melonpan

andiesenji, you should fix your original file! the cherries called for in this recipe is 1 1/2 cups...

hello. i guess this might be a pm, but just in case anyone else has other thoughts, etc, i will be posting this. i am a closet fruitcake eater and i am excited that i will be making them for the first time! i decided to make two sets, following andiesenjis two recipes... i am following the recipes but with changes (i think/hope that they are minor enough). would anyone care to comment on the changes? for the white fruitcake: the sweet white wine called for will be cream sherry. will this matter? ive never made anything boozy and i dont know anything about wines, etc. but i am guessing this is alright. i tried to find this thing called "Carmel Cream White" called for at the local stores (two places) but had no luck and got dizzy trying to figure out what is a sweet white wine. (whats a chardonnay? riesling? yes, i am so clueless. but i also dont drink...) for the cocoa fruitcake: i will not be baking this in the pans called for. instead i will be using tiny mini loaf pans. depending on the amount, i will split this up between 4-6 loaves. ive never attempted this sort of change before. but i think i can pull it off. the question is shall i lower the temperature? i will definitely be keeping an eye on it and probably checking half an hour in and every 5 minutes after that, but anybody have any comments about this? other than these two changes, i will be following the recipes to a T. macerating for two weeks, steaming, soaking for months, etc. whatever the recipes say, except for the two changes cited above... im not going to screw these babies up! (im in the midst of obtaining some citron, even!) thanks in advance to those with more experience baking who are able to help out with any comments.

i testify that this recipe is simple and tasty. it lives up to its name... thanks for sharing!

i dont usually buy korean gum. i actually hate korean gum. this is because i dont like the texture (usually too soft and not chewy enough) and the flavors disappear too quickly for my taste. i dont like gum in general. but i do like korean gum flavors. i just wish that the flavors were packaged in a higher quality chew... i have three favorites (if i had to chew korean gum that is): coffee and these two: <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041016ggeom.jpg"></center> the top one is ginsaeng (ginseng or insam), and the bottom one is acacia flower flavored. most american friends of mine can live with the coffee, but dont like the ginseng one (too weird) and the hate the acacia one ("tastes like soap or perfume!")...

heres a couple shots of canned shikhye... this brand dongwon sells for $4.99 for twelve 8 oz cans <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041016shikhye.jpg"></center> this brand nonghyup sells for $5.99 for twelve 8 oz cans <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041016shikhye2.jpg"></center> a close up of the small can. theres a little red hand which encourages you to shake the can <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041016shikhye3.jpg"></center>

at the supermarket they are quite expensive, about $4.99 a pound. here is usd $1.70 worth of nuts. not very much... but at least i checked for mold, broken nuts in this package. <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041016eh.jpg"></center> a good 10 minutes shelling these and i find out that maybe a quarter of those nuts were moldy inside or dried. and actually those that seemed soso still seemed a bit too dry. here i separated those moist and plump nuts (about 35) from the hard and semi hard ones (about 30)... already i am getting pretty mad about the yield. <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041016eh2.jpg"></center> after i fried them up, i was still sad to see a few more turn out to be inedible. the ones in the semi-hard group are below. they turned out to be inedible except for maybe 5... <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041016eh3.jpg"></center> the nuts below were good enough to eat. we added a few to our rice and ate the few left over as a snack (just salted plain). out of the 70-80 that we began with, only about 30 were good... <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041016eh4.jpg"></center> <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041016eh5.jpg"></center> in the past i have been lucky enough to receive nuts from my mother or i have been lucky enough to live near a tree that nobody liked... so far, i do not know of any local trees near me so i have had to make do with supermarket nuts. NEVER AGAIN. i think i would rather do without, after this experience.

i use the plain vinegar, not cider or rice. but you can actually use any kind of vinegar. looking at other recipes online, there are people who use rice and cider. the soy sauce my mom adds in this fashion: after the veggies have soaked for two weeks in vinegar, you dump out all the vinegar, then you soak the veggies in soy sauce for two weeks. then youre done. you take small amounts (a small jarful) and mix in sugar to taste for that small batch. the soy sauce mixture thats left behind is excelent for dipping in meats (from gomtang, seolleongtang, etc)... i should have posted the recipe from the first posting. i wasnt really thinking. anyway, better late than never.

so for optimum effect, which do you think would be better to buy at the store: dried sanuki noodles or frozken packs?ive seen them at the store, but didnt give it much thought until i browsed this thread today... so the special thing about the noodles is that they are extra firm? i like that. i think i am too americanised. i find soba, udon, etc japanese noodles at restaurants too soft for my taste. at ramen ya i ask for extra hard noodles... and when i cook instant ramen, i like to have that extra CRUNCH! maybe sanuki udon is right for me.

oh yeah, i wanted to add that sometimes the garlic turns green or blue. theres some chemical reason for this, but it doesnt always happen. its not such a big deal with this recipe because you end up soaking this stuff in soy sauce and then you cant see the blue or the greens. but in other western pickles, i guess it can be unappetizing and ive read that people blanch their garlic to help prevent this. this time, the garlic did not change color, so shoot, i couldnt take any freaky photos.. oh well. im sure you can imagine anyway....

jangajji (장아찌)... vinegar/soy sauce pickles. im a complete dope when it comes to kimchi. like a spoiled prince i know the good shit when i eat it, but i couldnt make any to save my life. but jangajji i can manage. and so can you. yes, YOU. typically, jangajji contains onions and cukes and daikon (muu), but you can stick whatever you want in there. what have i seen? eggplant, nappa cabbage, various roots (like doraji and deodeok), garlic sprouts, perilla leaves, korean put (poot) chiles... mom loves her garlic jalapeno jangajji... since i last drove down with moms schtuff last april, we have run low again at the apt. ive been eating ochazuke like theres no tomorrow lately and that certainly hasnt helped. time to make some more... the raw ingredients. i ended up adding one more onion to what is pictured here. about twenty jalapenos, an onion, a daikon root, about 8 pickling cukes, some stalks of leftover celery and two pounds of garlic cloves gotta have tons of garlic to eat! <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga.jpg"></center> heres chopping up the jalapenos: <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga02.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga03.jpg"></center> <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga04.jpg"></center> i dont get rid of the seeds. i like the heat. and pickled, its not so hot. some people slice the cukes lengthwise, or even leave them whole. but i like them in nice banchan sized pieces. thick chunky chunks. <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga05.jpg"></center> these garlic cloves were large. i tended to cut them up. mom leaves them whole. some people pickle the whole head which makes for pretty presentations, but i hate digging in and cutting up the stuff when i want to eat. slicing off the tops of the cloves is also optional. <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga06.jpg"></center> my muu (daikon) also gets the chunk treatment: <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga07.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga08.jpg"></center> the onions, i like in smaller bits. they tend to be saltier, more vinegarier so i make them smaller than the other veggies. <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga09.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga10.jpg"></center> didnt take pics of the celery, but i think you get the picture. ive dumped the veggies into whatever jars i had available. i came up short so i chopped up one more small onion... <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga11.jpg"></center> now the boring prep crap is over and done with and the fun pouring begins... pour in vinegar to cover all the veggies completely. <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga12.jpg"></center> some of the veggies float, so my mom puts a large smooth rock she found on some beach years ago on top. it looks really cool. i havent found any yet. so i usually put a plastic lid from another kimchi jar inside the other jars (which you can just make out). you dont actually need to do this, but i sleep better knowing that all the bits are definitely drowned and beyond saving. <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga13.jpg"></center> two days after starting i saw some really great carrots and decided to add them to two of the pots. <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga14.jpg"></center> its now about a week and a half since i started and heres what the large pot looks like today... <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga15.jpg"></center> i had some time tonight so i decided to post this... but we are still not done. maybe another two, three weeks before they are ready. perusing online and looking at other jangajji recipes, i see that soaking orders and durations vary greatly. some people salt their veggies with salt (i do not. i use soy sauce). some people soak only for 3 days... lotsa different things. some people keep their jangajjis pure in the sense that they keep veggies separate. a cucumber jangajji in this small jar, a garlic only on there and a perilla leaf one here... its like kimchi, a wild country. youre free to do what you like. as long as it works, no one will complain. this is basically my moms recipe.

its sweet. the ingredients listed are sugar, corn syrup and salt or nigari. this is true for all three candies.you remember the ume inside the candies? its just like that without the sour kick to it. sweet above all with saltiness. i especially like to suck on one of these while drinking a hot cup of plain cheap tea.

those are a favourite for lots and lots of people... i equate them with cracker jacks.when i was a child, our family had to drive 60 miles to the large city to get korean groceries. mommy would buy a box of botan rice candy for me and my sister and i remember getting toys. we got little animal figurines and cars with moving wheels. its just stickers these days... is this just an american thing? i wonder if this is sold in japan...

ddo soon ee bumped into the place by accident one night and am i glad... according to their take out menu, their specialty is in dough based snacks (or "flour based" snacks. these include noodles, dumplings and breads.) <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014ddo.jpg"></center> the blue sign on top. from the left:<blockquote>specializing in dough based snacks ddo soon ee hoddeok * "oh-bang" ddeok * ice cream</blockquote>the yellow banner below the lighted sign:<blockquote>noodles in hot sauce over rice * fried rice * assorted tempura * omurice soymilk noodles * "jjol" noodles * fried blood sausage * spicy chicken seafood knife noodles * fish cakes * pork cutlet (tonkasu) * curry rice</blockquote>the two white signs. left first:<blockquote>ice cream * "obang" ddeok assorted tempura * blood sausage * roast chicken</blockquote>right sign:<blockquote>samgyetang (fish) egg stew</blockquote>in neon (cut off a bit):<blockquote>HODDEOK ddeokbokki * kimbap dumpling soup * ramen</blockquote>it makes me dizzy all that they offer. lotsa snacky snacks! yums! dont know what obang ddeok is, but their menu says "sweet red bean bread". sounds like "paht bbang" aka "anpan". we had already had dinner that night, so even though the samgyetang also caught my eye we did not try any there. also, since its a snacky place, i am wary about getting any chicken soup there. but who knows? its $8.99... the main reason why we went there anyway was because of the giant hoddeok sign... i am always ready for hoddeok! you go inside and after you order, they grill it up for you on the spot. while waiting, you can watch one of the grandmothers shaping hoddeok for future patrons... <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014ddo02.jpg"></center> <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014ddo03.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014ddo04.jpg"></center> <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014ddo05.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014ddo06.jpg"></center> <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014ddo07.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014ddo08.jpg"></center> <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014ddo09.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014ddo10.jpg"></center> <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014ddo11.jpg"></center> does it look good? it tastes even better! grandmother said that there were 5 ingredients for the filling: "brown sugar, peanuts and cinnamon." "but what about the other two?" i asked. grandmother said "i cant tell you that!" these were breadier than others that i have had, but something that i would go out of my way for. absolutely. hoddeok is usd $1.50 each, 4 for $5.00. ddo soon ee <a href="http://yp.yahoo.com/py/ypMap.py?Pyt=Typ&tuid=23645125&ck=480299537&tab=B2C&tcat=8903827&city=Los+Angeles&state=CA&uzip=90012&country=us&msa=4480&cs=4&ed=PAu9GK1o2TyIMUuoIy1O7Ju6tZHwXrRmkVnuywNVU7w8OA--&stat=:pos:2:regular:regT:4:fbT:0">3603 west 6th street</a> los angeles, ca 90020 213 380-0112 open every day 10 am - 10 pm

its a nice store, with very good produce. wish it was closer to me...

salt candy. sweet and salty. a satisfying combination... at my local store, i usually only find and obtain hakata no shio shioame. <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014shioame.jpg"></center> these next to packages i saw over the weekend. the yellow bag is shioame, and the blue one is nigariame. <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014shioame2.jpg"><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014shioame3.jpg"></center> i tried both and i guess i prefer salt to nigari. salt is somehow more satisfying.

bought today at a korean bakery... <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014tous2.jpg"></center> this was a "cream cheese kastella" and it was $1.75... it was pretty heavy. heavier than a normal kastella. just a touch tangy and very tasty. i will get these the next time in in the area, although it is a bit far from my apt. cafe tous les jours (inside northridge <a href="http://yp.yahoo.com/py/ypMap.py?Pyt=Typ&tuid=24282263&ck=3817723874&tab=B2C&tcat=7766835&city=Northridge&state=CA&uzip=91325&country=us&msa=4480&cs=4&ed=EBjiF61o2TxI94oMEzWUCS.Rk5Gza67RPxS1WDr9SjcMRw--&stat=:pos:0:regular:regT:1:fbT:0">galleria market</a>) 10201 reseda blvd northridge, ca 91324 (818) 772-5755 (galleria market phone number)

from a bakery in northridge, california (thanks to a tip from jschyun), i bought two small bakery items for dessert tonight. one of them was called "sesame pancake". <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041014tous.jpg"></center> its actually quite an unusual item. its extremely chewey from lots of sweet rice flour (mochiko) and the filling has red beans and sugar. its not too sweet of a filling but sweet enough. the guy at the register said that these were baked, not pan fried and so were better for you than regular hoddeok. i think that theres some soybean flour directly underneath those black sesame seeds in the center. and you can clearly see some of the red bean paste smashed there at the bottom left corner of the photo. this hoddeok was 80 cents. cafe tous les jours (inside northridge <a href="http://yp.yahoo.com/py/ypMap.py?Pyt=Typ&tuid=24282263&ck=3817723874&tab=B2C&tcat=7766835&city=Northridge&state=CA&uzip=91325&country=us&msa=4480&cs=4&ed=EBjiF61o2TxI94oMEzWUCS.Rk5Gza67RPxS1WDr9SjcMRw--&stat=:pos:0:regular:regT:1:fbT:0">galleria market</a>) 10201 reseda blvd northridge, ca 91324 (818) 772-5755 (galleria market phone number)

teachers pet.

chrysssantheresmumums. or something like that. i cant spell it either.you can get away with "<a href="http://images.google.com/images?q=mums&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=wi">mums</a>" though.

i think the prefecture tourism office should give you a commission or something. 6700 for 100% shiozawa koshihikari. it was 7000 yen / 10 kg in march. but that was last years rice and wasnt that price inflated bc of a poor crop?i would have expected the shinmai (i see the red stickers on the rice below. i assume the upper bags are also new) to be somewhat cheaper than 6700... off topic: regarding non shiozawa produced koshihikari 2004-03: helenjp noted 9200 yen / 10 kg for uonuma rice 2004-08: hiroyuki noted 4400 yen / 10 kg for miyazaki rice

kastella are light, spongy cakes (not dense) with a very fine crumb. lotsa eggs usually. if you were to break off a piece of kastella it would not fall apart. a pound cake, by contrast, is dense and heavier and not so spongy. and a corner broken off from a slice is more likely to fall apart into crumbs.i think it is a derivative of some kind of a portuguese cake... but i dont know.

i really <i>really</i> like the idea of a "bbq zone".... i should be going there right about NOW

the site at that link is so cheerful looking. i feel nostalgic for something i never experiencedfound on a random page reference to <a href="http://shop.gnavi.co.jp/Mall2/155/100371.html">kimchi ramen nodon</a>; its attractive to me.... a lot of these look rather curious... i dont quite have a feel for the size from some of the photos (i am sure the are small, but how small?). i wish i could see these dagashi in person. i keep adding to my list stuff that i must check out while in japan...

gives those of us without clue some hope! wish i could have some of that brisket too. i also lived near college park and your photos really take me back to maryland. a fine photo essay. thanks for putting it all together and sharing. youll look back on this essay years from now and smile...

it looks like a fun riot with all those kids running around! and your kimbap/futomaki looks sooo appetising what are those mini muffins? i kept looking back through the blog to see if i missed anything. i guess i dont read as carefully as i should.... (i think white strawberries are the runts who got crowded out and didnt get any sun and didnt get picked at the farms. they were sold for a cheap price to the fanta company and some of the creative marketing folks have tried to make them look like something cool to drink... or maybe fanta ran out of the red dye... or somebody at the soda plant was asleep on the job and forgot to add the dye)