Hiroyuki

We bought several Ak-ihime plants three years ago. I wonder if Tochiotome, developed in Tochigi prefecture, is suited to the climate here. If I had to buy some this year, I would buy Echigo-hime. Here is some info on this variety: My father is interested in hydroponics. There is a large-scale hydroponics farm not far from his house, which looks much like a high-tech plant. It's his age (80 this year) that holds him back. He says that if he were ten years younger, he would definitely try hydroponics. As for your adoption , let me say that neither my brother nor I have no intention to follow in his footsteps, and he still places hopes on my son, who is a mushroom maniac.

Off-topic: As I said in the last post here, I had the okonomiyaki-like thing for lunch today. I cut it into four equal parts, and I asked my children if they wanted to have it. They said yes. Just as I imagined, it tasted great. Topped with beni shoga, ao nori, bonito flakes, and yakisoba sauce. My dauther also added mayo and ketchup to her portion. We are going to have tendon (tempura donburi) with the leftover tempura for supper tonight.

I found it. Uomachi-Gintengai (Japanese only), built in October 1951 in Kita kyushu city, is the first arcaded shopping mall in Japan. As for the vivid red shrimp, of course! Some coloring agent added. As for the prawn on Colonel Sanders's head (is it really a prawn?), I don't know why, but you can see him in strange attire in Japan. Kabuto, kimono, and so on. Someone posted a photo of Sanders wearing yukata and holding a slice of watermelon here. As for the statue in the park, I need some more information such as the name of the park to give you an answer.

I made fukinoto tempura for supper tonight at long last. Don't confuse fukinoto (flowering stalks) with fuki (leaf stalks). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuki Sweet potato, gisu (Pterothrissus gissu, deepsea bonefish), and store-bought(!) fukinoto. I had never thought of buying fukinoto at a store in my rural city. The thing is, since we moved to a new house three years ago, we hadn't been able to find the right place to get clean(!) wild fukinoto. When we lived in a resort condo in the mountains, fukinoto were just everywhere around us. When my son and I went shopping together yesterday, he saw packs of fukinoto for sale at a store, and he said he wanted to buy some, so we did. But today, my son found some nice wild fukinoto on his way back from school. So, I ended up tempura'ing a total of 23 fukinoto, big and small. (It was my son, not me, who counted the the number of fukinoto.) Tempura'ing in progress: Done: After I finished tempura'ing the fukinoto, sweet potato, and fish, I got this amount of tenkasu: One fukinoto, dipped in the dipping sauce: I added a pack of dried ko ebi (small shrimp) and the tenkasu shown above to the remaining tempura batter, and pan-fried it. This okonomiyaki-like thing should taste good. I think I'll have it for lunch tomorrow, with beni shoga (red pickled ginger), ao nori (a type of seaweed), bonito flakes, and yakisoba sauce (I'm out of okonomiyaki and takoyaki sources). I used only hakuriki ko (low-gluten flour), eggs, and water to make tempura batter. No other additives added, like starch or baking powder.

My father makes miso by himself. He says that the only ingredients are soy beans, koji, and salt. He is proud of his miso, and gave me about 5.5 kg of it the other day, but I don't think it's as good as he says it is... I can't help remembering this word: temae miso (self-praise).

I visited my parents, who live in Chiba, on March 28 through 30. My father likes to grow all kinds of vegetables and fruits. Let me show you just some of them. Small vinyard in front of the house: He also has a bigger vinyard on a rented farm nearby. He grows Kyoho (called the king of grapes in Japan), Stuben, Delaware, and "King Dela (short for Delaware?)". Nabana (not sure of the English name) The leaves are slightly bitter, but are good as ohitashi (boiled). Cherry tree: The great thing about this tree is that it bears fruit (around the end of May, if I remember correctly)! My father also has an apricot tree, a peach tree, a shidare zakura (a type of cherry) tree, some ume trees, and some kaki (both ama (sweet) gaki and shibu (astringent) gaki) trees around the house. Logs for growing shiitake mushrooms: He bought them from a neighbor, who owns land in the mountains. On a rented farm, he harvests spinach: Wheat seedlings He currently grows negi, cabbage, strawberries (which he says he failed to grow properly this season), and many others. (I simply can't remember them all.) Yuzu tree: On this rented farm, he also has some amanatsu (a type of citrus) trees, some other citrus trees (I forgot what they are), some chestnut trees, and other types of tree. Very impressive! Because my father failed to grow his strawberries properly this season, he took us to a nearby strawberry farm where we had as many strawberries as we could for 1,300 yen per person within 30 minutes. The strawberries looked good, but actually, they were tasteless. We tried some strawberries, which weren't many, in my father's greenhouse later, and found them very fragrant and delicious.

Kaitenyaki is what they call the crepe looking things. I'm not familiar with that name. I think I called them obanyaki when I was small. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagawayaki Can I just sneak in and leave rather than jumping in?

Ganmodoki

Thank you, Dianabanana! Did you have it with rice? I've also made this and can say it's been a big success (I've now made it with mackeral and I've also tried it with canned tuna, which was also delicious). Perfect for lunch (with rice of course) and as a late night snack. We love it! thank you so much! --- Alternative use for Yukari Furikake (shiso gohan) This is the powdered perilla/beafsteak plant leaves - ingredients are usually red shiso, salt, sugar, amino and malic acids. Add a tablespoon to 2-4 whole pickled beetroots and mash beetroots with fork. Leave for 5-10 minutes and combine beetroot pulp with your choice of - mayonnaise, creme fraiche/sour cream, yoghurt, thick cream (we generally like a combination of mayonnaise and creme fraiche or yoghurt - or just leave out the dairy products entirely). Delicious with new potatoes, salmon and salad. Ideally, I make this with one or two ume mashed in with the beetroot, but this isn't necessary. I came up with the shiso powder and beetroot combination after running out of ume, and both my parents as well as my husband enjoyed it. It's now a favourite fish and salad dressing. ← Thank you, MoGa! Do post a photo of your use of Yukari! It's impossible for me to imagine what the whole pickled beetroots and mash beetroots are... As for my furikake, do you use mirin or sugar?

Had sushi dinner at this sushi shop tonight with my two children on my way back from the hospital. (My wife has been in and out of hospital since April last year, and she is in.) My daughter had an Okosama Sushi Set (840 yen), with panna cotta instead of regular custard pudding. No photo (because I have already posted photos of the Set). My son had a sazae no tsubo yaki (turban shell cooked in its shell) (400 yen), a negi toro don (donburi with minced fatty tuna and chopped green onion) (2,4?? yen), and a complimentary panna cotta. Closeup of the negi toro don: I had today's nigiri: Hirame (left-eye flounder), shime saba (mackerel pickled in vinegar), nama tako (raw octopus), sakura masu (cherry salmon), awabi (abalone), and nanban ebi (sweet shrimp). 1,300 yen. Hirame is actually hirame engawa (fin muscle). It's good to be a regular. I also had sakura masu no isobe furai (cherry salmon with laver breaded and deep-fried) 700 yen. It was so good I almost order another. I also had a "jo" sushi: 1785 yen. Closeup of the hotaru ika (firefly squids), which are now in season: I looked at the menu carefully, and noticed this set for the very first time (silly me): Pickled vegetables, miso soup, appetizer (octopus roe seasoned with soy sauce today), and dessert (houji cha (roasted green tea) ice cream), all for only 150 yen. (I already had one complimentary miso soup before ordering this set.) Closeup of the octopus roe: The chef showed me one nanban ebi again. It was still alive. I finally ordered four sakura masu nigiri, one each for my children and two for myself: 210 yen each. Sakura masu and other fish in the show case: I just had to order sakura masu nigiri, because it is in season right now. I had the dessert (roasted green tea ice cream) at the end. My children had the same dessert for free. Lucky children! The bill came to 8,505 yen. We all liked the sakura masu nigiri! Made some corrections.

Neko matagi ねこまたぎ 猫跨ぎ From here Fish that is so bad that even a cat (neko) would pass over (matagu) it. Thus, neko matagi. Interestingly, toro (fatty tuna) was called neko matagi until the advent of modern refrigeration technology.

In Japan, mayonnaise was first produced and sold by Kewpie in March 1925. Kewpie is still the top brand. I usually buy Kewpie.

Otaku is お宅 (roughly, your house). Those who are "otaku" address the second person (you) "otaku", rather than omae, kimi, or anata.

Happoushu is 発泡酒. I didn't know, but there are two types of daisan beer 第三のビール: その他の醸造酒（発泡性）（1） Other brewed sake (sparkling) (1) リキュール（発泡性）（1） Liqueur (sparkling) (1)

Thank you, Dianabanana! Did you have it with rice? As I said in my foodblog, it's also good on Japanese pizza! Put some furikake, some additional sesame seeds, and cheese on pizza (no tomato sauce). When the pizza is done, sprinkle some bonito flakes (and some soy sauce).

All I can think of at the moment is tanuki, as in tanuki soba and tanuki udon. Entry of tanuki in Wikipedia (Japanese only) I will provide some more info when and if I come up with other examples.

The top right one is matcha kintoki (green tea powder and azuki jam). Kintoki means a type of azuki bean. I think that beer and edamame are a perfect match! Besides, drinking alcohol alone is bad for your stomach, right? I can't have alcohol without some tsumami, chinmi, or sake no sakana (appetizer). Sushi: The yellow one is herring roe (kazunoko), right. Is it fatty? The white fish I can't identify. It's so hard to identify a white fish.

Hey, that's interesting. The hire zake is made by a brewery in Niigata! http://www.hakuryu-sake.com/shohin/fuguhire.html Hakuryu shuzo. Here's a blog that shows some photos of the sake: http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/cmfqq054/29209266.html Now, do you really want to buy it?

Fugu hire zake (fugu fin sake), with a special warm-up device. You can warm up the sake in five minutes. Nation's first hire zake (really?) So, where are you? Are you in any of the photos?

Was there any "Toffee Surprise" on offer? Thanks, Hiroyuki! So, if you can't see the circles, the sake isn't clear enough? ← We are talking about sake, that is, seishu (refined sake), so I don't think that this will ever happen. I think the circles are for determining subtle differences in clarity.

Thanks for your detailed report. What interests me the most is the ingredients of your kaeshi and their ratio. I have made kaeshi once, using only three ingredients: mirin, soy sauce, and sugar. 20 parts soy sauce? ← Yes 20 parts usukuchi soy sauce. I have been told that kaeshi should be 100% usukuchi shoyu to 10% mirin by volume. Other additions vary. My kaeshi is sort of a combination of different things I have heard/researched. I am still changing this recipe which is why I didn't put it on recipe gullet. It is pretty close to udon shop udon but still not quite there. Maybe it's the atmosphere. ← Thanks. I did some googling and realized that udon kaeshi was different from soba kaeshi. I found one udon kaeshi recipe: http://allabout.co.jp/gourmet/udon/closeup/CU20020117tuyu/ which calls for: 500 cc usukuchi 50 g sugar 60 cc mirin 50 cc sake I know that kaeshi can be good, but I can't bring myself to make it... As for udon noodles, I like frozen ones (store-bought).

Thanks for your detailed report. What interests me the most is the ingredients of your kaeshi and their ratio. I have made kaeshi once, using only three ingredients: mirin, soy sauce, and sugar. 20 parts soy sauce?

Protein? I don't know. From the manufacturer's website: Raw materials: malt, hop, barley, sugars About the building: C'est la vie SQUARE Nakaza. http://www.nakaza.net/ The cute animal is, of course, a tanuki. The cup used for sake tasting (kiki zake in Japanese) is called a kiki choko. (I didn't know how it was called, so I had to google.) The blue circles are used to check the clarity of sake. Horsemeat is called baniku in Japanese, but it's also called sakura niku (cherry meat), which sounds less offensive, right? Baniku sashimi is called basashi.

The "beer" on the left is a happoushu, Nama Shibori Migaki Mugi. http://www.namashibori.com/ You mean you didn't like it?

I bought a pack of mebaru (rockfish) sashimi for tonight's supper. The rockfish is now called a haru tsuge uo (spring-announcing fish). (The herring used to be called a haru tsuge uo.) I was fascinated by the kingyo sou (snapdragon) flower used as a garnish. The orange seafood on the right is aoyagi (gaka gai) (Mactra chinensis). I also bought two other packs: maguro (tuna) and tai (sea bream) so I could get a discount (1,000 yen for 3 packs), instead of 398 yen per pack. I'm going to use the shredded daikon for miso soup tomorrow morning. I'm glad that spring has finally come to my snowy region.