MomOfLittleFoodies

It's been mentioned before in this thread, but I want to reiterate to take advantage of ethnic markets. I get inexpensive spices and produce at a local Hispanic market, I get inexpensive seafood, meat, produce, rice and Asian staples at the local Asian market.

For me, it was sitting and watching cooking shows on PBS with Mom on weekends, and reading cookbooks like some kids would read the toy sections of catalogs. My parents didn't have the means to expose us a lot of exotic foods, but they made sure we knew it was out there. Also, my mother and maternal grandfather were avid gardners, and we often had seasonal fresh produce... garden fresh tomatoes, peppers, persimmons, kumquats, loquats, pomegranates, tangerines, zucchini, cucumbers... I remember sitting on the front step of our house, with a nice fresh cucumber and a salt shaker... mmmm.

When I was 7 years old, I went to a potluck dinner, kind of a family reunion, with my grandparents. Someone had brought this purple and white Jello mold looking thing. Being a kid, I thought it was grape and cream jello. It ended up being some concoction of egg white, red cabbage, and gelatin. I had to excuse myself to go spit out that bite in private. A couple of years ago, my mother-in-law made a couple of pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving, and forgot the sugar. I took two tiny bites, and said "maybe it's just my taste buds, but this pie is bitter". Unfortunately one of the others had already gunned down a piece of this unfortunate pie. To her credit, she's a pretty good cook when she follows a recipe and doesn't forget important ingredients like yeast or sugar. Another mother-in-law incident involves her mexican rice... apparently she doesn't test her chiles for heat before adding them. The last batch she made made my taste buds numb for a week. This stuff would have melted titanium. Cheryl

I miss Pioneer's Fried Chicken... it was a Southern California chain. I miss the Bell Beefers, Original Enchiritos and some Cheesy Crunchy Chalupa thing they had at Taco Bell when I was pregnant with my daughter. I miss the Crispy Burritos that they served at Carl's Jr in the 80's. Oh... in the early 80's, Burger King had these cold ham and cheese sandwiches that my Dad used to buy us every Friday for a while... we'd sit on Mom and Dad's bed, listen to some radio show, and eat those sandwiches.

I live in California, and tend to bounce between Botan, Kokuho Rose and Nishiki. I find that I still need to rinse the rice to keep it from coming out gummy. I tend to prefer Nishiki, but it's a bit more expensive.

It's very much the same way for the San Francisco Bay area. There is an increasing number of lower middle class families who are barely squeaking by, and since they make too much for government aid, end up relying on food pantries. There are many poor neighborhoods that have no easily accessible grocery store. This can be a real problem for families who have no car. Cab and bus fare can really eat a hole in your budget.

Teacher? ← The union contract for the teachers in our school district state that the teachers are not responsible for their students during lunch hour. The only adult supervision comes in the form of 4 adult lunch monitors... one of which barely speaks English. My oldest son has multiple life-threatening food allergies... and I'm alarmed enough at the supervision that I bought him (an almost 8 year old) a cell phone to carry during lunch and recess.

Should you have swelling like that again, it's still best to seek medical treatment. The prednisone a doctor would give you works much faster to reduce swelling than antihistamines do.

LOL! You should see the suburb I live in. There are 18 coffee houses in a city with a population of 60,000. 2 chains with multiple locations (Starbucks, Peets) and in some cases, 2-4 within a single city block. Half of those are Starbucks. It's insane.

What the heck is in the poki moco... I see nori, the egg, takuan, rice and what looks like some kind of meat. Loco Moco is one of my current favorites at the plate lunch places here.

I'm neither male, or native Japanese, but I'm a edamame purist too. They're best boiled and salted.

I prefer German style knives myself, but my husband has knives similar to the two that helenjp has in that second picture. He bought his for about $20 each at the local Asian market though. They're ok now that I'm used to them.

My favorite is saba shioyaki.

Cheese with kamaboko? Eeeewwwwww.

It's not a Japan-specific thing. The FDA doesn't allow unpastuerized milk products. That's why it is very hard to find a truely authentic camembert cheese in the US, and why the American military base exhcanges in Japan fly in ultra pastuerized milk.

I bought a package of Kari Kari Ume when I was visiting my parents down in Southern California this weekend. They taste good, but crunchy umeboshi will take some getting used to.

When my oldest son was allergic to wheat, I did a lot of baking with rice flour. Regular rice flour (riz de farine) is much grittier than mochiko. I often found myself running riz de farine through the food processor to get it finer.

Calbee Grill-A-Corn in the Hot & Spicy flavor is good. Pleasantly spicy without being too hot.

I've been thinking about this thread for a while. I think that Japanese school lunches are pretty amazing, especially how they handle food allergic students (near and dear to my heart seeing as two of my kids have food allergies). The school lunches in the yuppy suburban school district my kids go to school in aren't too bad. They're all made at the intermediate school and transported to the elementary schools. The portions are a reasonable child size, and there is always a fresh fruit or veggie availible. The children have choices of two entrees, or yogurt or cereal. My oldest son always brings his lunch because we're not comfortable letting him eat the cafeteria lunches. He usually brings a turkey or salami sandwich, although I got clearance from the principal to use the microwave in the teachers lounge if he wants something hot. His favorite lunches are when we pack leftovers for him, or bring sushi up for him (he loves kappa maki).

I had one of the Strawberry Sodas this week. I liked it... didn't have that heavy, syrupy flavor that a lot of American Strawberry Sodas do. The local Pan Asian store carries the Melon, Peach and Strawberry Flavors.

I've noticed the same thing. My grandmother is from Kyoto, Grandpa's family is from Hiroshima and Kagoshima, and my husband's ancestors are from the Hiroshima area. Half the family calls them musubi, the other half nigiri. I'm making a batch of them for the International Festival at my kids elementary school tonight. I figure what can be more kid friendly than a rice ball.

Setsubun is how I first tasted roasted soybeans. They have a setsubun service at the temple my grandparents attend every year, and my grandma would bring home the little envelopes filled with them, as well as little bags filled with roasted soybeans and candy.

Hmmm... guilty pleasures. Western Bacon Cheesebugers and Criss Cut Fries from Carls Jr. In-N-Out Soft Serve Cones Mc D's chicken nuggets, fries and a vanilla shake to dip the fries in Eating Umeboshi straight out of the jar greasy pizza Mc D's bacon egg and cheese biscuits Sushi from the local Safeway on weekday afternoons (when it's fresh) Chili Cheese Dogs

A big slice of cheesecake that I didn't have to share with my 5 year old. He usuallly appears at my elbow every time I have something sweet in front of me.

The only way of using kinako that I'm familiar with is with freshly made mochi. My husband likes it that way, because that's one of the ways his grandma serves it. I've never tried it before... I prefer to eat my fresh mochi plain. My favorite way to eat soybeans are the roasted kind, mixed with M&M's like trail mix.