Hiroyuki

I've never thought of managing my recipes on a computer before. If you ever want some free software for managing yours, why not search here? I searched with the keyword 料理 (ryouri = cooking), and I found some that looks good.

I'm no computer expert, but have you installed a Japanese character set in your computer? You can find some tips here on eGullet.

I have never stopped to think about the history of bento. I googled "history of bento" in Japanese (弁当の歴史), and this was the first one that came up. It says that it is the Azuchi momoyama period that containers called bento came into existence.

I've heard this stated many times, particularly in the context of food-and-nutrition discussions (you can Google and find thousands of variants of the statement "Rice is the main dish, the other stuff with the meat and sauce is just the topping"), but is it actually correct? I can see how if you're a peasant eking out your existence in an infertile, inland area there's no choice: you eat starches to survive and you get whatever bits of meat and vegetables you can. But if you go to a restaurant in Asia, or a middle class home, you don't see people eating huge piles of rice and using meat as garnish. You sometimes don't even see a plain starch item on the table at all. If anything, what I've noticed is that Americans eat more rice than Asians.[...] ← Your experience is different from mine, though to be fair, I don't frequently buffets in the U.S. In places like Malaysia, my experience has always been that you might eat a lot of food, but whatever you eat will be over a more or less full plate of rice probably 90% of the time, with the other ~10% consisting of exceptions like fried noodles, types of pancakes for breakfast, etc. I do agree that as people have become wealthier, they've been able to eat more lauk (the Malay food for "what goes on the rice"). I don't get the feeling that not eating rice with the lauk has become acceptable, though I could stand to be corrected. Nor do I get the feeling that eating more lauk has come at the expense of eating less rice -- I think wealthier people simply eat more food in general. ← I agree with Pan, and this has been discussed in someone's foodblog. I can't speak for other Asian countries, but here in Japan, rice is still revered as a supreme food. An important aspect of a Japanese meal is that it's hierarchical, with rice at the top, flanked by soup (often miso soup). All other dishes are okazu (accompaniments to rice). Okazu are of two types: Main dish and side dish. These features of a Japanese meal are reflected in Japan's food pyramid (spinning top): http://www.mhlw.go.jp/bunya/kenkou/pdf/eiyou-syokuji4.pdf Note that in this diagram, fish and meat dishes are a translation of side dishes (fuku-sai), and vegetable dishes are a translation of main dishes (shu-sai).

Okay I took the pics of a Wawa (which I am told is the closest to a Japanese Combini that we have) Im going out later to take pics of a 7-11... http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x273/GlorifiedRice/ ← Thanks, GlorifiedRice. I must say I am amazed at the scale of the shop. It's as big as a supermarket here in Japan, and it's more like a drug store in the Unites States than a conbini in Japan, isn't it?

Good going! In Japan, it is said that Japanese meals around the 50s of Showa (1975 to 1984), that is, traditional Japanese food plus animal protein, were ideal. The Japanese now tend to eat more meat than fish. Maybe you could write about hijiki seaweed, raw eggs, and even whale meat in this or another book.

They are thinned melons, and they are often pickled in Japan. I tasted the pickle this morning, and found it wasn't as flavorful as it should be. Apparantly, lactic acid bacteria fermentation hasn't started yet because the room temperature was 30 C last night and I had to put the container in the fridge. Sagohachi has to be kept below 18 C. It will take some more time until fermentation takes place.

I bought a pack of small melons for pickling and "sagohachi" Sagohachi is a pickling bed of salt, rice malt (koji), and steamed rice mixed together at a ratio of 3:5:8 (san-go-hachi in Japanese), thus its name. I'll report back tommorrow.

Hi, greenspot. I think it is, if it is sweet. Umeboshi sour? I've never had it before. I have ume pickled in sugar and shochu (Japanese distilled spirit), given to me by my mother, which are sweet and tasty.

Thanks for your reply, shinju. I copied and printed out your recipes, hoping to try some of them in the near future, expecially the hiyashi chuka dressing. Coincidentally, we had hiyashi chuka the day before yesterday, and I wondered if I could make umeboshi-based sauce for a change, in place of the soy sauce-based one that comes with the instant hiyashi chuka packet.

shinju, do you know how to make honey ume (and katsuo ume)? If you don't, here is how (in Japanese): http://mamacita.milkcafe.to/recipe/obaachan/hatimituume.htm I learned today from the TV program, Me Ga Ten, that new types of umeboshi with low salt contents (such as 12, 10, and 7%) are made with umeboshi with salt contents of 20% or greater and that these types are called not umeboshi but choumi (seasoned) umeboshi. Another interesting fact that I learned from the program is that many young Japanese today do not know what real umeboshi are because they have never had them before. Edited to add: In that TV program, they did a small survey: People on the street were asked to eat each one of umeboshi with salt contents of 20, 12, 10, and 7% and say which one they liked the most. None of those who were under their 50s said they liked the 20% one, while 4 of those who were in their 50s or older said they liked it. Salt content/Number of those under their 50s who liked it/Number of those in their 50s or older who liked it 20%: 0/4 12%: 2/2 10%: 3/2 7%: 5/2 Another interesting fact: Contrary to common belief, ume fruits are not so toxic as you would imagine. While the seeds contains amygdalin, the flesh contains a very small amount of it, so poses little health risk unless you eat a large amount of it.

http://bv-bb.net/bonvivant/cooking/recipe_02.html (Japanese only) You can watch how a professional chef makes a marinade by clicking 映像を見る ->, in white letters in red background, located at the bottom of the above webpage. The Bon vivant instructor, an inn owner/chef, uses a regular (apparently red) miso. He says, "A less salty one is better." His secret ingredient is sake lees, and he adds a large amount of sugar. He also adds a 1:1 mixture of sake and mirin (previously heated to evaporate alcohol). No exact amounts of the igredients are indicated. He later adds, near the end of the video, "Saikyo miso is very sweet, and it's a little too expensive for "oyaji ryori" (middled-aged men's cooking)." That's why he uses a regular miso and adds mirin and sugar.

Could you tell us about the ingredients of your marinade? Miso, sake, and mirin?

Unfortunately, no. No sushi tonight, but I want to prepare another special meal for my family on Saturday or Sunday. For those of you who can read Japanese, here are links to websites that I referred to before making the clear soup: http://www.kit.hi-ho.ne.jp/halchan/cooking/kasujiru.html http://www.849net.com/cook/2006/08/post_46.html http://www.gas.city.sendai.jp/cooking/cook_19/cook_19.html http://www.kanahashi.co.jp/sake/sakemenu.html

Thanks, MomOfLittleFoodies, but 2 cans of 500-ml beer can never give me a hangover. After browsing through tens of "ara jiru" recipes, I decided to do the following: 1 pack (200-300 g) ara 1/3 carrot 1/4 daikon 1/4 negi (Japanese scallion) 40 cm kombu 1600 ml water 30 ml sake 2 tsp salt 30 ml soy sauce (preferably light, but I used dark) I was a little worried about the smell of the salmon ara, because I bought it on June 7 and kept it in the partial freezing compartment of the fridge. When I smelled it, however, I found it not so smelly as I had imagined. So, I skipped the first step (sprinkle salt and let stand). I just parboiled the ara for about 2 min. (Parboiling for a few seconds should be enough, though.) Put water in a pot, add kombu, remove kombu immediately before the water comes to a boil. Add sake, carrot,and daikon. Simmer for 5 min. Add ara. Simmer for another 5-10 min. Season with salt and soy sauce. Add negi. I didn't realize that the salmon ara was that of an aramaki jake (salted salmon) until I added 1 tsp salt and tasted the soup! I didn't add another tsp, but added 30 ml soy sauce for flavoring. The resulting soup was rather salty, so I had to add another 600 ml water. Anyway, the soup was quite tasty (although it was still a little salty), and all my family liked it. The ara jiru is not the only dish that I prepared for last night's supper. I bought very expensive "maguro chuu toro" and other sashimi to celerate my wife's return.

I made salmon clear soup for tonight's supper to celebrate my wife's coming home from hospital. Salmon "ara". 98 yen (less than one dollar ) Clear soup Recipe and comments later. Sorry, I'm drunk and I don't want to work hard...

Hmm.... Difficult to answer... Light pickles are meant to be finished off in a few days... They are much less salty than regular pickles (tsukemono in Japanese). But I can assure you they will keep for at least one week if kept in the fridge, and I don't think they will darken so fast.

It's such a meticulous procedure, so maybe it's not practiced outside of Japan. Thanks for the link, sanrensho. You are so fast! Now I think it's time to get back to the original question. I know there is a seedless variety of watermelon, but it's not popular in Japan because it's expensive and smaller than regular ones.

Please tell us about asazuke. What are you pickling? ← Here it is: Daikon Cabbage Salted kombu Equal amounts of vinegar and mirin-like seasoning (which doesn't contain alcohol) This is what it looks like after kept in the fridge overnight: together with cucumbers pickled in almost the same way (with 1 tsp salt instead of salted kombu) the day before yesterday.

Is it some kind of shoga yaki Lots of photos can be found here It's usually made with soy sauce and mirin (and sake), but some people add miso as well. Or, is it soupy like gyudon?

Just wanted to say, tofu-shirataki noodles are NOT shirataki noodles. The former is not available in Japan.

I'm pretty sure that this is a common practice in Japan to make grapes seedless. Click here (Japanese only), scroll down to the 9th photo. You can see how a bunch of grapes is dipped in a cup with gibberellin in it.

Gibberellin is used to make grapes seedless. My father grows several varieties of grapes in his vineyards. He puts gibberellin solution in a cup, and dips each and every bunch of grapes in it for a few seconds. He has to do the dipping twice to make the grapes seedless.

Obviously, the problem with leftover sashimi, kept in the fridge overnight, is that it can never be as good as it was. For example, maguro akami (lean tuna) will turn opaque and will taste stale. To prevent your sashimi from degrading, I still recommend that you keep it as zuke (simply put the sashimi in a container and add some soy sauce). As a native Japanese, I cannot find it in my heart to cook sashimi-grade fish in any way.

Don't worry, you don't need mirin or sake to make "zuke". Soy sauce is the only essential ingredient for making "zuke". I would wrap it in plastic wrap or simply put it in a tupperware container. I don't want to sear it because then it's not sashimi any longer!