Hiroyuki

India has a spice culture, while Japan has an umami culture, and curry was introduced into Japan via England. Thus, Japanese curries are a perfect blend of the two cultures and the Western culture. That being said, I have to admit that the tastiness of Japanese curries derives from the amounts of lard and MSG used.

Christmas cake! Sponge cake, topped with whipped cream and strawberries. Beautifully decorated.

This one is good, too. http://www.manma-miya.jp/index.html

I learned from the TV program that jajamen originates from this Chinese dish. You can learn how jajamen is eaten from here, although it's in Japanese only. Scroll down to the bottom of the page.

offtopic: if anyone knows where to order the dvd online in Japan I would love to know about it. great manga, great anime. i think it is educational, in the way that iron chef is educational ← I wonder if their DVDs have been released... I have just checked both the Amazon and Rakuten sites, but I can't find any.

For someone like me who is a native Japanese, Japanese versions are usually better than the originals. Japanese-style pizza, which often has corn on it, Japanese-style spaghetti, made with salad oil, flavored with dashi and soy sauce, topped with bonito flakes and nori seaweed. As for gyoza, don't forget the fact that there are now more varieties available besides the same old yaki gyoza. Also, in Japan, gyoza is usually eaten as an okazu (dish to go with plain white rice) or a sake no sakana (dish to go with alcohol) and those crispy, scorched skins of yaki gyoza are liked by many Japanese. Hm... got to have some good gyoza tomorrow, with beer!

What a coincidence!! I learned about ja ja men only this morning from the TV news program called Zoom-In Super. The reporter ate it exactly the way you described. It must be the authentic way to eat that particular men.

No, I haven't. As I said in my previous post, I usually use flour + egg + water only. What I meant was that shochu, beer, and baking soda are all known to make the resulting tempura crispy, and I think that baking soda is the most popular. I don't know why I am so adamant about it, but I've never used tempura ko, even though professional tempura chefs recommend it.

I can't find any relevant information about the differences between urban and rural areas in breakfast options, but I don't think there are big differences. If there are, this is probably because of the fact that houses in rural areas are bigger and families are larger.

The word "mochiko" is mainly used in Kansai, right? I wonder if your friends in Kanto understand you when you say "mochiko". ← Hiroyuki, I am used to mochiko from the time I spent in Hawaii, where it is used for everything, but it took me months of searching to find it here in the Kanto area. I did finally find a bag labeled mochiko, so what is it called in this area? Or is it just not used here? Cheeko, Thank you for taking the time to do the experiments for us! ← I can never be sure about these things, but I think shiratamako is invariably used in households in Kanto to make wagashi that call for glutinous rice flour. Anyway, I wasn't familiar with the word mochiko until this thread!

The word "mochiko" is mainly used in Kansai, right? I wonder if your friends in Kanto understand you when you say "mochiko".

Ah, you are right! Another name for jinko is ukiko (浮き粉), which is used to make translucent gyoza skins, etc. Thanks for your comments, detective Cheeko!

Yesterday, there was a small, local festival nearby. Before the festival began at 6:30 p.m., there was a special event for small children at 4:00 p.m.: Hand catching of fish. Rainbow trouts in the pond: My son (10) and daughter (6) took part in this event, and caught 8 and 1 trouts, respectively. After we returned home, I let my kids degut the trouts. Results: We simply sprinkled some salt on them, left them for some time, and grilled them. Yum!

Thank you for sharing your experiment with us, Cheeko. Which texture did you like the best? What texture do you expect from dango? I think I like dango made from joushinko only (although I'm not sure whether regular, store-bought mitarashi and other dango are made from joushinko only). Here is a recipe for sanshoku dango, if you are interested. You can view the video by clicking PLAY.

Helen: Ah, I remember that murky river called Sakagawa(?) in Matsudo. When I lived there, I learned that my tap water came from that river. If I had continued to lived there, I would be a water filter expert by now, like you.

Oh, beef again! I think I'll make a pork version and post a photo here. I've never seen shiitake used in niku-jaga!

I didn't know about black curry. I googled and found that their black curry contains squid ink. from here: http://www.ichibanya.co.jp/menu/gentei2.html But there are other versions of black curry like this one: "Shounan" black curry of Glico http://www.ezaki-glico.net/yokohama/product2.html This one uses black sesame seeds. Neither of them look very appetizing to me.

I forgot to say: Baking soda has the same effect as shochu, so does beer. My mother used to add baking soda to her batter. I think that "tempura ko" (tempura mix in English?) is the best choice. That being said, my wife and I usually don't use it: Flour + water for my wife, flour + water + egg for me.

I have already answered a similar question. Tonkatsu: Sankin in Yotsuya, Shinjuku, Tokyo http://gourmet.yahoo.co.jp/0000719013/P000817/ Orthodox, beautiful tonkatsu. Just my preferences. Tempura: Tsunahachi, headquartered in Shinjuku. http://www.tunahachi.co.jp/ I've been to the branches in Shibuya and Akasaka, both of which seem to have been closed. Well-established tempura restaurant. You won't regret eating there.

Thanks for the links. I live in a UR kodan apartment. ← Thank you for providing your personal information! Hope you find a good one.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think all shouga sembei are sweet. I'll notify you if I find non-sweet shouga sembei. Your photos are truly intriguing! All sembei in your country are made from wheat flour, not non-glutinous rice (uruchi mai)? In Japan, when we say "sembei", we usually mean non-glutinous rice crackers. We also have arare and okaki, which are made from glutinous rice (mochi gome). Oh, one more think: The shouga sembei in Japan (I mean the ones shown in my second link) are also hard, probably as hard as the ones you showed.

Sorry, I've never had a problem with my tap water, so I just provide some general information: This week's ranking: http://event.rakuten.co.jp/ranking/electronics/212464.html Kakaku.com page on joushuiki (浄水器): http://kakaku.com/sku/pricemenu/jousui.htm I wonder if you live in an apartment or "mansion".

Hi Helen, Thanks for your reply, it's a relief to know it's still sembei. Could you please tell me how those sweet-ish ginger-ish sembei are called in Japan? We're going to Tokyo in few weeks time (my first time in Japan ever) and I'd love to buy some of them. Marcia ← I'm not familiar with those sweet ginger ones, but I think they are basically called "nanbu sembei" (南部煎餅), a specialty of the northen part of the mainland of Japan such as Iwate and Aomori prefectures. They are simply called shouga sembei (shouga = ginger). http://www.sibukawa.com/otamehiset.htm Scroll down and look at the seventh photo in the table. That's a shouga sembei. But, be sure to specify that you want "nanbu" shouga sembei, because when we hear "shouga sembei", we usually associate it with this type of sembei: http://www.deliviking.com/10051/10100/10309/index.html

Ours is classic: rice, miso soup, one shusai such as grilled fish, pickles, furikake, and so on. I, for one, almost always have two packs of natto, and after breakfast, drink a cup or two of strong green tea. My children both usually have a cup of milk with (not after) breakfast, which is something Japanese of my age didn't do at home in childhood. We used to drink milk after breakfast.

I'm not much of a wagashi maker, so I can't give you any good advice. One caution, however: Not all shiratamako are the same. Inferior brands contain uruchi mai (or uruchi gome), i.e., non-glutinous, regular rice.