melonpan

caramel corn! pineapple yogurt (very yums) <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041010caramel.jpg"></center>

to me that is the peace sign too.in korea, all the kids do this too. you wont find any photos without them doing this! i asked my husband why he does this and he said that when he grew up in korea, he learned as a kid that doing that with your fingers meant "victory". this was something that athletes do when they win and when kids do it, theyre saying "yah, im the best!" (na chuego yah!) probably true, but i also think that its true that kids just do it because they see other kids do it all the time. and its just something you do when taking pictures, like how in america you will often just say "cheese" right before the shot is taken. that will probably account for the blank stares that torakris gets from her husband and kids. they just do it because, well, just because. they dont know. id be interested in finding out what other reasons torakris discovers...

calpis, aka calpico in some other countries, in concentrate form <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041010calpicoConc.jpg"></center>

gosh, you shore are awful sharp there. didnt think youd actually miss those two little berries (it almost looks like the two dents near the edges are decorations, dontit?) or the tiny crumb that fell off the end!

another one gets sucked into the noriten vortex...

how often are you looking up recipes or getting new ones from your cookbook collection? are you trying new recipes out more often than you would because of your cooking class or are you naturally trying out new stuff all the time, or do you try them out once in a while of only when the opportunity represents itself (as with the swordfish)?

just a tip to make things easier for the next time you go on a japanese scavenger hunt... copy the characters you see here down on a piece of paper!

wah....you found all raisin!!! (ive been looking for that around here and no luck! ill keep trying, there are a number of places to check out still...) and you got the caramels! do let us know what you think of all three products....

actually, many years ago i was quite obsessed with gluten (nama fu) and learned to make it from flour.but i have never tried kuruma fu or any of the other dried fu for that matter... i am going to try some soon and see how the texture compares.

(bits reposted from <a href="http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=52858&st=0">torakris' most excellent foodblog ii</a>) if you cant find those kurozato caramels (which i have not seen around me), you might satisfy your curiousity a little bit with these brown sugar hard candies from asahi called kokutou nodoame. they are quite delicious, which a nice molassasey kick... (they also taste ever so slightly minty with some honey flavour too. its really tasty!) <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041006kokutou.jpg"></center> <a href="http://www.asahi-fh.com/hc/products/candy.html">asahi company's link to some of their candies</a>. on the page you can see the candies in bag form (under the mitsuya cider bag) and also in roll form as shown above. i found that <a href="http://www.morinaga.co.jp/catalog/kashi/index4.html">the morinaga company</a> sells these brown sugar caramels too (top row, third one from the left)... and i think i have seen them at our local store so you might have luck with these caramels as well as the asahi hard candies. their packing is less rustic than the block printed box that kristin showed before, but still has that old style feeling. dropping by the market, i found four more hard candies featuring brown sugar, but no brown sugar caramels...! top two: brown sugar candy, ginger sugar (candy) with brown sugar filling <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041008kuro.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041008kuro2.jpg"></center> <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041008kuro3.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041008kuro4.jpg"></center> bottom two: black candy, brown candy drops sometimes brown sugar is called kokutou (黒糖) and sometimes its called kurozato （黒砂糖）. same words, just that the first one has the middle character dropped. the "black" has different readings in each word. maybe theres some difference between the two words that i dont know of... maybe they are different sugars in the way turbinado is different from say demerara or jaggery. anyone care to teach? as a side note, in doing research for more candies, i kept finding reference to something called brown sugar agarasaa. i take it that this agarasaa is a kind of kastella, or it is in fact a kastella... whats the origin of the word agarasa? is it an okinawan term?

just letting you know but i found online that <a href="http://www.morinaga.co.jp/catalog/kashi/index4.html">morinaga</a> sells these caramels too... and i think i have seen them at our local store so you might have luck with these caramels as well as the asahi hard candies (im also going to the store today, so ill keep an eye out for other brown sugar schtuffs). their packing is less rustic than the block printed box (which is very attractive to me) that kristin showed before, but still has that old style feeling. sometimes brown sugar is called kokutou (黒糖) and sometimes its called kurozato （黒砂糖）. same words, just that the first one has the middle character dropped. the "black" has different readings in each word. i think kokutou is more common way to reference brown sugar. maybe theres some difference between the two words that i dont know of... maybe they are different sugars in the way turbinado is different from say demerara or jaggery. anyone care to teach? as a side note, in doing research for more candies, i kept finding reference to something called brown sugar agarasaa. i take it that this agarasaa is a kind of kastella, or it is in fact a kastella... whats the origin of the word agarasa? is it an okinawan term? i really probably should have waited to post this in the appropriate thread, instead of on the blog. ill go away now... back to the blog~

hello. i was going to wait until torakris posted the thread, but it seems phish is really curious, so ill post this here and maybe post this there later... anyways, if you cant find those caramels (which i have not seen around me), you might satisfy your curiousity a little bit with these hard candies from asahi called kokutou nodoame, which are also brown sugar flavoured. they are quite delicious, which a nice molassasey kick... (they also taste ever so slightly minty with some honey flavour too. its really tasty!) <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041006kokutou.jpg"></center> <a href="http://www.asahi-fh.com/hc/products/candy.html">asahi link to some of their candies</a>. on the page you can see the candies in bag form (under the mitsuya cider bag) and also in roll form as shown above.

hi, i was interested in making the white fruitcake you posted, but am intimidated by the glace pineapples and citron peel required. i dont know how to glace fruit and im sure it takes a lot of time (at least two weeks?) and much effort. for that matter any of these recipes with candied lemon peels, dried figs, etc. i actually really like fruitcake, but have never made any because of the trouble of obtaining high quality candied fruit. anyhow, i think im going to try the cocoa fruit cake, but wanted to find out about the following: how much are you talking about? cup or pounds? i guess cups, but i would like to double check.thanks!

in the united states a lot of restaurants that feature seafood do this, particularly with crab and other kinds of fish. i dont know too well about this because i never ordered anything other than the usual menu items.also a lot of chinese restaurants do this too with the seafood dishes.

<a href="http://www.hamaotome.co.jp/index.htm">hamaotome</a> has an ochazuke for sale called tencha. <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041006tencha.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041006tencha2.jpg"></center> i got it and tried it out today. heres a snapshot before i mixed it up. you can see the usual soup granules at the bottom mixed with the nori squares. sometimes nagitani ens chazuke granules are green, since its supposed to be tea, but this one looked just like hondashi granules. the tempura disc on top was broken during shipping and handling (probably my grapefruit crushed it on the way home). <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041006tencha3.jpg"></center> the "tempura" (there was some shrimp and green onions inside the tempura) was crispy, but it was quite greasy. i soaked the tempura in good with the rice and tea mix, but it still tasted really oily. brought out some umeboshi to cut the grease. that helped. the price for this tencha ochazuke is expensive compared to others. usd$3.49 for 2 servings of tencha compared to $3.99 for 8 servings of nagitani en's ochazuke variety pack. i would not recommend this product. too greasy and too expensive. it was a good idea though. i think a few pieces of noriten might be a cheaper and somewhat less greasy option.

mmm, this may not be astonishing, but next summer try to sprinkle some on top of kakigori.

so what do you all do for the candied adn crystallised stuff? do a lot of you candy your own fruit? do you pop on down to the local supermarket? do you mail order? go to a specialty dried fruit seller?

in the united states, menthol in general seems to be reserved for cough drops. i happen to like eating menthol and mint flavoured candies every now and then and i am a fan of lottes black black and green candy. i hope to try hakka tou one of these days. will have to drop by shiozawa station....

old skool fujiya has a product which i happen to like. peko no botan (peko's buttons). <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041005pekoButtons.jpg"></center> anyway, these small cookies have the diameter of an american quarter. very cute. choclate filled. and they are FLAKEY. like slightly overbaked puff pastry. a teeny tiny milk chocolate pie. yums. they have a choclate pastry with vanilla filling brother to this, but i havent bought that one yet. and i think those are still peko chan's buttons, and not poko chans.

yow! THANK YOU for some awesome tips!

ah, it does look just like the mobi cookie.... havent seen that, but ill keep an eye out for it.thank you!

the pine/orange/raisin cookie is really quite good, and you can taste each fruit clearly... what is this other snack that you refer to? is it japanese?

the howondang logo features a serious portrait... although it doesnt really look like her, it does remind me of my mom and i feel slightly guilty and at the same time comforted by it... i bet thats how a lot of people must feel, no? <center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041005logo.jpg"></center>

dropped by howondang again... omija concentrate (small usd$6, large $12) the resolution on the original photo was rather low, so i wasnt able to tell how much tea the concentrate makes, nor do i know how much each jar contains... <center>omija concentrate <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041005omijaConc.jpg"></center> they are also selling the dried berries. a large bag and again, i didnt remember to note how large the bag of berries there were and how many cups you get. each large bag is $15... <center>dried omija berries <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041005omijaYeolmae.jpg"></center> heres a shot of the cups in the fridge. the color is a deep, dark maroon color. real tea is always better than powder, huh? $3.99 a cup. i may break down and buy a cup one of these days... or maybe ill get those berries instead... id only have to make 4 cups to match the price of the ready made stuff, then the rest is "free"... <center>omija tea <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041005omijaCups.jpg"></center> shikhye and sujeonggua... $1.99 a cup <center> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041005shikhye.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041050sujeonggua.jpg"></center> not exactly a beverage, but rather porridge, which i had not seen in previous walkbys... sesame porridge. i always feel guilty when i think about sesame porridge. when i was sick, my mom would make some by hand and i used to not like the flavour, so i always struggled to finish a bowl. i would eat a third or even less and claim i felt too sick to finish. spoiled brat!!! how i wish i could punish my former self... $3.00 for some amount (sorry!). maybe two servings worth? a good guess i think! <center> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041005ggaejuk.jpg"></center> they also sell pine seed porridge. this is also $3.00 <center> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041005jatjuk.jpg"></center> <center> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041005ggaejuk2.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041005jatjuk2.jpg"></center>

a link to the <a href="http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=51168">shikhye thread</a> since shikhye, malted rice punch, is definitely one of my favourite korean beverages.