Hiroyuki

Well, not necessarily, I suppose, because kyuu is such a common word in Japanese.

This thread is mostly to say telling someone from Ireland that you dont know how to make mashed potatoes is like if your new neighbor said they didnt eat rice. ← Thanks, I didn't know that they were such a staple in many countries. I ran across this passage while searching: from here. Anyone familiar with frozen varieties? How good are they?

The comparison between Japanese rices and arborio ends here, because Japanese rices are always washed before being cooked, except no-wash types. Some komai (old rices) will stink no matter how well they are washed. Any expert on Italian rices here?

Looking at this photo carefully, I also noticed that there is a wooden sign that says 紀州備長炭使用店 (shop that uses kishuu binchoutan). Kishuu binchoutan is, of course, a top-quality charcoal. Now you know that this is not just another sembei shop!

Shirataki (not shiritaki) is a thread-like version of konnyaku. How much is too much?? Just make sukiyaki or gyudon and you'll know that! I suppose you should ask your other questions in the appropriate U.S. forum.

Try ステンレス箸.

I had no idea that making wagashi is so difficult... Your plate looks wonderful, by the way.

Off-topic: I found this webpage (Japanese only), which examines what are actually "gomoku" in detail. Funny story! Some "gomoku" dishes contain more than five ingredients, one contains only four, and so on. I think 五目 is short for 五品目 five items.

Hm... It's kind of hard to explain... These phrases sound rather slangy and comical, and used to describe restaurants, one's preferences in food, etc. funnily, comically, and sometimes masochistically. It's rare that a restaurant owner describes his/her restaurant is in the A-kyuu class and that you ask a chef if his/her restaurant is a B-kyuu class one. Then again, they can be used in magazines and TV programs. Ask your husband! He may come up with a better explanation! Prices that I mentioned previously are merely rough guides. If you order alcoholic drinks at an A-kyuu restaurant, the bill can easily amount to 8,000 to 10,000 yen per person, right?

I know what you mean. 190 yen for a single sembei is quite pricey, but I can see the sign "炭火手焼き" (charcoal, hand grilled).

I did some gooling and found that chikubu is a product name of the manufacturer, Suzuhiro. You are right. gomoku means five ingredients, as in gomoku zushi, yakisoba, chahan, etc.

As torakris clarified, hojicha and mugicha are teas of choice for babies. (Hojicha (roasted tea) contains less caffeine than regular green tea, while mugicha is caffeine-less.) And, don't forget to dilute it with a lot of water.

Sounds laudable, but I wonder if a haute-cuisine chef can be a good dietitian. The Japanese school lunch system is rigorous; a monthly menu is established by a dietitian.

Are you sure? When I googled 級グルメ, I got 1,870,000 hits, and when I googled A級グルメ, I got 27,800 hits, Ｂ級グルメ, 1,480,000, C級グルメ 84,000, D級グルメ 18,100, E級グルメ 15,700, and F級グルメ 34,100. ← ← OK, when you google "A級グルメ" (enclose A級グルメ in double quotations), you will get 29,900 hits and easily find a number of sites referring to class A gourmet.

I came across dried kiwi.

Thank you ChryZ for sharing your "passion" with okonomiyaki. It must have cost you dear, buying all of these Japanese ingredients in Europe. Did anyone tell you how to make okonomiyaki or is everything self-taught? I wonder if you dislike beni shoga (red pickled ginger) or you simply can't get it where you live. One more question: Is the mayo a Kewpie?

I asked my wife, she replied she started with juice (sold for baby consumption), follwed by rice porridge, squash soup, and so on. Any food will do, provided that it's not protein-rich.

ah ha! Activates brown rice for about two hours at about 40oC before cooking! (Why does oC appear as a square? )

That's strange... According Zojirushi's webpage, http://www.zojirushi.co.jp/corp/news/2003/030729/NPAT.html it takes about 9 to 15 hours at 30oC ← ...which is why I am dubious about this claim of 2 hour germination. I had heard it takes a minimum of 12 hours. But still, I am susceptible to advertisements, and it is the only HI rice-cooker I can find. The cookers I see from your link are probably the more up-to-date models. Wondering if I should just wait for them to make it over to the US market....or I could just keep rehitting the 2 hour germination button (6 or 7 times) ← The webpage that I provided a link to above states that the NP-AT is the only model that provides "hatsuga (germination) course" mode, which enables you to make germinated brown rice, so I wonder which model you are referring to. By the way, I can see from this post of yours that you have not installed a Japanese character set on your computer.

That's strange... According Zojirushi's webpage, http://www.zojirushi.co.jp/corp/news/2003/030729/NPAT.html it takes about 9 to 15 hours at 30oC

Wise choice. Most izakaya fall into class B, in my opinion. The atmosphere and decor is another important factor for deciding which class a restaurant falls into.

Are you sure? When I googled 級グルメ, I got 1,870,000 hits, and when I googled A級グルメ, I got 27,800 hits, Ｂ級グルメ, 1,480,000, C級グルメ 84,000, D級グルメ 18,100, E級グルメ 15,700, and F級グルメ 34,100.

There is no such things as "traditional" baby's first foods. My wife still complains how her father gave her food when she was a baby - He put some of his food in his mouth, chewed it, took it out, and put it in my wife's mouth. She believes that this caused her to have tooth cavities and a bad teeth arrangement. When raising our two kids, we sometimes relied on commercial baby foods (canned and dried) and usually just smashed and watered down our regular foods.

It's already that time of the year!? I was really craving some kuri gohan (kuri okowa would be good too, but I'm currently out of mochigome) the other day and lamented the fact that it will probably be a couple more weeks until some chestnuts are available to me. Summer doesn't seem to want to die just yet here. ← It's that time of year again! My parents, who live in Chiba prefecture, sent us a box of chestnuts the other day, as they do every year. I have decided to make kuri okowa for tonight's supper. Before I went shopping in the morning, I told my wife I'd buy some mochigome (glutinous rice) to make kuri okowa, but she replied that I could always make kuri gohan instead. I said, angrily, "But I like mochigome!!" I'm usually a faithful rice person, but when it comes to "takikomi-ing (?) chestnuts, sansai (wild edible plants), etc., I've always preferred mochigome. I don't know why, but the texture of mochigome is so right with chestnuts and sansai. There has been little or no discussion about varieties of mochigome. Here is the variety often found in Niigata, Kogane Mochi, which is said to be the "king of mochigome". This 1-kg (2.2 lb.) bag costs 620 yen. The inner pot of the rice cooker, together with "Kurikuri Bozu", which I used to peel the chestnuts. Tough guy! I used the whole bag of mochigome, which is equivalent to about 6.5 gou (1 gou = 180 ml). My complaint is why they sell mochigome and regular rice (uruchi mai or gome) by the kilogram when we still use "gou" for cooking .

Okra, harvested from my SFG boxes and planter box: The lower four of them (smaller ones) were the ones that my daughter picked off voluntarily without me asking. I had planned to pick them off when they got bigger. I just had to say, "THANK YOU!!". I usually boil them for a few minutes, finely cut and mix them with natto. Worm-eaten komatsuna leaves: My son doesn't care because he says "I made them!" He wanted to rinse them, and I let him do it. My daughter joined. I let them cut and put them in boiling water. Today's miso soup. That's how shokuiku (food education) is practiced in my house.