melonpan

li hing chex mix hehehe

thanks for the links. that canned wahoo sounds yummy! i was going to add crack seed too. :D i would like to add li hing mui powder. it is cheap (actually, i can find it easily in socal) and not a large investment of space. they are usually sold in tiny plastic packets. i would highly recommend trying to get some, just to try. some things to do with li hing mui powder: <ol><li>sprinkle over shave ice. (ive never used the li hing syrup...) <li>add to gummi candies. its really good with the sour cola bottles, i promise! <li>sprinkle on popcorn. <li><a href="http://starbulletin.com/97/04/02/features/story1.html">some cakes i only found out about today</a> (the <a href="http://starbulletin.com/97/04/02/features/story2.html">accompanying recipes</a>). <li>li hing sprite.</ol> actually, instead of powder, drop an actual li hing mui into your sprite. the red dye colors the sprite heavily at the bottom, less at the top. tastes good too. and eat the li hing mui at the end! goodness. i get kind of tired of the saccharine taste though. i havent had li hing anything in a while... once i get started again, though, it is hard to stop sucking and chewing on crack seed...

some nights i eat naked matzoh balls. just the matzoh balls with a little salt and some pepper. no soup. sometimes without my clothes too, just to keep with the theme. thats really cheap. youre out two eggs and 1/2 a cup of matzoh meal. that cant be more than 50 cents worth of material. practically no other work involved, esp if you dont shape the balls and just scrape them off the spoon directly into the water. <center>gadzooks, what are those? scones? underfried fried chicken?<br><i>no! these are the result when good matzoh meal meet bad gentiles.<br></i> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041208matzoh.jpg"></center> this is not a responsible meal, not for anyone under 18. but this is for two adults who live dangerously and take risks on a regular basis. we live on the edge and can eat the balls without the soup. there are certainly worse things than homemade naked matzoh balls, no? some days when i come home at 10 pm, its what i can muster up at the last minute. it is warm, moist, simple. satisfying. <b>manischewitz box matzo balls</b> <i>makes about 8 balls</i> 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 large eggs 1/2 cup matzoh meal 1/4 tsp salt some finely, freshly ground pepper 2 tablepoons water <ol><li>mix everything in a medium sized bowl with chopsticks until blended. cover with some saran wrap and stick it in the fridge for at least 15 minutes (i think its the chilling that keeps them from falling apart...). <li>bring a large pot of water to a boil. <li>shape the chilled mixture into balls if you want to be proper. or not. they can be any size that you like, but be aware that these things expand. the box says about "1 inch in diameter". thats a good sensible size, but then the matzoh balls wont be grapefruit sized like some people prefer. you will need to make them larger in that case. <li>drop balls in and reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 30-45 minutes. <li>meanwhile, heat some chicken soup. in a perfect world mama will have lovingly made this from scratch before you make the balls. come to think of it, she makes the balls too. i have been known to use campbells chicken noodle soup (that sounds so sad, doesnt it). anyway, if desperate, heat up chicken or veggie bouillon cubes in coffee mugs (that sounds sadder). or not. <li>serve in the hot, very hot! soup. or not.</ol>

youve tried beaten egg and baking powder.... and it didnt work. im kind of sad to hear this as these are the first two things i would try... "light, almost fluffy texture"... ... have you tried adding more liquid, say more cream or milk or even water during the cooking of the grits? then with softer grits, add in beaten eggs. here is a <a href="http://brunch.allrecipes.com/az/klhmChsGrits.asp">recipe i found that claims to be fluffy</a>. and no refrigeration required.

ive never had kaiseki meal before. its one of those things that i look forward to in my future. looking forward to responses.

spotted at the supermarket last weekend: <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041202umeSoba.jpg"></center> torakris, this image is for you! (sorry about that blasted flash) i now regret that i didnt buy this. the more i think about it the more i wish i could taste it. but perhaps it is better i didnt buy it. the soba will probably taste just like normal, the ume is just there for the color... on the other hand, what if it is just a tad tart? dang!

prasantrin, where are you located? im in the u.s. and i havent seen any at my local markets. i heard that there was also a japanese strawberry kitkat! i have never seen that one either!..

i had noticed the nikkei articles before when you posted about the article on yaki mikan. im so glad you might post more on this.

thanks for the realllllly nice article! i like your long articles a lot... so informative

kekeke... more for me!

i wonder if thats why ive had good luck...

no, they all smell bad like that. those vomit berries contain the gingko nuts that you shell and eat.

i would like to know more too! unfortunately, i dont know too much...i am not sure what those photos are. that first one is of dried persimmons. i think. the second one might be something called dashik and it might be the kind made from pine seed pollen and black sesame seeds. i asked my husband and he just sort of shrugged and said "you probably know better". sorry i dont know for sure! i am working on this one though. as for buying them, i think yeah, you do buy these set up like that. my husband and i dont know what these tall towers of food are called. (thats whats making this search so hard) i have seen plastic mock ups of these food towers at stores though. and i think ive even see the fake ones here in the states. what i do know is that these foods are special ceremonial foods. you see these sorts of stackings during weddings and possibly during: new years, ancestor rememberance ceremonies and certain specific birthdays like the <a href="http://www.family-food.co.kr/images/servic1.jpg">60th</a> (you can see "double happiness", "long life characters" and "return to the beginning"(*) -- <a href="http://www.family-food.co.kr/service_6070_2.asp">context</a>) and <a href="http://www.party119.co.kr/data/photos/jong11.jpg">100 days</a> (the food tower in the center says "congratulations 100 days" -- <a href="<a href="http://www.haeorum.com/First_Birth/Best_BBS/content.asp?idx=2554">context</a>). you also stack up fruit and rice cakes (i know that for sure) as well as a lot of other really fussy, hard to make foods that no one really makes at home anymore. i mean these days making rice cakes and preserved fruits and nuts is not something the average middle aged korean will know much about. they will know who tom hanks is, though. i think the same can safely be said of the average middle aged american too, come to think of it! before i posted i wanted to confirm all of this. but i wont be so uptight tonight. ill just post what i found so far. if eunny, joon, jschyun or anyone else knows, i hope they pipe up! (*) within the 60 year cycle.

oh yes, we did an encore tonight with the bulgogi and mushrooms we did not cook last night. we added japchae noodles.these are called dangmyeon and they are usually made from sweet potato flour. i think they are sometimes made from other kinds of starch. anyway, you have to soak them in warm water for a little bit. i am sure you already knew that but just in case someone else doesnt know. perhaps you were korean in one of your previous lives?

(or roasting garlic or onions!)by the way, the ones we ate didnt seem any much sweeter than the other ones from the same batch that we ate cold... but this batch is a good, sweet one. perhaps the difference would be noticable with the less flavourful mikan...

here is a <a href="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126bulgogi5L.jpg">link to a larger photo</a> of the finished bulgogi, and you can clearly see how much bulgogi gukmul (broth) there is! it is the same photo as above, just larger. also, although this is overkill, here is a <a href="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126bulgogi4L.jpg">larger photo of the raw pot</a>. :D

nope! nothing added.start by dragging 1/4 pound of marinated beef into the middle. there will naturally be some marinade dripping, but we make a weak effort at shaking most of the marinade off before placing on the plate. next, i placed the mushrooms around the meat. the mushrooms were cleaned carefully with slightly dampened paper towels (for the pine mushrooms) or rinsed gently and shaken dry (the rest). they were not marinated and there was no other treatment. they went into the pan raw. we also did not place any extra oil or broth into the pot. the mushrooms themselves give off plenty of water and bulgogi always gives off a bit too. :D the end result is quite moist with lots of bulgogi "broth" without having to add anything. you should try this! esp if you like bulgogi.

yes, yes, yes and yes...i believe that clementines, gyul and satsumas are different cultivars. even gyul is a generic term. but they are similar. the other day we ate some satsuma mikans from the japanese grocery my husband swore they were the same as gyul. and i noticed at the korean store that they sell mandarins labeled in korean as "gyul" with american names like "blue jay mandarin". at our house, we cannot discriminate between all these mandarins. we are philistines.

<center>beoseot bulgogi! (mushroom bulgogi) <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126bulgogi6.jpg"></center> i used the recipe posted above with the following substitutions: 4 tbsp sugar was changed to 2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp honey; we used no white onions, and we only used 1 pound of bulgogi beef, so that we could focus more on the mushrooms. i had bought 4 types of mushrooms for our dinner: 8 songi beoseot (matsutake), and packages of buna shimeji, kuro shimeji and enoki. for the last two months, the matsutake have consistently been sold at usd$14.99-$19.99 per pound. these are washington state matsutake and my first experience wasnt that good, since a third of them were infested with worms. they were a relative bargain at $14.99 a pound, but i was unhappy. for thanksgiving dinner, though, i decided to go for it again and very carefully picked out a nice set of 8. i could see that most were still closed and only 2 had opened up. they looked pretty nice. they were usd$14.39 (at $19.99 a pound). <center>(<i>click to view larger image</i>) <a href="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126bulgogiL.jpg"><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126bulgogi.jpg"></a></center> cleaned them up with a slightly damp paper towel and sliced each open. no worms anywhere! all were pristine! YAAAAY! <center>(<i>click to view larger image</i>) <a href="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126bulgogi2L.jpg"><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126bulgogi2.jpg"></a></center> we made rice and we made the marinade and put the beef in the marinade. <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126bulgogi3.jpg"></center> heres the pot at the start of cooking, then when its all done... <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126bulgogi4.jpg"></center> <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126bulgogi5.jpg"></center> take some red leaf lettuce, add rice if you like and add mushrooms and ah, life is sweet! <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126bulgogi7.jpg"></center> as it turns out, there was too much of everything. we only had 1/2 of the meat and mushroooms. we can do an encore tomorrow evening~! yaaaay... <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126bulgogi8.jpg"></center>

<center>yaki mikan, or what the hell are you doing with those mandarins?!?</center> <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126yakimikan.jpg"></center> egullet sure has opened my eyes... and my stomach is grateful... <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126yakimikan2.jpg"></center> you know when they are done because the juices start to come out from the ends a little... peelings a bit tricky since they are so HOT! the peel is extremely soft and fragrant. theres also a lot of steam that comes out from these little guys! <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041126yakimikan3.jpg"></center> yaki mikan are a bit harder to eat. they are gushier and mushier, but they are still every bit as delicious a their colder brothers... a sort of goofy fun way to eat them up! who would have thought of such a thing to do?

i know this must be obvious or something, but is it bc the mrs two oldest friends didnt have any money? or is it bc they are stingy? or is it bc of some other strange reason?

okay, to answer your questions:mr HAN dal-seon only just made the heart shaped mandarins public (24 nov 2004). he began developing them in 1999; 5 years and about usd$47000 later, he test produced 100 of these mandarins. as there are only these 100, they arent available for public consumption. there is no price yet but there is a guess about what they might cost in the future... with projected production costs, mr han thinks he can sell one heart mandarin for 1000 won (usd$1, 100 yen). normally, mandarins go for 40-50 won each, which makes heart mandarins about 20-25 times more expensive than regular mandarins. hiroyuki, you ask: who would buy and eat these expensive novelty mandarins? (your second question.) during marketing trials, there was positive reaction from newlyweds and younger folks(*). mr han thinks they will probably be sold in jejudo tourist shops as well as online. mr han is busy trying to make this a success: next year, he will have around a dozen other farmers help him grow more of these and hammer out the mass production cultivation techniques. in the meantime, he will also try to get the heart mandarins registered in 7 other mandarin producing countries (including japan, china, usa and spain). (*) note: jejudo province, which is the southern most island of korea, is a honeymoon haven famed for its exoticness (it is subtropical). what is more romantic than going to jejudo and sharing a ($1) heart mandarin with your new love? not much more, im sure that mr han is hoping...

adding sugar, soy, sake and mirin make most dishes better, doesnt it? id been thinking of trying the damakko mochi too...

hello~! i thought i might share our simple marinade. this is for beef bulgogi. for 2 pounds sliced meat 6 tbsp soy sauce 4 tbsp sugar 4 tbsp sake 2 tbsp sesame oil one bunch of scallions, sliced in half half a white onion, sliced about 10 cloves of garlic, crushed in a press sesame seeds, ground or whole i dont have photos today. but i may post some later, esp of what the raw meat should look like (before marinading), which may be helpful if you dont live near a korean grocery. i usually make this in the morning or the night before, so meat has been sitting around in the fridge for a while. sometimes though, i have been known to just cook it within half an hour of setting up the marinade bc theres no dinner around! i think tastes at our house arent that refined so we dont notice much difference, but i still would like to know... or test... <center><hr width="60%"></center> i have been working on my marinade for chicken kalbi, but something is not quite right. i simply cant get it hot enough. this is actually a problem that i have been having with a lot of the foods that i have been cooking. a constant source of frustration. im beginning to think maybe it is the chile powder and i will buy another brand soon. also i have been thinking about omitting gochujang from the recipe and using mulyeot instead of sugar to make it hotter. this idea came from the ddeokbokki thread. i may try it next time i make chicken, see what happens. i will post back. it is too bad that i cant simply make soups hotter by getting rid of gochujang (where it doesnt exist at all to begin with)... edited: found the quote i was looking for right in this thread! it was jschyuns. thank you (torakris?) for merging this! apparently when i ran my original search regarding marinade times, i accidentally searched the wrong forum... anyways, alls good now.

newspaper chosun ilbo published an <a href="http://dicaevent.chosun.com/bbs/view.php?id=photo_kisa&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=855">article about mandarins from jejudo that have been forced into heart shapes</a>... the article is in korean, but there are some amazing photos! be sure to scroll down to the bottom... they do look kind of cute. this reminds me of the <a href="http://www.theharrowgroup.com/articles/20020923/20020923_files/image002.jpg">cube watermelons</a> from japan.