not optional but required, and is not regarded as a side dish. But, tonjiru or butajiru (pork soup), which is usually very substantial, can be a great side dish.

Like zuke (marinating in soy sauce), the primary purpose of kombu jime (also called kobu jime) was preservation. Sashimi, which is highly perishable, can keep for days if kombu jime'ed. Kombu jime is usually applied to raw white-fleshed fish. Besides imparting umami to the ingredient, another benefit of kom jime is that the kombu absorbs excess water from the fish, making the fish tougher. But, don't expect that the effect of kombu jime is as great as seasoning with vinegar, salt, sugar, etc. Like many other Japanese dishes, the key to success is subtlety.