Hiroyuki

1. Octopus: The Japanese like octopuses. We eat them in a variety of ways: Sashimi (although boiled; raw ones are hard to find in a supermarket), nimono (simmered dishes), tempura, kara-age, salad, and so on. 2. Hoya: Sea squirt, often called sea pinapple. 3. Fish liver: Monkfish liver. 4. Self-breading: Yeah, saw-dust! 5. Red fish: Kinmedai, I guess. Kinmedai images Kinmedai no nitsuke (simmered kinmedai) is very popular: Kinmedai no nitsuke images 6. Sayori: Halfbeaks. They are very tasty. I posted some photos of sayori here 7. Horagai: They are sazae! You don't know Sazae-san (very famous anime)?! 8. Styrofoam: Styrofoam containers are recycled there. You can see the sign ryokinjo (tollbooth). 9. Miso soup: Tofu skin (yuba)? You mean abura-age (deep-fried tofu), right? 10. Perilla leaves: They are salted cherry leaves. 11. Hora in horagai: "Hora o fuku (= blow)" means to brag. If you need more answers to any of your questions, just let me know.

I did a quick google search and found that their moyashi (beansprouts) are seasoned with doubanjiang. from here (Japanese only) I did another search with two keywords moyashi and doubanjiang (in Japanese, of course), and this one came up first: http://mshun.blog32.fc2.com/blog-entry-178.html 1 pack moyashi 1 tsp doubanjiang 1/2 tsp ichimi togarashi 1/2 tsp instant dashi 1 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp sesame oil 1 or 2 knobs of garlic, grated Boil moyashi and combine all the ingredients together. You can find other recipes as well. Hope your husband can help you with translation!

I got kogome (kogomi) from a neighbor tonight. I posted a photo here. I like kogome!!

The Japanese may be starved to death in years to come unless appropriate measures are implemented now. Japan's food self-sufficiency was 39% in 2006, and is still decreasing. As for the present butter shortage, it's because some people are buying it up before the prices are raised.

Osen, another TV drama whose theme is food. It started last night (April 22) and I watched it. I highly recommend it.

I don't fully understand the "tone" of Peter's posts about Tsukiji Market. No intention to insult him or anyone else here, just my impression. I posted some photos of a tuna cut show here. It's more like a Shinto ritual, so to speak. Killing other creatures to sustain our lives is just another "fact of life", isn't it? (Do I make sense?)

I posted about the ramen I had for lunch today in my new blog: http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hiroyuki_yumoto/6971919.html Now I don't want to have instant ramen or very salty and/or fatty ramen served in ramen shop.

I don't think it's authentic. As for your ton katsu question: Ton = pork and katsu = cutlet As for sushi, let me just remind you that sushi isn't sashimi (raw fish) but vinegared rice plus other ingredients, which may be vegetables as well as raw and cooked fish and seafood.

Probably ike jime (活け締め). Hitchkokian? I've never heard of it. Is it similar to Kaimin Katsugyo? from here

My son's birthday is in April, and I asked him the other day, "Where do you want to eat out for your birthday?" Just as I had expected, he replied, "Tabataya". Tabataya is a soba restaurant here in the Shiozawa area. (If anyone is interested in the exterior and interior of the restaurant, visit my foodblog on eGullet.) We went there this evening. My daughter had a Shogakusei (Elementary school pupul) B Set: (Sorry, not a good photo. I was too lazy to take a good photo.) My son had a Ten (short for tempura) Zaru* Soba Set: *Zaru means colander, but actually means that the soba is topped with shredded nori, unlike mori soba, which is nori-less. And, I had a Tabataya Set: The cup with a lid on it contains chawanmushi. Behind it is a bowl of salad. My son's and my tempura dishes include fukinoto (butterbur sprout) tempura, which is in season. As I have mentioned before, the soba here in this snowry region contains funori (a type of seaweed), and is greenish, sleek, and very tasty. It was an acquired taste for me, and now really like it.

Rairai Ken (来来軒) in Asakusa in 1910. The shop isn't there now. *** You can learn about Napolitan from this episode: http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=whtpJyX_8O4

I'ms so sad that the episode liked to above has been deleted. But you can still view some episodes of Kuitan 2, like this one: http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=zc_uk5hu1VU&feature=related Watch it before it's deleted!

It may be mekajiki no tatsutaage or something like that... Yamagobo: I knew little about it. I learned that real yamagobo is toxic, and those roots sold as pickled yamagobo are actually the roots of azami. Description of yamagobo in English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytolacca_americana Description of azami in English http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thistle tobiko mushrooms: What are they? Enoki mushrooms? You went to that udon restaurant twice, and you didn't have simple Sanuki udon!? What a shame!

I made takikomi gohan with the middle part of the takenoko and clear soup with the hime kawa (姫皮 in kanji) called wakatake jiru (若竹汁), meaning young-bamboo-soup. Just when I started making stir-fry with the bottom part of the takenoko, ham, and green peppers, the bell rang. My sister-in-law brought us negi-toro rolls and nina (simmered green). So, I didn't make the stir-fry tonight. Both takikomi gohan and wakatake jiru were very good!

Some comments and questions from me: 1. Fish caviar cake: Isn't it komochi kombu (kombu with herring roe). It's a great souvenir for Japanese from Canada. Images of komochi kombu 2. Pickled vegetable in the cod dish: It looks like simmered daikon leaves and stems to me. Other possibilities: Takana, nozawana Images of takana Images of nozawana 3. Yamagogo: Yamagobo (lit. mountain burdock root)? 4. Shako: I've never seen or eaten such bright orange ones. Were they really shako. I thought they were mushi ebi (steamed shrimp). 5. Hiroki (sake): I did some googling and found it's from Hiroki Shuzo in Fukushima (福島) prefecture. 6. Takenoko (bamboo shoots)! It's that time of year again. I bought one yesterday, and posted photos of it in the shun no mono (spring) thread. Another great dinner, but as for me, I would like to concentrate on sushi alone.

Bought a big (2L) takenoko yesterday for 480 yen. It came with a small bag of kome nuka (rice bran). I simmered it for one hour in a big pot of water and the rice bran. I think I'll use the hime kawa (uppermost inner soft skins) for soup, the middle part for takikomi gohan, and the bottom part for some kind of stir-fry.

Don't feel left out even if you can't get sashimi-grade fish. In the very traditional edomae zushi (edo style sushi), almost every neta (topping) had some sort of "shigoto" (work) or "teate" (treatment) done on it, which means it was not rare. Even today, some neta require some sort of shigoto. For example, Anago (conger eel): Simmered Saba (horse mackerel): Pickled in vinegar (thus, shime-saba) Maguro (tuna) can be marinated in a soy sauce-based liquid to turn it into "zuke".

Akihabara vs. Akibahara Historically, the latter was correct, because there was a shrine there called Akiba Jinja (秋葉神社), but in 1890, a railway station was built there, and it was named Akihabara. Since then, Akihabara has become the official name, but there are still people who call the district Akibahara. To make things more complicated, the abbreviation for Akihabara is Akiba. I used to frequent Akihabara when I was much younger (11 to 16 years of age). I was one of those interested in "electronics". I used to go there to buy transistors, resistors, capacitors, coils, and so on (IC chips were still rare in those days). Akiba has changed so much since then, and unfortunately, has lost much of its allure for me.

I was clueless (I was born and bred in Tokyo), so I had to do some googling. There are some people who put konnyaku in their okonomiyaki. (Learning new things every day...) One person says that she tears konnyaku (probably into small pieces with her fingers or a spoon), and another says she cuts it into strings like "ito (= thread) konnyaku". Konnyaku has some odor, and is usually parboiled before use. According to one comment, bits of konnyaku are also good in takoyaki, instead of octopus. Here is one example: http://orion-belt.air-nifty.com/blog/2007/08/post_450a.html Scroll down to view the sixth photo. The fifth photo shows bits of chikuwa (tubular fish paste).

I've never heard of brining fish before serving it as sashimi or as ingredients for sushi. (Sashimi is not synonymous with sushi.) You need sashimi-grade fish, which is fresh enough to eat raw. Some fish and seafood may have parasites in them, such as salmon and firefly squid. Such fish and seafood must be frozen or boiled to kill those parasites before being served.

Another big thank you to you, MoGa! And, thanks for sharing your great experiments. Here are some comments on my past experiences: I have found that my furikake recipe doesn't work for canned tuna. The resulting furikake just doesn't taste good. I prefer simply draining the canned tuna, putting it on top of hot rice, and pouring some soy sauce. A very easy lunch. My furikake recipe doesn't work for salmon, either. I prefer simply heating and drying unsalted salmon (not canned) in a frying pan with a spatula, with some sake added, and seasoning it very lightly with salt. When I have it with rice, I pour some soy sauce on it for flavoring.

OK, I'll sneak in this time. They are daifuku, sweets basically made with mochi + sugar with anko (bean paste) filling. The top package contains shio (salt) daifuku, and the bottom one yomogi (mugwort) daifuku. 昔ながらのこだわり = Mukashi nagara no kodawari, roughly "sticking to the old tradition" The filling is "tsubu an" (sweetened azuki bean paste with husks not removed) for both types. "Koshi an" is an with husks removed. Second photo: It's dried squid! It's usually called surume in Japanese, but this particular one has "yaki atarime" printed on its package. Atarime is another name for surume. The word has been coined because suru in surume has some bad meanings like fail. Atari roughly means win.

Thanks for another great report. I didn't know anything about that udon restaurant, Turutontan, so I had to google. Surprisingly, the restaurant chain was produced by Mari Natsuki, a singer. She did the voice of Yubaba in that movie, "Sprited Away"! Is this just a coincidence or did you do this on purpose?

My son is into sansai around this time of year. Yesterday, he gathered some young leaves of hahakogusa and asked me to make them into ohitashi (simply boiled). We had the ohitashi with ponzu. It wasn't bad at all. A description of hahakogusa in English And, today, he gathered some tsukushi, and asked me to make them into ohitashi again. Heads and hakama (skirts?) of tsukushi, which my son and daugher removed from the stems: It wasn't bad, either, but last year, I made them into tsukudani (simmered with soy sauce, mirin, and sake), and I thought that tsukushi tsukudani was tastier. A description of tsukushi (and sugina) in English

Does "used kombu" sound so intriguing? The kombu was used to make ramen broth. The board calls it "okazu kombu", not "used kombu", though. "Okazu" means something to eat with a staple (usually rice). The board also says the kombu is good for ochazuke and as an appetizer for sake. We tasted the kombu when we returned home, and found it was very good!