Hiroyuki

What more can I say?

Valiantly?? Did I sound that way?? I didn't defend it at all. I was just curious to know why so many people hated it... Are you mad at me? OK, I loooove Napolitan spaghetti. I can use more than half a 800-g ketchup tube with 300-g spaghetti.

I found a site on brocoli core kinpira: http://orange-box.sunnyday.jp/food9.html (Japanese only) Seems like worth giving it a try.

Tsukushi no kinpira, of course!, which I mentioned in the Japanese Foods--Shun no mono" thread. My wife is good at making daikon no kinpira. I guess you can go to two extremes: a single ingredient to enjoy the taste of that ingrediant only and a variety of ingredients to enjoy their harmony. Do you know how kinpira got its name? I didn't, so I searched for an answer. The answer is: Sakata Kinpira is the name of a fictitious character in a "joruri" play that gained popularity in the Edo period, who was depicted as a very strong man. Thus, the word kinpira was used to describe something strong. You get strong when you eat kinpira?? Definition of joruri: じょうるり【浄瑠璃】 joruri； （a） dramatic narrative chanted to a samisen accompaniment. New College Japanese-English Dictionary, 4th edition © Kenkyusha Ltd. 1933,1995,1998 According to Eijiro on the web: 浄瑠璃 ballad drama // the Japanese-type puppet play

I LOVE Maxim's de Paris, though I've never been there. http://www.maxim-s.co.jp/ Sorry, entirely in Japanese. How come they don't have an English version?

What has occurred to me so far after reading all the posts are: 1) I don't use mentaiko but tarako, and I use salad oil, not butter, with it. The flavor of butter is so strong that it "kills" (ko-ro-su in Japanese) that of tarako. 2) Don't forget katsuo bushi!! Sprinkle it together with shredded nori. For those of you who don't know what katsuo bushi is, go to page 18 of "daily Nihongo". 3) I think that every spaghetti recipe should include onions. Fry them well enough to get their sweetness.

I don't smoke, but I'm a heavy green-tea drinker. I drink kuki-cha (literally "stalk" tea). It's very refreshing. I buy it regularly from I-chi-ka-wa-en (市川園）. http://www.ichikawaen.co.jp/ (Sorry, entirely in Japanese.)

Since Torakris and other guys talk a lot about Jasmine rice, I just had to check several sites on it. Sounds very yummy!! I think I'll buy some the next time I go to Tokyo and try. Thank you all so much for giving me inspiration!!

I must say this: You don't understand! Eat fabulously? A couple of heftier meals? Forget them! You don't have to pay through the nose to really enjoy Japanese foods. In fact, you don't have to pay any money. Go to depachika!! What's depachika? It's the basement food floor of a department store. Every department store in Japan has a depachika (de-pa-chi-ka), and there are sampling corners there. Try whatever you like. But, don't buy anything. Say the magic words, "Ma-ta ki-ma-su" (I'll (or we'll) come again) and leave. Save money and use all the money you can spend on the restaurants I mentioned above. It's really a take-it-or-leave-it situation. Whether you will find yourself in paradise or in misery, that depends on your decision. *** Sorry if I have offended you, but that's the very best suggestion I can make. Hope you'll make a wonderful trip to Japan. Correction: The Shinjuku branch of San-kin no longer exists.

I don't want to sound obtrusive, but if you care for tonkatsu (there is a thread on tonkatsu in the Japan section) and tempura, may I suggest: Tonkatsu: 三金 "San-kin" in Yotsuya (四谷) (there is one in Shinjuku (新宿), too) http://gourmet.yahoo.co.jp/gourmet/restaur...03/P000817.html Tempura: つな八 "Tsu-na-ha-chi" in Shinjuku (新宿) (there are a lot more in Tokyo and other areas) http://www.tunahachi.co.jp/store/fr_01.html (Don't order tempura piece by piece, or you will be sorry when you look at the bill.)

I guess Pan is referring to hon mirin, then the answer is yes. But I'm satisfied with みりん風調味料 mirin-fu chomiryo. My mother once gave me a bottle of hon mirin. I was excited and used it to make my "maho no furikake" (magic furikake). No difference at all!! Maho no furikake? It's in the furikake thread.

It's a small world!! Hiroo is where I was born!! *** What about sushi-go-round restraurants in Shibuya? http://gourmet.yahoo.co.jp/gourmet/restaur...O-7RAYC001.html http://gourmet.yahoo.co.jp/gourmet/restaur...0013005676.html http://gourmet.yahoo.co.jp/gourmet/restaur...O-7RAFL001.html Shibuya is full of such restraurants, and is definitely a place for young people.

Paper towel..., two days... I could never ever think of doing such a disservice to matsutake... Just unthinkable... Slicing them won't do any harm if they are too big to handle, but I would recommend to freeze each matsutake "whole" to keep the aroma in. In Japan, you are going to hear this phrase over and over again when mushrooms are in season: 香りマツタケ　味シメジ Kaori matsutake, aji shimeji This refers to the fact that matsutake are the best in terms of aroma, but in terms of taste, hon shimeji are the best. What counts most about matsutake is their aroma, at least for many Japanese. $400 matsutake..., turned into nothing..., just unthinkable!!

Hi johnnyd: After I read your story, I just didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. I'm neither a cook nor food specialist, so I searched the Web for an answer. I checked dozens of websites on the subject, and I found, quite surprisingly, that matsutake were "freezable". Let me show you one of such sites. Scroll down, and you'll see frozen matsutake at the bottom of the page. http://www2k.biglobe.ne.jp/~hideko/matutake.htm The caution is: Make sure that you wrap them up to keep their aroma in. When cooking, use them before they are completely thawed. I don't know why your attempt failed the first time. Maybe you rinsed them in water and did not wipe them dry before freezing?? I really hope your friend's negotiations will be successful the next time. If you need any more information, feel free to ask.

About the wording: As someone for whom English is a foreign language and who is all too familiar with kinoko, I'm always tempted to say "a kinoko" and "kinokos". I know this sounds strange to you. But I could also say, "to kinoko", "kinokoed", and "kinokoing". I could even say "kinokoish", "kinokolike", and so on. It's not hard to imagine that in one hundred years from now, English-speaking people will start to use the word kinoko the way I do now, just like the word kimono. (I see disapproval in your eyes.) Sorry, I should'nt have said that. Bye.

Caution: You can freeze maitake and enoki directly while fresh, but other types of mushrooms you must boil first. Source of this information: http://www.cfqlcs.go.jp/administrative_inf...d_life/wl12.htm (in Japanese only) Get kinokos into your life!!

Do you know palatability analyzers? For those of you who have never heard of those high-tech gadgets, let me explain them briefly. A palatability analyzer, or a rice analyzer, is capable of evaluating certain grains of rice on a 100-point scale. Example of a palatability analyzer: http://www.yanmar.co.jp/products/agri/nouk...seihin/0603.htm (Japanese) And, here are rice palatability criteria: Rank Score 　　　　Description S 　　90 or greater 　Choicest A 　　80 or greater 　Good B 　　70 or greater 　So-so C 　　60 or greater 　Other According to a palatability analyzer, Kokuho Rose: 71 Calrose: 64 Thai jasmine rice: 63 Australian rice: 59 Information source: http://www.genmaiya.co.jp/htm/syokumi.htm (Note: I'm not saying that these varieties of rice are inferior. Palatability analyzers evaluate rice grains in accordance with Japanese standards. Japanese prefer short-grain sticky rice.) I currently eat Shiozawa-san Koshihikari rice with a score of 95. It's really good, but I sometimes think that it's too good to be eaten on a regular basis. And, it's certainly bad for my health, because I can eat three bowls a meal simply because it's tasty.

You don't say! You do know a lot of recipes for them, don't you? Or, you really mean it?? What if one of your pupils suddenly says "I always walk past it in the supermarket and think what on earth would I do with that?!"? --- A simple recipe is to boil them for a short time, put them in cold water, and drain them. Eat them like sashimi, with soy sauce and wasabi. But I want to skip them just like Torakris. I don't think they are worth the price. --- Next, amandare, a-ma-n-da-re. It's a local name. Commonly known as naratake. I don't know for sure, but amandare may be called bootlace fungi or honey fungi in English. Amandare are very popular in the Uonuma district in Niigata prefecture. Every supermarket here sells bags of amandare (boiled plain). They come from China, though. Last fall, my son and I went into the woods several times and gathered a lot of amandare each time. We made kinoko soup, using amandare, enoki, shiitake, buna shimeji, gobo, carrots, daikon, and so on. It was so good I always had three bowls. Photo of amandare or naratake: http://www.cx.sakura.ne.jp/~kinoko/00jap/naratake.htm

I agree with Torakris. That depends on the person and the family. Let me add: 1) Sushi is one of the foods most favored by Japanese children, together with ramen, curry and rice, hamburgers, and so on. I suppose this is true of adults, too. 2) In the Edo period, sushi was as popular among Edo people as tempura and buckwheat noodles. These foods were served by food stalls on the street. It is the fault of conventional sushi bars that sushi has become such a costly feast today. I am glad that sushi-go-round restaurants has regained the popularity of sushi. As for me, I often make temaki zushi at home. That's easy if you have a rice cooker. You just add vinegar, salt, and sugar to cooked rice. You don't even need raw fish! I usually use tuna in oil (remove the oil and add mayonnaise), kanikama (imitation crabs), kaori (ao-jiso), and atsuyaki tamago (thick omelet). It's very delicious! I can assure you that you can't get this level of satisfaction anywhere else. You can go to a conventional sushi bar in Japan, but chances are that you will end up with feeling that you just got ripped off, and you will certainly have to pay through the nose.

Go to http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=30998&hl=mirin

I don't know whether that friend of yours is just kidding or not, but she is right if she means hand-rolled sushi delivered from a conventional sushi bar. Even today, when sushi-go-round restraurants are prevalent throughout Japan, it is still customary for many Japanese to eat delivered hand-rolled sushi at home at festive occasions such as someone's birthday. I can talk more, but let's listen to what others have to say on your question.

I hate melons and oysters, so I shouldn't accuse your husband. *** Next, yamabushi take Do you have yamabushi take in the United States? I have bought yamabushi take a couple of times, but only used in miso soup. Does anyone know of a good recipe using yamabushi take? http://aoki2.si.gunma-u.ac.jp/BotanicalGar...mabusitake.html http://www.rakuten.co.jp/eg-japan/518186/524590/

Hi growpower: Ikebukuro reminds of my high school days, but I have no information to offer you, as I now live in Niigata Prefecture, far away from Tokyo. Anyway, I hope your one-year stay in Japan will be a memorable one.

A Japanese wife would say, 好き嫌い言わないで食べなさい！ Suki-kirai iwanaide tabenasai! Don't be so picky, just eat them!