Hiroyuki

Today, I ordered oseibo gifts for six people via the Internet, totalling nearly 25,000 yen, which will be delivered directly to their homes, so I can't post any picture of them. The gifts were domestic black-haired wagyu, salted herring roe (for two people), smoked salmon, Niigata jizake (local sake), and cooking oil. No gift for my family this season.

I wonder if mushuu ninniku (odorless garlic) is peculiar to the Japanese, who dislike the odor of garlic. An example: http://www.yasashisa.net/kenko/kenshoku/garlic.html And, can garlic products such as ninniku ran'ou (garlic and egg yolk) be found outside Japan? An example: http://www.yazuya.com/items/ninniku/ torakris or anyone?

I don't like garlic. The only Japanese dish that I make using garlic is the beef bowl. When I make pizza sauce and Italian spaghetti, I just don't use garlic. (You may argue that they are not Italian then.) Isn't it ironic that the filling of Japanese gyouza contains garlic while that of the authentic Chinese counterpart does not?

You mean you don't have a yaki ami?

Well, don't ask me. I think I had yaki mikan when I was a child, but I just can't remember what they tasted like. Some people claim that grilling them makes them sweeter. http://homepage3.nifty.com/yakimikan/yakimikan/yakimikan.htm http://www.e-recipe.org/regulars/219/021231_4.html Why not try grilling your mikan and post your findings here?

Sorry, I didn't tell you that yaki mikan are believed to be effective against colds especially just when you have caught one. I don't know who started to grill mikan and when, but I guess that anyone would be tempted to do this if they had a hibachi and a lot of mikan at home in the winter. By hibachi, I mean the Japanese hibachi, used indoors, like these: http://www.interq.or.jp/ox/atn/hibati.html In the past, the hibachi had various uses such as boiling water in a kettle and grilling rice cakes.

Thank you for such a detailed account, melonpan. I'm glad that they have such a romantic use in Korea. The cube watermelon, on the other hand, has only ornamental purposes and is not as tasty as regular ones.

The Japanese is translated as follows: For a wooden usu, you must put water (in the concave portion) the day before. (For a stone usu, you need not.) On the day (of mochi pounding), put in hot water to warm the usu before you begin (so that the mochi doesn't get cool). How much mochi rice are you going to use? The standard amount of mochi rice for one batch is 2 shou, i.e., approximately 2.8 kg, as one of the sites says. Maybe you may want to start with a smaller amount, say, 1 shou (1.4 kg).

You failed to comment on two important items regarding those mandarins: 1. How much are they? And how much are the regular ones in Korea? 2. What are they used for?

I can't speak for Japanese customs - but all kinds of oranges and similar citrus fruits (like Clementines) are a traditional stocking stuffer for many families in the United States (including my husband's family). Perhaps the custom orginated at a time when oranges were relatively scarce - and a special treat. And - of course - the citrus harvest season in Florida begins a little before Christmas (depending on the citrus variety). By the way - I'm enjoying this thread. I live in north Florida - and one of the neighborhoods here is called Mandarin - because there used to be lots of Mandarin orange groves there (Mandarin oranges are one of the few citrus fruits that can be grown in north Florida). I don't think I've ever seen a Mandarin orange in a supermarket here - but I will be on the lookout for them. Robyn ← Thanks! I enjoyed your reply. I thought that you called mandarins TV oranges in the United States.

looks a little like chijimi/pajeon... I notice on has rice added to it but the other doesn't , they both have miso though, is that the necessary ingredient? ← Miso is definitely the indispensable ingredient. You know the flavor of scorched miso... Extremely delicious.

Usuyaki. See the photos in the links: http://www.ued.janis.or.jp/aji/0212/02/ http://www.jaibigawa.or.jp/cook01-9.html

The stingiest people like me can sometimes be frantic enough to do so...

Assuming that your fiance can read Japanese, I think that the following two links will provide all the necessary information for mochi making. Mochi making is roughly divided into steaming, kneading, and pounding processes, of which the kneading process is the most strenuous and is often neglected. Without sufficient kneading, grains of rice will scatter around as you pound it. http://www.octv.ne.jp/~fly_fly/omake2/december.html http://aosuji.hp.infoseek.co.jp/motitsuki.htm I think that store-bought mochi can be as good as just pounded mochi if you just put it in a container, add a small amount of water, wrap it, and heat it in a microwave.

Hm... Great post! Now I know what the sticker looks like!

The Kolis Inn Restaurant: http://www.kolisinn.com/main.html

How about this one (in Japanese) http://cookpad.com/sachigohan/index.cfm?Pa...67612&Mode=full This recipe uses bread flour, an egg, and baking soda. No kansui is required!

Mostly food items (otherwise I wouldn't have started this thread here in this forum ), such as ham, satsumaage (deep-fried fish sausage), cod roe, nori (laver), buckwheat noodles, coffee, just to name a few. I think the oseibo season is a good opportunity to buy yourself those top quality, expensive food items that you usually can't afford, as a kind of a small present for yourself and your family. I have thus far bought grilled eels (expensive domestic ones, not imported ones), satsumaage, cod roe, and the like for our own consumption.

Oh, now I see what you two are talking about - simmering. For example, this recipe calls for 3-hour simmering. http://www.h5.dion.ne.jp/~china/newpage62.htm (Sorry, Japanese only) The same goes for buta no kakuni, right? I've never thought about making yakibuta at home, anyway.

There is a new type of barley product, in which each grain of barley is halved so that it is almost of the same size as a rice grain when cooked. It mixes well with rice. An example: http://www.rakuten.co.jp/hakubaku/376830/377227/ Barley rice reminds me of my childhood days... My mother often mixed vitamin-enriched oshi mugi to rice.

I think that your question deserves a whole new thread and also deserves to be posted in the China Forum. Anyway, I wonder if the following link will satisfy you: http://www.irma-world.com/inpaku/english/0...bo/0101/02.html All I know about kansui is that it's indispensable part of ramen making although you can make kansui-free ramen by adding eggs. See the link below: http://www.ajiwai.com/otoko/make/ramen.htm (Sorry, Japanese only) How about this general description of ramen: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Ramen And how about this site, run by BON, who is now a legacy participant in this forum : http://www.worldramen.net/ Hope this helps.

I can't tell what you are looking for, but how about them: http://www.jhg.co.jp/recipes/yakibuta.html http://www.bob-an.com/recipe/dailyjc/basic/ramen/ramen.html http://maki.typepad.com/justhungry/2004/04...ed_buns_wi.html More recipes? That's easy. Just do a google search under yakibuta.

Oshi mugi is something like this: http://www.globalfoodcompany.com/food_deta...-_Oshi_Mugi.htm

It's that time of year again. I have four people that I feel obliged to send oseibo gifts to. Combined with ochuugen (giving of summer gifts), this means an annual expenditure of about 24,000 to 32,000 yen since I spend 3,000 to 4,000 yen for each gift. Here is a good explanation of oseibo: http://metropolis.japantoday.com/tokyocult...ocultureinc.htm Do you need to send oseibo gifts to anyone? It's slightly off-topic, but as I previously mentioned in the Kanto vs. Kansai thread, East Japan is a salmon culture area, while West Japan is a buri culture area. Salmon and buri used to be quite popular as oseibo gifts in the respective areas.