Hiroyuki

According to some sources, it is supposed to have a strong taste (stronger than regular spinach?; I don't know), but we just pick its young stems and leaves as instructed by the old lady, and they don't have such a strong taste. But they do have a distinctive earthy flavor. The lady says you can continue to pick young leaves throughout the fall. I do recommend planting some..., next spring .

I'm not quite sure about your criteria, but how about this convection oven?

Tsuru murasaki in Japanese; malabar spinach in English. My family have developed quite a liking for this particular vegetable ever since the old lady who rents us part of her farmland introduced it to us by giving us some seeds. We didn't know that such a vegetable existed. We usually just boil it for a few minutes and eat it with ponzu and bonito flakes. My son likes it shredded and mixed with natto.

I made two other 90-cm square SFG boxes and made Mel's mix to fill these boxes. You should be able to make the boxes for around 1,500 yen and Mel's mix for about 3,000 to 3,500 yen, thus 4,500 to 5,000 yen in total. No photos here, I uploaded some photo in my SFG blog. What do you think? Too pricey or worth giving it a try?

Another food-unrelated question: How do your two daughters manage to do their summer vacation homework when they have so many fun things to do? Do they ever miss what they can experience in Japan at this time of year only, like radio taiso (gymnastics), summer festivals, fireworks, and wearing yukata?

How did you know all about that when you are so far away?

Wow, quite impressive! So much work, so many steps to make a single foodstuff! Be sure to include some photos when you post a perfect recipe. One quick question: What do you do with your okara?

Thanks for the compliment. No, it hasn't yet. I'll let you know as soon as it does and tell you whether it is hakka or not.

Just curious... How firm is "medium firm" tofu? Is there an equivalent type in Japan? Is it more like kinu or momen? I'm also curious what that Korean takuan tastes like...

Update July 27 Only one photo here: The komatsuna in the middle is thriving. We're going to harvest it in a few days. More photos in my SFG blog.

With 8 kids and other relatives nearby there isn't much leftover for the neighbors. the problem we have is that he gets a lot of one thing at a time. The first week I was here we had swiss chard almost every night and there were almost 15 of us. ← He is just like my father, making my mother complain. Why not give him some square foot gardening ideas, like staggering the harvest?

Thanks for the reply. Your father is a great gardener!

Why do you know what I don't know? I learned that oboro dofu is also called kumi dofu, sukui dofu, and yose dofu. How to make them? That's easy! You already have. This blog (Japanese only) is interesting in that it shows you how to make oboro, zaru, and momen dofu in that order. In 40 minutes after bittern is put in, you scoop up some and put it in a pack, and oboro dofu is made. Then, you scoop up some and put it in a zaru (colander), and zaru dofu is made. Finally, you break down tofu in smaller pieces, put it in a mold, and put a weight on it to drain, and momen dofu is made!

I think you have asked shinju, not me, but if you'd ask me, I would suggest referring to this thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=44086#make

Sorry to say, I've never made silken tofu before. As you may know, silken tofu is undrained tofu. Many recipes recommend using a microwave rather than a streamer. A typical recipe calls for 100 ml of soy milk and one to one and a half teaspoons (5 to 7.5 ml) of bittern. Mix them together in a cup and heat in a microwave for about 2 minutes. Examples are: http://item.rakuten.co.jp/kenkocom/a120390h/ http://store.yahoo.co.jp/kyushuumaimonya/c1cfb6c840.html (Japanese only)

Like prasantrin said, buying a combo will be the most sensible thing to do here in Japan. Combos with a "steam function" have become so popular these days. Kris described her brand-new oven here. Another sensible thing to do will be to forget all about ovens and stick with a toaster oven, like I do. I love toaster ovens.

Good question and I have no idea, I will have to ask my father when he wakes up. He never did planters when we were kids, it was just the big part in the back, the planters have come up little by little over the recent years. ← Another question: How many hours a day does your father spend on gardening? Is he retired now? I wonder if he would like to talk to us gardeners in person... I agree with Helen! What a garden!

Chuck E Cheese's... What a fun place to be! I found an entry in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_E._Cheese So, what's wrong with it anyway? What other crops does your father grow in his garden, besides those berries?

I did some googling, but no luck. Katakuriko (potato starch) might do the trick. Why not make some experients and report back?

OK, that's what I'm expecting to read and see! And don't forget to upload some pictures of your father's garden!

For the brave of heart and sound of mind, a brief introduction to Chuck E Cheese's can be found here. Enter, ye who dare. ← Thanks the for the link! What a great restraurant! I mean it! So, it's more than just a "family restraurant" here in Japan? Can't wait to see what Kris is going to do there.

Alan, I think its more the other way around... Japan has always had really serious junk food, and they are influencing our trends in snacks more than anything else. ← i actually lived in japan for three years back in the 80's on a u.s. military base (yokota-kichi, kris you might know it). i understand japanese "snack" culture pretty well...but overall, these snack-type things weren't how people ate at home (from what i remember). special occasions and such. not like in the u.s where junk/fast food constitutes an entire meal. often three meals a day. from what i can see in china, it is really changing how people eat on a day to day basis and now that it has been 20+ years (maybe 30+) since the first mcdonalds opened in japan, i'm wondering how people are eating. ← Yeah, junk food is still junk food in most Japanese homes, but fast food can now be an entire meal. I think Kris will clarify that.

Is this a warning? Actually, I feel good about it. I'd like to see lots of your local dishes. And, You'll have to explain it to your international audience!

I forgot to mention that this partial freezing compartment can be switched to "chilling", "age freezing", and "freezing" at the touch of a button. Yesterday (July 22), I used chicken breasts with a processing date of July 15 and an expiration date of July 18 that I had kept in the partial compartment. They were fresh, but because this is our first fridge that has a partial freezing feature, I can't comment on how effective this UV-LED partial freezing is compared to normal partial freezing. The same goes for amino acids. Helen, I'm usually just like you; I did a little search before we went to the shop, and I thought fridges in the price range around 70,000 yen should be enough for us, but at the shop, I realized that those in that price range looked so cheap.

Thanks for sharing your photos. What is the green topping of the piece of sushi in the photo under "Wasabi"? Tonburi or something?