Palladion

Ekisu is, indeed, extract. MSG is aji no moto (味の素, or base of flavor). Confusingly, it's also the name of a brand that makes a variety of different cooking ingredients (including, of course, MSG). ------- Alex Parker

Usually, I have fun anticipating just how bad the airline meal is going to be. Wondering whether or not it will be truky able to reach a new low, or whether it will merely be terrible. Though I must say I was rather impressed with the dinner served on a Thai Airways international flight on which I flew. ------ Alex Parker

Errm, I guess I didn't take any pictures of the pounding process. I thought I had... Sorry. But I did take this picture of the rice steaming setup that they had: That blender-like device that I had mentioned earlier (it was bigger and heavy, with a small, high-powered spinner in the middle) was used to knead the rice at the festival I attended. ------- Alex Parker

I pounded a bit of the old mochi at a festival at my school a month and a half ago. They had quite a setup: First: a few outdoor rice steamers, sort of like kama pots, with wood burning beneath them. This was, obviously, to steam the mochi rice. After steaming, the cooked rice was unloaded into a large, blender-like contraption. It ran through the machine for a while, and the small spinning blade did the initially work of After that, the rice glob was transfered to the usu to be pounded. This was a two person task: one to swing the mallet, the other to turn the rice after each blow. They had to work up a good rhythm -- you definitely do not want your hand to get whacked by the mallet. Every once in a while, they would stop to feel the rice, sometimes adding a little water. This would continue until they judged the rice thouroughly pounded. I took a few pictures at the event. I'll look through them tomorrow and see if there are any of particular interest. ------- Alex Parker

A fairly common item in the lunches at my school is mugi iri gohan (rice with barley). It probably has a ratio of, maybe, 1 (barley) : 3 (rice). In this case, the barley seems to change the texture more than flavor of the rice. ------- Alex Parker

Right now I'm imagining a gleaming, high-tech lab in Denmark, where men in long, white coats grow perfect potatoes using hyrdoponics, but using butter instead of water... I can dream, can't I? ------- Alex Parker

You can find some info on yuba sheets (aka tofu skins), including directions on making your own, in Kristin's eGCI Guide to Soy ------- Alex Parker

The more I think about it, the more I'm confused by the sushi "shocker." Sushi looks like fish on rice, with a bit of wasabi. And that's all it is. There's really no place at all for any kind of "hidden" ingredients, laying it wait to ambush the unwary. Where's the surprise? ------- Alex Parker

As a reformed egg-white "omelette" eater, I can say without reservation that there's really just no point without the yolks. Every time I bite into an omelette, I have a flashback to my mom telling me that each egg yolk has something like your entire daily recommended allowance of cholesterol. And it makes that bite all the creamier and more luscious. ------- Alex Parker

That cabbage looks interesting. From the pictures, you also threw in a chopped up apple, right? Is it braising in the vinegar that we see in that prep picture? Ah, and great pictures so far. It's nice to get a feel for your work area -- my kitchen(ette) setup very much influences what and how I cook. ------- Alex Parker

Hmm, there were a variety of different types of vendors. I'll run through what I can remember: The most obvious equipment demo were the various (probably saw 4 or 5 of them) popcorn machine setups, where they were just giving away small cups of popcorn. Most of the small food sellers that seemed to be connected to stores didn't appear to be demonstrating any particular equipment. I believe they were just there for the profit (they probably realized the blatantly obvious, that there are basically no restaurants in the area, and there would be a lot of hungry people in the area). These were all very simple setups: most of them were nothing more than a small work area and a heating surface of some type (teppan for the frankfurters and jyagabataa, a litle crockpot for curry rice). The only major vendor that also seemed to be doing some form of equipment show-off was the coffee vendor. It was set up by a beverage equipment dealer, and they also had a little cafe setup going, and were selling different types of hot coffee. The restaurant supply stores that dealt with food also had a few samples going, mostly ready made curries-in-pouches. I just remembered, there was another complicated setup at the festival: a group making onigiri and the like with rice made in a couple of portable, gas-heated kamas. They were out of product pretty much every time I stopped by their stall. ------- Alex Parker

I've reviewed and renamed the pictures I took -- that definitely jogged my memories of some of the specific details of the event. It was still raining when I originally planned at 9:00 in the morning, when I had orginally planned on departing. If you missed the drama from before the event, a typhoon struck Japan on Saturday, and the weather all weekend was pretty much terrible. Monday, when I went to the fair, was but a brief reprieve from the rains -- it began raining again sometime this (Tuesday) morning, and has been raining on and off (but mostly on) all day long. But. on Monday, the rains were letting up, and the forecast had predicted partly cloudy weather, so I remained hopeful. Around 10:00 the rains had all but stopped, and I grabbed my things and began the journey to Kappabashi. Took a bus and the Tokyo subway. The route was uneventful, and I arrived at Tawaramachi Station at 10:50 or so. It had stopped raining. Tawaramachi Station is very small train station, serving only one line; it has two or three exits. I did not notice any particularly large number of people travelling from the station to Kappabashi at the same time that I was. The Kappabashi street was, of course, off limits to traffic during the festival. The word festival was appropriate, I suppose, though the event didn't seem particularly festive. Perhaps it was the weather; everyone there had been subjected to rain and wind for the previous couple of days. Mostly, though, festival was as advertised: most of the shops had their various wares for sale on wagons out on the sidewalks right next to their stores. I windoer if preparations would have been more elaborate had we not been struck by Typhoon #22. Here's something representative of the event. A small store has set up some bins and a wagon selling fake food: After walking a block or so down the road (Tawaramachi Station is at one of the ends of the road) I came upon a group performing taiko, traditional Japanese drumming. The acoustics of taiko in the middle of a long street lined completely with fairly tall buildings was quite astounding, and produced a thunderous echo. Honestly, the taiko was one of the few set events to the festival, and it was probably the highlight of my visit. Next I happened past the first food vendor. Many of the food vendors at the fair were simply employees of a particular store, who had been set up with a small and simple workplace to cook up some simple fare. Such as this one, selling frankfurters (on a stick, of course) and jyagabattaa (potatoes and butter): Some enterprising shop set up a coffee shop out near an intersection: A couple other food vendors were next. These seemed to be unconnected with any particular area store, and were probably from some restaurant from elsewhere in Tokyo. The first of these was selling steamed Chinese food, such as dumplings and siu gyoza. I bought a packet of glutinous rice with various savories, wrapped up in a big green leaf and steamed. I can never remember what they are called. The second was a African curry joint. I think. I tried to get fried plantains and beans, but they were out. I settled for bean curry and naan, which was less than impressive. There were some vendors selling Japanese foods as well. Besides for one industrious group selling lots of takoyaki and yakisoba, there were a few lesser seen items for sale. The first of these is daigaku imo (literally, university potato), sweet potato that was been cooked in oil and then covered with hot sugar syrup. The second is a fishball soup. http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/10975811..._1097581176.jpg http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/10975811..._1097581271.jpg A couple shots of stores, just to give a general idea of the area to people who haven't seen it. It took me a few seconds to figure out what that last store was selling. They specialize, of course, in glass display cases. Besides the taiko drumming (which was repeated a few other times during the festival), the other major planned event for the day was a series of performances by some brass bands from some of the local elementary schools. They played the typical Japanese elementary school songs: Saints go Marching, and the theme from My Neighbor Totoro (an animated movie) and the like. They also played a version of SMAP's Sekai ni hitosu dake no hana, which I try to avoid when I can. (Though the one I truly can't figure out is when a local elementary school band was playing the tune from John Brown's Body / The Battle Hymn of the Republic. That was definitely not something that I expected to hear in Japan) I ended up leaving the event around 2:00, I think. Besides browsing and shopping, there wasn't much to do, and as I've been there a few times in the last few months, I was mostly interested in the stalls and the street-based sales. I didn't see any samples of pizza. I saw, in fact, no pizza at all. I bought a wok, and a package of kitchen towels. And a wooden spoon. I tried to buy some spices, as they were being sold very cheaply, but a horde of Japanese women who also wanted cheap spices managed to keep me at bay long enough for me to decide to find easier pickings elsewhere. On the way to my next destination in Tokyo, I happened to make a transfer at Mitsukoshimae station. As I was walking inside the station to the connecting line, I saw some advertisements and realized that the station was connected to the Mituskoshi Nihonbashihonten (Mitsukoshi's main store, in Nihonbashi). I had heard good things about it, and had some extra time, so I wandered into the depachika (the basement level used or food items). It was huge, and filled with fancy treats. It was also filled with people, due to the day being a public holliday. It was truly big. The area for sweets alone rivalled my local supermarket in size. My memories of it are a clutter, owing the the throning masses of people, and the wide variety of things to see, smell, and tase. Two things manage to cut through the mess in my mind. The first was a wine seminar, conducted by a Frenchman. It was translated into Japanese, of course, and I managed to understand very, very little of either the French or the Japanese. The other item that sticks out in my memory was a small truffle that I received as a sample from one of the stalls in the sweets area. Cool, semisweet chocolate ganache dusted with cocoa. I wish I had one (or more) right now. Getting back to the Kappabashi festival. I think it's a good time to visit Kappabashi if you don't go there semi-regularly. I don't think it's really worth more than three hours, unless you're really into shopping, which is made is frustrated by the unceasing crowds. For shopping inside the stores themselves, you're probably better off just going on a regularly day (but not Sunday, as most of the stores are closed). For more pictures, or for larger versions of the ones here, go to my webpage ------- Alex Parker

Yes, but did it taste like sushi too? ------- Alex Parker

As I understand it, there are two main parts to the Tsukiji fish market (it has some odd official name, but I can't rememer what it is off hand) the private fish area and the market section. The fish auction and the other private stuff happen really, really early, like, before the train system starts running. I don't remember when, exactly, but it probably ends around 6:00 or so? I'll have to go borrow a friend's Japan guidebook to check. This is where jogoode's pictures come from. This includes the big fish sales, the fresh tuna auction, and the bulk purchases of seafood by redistrubutors. Though this area is nominally off-limits to the public, from everything I've heard, they don't really enforce this rule. I haven't yet gotten around to going early in the morning . The second area is a public market place, with a bunch of different shops selling all kinds of food-related items. Besides sea-food, there are a bunch of shops selling other stuff, including: other food-stuffs, imported items, knives, cooking utensils, plates/other dishware, and dried foods (seaweed, squid, fruit, etc.). This area gets started early in the morning and, when I went, seemed to start shutting down around lunch (but that may just have been a few stores, I'm not sure). In and around the market are a variety of prepared-food sellers as well. Of course there are the sushi shops (of which Daiwa is the most famous). There are also some places that specialize in various types of seafood donburi -- sushi-type seafood over rice in a bowl. I also remember a few small stalls where they were grilling fresh seafood. And there seem to be more rolled egg shops in Tsukiji (some of them constantly cooking fresh eggs to satisfy all of the demand, and it's really good when it's fresh and hot) than anywhere else I've been in Tokyo. I've only been there once. I typically go to Ameyayokocho market in Ueno, as it's significantly closer to me. ------- Alex Parker

Yeah, North Ameicans are just really paranoid, I guess. In the States, they'd never think about storing eggs at room temperature; here in Japan it's rare to find eggs refridgerated in the store. I don't know how widespread the practice is, but I know I've read comments here on eGullet that they do the same in France. Also, gus_tatory, did you see the notes from the eGullet Tokyo get-together in Imaiya, the raw chicken restaurant? ------- Alex Parker

Ah, yeah, that must be it! It was cut up small and served in a pungent yellow liquid. No one really ate more than a taste of it, including the Japanese people that we were dining with. Thanks, Hiroyuki. ------- Alex Parker

And it's not just grocery stores, either. It seems every store, from electronics stores to discount clothing stores and even used book stores have point cards. The local karaoke place and the barbershop/hair salon that I go to both have point cards (in fact, I think they require them). I'm going to have to replace my poor, abused, American wallet at some point. It just wasn't built with enough room for all the cards that you need in Japan, and its seams are starting to pop 'cause I've been stuffing them in anyway. Not to mention the fact that American bills are slightly smaller than Japanese ones, so my money peaks out the top of my wallet a bit. ------- Alex Parker

That's what we had, actually. It was great. I knew it used glutinous rice without even needing to look at the menu. The glutinous rice adds a lot of flavor and texture to the dish. Picked up a package of the kurigohan no moto at the store today, and I'll be making it once I finish up the Thai green curry that I cooked yesterday. Right next to it at the store were packages of matsutakegohan no moto. How well does this kind of thing work? I'm intrigued by the lure of the matsutake, but I just can't shell out ￥1500 for a little tiny mushroom. ------- Alex Parker

It's cool! English is used in all sorts of places and on all sorts of products here in Japan. Not being Japanese myself, I can't tell you exactly how it's perceived, but from what I've read, it can lend a certain hipness or a touch of class, depending on how it's used. One thing that I've long wondered about, but have never actually gotten around to asking a Japanese person, is what percentage of the English used in advertising and marketting can the average Japanese person understand. From where I'm sitting in front of my computer, I can see a box of tissues and a container of hair gel that both use English words as the main focus of attention in their visual design. ------- Alex Parker

I believe that she's talking about a drafting triangle, or sometimes just called a triangle, which is used in drafting and other kinds of precision drawing. There are different types, classified by the angles of the triangle. The common ones are 30-60-90 and 45-45-90 Drafting triangle picture ...anyway, I didn't notice until just now that you were doing the foodblog again, Kristin. Looks wonderful so far, and there's already a couple things that I want to try (the one that really jumped out at me was the kurigohan no moto, as I like kuri gohan (we just had it for school lunch today, too) but don't want to go through the trouble of shelling all those chestnuts... I'll be keeping my eyes open for it.) ------- Alex Parker

Quick question: I was invited to the home of one of the junior high students here for dinner. The father is a captain of a fishing boat, and manages to get lots of seafood from Hokkaido. It was a wonderful meal. Anyway, they served something called "hoya" which I've tried, unsuccesfully, to look up. It was yellow-ish, slippery, and slimy. It's a seafood of some type, again from Hokkaido, I believe. They mentioned shiokara while talking about the dish, but I didn't catch whether they were comparing it to shiokara or saying that it was a type of shiokara or what. I don't suppose anyone knows what hoya is? ------- Alex Parker

Haven't seen the show yet, but the name means "which food?". ------- Alex Parker

Alright, I survived okonomiyaki day! This is perhaps the 4th time I've made this dish, and it's probably my best attempt so far. I used a okonomiyaki mix and shredded cabbage and naganegi (Japanese long onion / dividing onion). I just cooked up a single, small okonomiyaki: Here it is, undressed. I topped it with a single strip of pork and some additional egg. The egg worked really well, I though, I wish I had used more. You can tell from the picture that I undercooked it. I'll practice again tomorrow -- I still have a lot more of all of the ingredients left over. And then here it after I dressed it. Very simple this time: I just used okonomiyaki sauce and fish flakes. I actually like a touch (just a small touch, really) of mayonaise on my okonomiyaki, but I don't use it nearly often enough to justify keeping it in my (small) refrigderator. It was nice, but I'll do a number of things differently tomorrow: Definitely more toppings (more pork, more egg) and longer cooking. Maybe look into adding a little bit of a few extra ingredients like carrot or ginger. Maybe I'll steal some ideas from other people who post their own okonomiyaki day experiences here. ------- Alex Parker

To get there from the MoChit Skytrain stop, take the exit for the Weekend Market. You'll be walking south, on the right hand side of the road. You want to walk past the Weekend Market entrance, and keep walking until you hit an intersection with a streetlight. When I was there about 2 months ago, they were doing so construction work on that street (the one that runs perpendicular to the one that you've just come down). Anyway, at that intersection, you want to cross over to the southern side of that intersection (ie, continue on in the direction you've been walking), and then turn right. This will put the Weekend Market on your right (but across a road). You want to walk down this street for a little while, and you'll see the market on your left. It's large, busy, covered, and there's a parking lot out in front of it. You can't miss it. Hope that helps. ------- Alex Parker

No, I haven't had that white gyouza (nor even heard of it) but now I really want to make a trip there to try it. These pictures look great! I did a little search on the web. Is this the store that you're talking about: White Gyouza? ------- Alex Parker