_john

I am interested in the simplest, most basic, Chinese technique for showcasing fresh produce. Imagine I have a bitter gourd, some garlic stems, and a green onion. What is the best technique to give them some wok-hey while still remaining al dente and maintaining their distinct flavors? My current technique is as follows: cut all the veg. into similar sized pieces. mince some ginger and garlic. heat the wok until it is smoking on the wok burner. add room temp. oil/lard and immediately add the garlic and ginger. When I can smell the garlic and ginger I add the veg. and toss a few times. Then I add a pinch of salt and M.S.G. and stir fry until they have reached the al dente stage. then I splash a cap full of Chinese rice wine and stir fry until it evaporates and serve. This gives the veg. a great flavor but I would like to improve my technique. What do other people do in this situation?

Thanks Hiroyuki. That is a good point about the asazuke. It would be useful to have multiple types for times when you don't want to burn off the alcohol. What I meant by "state of the art" was that I was looking for something that was both novel and traditional. Something like the Otokomae tofu of the mirin world. Or a new and interesting product on the market. I ended up buying this 3 year mirin (¥766 500ml) at Takashimaya department store in the rice milling section of the basement. It is very good. When I'm in the kitchen I keep taking little sips of it, very drinkable. I cooked a few small dishes to see how it would perform and had good results. Something I noticed on the labels along with the alcohol percentage was something called "エキス分" with numbers ranging from 30 to 45. What does this mean?

What is the state of the art in honmirin these days? I'm looking for a recommendation as I am "upgrading" all my basic Japanese seasonings. The ones I have tasted that I really liked had only rice, rice kouji, and shochu on the ingredients list and were close to ¥1000 for 500ml. I did a little searching around on the Japanese web but opinions vary widely depending on region it seems. Is there such a thing as 地みりん?

Questions about all things shrimp: Do you eat the tail of tempura shrimp? I do. Which varieties of shrimp available in Japan are suitable for frying whole and eating with head and shell intact? What is the procedure for doing this? I have sometimes been served deep fried shrimp heads at sushi restaurants as a kind of garnish. Are they from the same shrimp used for the nigiri or tempura? Does that mean they are amaebi or kurumaebi?

I second a quick trip to Osaka. The cooking district here is called Doguyasuji and it is close to one of the city's large food markets Kuromon Ichiba. There is one shop that sells nothing but knives which has an amazing selection and some prices that rival compact cars. There are also some large "we-sell-everything" supply stores there with more reasonable prices and some good knives. These are shops for professionals and even if you speak Japanese and know about Japanese knives the staff can be quite cold in my opinion.

I'm not sure if they have kalamata, specifically, but the Seijoishi in Hankyu Umeda Station has a decent selection of olives. The Burdigala Bakery on B2 at Herbis (not Herbis Ent) also has very small packets of olives in brine. They were quite nice, but I can't remember if they were kalamata. ← Kalamata-ish olives would be good enough. I have feverish dreams about the olive bar at Berkeley Bowl in the Bay area. I'll check it out thanks.

I've been thinking of seeking out a few items I am looking for but though I would ask here first. I'm looking for kalamata olives and natural sausage casings (I saw a cheap sausage stuffer at Tokyu hands but I don't like the collagen casings.). also, what kind of olive oil do you buy/use?

recent dagashi haul:

I make these all the time but I have a special twist. I punch a small hole in the side of the egg with the air pocket using a pushpin. Then I inject soy sauce into the yolk with a hypodermic needle and boil for exactly 7 minutes. The best boiled egg ever. They are also great in ramen and bentos. Ive tried injecting other things too. shichimi was good and ponzu was good too. One hint about these type of eggs: the best way to cut them is with a thin string such as dental floss.

katsuo blocks cost about 1000¥ and the shaving box costs about 3000¥. I guess if you were inventive you could turn a woodworking plane upside down and clamp it to something and then shave with that. The block is really hard, harder than most woods, so I don't think the french style mandoline or benriner would withstand the cutting or be stable enough. I buy mine by weight at a wholesale market. I'm not sure what the cost per gram is because the man usually weights it and says "that'll be 1000¥" when clearly they are different weights each time. we have a special relationship, me and the katsuo man.

I watched this totally by chance. and had one of those "uhhh, this is really strange, am I dreaming?" moments. I was convinced that it wasn't you but then I went on egullet and looked at your pictures again and sure enough. very surreal.

I have a question about fukujinzuke. What are those strange shaped vegetables that are in fukujinzuke? They look like they could be some kind of sea vegetables but I didn't see them listed on the ingredients.

he'll have to compete with Kentaro Kobayashi (video link). I can't seem to find a good link about him in english. I think he is Japan's answer to the naked chef. Anyone agree? Is the process of making kiriboshi daikon complicated? I want to try it.

do you ever cook foods that are not Japanese at home? I was surprised by the number of seasonings you have. I have one of those metal racks full of different seasonings, and a cabinet full of pantry (dry) items and seasonings. Really liking your blog so far. I live in Japan but I don't have a lot of insight into what the daily life of a Japanese family is like (food wise). I liked the explaination of the proper placement of the three dishes. I never knew that! がんばって！

Doesn't exactly answer your question but Villedieu-les-Poêles might interest you.

peanuts

does anyone know at what temperature beans cook? how low can I go? I'm thinking I might be able to use the warming option of my rice cooker to make (slow) beans. Any advantages to low and slow?

I take a small can of whole plum tomatoes drain and reserve the liquid, rinse the tomatoes, half them, quarter an onion, seperate 5 or 6 cloves of garlic with the paper left on. I toss all that in a bowl with melted butter salt and pepper and chuck it in the convection oven until everything has some color. then I puree it with the reserved liquid. heat a wide skillet with enough oil to coat the bottom to the smoke point and pour in the sauce. I fry it until the bubbles on the surface pop and their "divits" remain. turn off the heat, add one clove garlic pressed, whatever herbs you want.

Hiroyuki, which scenes did you particularly like? I'm curious.

has anyone used the flying pig before? I am thinking of ordering a few things but wanted to get the community's opinion first. I am not a costco member so it would be convenient for me I think. Peanut butter and oatmeal are very tempting.

five spice is called 五香粉　gokoufun. most large supermarkets, especially departments stores, have a small chinese section. Mine came in a small beige resealable plastic package. There were other chinese ingredients in the same packaging black beans, star anise, etc. preserved turnip is called ザーサイ zaasai I think. I can buy it at a Chinese supermarket here.

I was never very interested in baking before because it seemed like an inexact "exact science" and also because I was never very successful. Measuring flour with volumetric measures? It just didn't make sense considering all the factors that go into the production of flour and environmental conditions. So a few years ago I bought a cheap digital scale (~US$20) and started experimenting with recipes that listed ingredients by weight. I finally started to be able to produce edible baked goods but the problem became where to find good recipes that listed ingredients by weight. Then I found out about baker's percentages and I felt like I had stumbled on the holy grail of baking. So why aren't baker's percentages used by everyone? Why are we still dipping and sweeping when we should be multiplying and weighing? (p.s. anyone have the percentages for muffin batter?)

I like those tomato paste packets too. very handy. tip for making nori shreds: if you have a pasta machine you can make mountains of shreds very quickly. I really love one particular brand or kurozato (brown sugar). it says UENO kurozato on the package. It seems to be sold everywhere in kansai, I uusally eat it with oatmeal.

yeah it usually lives in the refrigerator. I sometimes use the warming function as a proofing chamber too but it is a little to hot for that.

I recently started a very interesting yogurt culture. I bought various yogurts that included active cultures including caspian, bulgaria, and some others and mixed them together with milk and a dash of powdered milk. I bought a 1.4 liter unglazed terracotta flower pot and filled the hole in the bottom with silicon. Then I mixed some 4.4 percent butter fat milk and the active cultures and put it into the flower pot and covered it with a cloth. I put the flower pot in my rice cooker sitting on a steamer basket on the warming function over night and the results were stunning. Really creamy, just tangy enough, and great milk flavor comes through. The terracotta allows some moisture to evaporate and the heat to evenly penetrate. I have been eating it and leaving about 1/4cup in the bottom, adding more milk, and incubating over night. I'm hooked, I highly recommend it.