Hiroyuki

I don't have one. As you may know, they are dying out. You can use an ohitsu for other purposes, of course, like using it as a wine cooler, but most native Japanese including me wouldn't feel like using it for other purposes. Sushi oke 寿司桶 do not have lids.

Keisan (lit. calculation) sounds strange to me. For the record, I was born and bred in Tokyo, was there until I was 30, and I speak standard Japanese.

John, genshu 原酒 raw sake, naturally. Get a genshu with a high alcohol content of 20% or greater. http://jizakewine.com/sake%20htm/kajitusyu.htm Helen, I think I should give it a try some day and report back. shinju, strawberry shu sounds good, but strawberries are expensive in Japan!

What I would like to know, is how japanese shrimp shipping and handling move this expensive creature around the country. The answer could provide a means to a greater range of distribution for Gulf of Maine shrimp. Seeing as the price is almost 40x that of the North Atlantic variety, I think an investment in more careful handling would pay off. ← Sorry, I noticed I had made a terrible mistake there. 2,000 yen per kg translates into 909 yen per pound. I don't know how ama ebi are transported from the Sea of Japan to the wholesale market here, but the sushi chef says that when he buys them early in the morning, they are still alive. Edited to add: Needless to say, fresh domestic ones are served only at traditional sushi shops and high-end Japanese restaurants. Cheap imported ones (frozen) are served at conveyor sushi restaurants.

I read something in a short story where someone had 「スコッチの水割り」(scotch cut with water), would you call this 「お湯割り」(cut with hot water)? I have to admit I don't know much about hard alcohol and its drinking practices but if you could tell me what kind of ideas there are about this kind of drink in Japan I'd be very interested to learn. What kind of people usually drink them? Is this a native practice or something that came along with western alcohols? I understand that there may be a complex answer due to the vagueness of my questions, so I apologize in advance. Thanks for any illumination you can provide. ← I'm not Helen, but let me give you some answer. I like my umeshu on the rocks, even in winter. There are some (many?) Japanese who like to drink shochu (Japanese distilled spirit) mixed with hot water (shochu no oyuwari 焼酎のお湯割り). Somehow, I don't like to drink shochu that way. I like to have shochu with ice and water (shochu no mizuwari).

Oops, thanks for that. I hope I'm not misleading anyone. I think I should leave the Japanese lessons to you, heh. ← I appreciate your post, like anyone else.

This is the recipe I think I'll follow if I ever get a donabe. You may say, "YOU DON'T HAVE A DONABE??" No, I don't. There are all sorts of reasons why I don't. One caution: You can't get good gohan (cooked rice) unless you cook okome (uncooked rice) for at least 20 minutes, as the recipe says.

Haha, I had forgotten all about that. ← Yes, they do. I found the site of the former: http://www8.plala.or.jp/tsukijiyamamoto/YAM99.htm

Fascinating thread, johnnyd. I didn't realize until today that this and other related threads are about what the Japanese call ama ebi (lit. sweet shrimp). I posted some photo of ama ebi here. Strictly speaking, ama ebi are not exactly the same as your shrimp, but are very similar. In Japan, they are too expensive to cook; we usually simply have them as sashimi and as toppings for sushi.

Not me.

I can't speak for others, but as for me, I just have to throw it out. I think this differs from municipality to municipality, but in my city, only white trays can be sent for recycling.

What has become of your umeshu making so far? Today, I had the first taste of the umeshu my mother made for me this June. I never asked her to make it for me, but she made all of these three large bottles of umeshu and gave them to me when we visted my parents last June... I had this much tonight as a nightcap, which means I'm a little drunk now. The umeshu is about six months old, and it tastes much better and much less sweet than I thought. I think I'll regularly have it as a nightcap. Good night!

You don't mean Koreans in general don't eat abalones, do you?

The other day, I bought some buri (yellowtail) sashimi and anko kimo (monkfish liver). I almost laughed when I saw the label. The monkfish liver was from Boston. Closeup of the monkfish liver: We had it with the supplied sudachi ponzu. (Sudachi is a kind of citrus fruit.) We weren't very fascinated by it, and I thought it had some grit in it. Last Monday, I had a craving for nigiri, but my three-star traditional sushi shop is a 30-minute ride from my house, so I settled on this one, which I bought at a supermarket. 680 yen I didn't want to have fridge-cold shari (vinegared rice), so I left the pack on the table at room temperature for almost one hour before eating, but it was still cold and hard. Now that I am a better judge of nigiri, I was a little disappointed by the store-bought nigiri. Maybe I should have removed all the neta (toppings) from the shari, reheated the shari in the microwave for some time, and put the neta back on the shari. Hitohada (human skin temperature) shari is really a key to good sushi.

Today, it's been snowing since last night, and this sushi shop is a 30-minute ride from my house, but I decided to go there again for lunch. (Just in case you are wondering, this shop has become a three-star restaurant of mine since I had sushi there for the first time in late October.) When I sat at the counter, I immediately noticed this big abalone. I tentatively asked the chef just about how much it was. He hesitated to give me a straight answer, saying that it was about 7,000 to 8,000 yen per kg (2.2 pounds). He also said that there were no other (traditional) sushi shops around his that offer abalone nigiri for 500 yen a piece. I had a nigiri set. 1,050 yen, including a cup of coffee and a cup of chawanmushi. The white fish one, second from left in the top row, is matou dai (John dory, target dory). I also had two ko-buri (small yellowtail) nigiri and one kohada nigiri. Buri: 200 yen per piece Kohada: 150 yen Closeup of ko-buri nigiri I know most of you have already been tired of looking at photos of the same old nigiri, but I'm never been tired of having sushi at this sushi shop. I had kept wondering when this sushi shop would start offering kan-buri (yellowtails caught in the winter, when they are in season).The fact is that the catches of yellowtails have been so low this winter, causing their prices to skyrocket. The chef said that when he talked with the fishmonger in Sado Island yesterday, he learned that 10-kg yellowtails were 5,500 yen per kg and even the fishmonger couldn't buy any. He previously told me that yellowtails cost about 2,500 yen per kg. I hope I can have some kan-buri before the end of this year. The chef started making preparations for dinner. Okoze (stonefish): Anko (monkfish) Monkfish liver It's raw. It's usually steamed before serving. The chef says that monkfish is good in various dishes and even as sashimi, but that it is usually used in nabe (one-pot dishes) at his shop. Stay tuned for another dinner post. This thread won't end until I have some kan-buri and report back.

You may not believe this, but the Japanese usually don't eat oysters raw (some do, of course, if they are fresh enough). Our favoriate way to cook them is to bread and deep-fry them. Images of deep-fried oysters

Why doesn't Kansai get the Zeppin Cheese Burger? Poor Kansai...we never get any respect! ← I hope that they will start selling it in all of its stores in April 2008, as they initially planned.

Lotteria started selling "Zeppin Cheese Burger" 絶品チーズバーガー (where zeppin means exquisite) on Nov. 30 at 48 of its stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area, but they suddenly stopped selling them yesterday due to high demand. They say they will start selling them again on Dec. 7, an average of 200 per day (at each shop?). The burger is 360 yen, and a set menu including french fries (M) and drink (M) is 650 yen. Links to related sites (in Japanese): http://lotteria.jp/campaign/20071130-2/index.html http://lotteria.jp/news/20071130-2/index.html A review of the burger (in Japanese): http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/d-style/article...29/news071.html Lotteria was one of my favorite burger chains when I lived in Tokyo. I think their burgers are better than others. I wish I could taste the Zeppin Burger!

ニュートラスウィート can also be spelled ニュートラスイート. The product name for NUTRASWEET in Japan is パルスイート (Pal Sweet?).

That is the population of the Kanto Plane, isn't it? The population of Tokyo's 23 wards is much smaller, about 8.6 million, and the guide talks about retaurants in those 23 wards. I'm not qualified to talk about the guide, but I think it has succeeded in getting a lot of attention of the Japanese people. As you may know, the Japanese like to listen to what "gaijin" have to say. ← Thanks for the correction. 35 Million is Kanto, yeah. Probably 40 million now. 8.6 million is Tokyo's population. 8.25 is NY's population. I'd argue that FAR more people commute into Tokyo than NYC, and that Tokyo is much further developed than NYC's 5 boroughs, but still, Tokyo kicked NY's ass apparently... I still think you will find a much wider variety of INTERNATIONAL food in NYC, but lord knows I miss Tokyo for having so many goddamn excellent restaurants. Watch out guys, I'm moving back. You guys will enjoy this: http://nymag.com/daily/food/2007/11/how_to...michelin_c.html I disagree with the author's contention that good food must be expensive. I don't care if you're "qualified" to talk about the guide - what do the locals think? is what I still want to know. I don't think a bunch of French gourmands are "qualified" to judge Japanese food - but there they went. I should publish my own guide! ← Do you remember that there are class A, B, C, and even S gourmets, like I mentioned here? Edited to add a smilie at the end.

I browsed through several sites and found some even said that miso-pickled yolks tasted better than uni (sea urchin). This one is hilarious. This guy tried "sauce", yakiniku no tare, ajinomoto (MSG), ika no shiokara, mayo, and yogurt instead of miso. He says that the ones pickled in ika no shiokara were the best and the ones in mayo and yogurt didn't set. As for me, I wonder what John did with the whites of his expensive eggs.

Thanks for your replies, the three of you. I'm a bit surprised that all of you stressed personal preferences rather than the very core of what a good hamburger should be, but I can see from your posts that there are some basic characteristics of a good hamburger that everyone will agree on, just like sushi has to meet some basic requirements to be called good (careful shigoto (work) on fresh neta, hitohada (human skin temp.) shari, a proper neta-to-shari ratio, etc.). The same goes for soba ("san tate" (three "just's", i.e., just ground, just made, and just boiled). I had a 200-yen chicken tatsuta age burger in the cafeteria in a local supermarket for lunch today, which wasn't bad by my standards, wondering what you would all say about this and other Japanese-style burgers.

One of the vegetables that my son succeeded in growing this year: Bocchan kabocha (坊ちゃんかぼちゃ). (Photo taken on July 28) We really liked this particular variety of kabocha because it's small, much smaller (about 500 g, a little over one pound) than other varieties and contains three to four times as much beta-carotene as others. You can view some photos of bocchan kabocha here and here, with some explanations IN JAPANASE.

OK, so will someone enlighten me as to what a good hamburger is? The bun should be (for example, crispy)... The patty should be (for example, 100% beef)...

This is a bit embarassing for my first post but.... I think you missed an "n," making it "none" not "one." This makes it quite literally an issue of one: one letter, one rank. I'm just learning Japanese so I'm very happy to find such an interesting forum! Thanks for everyone's contribution. ← Thanks for the correction! Yes! None, not one. (Where's the blush smilie?)