Hiroyuki

baku baku sounds more violent to me. The same goes for pari pari and bari bari. o-senbei o pari pari taberu = to eat sembei "pari pari" Kono kankoku nori wa pari pari janakute bari bari da! = This Korean laver is not pari pari but bari bari!

I did a google search, but failed to find an answer.

What a heavy topic! You could write a book on it and gitaigo! Giongo = 擬音語 = onomatopoeia (copied and pasted as you did) Gitaigo = 擬態語 = imitative word? (There is a slight difference between the two.) In fact, there are books on giongo and gitaigo. How about this webpage, although it is not at all exhaustive: http://home.alc.co.jp/db/owa/s_kaydic?ctg_in=4 Favorites?? I've never thought about such a thing. How about Assari (light, bland, ...) Sappari (similar to assari) Mattari (rich, fatty) Kotteri (similar to mattari) Sukkiri (refreshing) The list goes on and on and on...

Wow, the person who did that website really likes siberia... I have seen these occasionally in the stores but I never knew the name and probably would never pick it out to eat as I am not a big fan of an (sweet bean paste). ← The an is more like youkan. You should try it. It's yummy!

I found more photos: http://www.momo1.com/siberiya.html

Impressive. You got good neighbors! *** Have any of you tried this product from Kewpie? http://www.kewpie.co.jp/corp/newsreleace_2003_35.html Melonpan-Fuu Toast Bread! The following link http://members3.jcom.home.ne.jp/melon/my_melon3.htm explains how to use this product. Just spread it thin on a slice of bread and heat it in the toaster oven for three minutes. This melon-flavored product adds crispy texture to the bread. If you have time to make melonpan, how about this product?: Melonpan Mix Ko http://members3.jcom.home.ne.jp/melon/my_melon1.htm It's sold for 480 yen and makes ten melonpan. It's not melon-flavored. (Not all melonpan are melon-flavored.)

Do any of you know of the sweet bun called Siberia (written as シベリア in Japanese phonetic characters)? It's a sponge-cake-like two slices of bread sandwiching youkan-like bean jam. I liked it a lot when I was a child. I can't find it here in my town. I had difficulty finding a photo of it, and found this: http://tdrops.cool.ne.jp/ You have to scroll down and you will see the small photo on the right.

One of the New Year dishes (osechi ryouri) that I hate is datemaki, which is made from fish paste, eggs, and a lot of sugar! Home-made version http://kitchen-h.fem.jp/recipe_033.html Store-bought versions http://www.rakuten.co.jp/kurumiya/701897/701907/701988/

Sorry to tell you that it's not a Niigata speciality. This particular product is from Komatsu, Ishikawa prefecture, but I think kombu mochi is available everywhere in Japan. How did I prepare them? Just the usual way, not innovative at all - We heated some in the microwave with some water until soft and ate them with kinako and sugar, and toasted some in the toaster oven and dipped them in soy sauce and wrapped nori around them.

The other day, an aquaintance gave me a pack of mochi (rice cakes). We had them for tonight's supper. They contain kombu and salt and we all found them very delicious. To my surprise, my daughter ate three of them.

torakris, Just wanted to tell you about this: To my surprise, your husband and I are not in a minority. http://weekend.nikkei.co.jp/kiko/map/tamagoyaki/map.html White: Those who sweeten eggs to make tamago yaki surpass in number. Light blue: Those who sweeten them almost equal those who don't. Yellow: Those who don't sweeten them surpass. What do you think??

Have any of you ever heard of conchas (shells in English) in Mexico? They are said to be like melonpan in Japan.

As the first map in the following link shows, http://weekend.nikkei.co.jp/kiko/20030911s869b000_11.html people in Shiga, Kyoto, Hyogo, Nara, and Wakayama (which are all in Kansai), as well as people in Okayama, Hiroshima, and Ehime, call the buns that we usually call melonpan 'sunrise' (pronounced san-rai-zu by many and san-rai-su by some). The reason why Osaka in Kansai is an exception is that Kobeya, a major bakery in Osaka, left the 'sunrise alliance' in early stages of its corporate strategies for expanding its business operations to Kanto, according to this: http://www.joho-kyoto.or.jp/~teramuch/mach.../zuihitu011.htm To make matters more complicated, there is another type of bun called melonpan in Kansai, shown in the last two photos in the link I previously posted http://members3.jcom.home.ne.jp/melon/melon_vs_sunrise.htm , a rugby ball-shaped bun with shiro an (white anko) filling and topped with sponge cake dough before baking. See the second map of the first link in this post: http://weekend.nikkei.co.jp/kiko/20030911s869b000_11.html This map shows the percentage of respondents in each prefecture who answered yes to the question, "Do you have melonpan (of this type) in your area?". You can see that more than 60% of the respondents in Kyoto and Shiga answered yes. To make matters even more complicated, in Hiroshima prefecture, they call the buns that we usually call melonpan 'koppepan'. (Koppe comes from the French word 'coupe'). http://ww4.tiki.ne.jp/~shingo_o/otumu/essay/essay06.htm Scroll down and look at the three photos. The bun on the left is usually called koppepan, but is called ajitsuke pan (flavored bread) in Hiroshima. The middle one is usually called melonpan, but is called koppepan in Hiroshima (and sunrise in some Kansai and other prefectures, as I described earlier). The left one is called melonpan in Hiroshima and in some Kansai and other prefectures, and cannot usually be found in other regions of Japan. Confused? Me too! I am beginning to regret that I have started this thread. Just for a change, why not take a look at 66 different melonpan: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/%7ESM5S-NKYM/melon/melon.html You can see such silly melonpan as apple and strawberry melonpan.

In Japan, we have this saying, mochi wa mochi-ya. ●餅は餅屋 [英訳] For rice cakes, go to a rice-cake maker. From here http://www8.plala.or.jp/y-naka/kotowaza-mo.html

Do you eat tempura with Worcester sauce? My brother-in-law, who was born and bred in Osaka, does. This is another difference between Kanto and Kansai, or should I say, East Japan and West Japan. http://weekend.nikkei.co.jp/kiko/20021122s85bm000_22.html (Japanese only) I had never dreamed of doing this until my sister married an Osaka man.

Some say that those buns that are called melonpan in Kanto are called sunrise in Kansai and melonpan differ from sunrise. http://members3.jcom.home.ne.jp/melon/melon_vs_sunrise.htm (Japanese only) The first four buns shown in this link are sold as sunrise, not melonpan, and the last bun, shown in the top and section views, is sold as a melonpan. There is much more information about the difference between these two types of buns, but in Japanese only: http://weekend.nikkei.co.jp/kiko/20030820s868k000_20.html I will post more information when I have time.

In short, katsu don means sauce katsu don in Fukui, and Sou Honten (総本店) of Yoroppa (Europe) Ken (ヨーロッパ軒) is the birthplace of this donburi. The website of Yoroppa Ken http://homepage2.nifty.com/yo-roppaken/

I think that most of the pine nuts available in Japan are imports from China, as I confirmed from several sites like these (all in Japanese only): http://www.oishi-mise.com/matunomi.htm https://s112.secure.ne.jp/~s112059/shop/ind...?goods=matunomi http://www.yamyamhompo.com/kinomi-p/matsu.htm All the pine nuts shown in the links are imports from China. What do you think?

I wonder if Carrefour is a convenience store... Anyway, how did you find that bento? Good or bad?

My wife sometimes makes tonkatsu-like fries by rolling thin slices of pork, and sometimes wraps thin slices of pork around apple slices to make another type of tonkatsu-like fries. I myself don't make any type of roll; I'm no fan of dishes that call for elaborate work. I don't like "roll cabbage" (don't know the English name for it). Do any of you like it?

Did you know that the sauce katsu don originated in Fukui? I didn't! http://www.fuku-e.com/donna/source/

I am not particular about any specific variety. People will tell you that smaller ones (M and S sizes) are better than bigger ones (L and 2L sizes), flat ones are better than round ones, and those with small stem ends are better, and so on. The following link provides as many as eight tips for selecting good mikan: http://www.ja-arida.or.jp/mikan/miwake.htm (Japanese only) But, they are not very practical, don't you think? My suggestions would be: 1. How about trying the classical way of getting mikan? Just go to a greengrocer's and ask them to deliver a box of good mikan. Ask them a lot of questions until you decide which particular box to buy. Of course, they will let you sample some mikan. In the 1960s and the 1970s, when I was a child, this was the common way to get mikan. I highly recommend this method if you have a greengrocer nearby. 2. How about trying online shopping? Get mikan with their sugar content guaranteed (糖度保証)! http://store.yahoo.co.jp/organic/ocy357.html 3. At the supermarket, select an expensive bag of mikan rather than the cheapest one.

It is well known, but I'm not a fan of it. I am a fan of the furikake of my own making. Why not make your own version of kinshoubai? I guess the following links will provide some hints: http://www.coop-mie.jp/cookmail/recipe/2004/070c.html http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/kt22mt21/3056 (Both are in Japanese only.)

I really can't give you good advice... How about settling for canned mikan or having a Japanese friend or relative send Pom juice or something? A description of Pom juice: http://www.ehime-iinet.or.jp/ehime_e/prod/item3/item3.htm

Why not visit http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=53654 ? To avoid ginkgo seed poisoning, you are advised to limit the intake of ginkgo nuts to ten per day for adults and five for children. For more about ginkgo seed poisoning, visit http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_...109/ai_83139785