Hiroyuki

That's true in Kanto, too. Izakaya are another type of restaurant where customers like to say "Oaiso!" in a loud voice. In a normal restaurant, I don't say anything, either. In a small, family-run traditional sushi shop like the one in this thread, I feel like saying, "Suimasen, o-kanjo onegaishimasu." or something like that. That depends on a number of factors, including whether you sit at the counter or a table, whether the chef is attentive to you, and whether you have a companion. Suppose that I sit alone at a table of a restaurant where I am not a regular, I don't say gochisousama immediately after finishing the meal, say nothing or suimasen (or suimasen o-kanjo) when I stand up and walk to the register, and say gochisousama to the cashier as I leave the restaurant. Caution: This is my personal answer. Different native Japanese may have different opinions.

I think chopstick rubbing has nothing to do with etiquette and it's simply a habit. I wouldn't say it's a bad habit, but personally, I don't do this. After having checked this video, which explains chopstick rubbing as a handy hint, I have to think how difficult to learn the culture of another country.

A recipe I know of uses raw yolks. Maybe you could try both methods.

Of course, I have! It's not so unusual as you might think.

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.

It's a seasonal thing for me. I never think of takikomi gohan until Fall/Winter season when a greater variety of mushrooms are abundant. ← Yep, it is seasonal. Bamboo shoots in the spring and mushrooms in the fall. And, I can't deny that takikomi gohan has some inexplicable appeal to the Japanese people. It looks so rich to the Japanese eye.

You mean susuwatari すすわたり and neko basu ネコバス?

Sorry, I don't remember much about his gojiru. Just the same old greens, I suppose. I did some googling but found no particularly good ingredients for gojiru.

Soy milk! That reminds me of gojiru 呉汁. It was a favoriate of my father's. For those of you who don't know about it, gojiru is made by soaking soy beans in water (overnight), grinding them in a suribachi, and adding them to miso soup.

Thanks for the link, raji. I have just checked all the items on the menu. I've been impressed by Yuba Harumaki, Ika KariKari Salad, and Unagi(!) Ishiyaki Don among others. They really are Sino-Japanese fusion dishes. So, what do YOU think of their dishes?? I did some googling and found that the (female?) owner is from Takarazuka and is a beauty! Chen Kenichi a celerbiry chef? Hmmm.......... He is well known, of course, but Iron Chef was a TV show after all.

I've never heard of this. I did some googling, but nothing came up. Another joke about mysterious Japanese culture?

A common term is o-kanjo お勘定. I usually say: Suimasen, o-kanjo onegaishimasu. すいません、お勘定お願いします。 Execuse me, bill please. You can also simply say: O-kanjo. or Suimasen, o-kanjo. or O-kanjo onegaishimasu. As I said in the sushi etiquette thead, it's not appropriate for a customer to use the word oaiso From here This is WRONG! But I must admit there are some Japanese who mistakenly like to use this and other fucho (or ingo). They probably think that they can impress the staff by using those words. I briefly described fucho (or ingo) here in this thread.

Of course, I can identify and name many of the items there, but it's a little time-consuming to name them all. So, I would suggest (since you seem to be a teacher somewhere) to give your students an assignment: Name all the kitchen items in the photo. Or, you can simply ask some kind Japanese around you for help.

I still have one more thing to say: From the webpage about sushi etiquette, The word oaiso is a fucho or ingo, as I mentioned elsewhere. I usually avoid using those fucho at the counter, so I usually say, "Suimasen, o-kanjo" (Execuse me, check please) instead. This is ridiculous. Such words as murasaki, agari (tea), and oaiso (check), collectively known as fucho (符丁) or ingo (隠語), are for use by those behind the counter (chef, servers, and so on), and those sitting at the counter (customers) should not use them. Note, however, that some of these terms, such as neta and shari, have become so commonplace that I use them without hesitation when I talk to a sushi chef. Thus, I think it is recommended to use those fucho sparingly and tentatively. The counter is not a place where you show off your knowledge of sushi but show your interest in it. Be a good questioner and listener, and the chef will appreciate your attitude. Don't "pretend to be a connoisseur" ("tsuu buru" in Japanese).

Thank you Hiroyuki-san for the kuitan episode, I did not know about "kan". So "gunkan" means a ship "kan". It seems that the number in a "kan" can be confusing for Japanese people also. I hope that 10 cent sushi will return again some day. So the prices on the wall in your photos are for two pieces. My original question was actually only about sushi served at sushi bar or sushi counter in Japan; I know that kaitenzushi is almost always in pairs in all countries. (Exception: the Viking (all you can eat) place in Shinsaibashi arcade in Namba, Osaka about 100 metres north of Ebisu-bashi - only one piece per dish. That place is very inexpensive, only 980 yen at lunchtime for all you can eat, but customer pig-like behaviour is disgusting and food is only just edible, so I cannot recommend it for any reason other than price). ← OK, I may have misread your question. Yes, "kan" is confusing to Japanese. "Kan" in "gunkan" 軍艦 (warship) has nothing to do with the counter "kan" 貫. The prices on the board on the wall are for one piece. The board explicitly says ikko 一個 (one piece). I think they avoid the use of kan because it's ambiguous. As I mentioned way upthread, traditional sushi shops are about twice as expensive as kaitenzushi restaurants. You should be careful when ordering sushi in a traditional sushi shop in Japan because if you don't explicitly specify how many you want, the chances are that you will get two pieces of the same nigiri. If you want to avoid using 'kan', you can use ko, mentioned above. ikko (not ichi ko) = one piece ni ko = two pieces san ko = three pieces yon ko = four pieces Or, you can also say hitotsu = one piece futatsu = two pieces mittsu = thress pieces yottsu = four pieces

I still have an upset stomach due to having that creamy tofu three hours ago. Now I really don't understand all the fuss that people make about Otokomae tofu. When I first read John's initial post about it, I almost asked, "Do you want creaminess in tofu??" But I thought it was a bit offensive then. Now I can say that I don't want creaminess in tofu.

I bought this one from Otokomae. It's silken tofu. I'm not sure how it's called, but I think it's Tetsuo. It's creamy and dense like other Otokomae tofu. My children and I had it as hiyayakko (cold tofu) with ponzu. None of us liked it. My son said, "I like regular tofu better." My daughter had only two pieces. I had almost all of the 300-g Tetsuo, and I was almost tired of eating it. I don't think it goes well with rice. I will never buy this expesensive (198 yen) tofu again, and I don't want to try other products of Otokomae. Edited to add: I was right. The product name is Tetsuo.

dare i ask... what are the complete chopstick rules? ← Sorry, I can't list all bad manners about chopsticks. This webpage lists some under "Bad manners:". This Wikipedia page in Japanese contains a near complete list of more than 20 entries, such as pulling a dish or plate with chopsticks and pointing something or someone with chopsticks. I don't know whether this webpage has been linked to somewhere on eGullet before, but it does contains some nice suggestions on sushi eating practice. If you haven't tried to eat sashimi in the way Kristin mentioned upthread and if you haven't tried to eat sushi in the way Fat Guy proposes, I do think they are worth trying.

In all the kaitenzushi restaurants I've been to (in Japan), sushi nigiri always comes in pairs, that is, one plate has on it two pieces of nigiri with the same toppings. The counter 'kan' 貫 used to mean two pieces, but nowadays, it often means one piece. Watch this Kuitan episode, and you will know more about about 'kan'. A similar situation once occurred to me when I asked the chef "... 1 kan please". He asked, "One piece?", and I said yes.

Like Kristin has confirmed, this is simply personal preference. Another thing I want to say is that while there are strict dos and don'ts about the handling of chopsticks in Japan, there really are no strict sushi etiquette and manners in the Western sense and that you should be careful when asking questions to native Japanese because not all Japanese are the same. Some are snobs, some want to impress you by saying impressive things, some want to tease you and say stupid things, and others are lenient like me.

Today's edition of Me Ga Ten, which featured soba, was very interesting. On her first try, Ms. Sato failed to make juwari (100% buckwheat) soba because she failed to knead the dough while distributing the water evenly. On her second try, she used a special gagdet: an atomizer. She sprayed water evenly and repeatedly while kneding the dough, and succeeded in making smooth dough that did not crumble. The TV show also proved the importance of slurping soba. When you slurp up soba, you inhale some air together with the soba, which then passes through the nose, with the flavor of soba.

Yes. Sushi is often served in the USA either with a mound of wasabi on the plate, or at cheaper kaiten-zushi places (rotating conveyor belt sushi bars), wasabi is readily available in containers at the counter. Almost all the wasabi is made from the powdered stuff -- not freshly ground wasabi root. ← THANKS!! That clear up everything for me. As for wasabi, the same goes for Japan, too. I've been so used to fake wasabi since birth that when I had the first taste of real wasabi, I wasn't very fascinated by it.

I'm getting more confused! I still don't understand the sushi (not sashimi) eating practice in the United States. Am I right in understanding that when eating sushi, many of you mix wasabi and soy sauce together in a small plate and dip a piece of sushi in the mixture and that (from Fat Guy's description upthread) wasabi is readily available somewhere (on the plate on the sushi is placed, at the counter, or on the table)? Sushi No wasabi on the plates. Sashimi Wasabi provided on the plates. To view all other photos, go to this thread in the Japan Forum.

I made tanin don for supper tonight. Tanin don is the same as oyako don except that the meat used is not chicken but another meat, usually pork. I used the 3:1:1 ratio for the dashi, soy sauce, and mirin. Thus, for 3 servings: 300 ml dashi 100 ml soy sauce 100 ml mirin 1 onion approx. 350 g thinly sliced pork 2 eggs per serving, 6 (= 2 x 3) in total Edited to add: I later googled and found that beef is more common in Kansai (area in and around Osaka). Pork is more common in Kanto (area in and around Tokyo). I also found that in this dish is also called kaika don (開化丼) in Kanto. I'm a Kanto man, but I'm never heard of this word.

jean_jenie: I have just finished watching the TV show, Tabi Sarada, on channel 10, which featured Noto. I've been there once back in my twenties, and I still remember how good and fresh the seafood was that was offered at the cheap Japanese inn (less than 10,000 yen per night if I remember correctly). And, yes, it's fire. After the second dinner there, my son said he liked the sazae tsuboyaki very much, much better than the sazae sashimi and wanted to have it again. I, for one, like sazae sashimi better. Helen: Maybe I should visit your native little fishing village after I learn all the necessary fish filleting and slicing skills, and go on a spree, buying all the cheap fish I can find. As you know, not all white fish are the same. In fact, every white fish has its own unique flavor and texture. I know that kawahagi can never be good as normal sashimi (probably 1-cm thick slices). The same goes for fugu (puffer fish, blowfish). I once saw the famous TV show, Me Ga Ten, in which Mr. Yano ate thick slices of fugu. They were very tough and chewy, and were almost inedible! The thin slices of kawahagi were good enough, but the kawahagi tempura was super tasty partly because it was served very hot. shinju: I like sazae, especially sazae sashimi, but I am no big fan of awabi. It's too chewy for my taste. John: Like the chef frequently says (to his wife, according to her blog), white fish are "oku ga fukai" (more profound, complicated than they appear). I may have different opinions about kawahagi if I have it today and tomorrow because it will be probably less chewy and tastier. When fresh, a white fish can be simply tasteless and chewy, making me think that it's all about texture. To my question, "Oh, so you don't use a fugu hiki to make usuzukuri," the chef replied, The point is that you have only to cut it thin. For novices, the trouble is that this is not so easy as he says. Edited to add some more comments about sazae tsuboyaki: First take out the flesh, remove only the sunabukuro (sandbag, what's the right term in English?), cut the flesh into small pieces, put them back to the shell, season with sake and soy sauce, and top it with a quail egg. Put some salt on a plate and alcohol. The salt has the effect of stabilizing the shell. Set fire and serve. Sounds delicious, right?