Hiroyuki

Thanks you two. Thanks to your posts, I'm beginning to realize the general sentiment for corn of the American people. Corn on the cob! Right! When I go to the supermarket with my kids in the summer, they sometimes ask me to buy it. It costs at least 100 yen per ear (usually 150 yen or even higher). If you are lucky, you may be able to buy it for 50 yen per ear once or twice when it's season. I guess you're right. Corn does adds flavor to the dish, as well as color, as I mentioned in my previous post. But the biggest reason is that it's cheap, I think.

Sorry, I can't find any recipe for making neriuni, only general descriptions of what neriuni is. According to one site, prime neriuri is made by straining fresh uni ovaries and adding only salt. from here http://www.3tan.jp/2kan/main/souran3.html (Japanese only) The quality labeling standard defines neriuni as follows: Salted uni or salted uni with ethyl alcohol, etc.* added, the salted uni content being 65% or greater, that is mashed and kneaded. *Ethyl alcohol, etc. refers to any of ethyl alcohol, sugar, starch, sake lees, and seasonings (such as amino acids). from here http://www.yamami.net/business/item01.html (Japanese only)

I am tempted to ask, "How is corn used in other countries (the United States, Canada, New Zealand, etc.)?"

Right now? Today? Can't you just hold that craving until New Year's Eve? Do you follow the custom of eating toshikoshi soba (year-passing buckwheat noodles) on New Year's Eve (together with some tempura or something)?

I made Neapolitan spaghetti, using some of the mixed vegetables shown in my previous post, plus canned tuna, slices of onion, additional corn from the corn can shown in the photo, and a lot of tomato ketchup. I also made potato salad using the rest of the mixed vegetables, ham, and tart Japanese mayo. No photo of this supper, because I'm sure you don't want to see it. Besides, I have already used 86% of the total disk space allotted to me. I have to think twice before uploading a photo from now on. (I want to take a picture of our osechi and upload it in the near future.)

This country is mysterious, even to me. Why buy a 5,000-yen melon? Why buy a 10,000-yen osechi? Why buy a 20,000-yen matsutake? And, why buy a 100,000-yen osechi?

Thank you, torakris, for starting this thread. And, 15 posts already! I wonder what's happened to you all. Is this topic so interesting? Probably most Japanese think that all those uses of corn that you may find strange are American in origin just like they think that sponge cakes topped with whipped cream and strawberries are American Christmas cakes. This is no wonder, because a number of corn products have been introduced into Japan from the United States, especially since World Word II, such as corn flakes, popcorn, canned corn, corn potage soup, and mixed vegetables. Here is a photo of some of the corn products that I happen to have at home at the moment: I find the mixed vegetables (carrots, corn, and green beans) particularly useful. I often put them in potato salad, macaroni salad, and so on. I'd like to emphasize the color effect of corn. Its vivid yellow literally adds color to the dish,... doesn't it?

My daughter, age 5, can eat amakuchi (sweet) curry only, while three of us like to eat karakuchi (hot), so we just simmer the ingredients until soft and then divide them into a portion for three of us and another for my daughter. Isn't this the best solution??

I received a pack of strawberries from a sister-in-law yesterday, and another from a relative today! Greenhouse strawberries are in season, thanks to Christmas!! *** It's a shame that the annual per-capita fruit consupmtion is Japan, which is 50 kg, is half that in the United States (116 kg) and is even lower than that in North Korea (51 kg). from here http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/sonio/diaryold/20020616/ All my family like eating fruit.

Sorry, when I wrote that post, I was thinking of top-class sushi restaurants like these: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=55053 (in New York) http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=56343 (in Japan) In Japan, I think you can enjoy sushi to the fullest for around 3,000 to 5,000 yen per person at a traditional sushi shop and around 1,000 to 2,000 yen at a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant.

Thanks, Pumkin Lover!! Surely the most informative reply I have ever received here on eGullet! The enthusiasm that some of you guys have for pizza reminds me of ramen lovers here in Japan. I have done some google searches and found several interesting sites: http://www.epiphanycorp.com/resource/eat/pizza.html http://greggman.com/japan/pizza.htm http://www.n-dricom.co.jp/dnk/05_japan/jap...10_japan01.html But, I must say that I am not yet fully satisfied. Maybe this topic deserves a thread of its own. How about the title "Uses of Corn in Japan"?

Is this the answer? According to this, the reason why you don't get tired of miso soup although you drink it every day is that the miso soup you make slightly differs each day. If you keep on drinking miso soup at a Japanese-style restaurants for three days, you will get tired of it. (Rough translation) Hm... I'm skeptical. What do you think? Original: 毎日飲む味噌汁がなぜ飽きないかご存知でしたか？ 実は女性の作る料理は毎日微妙に味が違う。 だから、微妙に違う味噌汁だからこそ、味の飽きがこないんだそうです。 料亭の味噌汁を３日間飲み続けたら、飽きてしまうそうなんですよ。

My version of temaki (hand-roll) zushi Top row, from left to right: Soy sauce, nori (quartered), atsuyaki tamago (thick omlet), shari (vinegared rice) Middle: Wet furikake, satuma age (fish sausage), mizuna (type of green) Bottom: Wasabi tube, Kaori (dried ao jiso furikake), umeboshi paste, canned tuna with mayo mixed Let me add that any Japanese will think that my version is quite mediocre. I just don't care what they say!

The other day, I received 24 natsu (= summer) mikan from my parents, along with other fruits. Today, I made about 1 liter of fresh juice from 12 of them. It's sour, and my kids needed some sugar to drink it.

So, it's corn and mayo that annoys you guys? Corn does grow in Japan. I guess imported canned corn is on pizzas, though.

Just a thought. As many of us know, sushi is not synonymous with sashimi (raw fish). Nor is it synonymous with shari (vinegared rice) plus sashimi. Except the primitive sushi, i.e., nare zushi (fermented sushi), sushi can be simply defined as something sour such as vinegar or citrus juice plus cooked rice plus one or more ingredients, which may or may not be raw. While sushi can mean to a trip to a traditional sushi bar after making doubly sure that you have 200 to 300 dollars per person, it can also mean a self-satisfying, personal experience at home. Being a moderate-income, rather stingy person, I much prefer home sushi. (Or, should I say I have no other alternative with my income.) I think that many of you are like me. Of course, you can make a trip to one of those fabulous sushi bars once a month, once a year, once in your lifetime, or on special occasions, I do hope that you explore the wonderful world of home sushi.

So, anyone care to enlighten me about acceptable pizzas? I'm clueless.

Radish means... what? Daikon? Then, daikon leaves pickled in rice bran (nuka zuke), as I mentioned in the Japan Forum. If you don't have a rice bran bed (nuka doko), then I guess just salting them will be fine.

Until a few years ago, my wife and I used to rinse empty milk cartons well with water, cut them open, dry, and bring them to the supermarket for recycling, like any other respectable member of society . Then, one day, we suddenly realized how precious and useful these cartons could be. From that day on, we have never brought them to the supermarket for recycling. We use an open, flat carton to cut fish, meat, and oily aburaage instead of the cutting board. After use, we just dispose of it. On rare occasions when we have to dispose of used oil, we pour it into an un-cut carton, seal the top with gum tape, and dispose of the carton and all. What do you do with your empty milk cartons? And how about other items that are supposed to be recycled, such as PET bottles?

You must be missing a Christmas on the beach. We are enjoying a white Christmas here in the Snow Country.

Recipe?? Sorry, I have no recipe to share for this one. I just mashed the peeled and boiled chestnuts and added margarine (not unsalted butter, as I previously mentioned). And yesterday, I added some milk (not cream) to make the paste soft and easy to spread. I placed some light, salted rice crackers on the plate. Then I put the paste and shaped it like a mountain, and added whipped cream to simulate a snow-capped mountain. That's all. Regrettably, I forgot to use the un-mashed chestnuts for ornaments. I must admit that these two cakes, especially the chestnut cake, don't look very delicious, but believe me, they are more delicious than those cakes in the price range of 3,000 to 5,000 (8,000?) yen that you can buy from a cake shop in Japan. It's exactly because I was fed up with the high-priced and low-quality store-bought cakes that I started to make them at home. In particular, I can't put up with the bland taste of cheap cream of vegetable oil. I looove the rich taste of real cream.

I must confess that my wife and I have never made sukiyaki since we got married ten years ago. My wife sometimes makes what she calls suki-ni, using pork, though. (Suki means spade, yaki means something fried, baked, or grilled, and ni means something simmered.) I must also confess that I'm not familiar with either Kanto or Kansai style sukiyaki. My Tokyo-born mother makes Kanto-style-like sukiyaki, but with a soy sauce and miso. When I was small, I didn't think it strange. I actually liked it very much. Maybe I have to ask her why she adds miso the next time I call her.

We made two Christmas cakes on Christmas eve, strawberry sponge cake and chestnut cake. My kids did almost all the decoration. My wife said the chestnut cake tasted better but the rice crackers, which I used for the foundation, didn't match. (I thought the idea of using rice crakers was cool.) It sounds silly for me to say this, but I've got to say this, "Merry Christmas, everyone!!"

Sorry, I should have mentioned them. I, for one, add tare and karashi but NO EGGS! I don't know what ingredients other people add to kirizai. It's not only delicious but nutritious!

Kirizai, which I mentioned elsewhere in the Japan Forum. I didn't know about this dish before I came to Shiozawa town. It is sometimes served for lunch at my son's element school. The ingredients include natto, bonito flakes, sesame seeds, finely chopped nozawana pickles, and shirasu (baby sardines). The photo below shows kirizai before everything is mixed together. (No shirasu in this photo.)