Hiroyuki

I didn't know anything about Meltyblend. I googled and found that they are basically the same product, both made by Meiji, except slight differences in packaging. One source in English and another in Japanese Does MeltyKiss sound stupid in English?

I finally got round to making some tempura and soba (buckwheat noodles) for supper last night. My plan was to make four different types of tempura, together with tentsuyu (tempura dipping sauce) and soba, in one hour, with a little help from my wife. Actually, it took me one and a half hours from start to finish because my wife was out when I was making them. Besides, I had to take photos, which took me some extra time. First, equipment: The left pair of chopsticks, the biggest one, is for stirring tempura batter. Oil: For this cook-off, I used canola oil (left bottle). I usually use salad oil (middle), which is cheaper. I never use sesame oil (right) for tempura; it's too expensive! Outline of my initial plan: First, complete steps 1 to 3 in half an hour: 1. Make tentsuyu (dipping sauce). 2. Boil soba. Have my wife arrange it on a sieve. 3. Make all preparations for: Sweet potato Aojiso aka ooba (perilla leaves) Carrot, onion, and ko-ebi (small shrimp) kakiage Vannamei shrimp (white shrimp) Then, do the following in another half hour: 1. Put oil in the fryer and turn on heat. 2. Start making batter. 3. Make tempura. Details: 1. Tentsuyu Ingredients: 600 ml water 2 tsp instant dashi powder 150 ml soy sauce 150 ml mirin ("mirin-style seasoning", to be exact, which is alcohol-free and less expensive than real mirin) (The dashi/soy sauce/mirin ratio is 4:1:1, which is quite typical if you have tempura with rice or soba. If you have it with sake, however, you may want to use a different ratio like 7:1:1.) Put them all in a pot, bring to a boil, and turn off heat. I also used the tentsuyu as mentsuyu (noodle dipping sauce). 2. Soba Sorry for the poor presentation. My wife is very good at arranging it beautifully on a sieve, making 20 or more coils of soba. I can never do that! 3. Preparations for tempura: a. Sweet potato: Cut it into 1 cm (0.4 inch) thick slices and soak in water for 5 to 10 minutes (preferably longer) to prevent discoloration. Drain and let them dry. b. Aojiso aka ooba (perilla leaves): Wash and let dry on a paper towel. c. Carrot, onion, and ko ebi (small shrimp) kakiage: Cut onion and carrot into julienne, put them in a bowl, and add ko ebi. d. Vannamei shrimp (white shrimp): Shell shrimp, leaving the last segment, and devein using a bamboo skewer. Cut tail end diagonally and remove water from tail with the knife to prevent oil splatters. Make five cuts on the belly and bend the wrong way to prevent curling during deep-frying. Results: All preparations are now completed. From now on, don't answer the bell and don't answer the phone. Don't leave the fryer unattended, or you may burn your house. Fryer: Put oil in the fryer about 5 cm (2 inches) deep and turn on heat. First, set the temperature control to 160 C (320 F), if you have one. Batter: Put 1 egg in a cup and add cold water up to the 200-ml level. (In Japan, 1 cup is equivalent to 200 ml.) Put them in a bowl. Mix well. Sift 1 cup flour and add it to the bowl. Use a pair of chopsticks to mix. DON'T OVERMIX. (You can see some ice cubes in the bowl. I usually don't do this, but I forgot to put some water in the fridge to chill it. ) a. Ooba: Dust with flour on the lower side only to ensure adhesion of batter, and coat thinly with batter on the lower side only. Deep-fry at low temperature (around 160 C = 320 F) for 1 minute. If deep-fried longer, the leaves will turn bitter and brown. Remove tenkasu (tempura batter balls) occasionally. Don't throw it away. Use it to make takoyaki, okonomiyaki, yakisoba, and so on. b. Sweet potato: Coat thickly with batter and deep-fry at medium temperature (around 170 C = 338 F) for four minutes. c. Kakiage: Kakiage requires some special steps: Add some flour to the bowl containing carrot, onion, and shrimp, and mix to ensure adhesion of batter. and add some batter to the bowl. Scoop some with a ladle with holes and deep-fry at medium temperature for 3 minutes. (I used my hand to scoop, instead of a ladle.) I was planning to make 8 pieces, but ended up making 16 . d. Vannamei shrimp: Dust with flour, coat thinly with batter, and deep-fry at high temperature (180 C = 356 F) for 2 minutes. Tempura making is now completed. Grate daikon: I used the oni oroshi, which I had recently bought at the 100-yen shop. You can make coarsely grated daikon with it. What's left in the batter bowl and the plate for dusting ooba and shrimp: I mixed the batter and flour and pan-fried it. I think I'll have it today, with some seasonings. If I don't, somebody will. Filter the oil while it is still hot and store in a pot for reuse. In my next post, I think I'll make tendon (tempura donburi)! Edited to add a photo.

Talking of popcorn, my favorite is a butter and soy sauce-flavored one. Yum! Butter and soy sauce... What a great combination!

Apple/cinnamon and Custard cream As for your second question, I would call them snacks. I think the English word "candy" has a broader meaning than the loan word in Japanese and the Japanese word "ame" (飴). For instance, we don't call chocolates or caramels "candies" or "ame". In Japanese, candies and ame are sweets made almost entirely of sugar.

I have a feeling you are all talking about beautiful sounding words, but how out the ideas behind words? Some of my favoriates: Umi no sachi (blessings of sea) Yama no sachi (blessings of mountains) In Japan, it is customary to say these words: Itadakimasu before having a meal and Gochisousama or gochisousama deshita (past form) after having a meal. No equivalents for these phrases in English.

Have any of you ever used furikake as toppings for spaghetti and pizza?

So how are the components (egg, oil, rice) of this emulsion interacting? ← Moisture on the surface of each grain of rice, runny egg, and oil interact with one another to make thin coating on the surface of each grain of rice. The egg has to be runny and be stirred with rice quickly enough, before it is set. Otherwise, the resulting chahan will get greasy. ← So each grain of rice is coated with an emulsion of water, egg and oil. Is that the idea? ← Exactly. I once saw two photos of rice grains somewhere on the Internet, one showing a grain coated with an emulsion (good example) and the other showing a grain coated with oil (bad). I tried to find them but I couldn't. So, I suppose there are different levels of emulsification.

So how are the components (egg, oil, rice) of this emulsion interacting? ← Moisture on the surface of each grain of rice, runny egg, and oil interact with one another to make thin coating on the surface of each grain of rice. The egg has to be runny and be stirred with rice quickly enough, before it is set. Otherwise, the resulting chahan will get greasy.

Emulsification is required to prevent chahan (stir-fried rice) from becoming greasy, as suggested here in the Japan Forum.

Because of me? Am I a merchant or something? Beni shoga is good with: Okonomiyaki Takoyaki Yakisoba Yakiudon Hiyashi chuka (cold Chinese noodles) Chahan Oyako don etc., etc.!!

I LOVE mixed veggies with Shira-ae or Goma-ae.... I just tasted raw okra today, dipped in Goma-ae... YUMMY! Are there any more Japanese dressings for veggies I can make? ← You can also make bainiku-ae, if you like umeboshi. 1 tbsp umeboshi flesh 1 tbsp mirin 1/2 tbsp soy sauce I found one recipe for bainiku-ae in English. If you want Japanese dressings, try these once in a while, which I have already posted somewhere else: 1. Mix vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil at a ratio of 1:1:0.5. 2. Mix: 4 tbsp ground white sesame seeds 2 tbsp soy sauce 2 tbsp vinegar 1 tbsp sesame oil 1 tsp sugar 3. Simply mix yuzu juice, soy sauce, and dashi to make an instant, fresh ponzu-like sauce. Add vinegar and sugar to taste.

Even a lazy cook like me does the soaking before deep-fyring (tempura-ing). That's one type of aku nuki (harshness removal). Otherwise the satsumaimo would change in color at the cut end. But I usually soak them for shorter times, say, 5 to 10 minutes.

Good for you! But I wonder if you put the right kind of pickled ginger. Not gari but beni shouga. Gari, eaten with sushi, is sweet while beni shouga isn't.

Why don't you study what parts are available with a site like this? Or, won't somebody provide purpleplasticdoll with some good information? Sorry, I'm no fan of yakiniku.

Mildly curious?? from here Japanese women prefer light cocktails based on sweet and fragrant liqueurs, not on gin and vodka, such as spumoni and cassis orange. What do you say, Helen? Edited to add: Do you know this comedian duo, Spumoni?

Thanks, this is the donburi bowl discussion I was trying to elicit. It sounds as if these hesitant females may spoil their marriage prospects if they were seen inside or near a Yoshinoya. Maybe Yoshinoya should offer a lid for Y100 extra as an upmarket option. Then the hesitant females could come in. Being a hen-na gaijin, I will now remember to say "o-donburi" just to emphasize how strange we really are. ← There once was an upscale Yoshinoya restaurant at Akasaka. I googled and found it was opened in 1985 and offered a regular gyudon for 800 yen. Unfortunately, it was closed down decades ago. Don't worry for young females. There are a lot other restaurants that they would rather frequent, such as Italian restaurants, coffee houses, and restaurants specializing in sweets.

Hmmmm... You simply want the words for less marbled beef? Here is one example: 霜降りが少ない牛肉 (霜降り shimofuri marbled meat 牛肉　gyuuniku beef) But I don't think this is very practical. You can copy it and show it to the staff, though. Some other words you may need to know: 赤身 akami lean meat 脂身 aburami fatty meat

karoke = karaoke? Geikkikan = Gekkeikan? I'm not out to correct spelling errors; I'm just curious. I think Gekkeikan is a good sake. We must give credit to mass-produced sake too. But I must admit that I haven't had Gekkeikan for decades. Whenever I want to drink sake, I buy local sake (jizake) these days. *** Jinro is the most popular soju in Japan. Is this the case in the United States too?

The maitake looked good! I found that the sake was sold for 2,625 yen (including 5% consumption tax) in Japan. How much did you pay for yours? Did you use the yuzu? Or, are you going to use them for cocktails or something?

Helen, it only took me one minute to get the right answer: http://www.suntory.co.jp/cgi-bin/wnb/cktl.pl?ID=spumoni It's Italian in origin. Are you a fan of that cocktail? P.S. Sorry, your question was, "is it known under another name in English". Anyone?

Are you sure, Helen? I didn't know that! But I'm sure they don't practice doyo boshi..., right? Whether they are dried or not, I really don't think these umeboshi go well with rice. They should be eaten by themselves or probably with hot green tea at oyatsu (3 o'clock snack) time.

Great purchases! "Fatty Tuna" is such an understatement. It's oh-toro of hon maguro! I'm looking forward to seeing what you are going to do with maitake (not miatake). I wonder if the sake (Otoko Yama) is a domestic or imported one.

We had the first major snow of the season here in my area on December 3. These two photos were taken on the next day, December 4. Unfortunately, I live in one of the snowiest regions in the world. We have up to three meters of snow every winter. This thread will have to hibernate.

Got these honey umeboshi from a relative as a year-end gift (o-seibo): They are less salty (salt content: 8%) than traditional ones (approx. 20%). In Japan, this type of un-dried umeboshi has become so popular these days, but I still prefer the traditional ones made by my mother. Besides, calling these new ones umeboshi is inappropriate because they are not dried. For those of you who can't understand what I mean, boshi means something dried, as in ni boshi (boiled and dried (fish)) and kiri boshi daikon (cut and dried daikon).

Food items coated in potato starch and then deep-fried are called tatsuta age in Japan. The items are often seasoned before being coated, but the brother-in-law suggested simply coating with potato starch (probably in order to bring out the flavor of the fish). They are quite similar to kara age, which are usually coated with flour and potato starch mixture. Of course you can use corn starch and rice flour too, but the texture should be slightly different.