Hiroyuki

And of course, there are none in my area! Poor Kansai...always the bridesmaid, never the bride. ← in kansai shop99 has these crate and barrel plates, but it seems to be totally random which stores have them. ← Don't forget about rural areas like mine! We only have shops of three different chains here.

It's not unusual to eat the tail if it's from a tempura'ed or deep-fried shrimp, as you can tell from here (Japanese only). Some people eat the tail of a raw shrimp, but I think the percentage of such people is very low, as you can tell from here (Japanese only). As for me, I sometimes eat the tail of a termpura'ed or deep-fried shrimp, but I don't eat the tail of a raw shrimp.

There are no absolutely correct manners associated with this. Probably most people, including me, place the tail on the wooden tray, plate, or bamboo leaf on which the sushi was placed. The chef will replace the wooden tray, etc. with a new one.

Young people. You never know what they do. Geki kara (super hot?, violently hot?). They want to deviate from the norm... Many of them will return to where they belong in their 30s or 40s. I know that because I was also once young.

Foil yaki. Wrap shiitake mushrooms in aluminum foil, add some sake, and grill for about 10 min. Open the foil, add soy sauce and citrus juice.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and tips. I will use the above link to make my dish. I am pleasantly surprised to find that other vegetables can be used including root vegetables. This would be good to use on seasonal vegetables as I like to buy local produce. I have another question. I found one recipe that uses sake and another that uses Hon Mirin. How are they different (or similar?) ← Sake is not sweet, while mirin (including hon mirin and mirin-like seasoning) are sweet. Using sake and/or mirin should be avoided if you do not want your goma ae watery.

If you want to avoid having a pair of nigiri with the same toppings, you need to specify how many pieces you want, as I described here. Avoid the use of the counter "kan" because this word is very confusing. Some Japanese take it to mean two pieces while others take it to mean one piece.

Contemporary nigiri is meant to be eaten in one bite. If you sit at the counter, ask the chef to make smaller pieces or cut each piece in two. A kind chef will gladly accommodate your request. If you sit at a table (or you go to a conveyor sushi restaurant), just eat each piece in two or more bites. I don't think you need to apply soy sauce for second and subsequent bites.

FIRST OF ALL, I'D LIKE TO STRESS THAT THERE IS NO CONSENSUS IN JAPAN AS TO THE PROPER WAY TO EAT SUSHI. It's up to you whether to use your hands or chopsticks to have nigiri. I personally prefer using chopsticks so I don't have to clean my hands with a wet towel (oshibori) frequently. Batteleships (gunkan in Japanese) can be eaten in various ways, including: 1. Dip the rice at the bottom in soy sauce. 2. Tilt the gunkan to one side a little, and dip the nori in soy sauce. 3. Pick up some gari (pickled ginger), dip it in soy sauce, and pat the gari on the top of the neta (topping) to apply the sauce sauce. 4. Simply eat the gunkan, with no soy sauce. I personally have gunkan in way 1. Note that at some sushi shops, gunkan and nigiri are pre-seasoned by the sushi chef so you don't apply any more soy sauce. I can't answer your second question. I think it's better to use soy sauce sparingly for any type of neta. As for your last question, is it a joke or something? Maybe the Japanese are more lenient to burping in public than other nations, but we never burp to show appreciation!

There can be NO authentic recipes!! There can be as many recipes as there are Japanese! Some like it sweet, while others like me like it less sweet. In one of his books, Yoshihiro Murata suggests this ratio: 1:1:1 for soy sauce, mirin, and goma Thus, for 40 green beans, combine 50 ml each of soy sauce, mirin, and goma paste. My recipe is: For 1 bunch of spinach 4 tbsp white sesame seeds 2 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp sugar

Oh, I'd never thought that this trhead would require my attention until I saw this photo. Kakurei from Aoki Shuzo, located in my area (20-minute walk from my house, actually). It's really a small world!

This sentence made me unaccountably homesick for a moment. Good luck with the monkfish. I've never tried it, but I hope to one day. I'm not sure if you can get it in Japan I thought that line might stir up an emotion for you! Check out Hiroyuki's anko tsurushi giri post #4. ← See this video on YouTube to see how Michiba, Iron Chef Japanese, does the tsurushi giri.

Osen ended last night, in a way that leaves me unsatisfied. So, what will be the fate of the restaurant, Issho An??

By pollack roe, you mean tarako (often translated into cod roe)? I've never thought about the use-by date of tarako, because I always try to finish it off within two or three days. A quick google search tells me that it's good for 6 to 10 days when kept in the fridge.

Are you sure that all the dishes you described above are Okinawan? This sounds like chanpuru (sp?) to me, but rice noodle? Not somen (thin wheat flour noodle)?

No such statements. It does say: Notes on storage: Avoid direct sunlight and keep in a cool, dark place.

Just take out the flesh, remove the "sunabukuro" (lit. sand bag) and cut it into small pieces, put them back in the shell, add some soy sauce and sake, and grill. Or simply grill the sazae, without taking out the flesh first. The flesh has a distinctive firm texture.

An acquaintance of mine runs an enoki mushroom factory. Her father started the business when she was a first grader in an elementary school, she says, that is, in 1976. As some of you may already know, my son (12) is crazy about mushrooms, and I had long wanted to take him to this factory and learn about enoki mushroom production together. Today, my dream came true. Enoki production requires a substrate of saw dust and other ingredients. At her factory, they use saw dust, rice bran, corn cobs, and supplements the details of which were not disclosed. This is the mixer used to mix together all the ingredients: The mixture is then put in each of these plastic bottles. There are 70,000 of them, she said, but added that only 50,000 of them are currently in use. The bottles are then sterilized in this kiln for 9 hours and 15 minutes. This is the room where seed inoculation takes place. The room is kept at a temperature of 13C. The bottles are then transferred to the incubation room, kept at 15C. The contents are mostly brown, but will become entirely white in one month. The bottles are kept there for one month. This is the machine used to remove the upper part from each bottle: She says that she has to manually operate the machine. Newer ones can do this job automatically. Upper part removed: The removal is required to make sprouting possible. Closeup of one bottle. The bottle is heavier than you would imagine. The bottles are then moved to another room, the sprouting room. where the humidity is increased by using humidifiers and sprinkling water. The room is kept at 14C. In ten days, they will look like this: When sprouting is complete, the bottles are transferred to the constricting room, which is kept at 4C. In this room, light and wind are applied to the mushroom in each bottle so that the caps and stems are formed steadily. The bottles are then moved to the growth room, kept at 6C, where a sheet of paper is wrapped around the bunch of mushroom in each bottle so that the bunch does not bend. 5 to 7 days after the paper is wrapped, the mushroom can be gathered. She let my son gather three of them. The bottle is now much lighter. Report that her son wrote when he was a second grader in an elementary school: Without his report, I could not have finished this report! Three bunches of enoki my son gathered: In summary, four rooms are required to produce enoki mushrooms: Incubation room, kept at 15C, where the bottles are kept for one month Sprouting room , kept at 14C, where the bottles are kept for ten days Constricting room, kept at 4C Growth room, kept at 6C It takes a total of two months to produce enoki mushrooms. She said that one-room cultivation is now possible. When the factory was built in 1990, however, four-room cultivation was common. One-room cultivation became popular afterwards.

Maguro is in season! That's why I had long wanted to take another trip to shis sushi shop. Fresh maguro sashimi 1,500 yen. Bargain price only possible around this time of the year. Chu-toro: O-toro: Akami: White board: for those of you who can read Japanese. Sazae no tsubo yaki (turban shell cooked in its own shell): My son ordered it. He never leaves this sushi shop without ordering one. Okosama Sushi Set for my daughter, as usual: 840 yen My son ordered toku jo: 2,415 yen. The most expensive nigiri set that this shop offers. I did something I would never think of doing in a high-end sushi shop in Tokyo or elsewhere: I asked the chef to make twenty pieces of nigiri in the omakase style. That would mean spending at least 20,000 yen in a high-end sushi shop. WHAT CARELESS MISTAKES I MADE!! I forgot to take photos of some of the nigiri! Ika (squid), tako (octopus): Hirame, engawa, tai: Tsubu gai, awabi, tori gai: Ama ebi, akami, kohada, mushi ebi (boiled shrimp), aji, shime saba (mackerel pickled in vinegar) Sorry, no photo. Uni, ikura: O-toro, chu-toro: Anago, tamago Sorry, no photo. The bill came to 11,235 yen, which includes everything I described above, plus one cup of black sesame seed ice cream for my son. If my calculation is correct, the twenty pieces of sushi cost me about 6,380 yen. I will definitely come back to order the same way in the near future!

I posted a close-up photo of my Hon Dashi here.

As for mirin vs. mirin fu, don't be disappointed. Mirin fu is as good as mirin, and you won't tell the difference when you taste the resulting dish. Serious chefs may tell you otherwise, though.

You're right. No big deal. 1 heaped teaspoon of it per 600 ml (if it's a product of Japan). Note that all instant dashi contain some MSG.

I don't think I'm qualified to answer your question, but the stuff looks OK to me. I think I'll post some photos of my instant dashi later. Mirin: Mirin usually has an alcohol content of 14%. Probably your "mirin" is "mirin-fu chomiryo" (mirin-like seasoning). Some mirin-fu chomiryo contain some salt. Have you checked out the ingredient label?

Mussels are not native to Japan, and are still associated with French cuisine. I did some google search but failed to find any information that sushi chefs use them. ETA: I hope I can make another trip there this weekend and by the end of the month at the latest. Milt, sperm sac: Maybe we should stick to the Japanese term shirako (lit. white children)? As I mentioned way upthread, do you know what part of uni we eat? Gonad. Does the word sound appetizing? Corrected some errors.

Instructions on the package of Hon Dashi (product of Ajinomoto): 1 heaped teaspoon of it (4 g) to 600 ml (3cups) of mizu (cold water) or oyu (hot water).