Hiroyuki

I used to be like your mom, and I am still like her sometimes. As I become more serious about cooking, I'm more inclined to stick to certain ratios so that I can reproduce the same flavors anytime just like a professional chef. For example, when I made simmered hijiki last night, I followed the dashi, soy sauce, and mirin ratio of 10:1:1 that was mentioned in the book, but when I made simmered kabocha tonight, I didn't follow the 15:1:1 ratio mentioned in the book, because I wanted to make it my way: just about right amount of sugar first, and then just about right amount of soy sauce and no dashi.

Sanma are in season! I bought three of them today for the first time this fall, for 77 yen each. (I had to finish off the 29 rainbow trouts that my children caught in late August first). The cheapest ones have been 68 yen each so far around here. Most Japanese would laugh at me when I said I hate the bitter innards of sanma. I grilled them in my reliable toaster oven for ten minutes first and then for another five minutes. Looks yummy, huh? My family had them with bottled sudachi juice. I omitted grated daikon this time, because my children hate it.

I finally bought one of their products: 135 yen if I remember correctly. I admit that this is one of the tastiest tofu I have ever had, creamy and dense. But I don't think I will be addicted to it.

Ce'nedra, dashi need not necessarily be Japanese fish dashi. The other day, I tried a ramen broth with an instant( ) chicken dashi to soy sauce ratio of 12:1, which came out fine. As for soy sauce, get a Japanese brand. As for mirin, if it's hard to come by or if it's too expensive, replace it with sugar and sake. Remember that mirin is about half as sweet as sugar. And, you don't necessarily have to use Japanese ingredients, right? MomOfLittleFoodies, post your ratios, along with comments and photos! kbjesq, your dish is quite similar to what we call "nikomi (simmered) udon". I like the shape of the carrot in your soup. Reduce the amount of soy sauce and add some cubes of Japanese curry roux (or some curry powder), and you will have curry udon!

Thanks, I will, but you can contribute to this thread with your own ratios! It's only dashi, soy sauce, and mirin!

I like to have kamaboko and satsuma age in the sashimi style, but they are fish in paste form... Some people like my mother like sashimi konnyaku, and there are people who have avocado and yuba in the sashimi style.

I've been a lurker, not knowing absolutely anything about Estonian cooking, but I just wanted to say thank you for your lovely blog. This particular description of yours is very intriguing to me.

I did some googling and found that Sato Yosuke, mentioned in the first post here, specializes in Inaniwa udon, a specialty of Akita prefecture. It happens to a favorite of mine until I encountered authentic Sanuki udon, a specialty of Kagawa prefecture, which is now an absolute favorite of mine. That thick and firm texture! Now, I'm curious about the soba mentioned in photo #16. I can't tell what type of soba it was from the photos.

I think he wraps it to continue the cooking. The coating is rubbed off to reveal a roasted and sticky sweet squash. Gorgeous. ← BG is right. From the site I provided a link to:

Tempura Kondo is very famous. I wish I could go there. One of the greatest item there is sweet potato tempura, which is 7-cm thick, coated and deep-fried for 30 minutes, then wrapped in paper towel for 5 to 7 minutes. You can see a photo of it here. Scroll down and see the third photo from the bottom.

I learned yesterday that Tabegoro Manma (aired from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. on Saturday) will feature my city, Minami Uonuma city, next Saturday (Sept. 29). Don't miss it!

I hope that Helen's students can provide some insight into this subject. A bit of information can be found here and here.

Soaking in water is one type of aku nuki (harshness removal). For more info, click here. Note that different ingredients call for different methods for aku nuki. Dianabanana, I don't want to disappoint you, but I don't think you could tell the difference.

Yes. One recipe says to soak it for 5 min. Another says to soak it for 10 min. or longer. Still another says to soak it for 20 min. with several changes of water! As for the edit button, did you realize that the button disappears in a few days?

Beautiful! I like the simplicity of your recipe: sake and salt. But I still prefer kuri okowa (glutinous rice cooked with chestnuts)!

I finally tried the gyudon recipe contained in the book I mentioned way upthread. The dashi, mirin, and soy sauce ratio is 7:5:3. This ratio is good for other donburi such as oyako don and katsu don. The book and leftover tondon (I used pork instead of beef this time): Ingredients for 4 servings 140 ml dashi 60 ml mirin 40 ml soy sauce 1 onion 300 g beef 4 eggs sansho I added some ginger juice, not included in the original recipe. Just as I had expected, the tondon resulted in a sweet flavor. I still prefer my donburi ratio of 10-12:1:1.

I think everybody living in Japan knows about Kyo no Ryori on NHK. Yesterday (Sep. 20), Hideo Sugino appeared and demonstrated how to make fig compote and other two sweets. How cool! http://www.kyounoryouri.jp/index.php?flow=...detail&rid=4179

Thanks for your reply, Fat Guy. I know I shouldn't be indifferent to what is happening to Ushiwakamaru and Hideo-san, but I also know that I have no say in the internal affairs of the U.S. government. But, many of you here do have a say, right? I am reminded of this thread: SAVE OUR SUSHI

I forgot to update this thread. From here The certification system, announced to be established in November of last year, set off a firestorm of criticism from the U.S. and other media, and in March of this year, it was downgraded to a "recommendation" system.

For those living in Japan, here is another TV drama whose theme is shokuiku (food education): Obanzai. It started on September 3, and is aired from 1:30 to 2:00 p.m. on TBS on Monday through Friday. I watched it today, and found it was funny and informative.

Thank you for starting the thread. It's always a pleasure to hear what non-Japanese people think about Japanese cuisine. I hope you post more photos along with comments.

I have no idea. I did some googling using such keywords as hotate (Japanese for scallop), tamago (egg), and modoki (food made to resemble something else), but nothing came up. Could you provide some more info? A single photo may clear up everything.

What do Ushiwakamaru and other authentic Japanese restaurants in the Unites States have to do to comply with the U.S. food safety laws and regulations? Wearing gloves when handling raw fish, and what else?

For donburi dishes, I usually use a soy sauce, mirin, and dashi ratio of 1:1:10 to 1:1:12, as I mentioned here, and I like them soupy, as I mentioned in the donburi thread. As for the presentation, the ingredients should cover the rice completely, as you can see here.

While there are regional differences as Jason described, there are major differences between Kanto and Kansai, as I described here. I personally think that the former is true. Wherever you go in Japan, you will see that such basic seasonings as soy sauce, mirin, sake, and miso are invariably used and only the ingredients are different due to the local availability of foods.