_john

Yes I think it is that type. you pour boiling water on it and wait 4 minutes. Is that called instant couscous? I don't know any other type. I think is was 1kg for ~250¥? I already stocked up at a much higher price so I didn't buy any.

wow! yami age was a big success. I did it in the image of Osaka's Shinsekai Kushikatsu restaurants. There were two sauces chocolate sauce and kushikatsu sauce which is like worchester sauce. Unlimited cabbage was provided just like kushikatsu places. Here are some of the ingreidents I fried: kumquat, tomato, jalapeno, roll cabbage, kyoto red carrot, shiitake, spinach ohitashi style, banana, marshmallow, scallop, nankin (a type of pumpkin that is eaten on 12/22), tsudachi mochi, yomogimochi, yomogi dango, sausage, cheese mochi, strawberry, asparagus, cherry tomato, camembert, etc. there were a few more I can't remember. kumquat in chocolate sauce was my favorite. the yomogi mochi was the surprise hit. lots of fun!

Yes that is the drain pipe from the sink, it has no trap which is actually a problem. Sometimes bad smells come up from it so I leave the stopper in the sink at all times. New apartments have something like a trap. Not a vac. That hose is connected to a pump I use to recycle the hot water from my bath to wash clothes! The washing machine is on the right... in my kitchen. Obviously space is at a premium. The blowtorch is a brazing torch (speaking of plumbing). It takes gas cartridges which are a standard item here. The same cartridges are use in my portable stove which is used for tabletop cooking. I use it for a Japanese technique called tataki where food is seared and then quickly chilled. Also for desserts. The clothesline idea was necessary in my small kitchen but I ended up really liking it.

Japanese cabinet. Knives from the knife show and tell topic on the right. The black cylinders contain: cumin, mustard seed, coriander seeds, and fenugreek. other noteable items: bamboo leaves, vietnamese drip, masteca masa, cloths line spice innovation. old lady sauce, one rank above average standard Japanese seasonings, sake, brandy, pimenton, salt pinch pot

Thanks Helen, I will do a test run as soon as possible with this recipe. Japanese chiffon is a little bit different from others eh? No butter and no cream make it affordable too.

I finally made it to Carrefour the other day. I saw the copper cookwear that someone mentioned somewhere. It seemed really thin and all the weight was in the handle. I don't know if it was made in France it seemed sort of dubious. Another thing that caught by eye was the really cheap couscous. I eat a lot of couscous so this was good for me. What do you buy at Carrefour?

I found them yesterday. There was a sufficient amount in a bag of "Country Farm Strawberry Crunch" that I bought at YaMaYa for 400¥. Then I found some more at the JHC (Japan Homemade Cake) chain but they were 900¥ for the same amount and that shop was packed! Thanks for the links.

I was baking at 180°c. I tried again without the foil at 170° and it was a little less brown but something really strange happened this time. It seems like there was some air or water under the parchment that turned into steam and made a kind of dome or bubble on the bottom of the cake. So the whole thing was concave on the bottom and domed on the top. Yes I have a bottom and top element. What about a tray of water creating steam? would that prevent browning. I will try the foil. this is the recipe I'm using: batter egg yolk　　　4 milk　　　65ml oil　55ml flour　　70ｇ meringue egg whites　4 sugar　60ｇ

I recently went through the same challenges. life after college and then moving to Japan and then again several times within the country. There are two things that I think are really important. Separate need from want. Can you use something you already have to do the job well enough? In my case this means one pasta capable pot, one fry pan, a wok, and saucepan. The number of times I stood in the le cruset aisle and tried to rationalize to myself why I needed one... Turns out that every time I only wanted one. Don't buy something If you don't have a recipe that needs it. If you must buy something buy the best you can afford. Shop at restaurant supply stores as much as you can. Simplify. Get rid of everything you can possibly do without. A lean kitchen is an efficient kitchen. You will know each piece of equipment inside and out. What it can do and what it can't. This goes for pantry, serving wear, and especially "gadgets". When you move you will be thankful you only have a few things. Along with this I would say collect things that are "tools". multi-taskers. Yes, invest in a digital scale, thermometer, wok (the leatherman of pans), a good chefs knife, a paring knife, and tools you use at least once a month. Good tools that are sharp, calibrated, and clean prevent waste and promote safety. Think of the home kitchens of south east Asia.

I have a very small Japanese oven and the top of my chiffon keeps burning after it puffs up with vigor. I am using my widest round pan, I can't turn off the top coil. How can I prevent the top from burning?

Freeze dried strawberries: Has anyone seen them in Kansai or in a national chain? Is there another product that includes freeze dried strawberries that I could pick out? I want to use them for my Christmas cake

I sometimes eat korokke and tonkatsu with "sauce" not tonkatsu sauce or soy sauce but "sauce". It tastes a lot like Worcestershire sauce but is a little bit different. If anything it tastes like a version of tonkatsu sauce that is much more liquid. There is usually a small bottle of it on the tables of teishoku places next to the soy sauce. Do you have sauce in Kanto too?

Everyone says that the thermapen is very "fast". Does this mean it is fast in coming up to the temperature of the food because the tip is thin or does this mean the sampling rate is fast so you can see the numbers changing quickly? I have a 5 year old leave-in probe thermometer that is accurate (tested in ice water and boiling water) but it is so damn slow! The thermometer only seems to take a sample every 4 seconds. Oil for example can jump many degrees in that period on a high power burner. Can anyone recommend a leave-in thermometer with an oven proof lead that has a fast sampling rate? Something better than once a second?

Here is an interesting write up on Japanese potatoes. They test the ability to hold their shape and a few other aspects. I haven't tried most of them myself.

I've never bought a magazine in Japan but when I do tachiyomi I always look at the "slow-life" magazines. A lot of them have good recipes but among ku:nel, Lingkaran, tennen seikatsu, come home!, jikyuujisoku, ukatama, haru_mi, and kyounoryouri I like ku:nel best. What a great title "eat:sleep". It seems like every magazine has a cooking or recipe section. I take a lot of ideas from things I see in magazines. is this the one you are talking about helen? this series is also really cool. they focus on one ingredient per issue.

Thanks slkinsey, That's pretty much the answer I was looking for. I thought maybe seasoning was something unique to pans made of steel that rusts easily (high carbon steels?). And that seasoning had some sort of advantage over bare stainless steel. I know what you mean about burning the seasoning. If I get my wok too hot it can easily damage the seasoning in areas where there are hot spots.

Does anyone here have/use an ohitsu?　 Can it be used for anything other than keeping rice warm, at the correct moisture level, and preventing it from spoiling? I want to buy something made of hinoki or sawara cypress that has a lid. Ideally for both presentation and preparation use. I'm thinking shari making, oshizushi, chirashizushi, somen in ice water, keeping rice, transporting prepared food. Do sushi-oike have lids?

I have made rice in it 3 times and I'm pretty satisfied with it. The texture of the rice is noticeably different in a good way. It seems firmer but not dryer, same amount of water, better penetration and distribution. This is probably due to the heavy lid (which has no hole in it so it makes a good seal) and the heat distribution and retention properties of terracotta. I think it is fine for tabletop nabemono, my table is quite low. I set it up on the portable burner and it seemed workable. One problem I ran into is that because there is no hole in the top when it cools there can be some suction holding the lid on, a few seconds on the heat made it easy to take off however. I also used it to make no-knead bread in my oven. $30 La Cloche! Great results. There is a Muji in New York now, and in the U.K. I wonder if they carry it. It says not to fry things in it, probably for a good reason. I sort of wanted to use it for my yamiage party

keisan is ok too but it sounds a little stiff to me. Protein side down is objectively good. and the wasabi and soy sauce thing... well as we've seen here opinions vary in and outside Japan.

I have a confession to make. I never wash the outside of my favorite stainless steel 5 quart. pot. Never. I have used it almost every day for a year. Boiling over often, catching oil floating around in the sink, and getting heated up over and over again has built up a layer on the outside. exhibit A: black on the outside, shiny on the inside. Curious, let's take a closer look at that black part. exhibit B: That looks vaguely familiar. It looks just like the seasoning on a young wok, or a blue steel French crepe pan. And it feels the same too. This reminded me of the stainless steel sheet trays we used at my last cooking job. Most of them were well maintained and a uniform color. But a few of them, especially the "bacon pan", were almost black. If I had access to them now I would try frying an egg on one to test my nonstick theory. What am I seeing here? Can stainless steel be seasoned?

can you fillet all types and sizes of fish with this knife? I only know the Japanese way of filleting with a deba for all fish. how do you use this knife?

make sure to order umeboshi oyuwari if you have a cold. I recently tried these two black tea and green tea shochu. Both were disappointing, I could barely finish it. Just a word of warning for the curious. What alcohol, other than "white liquor", would be a good match with citrus? I'm thinking of using some different for my kinkanshu.

I'm a month late for nabe no hi (nabe day) but I recently bought this cool nabe because I have been wanting to have some nabe parties. I live alone so I don't eat nabe very often but there are lots of dishes I want to try. One thing I want to try, that was in vogue this year, is cooking rice in my nabe. It has straight sides so I think it would be suitable for cooking rice. Does anyone else do this? My rice cooker has been broken for almost a year so I am very used to cooking rice on the stove top. why not use the donabe?

Oh! I forgot to mention. Today I am starting my test run for making sake later this month. I am finally going to try making it because I have a big chunk of free time now. The test run is just a very small amount of rice that will be inoculated with kouji and then fermented with yeast. The test is to make sure that my set up will work when I try the larger batch. One thing I still haven't figured out is what water I will use and where I will procure it from. Sake connoisseurs make a big fuss about water and it would be a shame to just use Osaka tap water!

I didn't make umeshu this year but I still have some from last year. I made it mostly for guests and rarely drink it myself. I do use it in cooking sometimes, I like it on top of vanilla ice cream! I was so busy during ume season unfortunately. This year, without fail, I will make kinkanshu. It was only after coming to Japan that I realized how much I like kumquats.