_john

So, in the spirit of the "great niboshi cookoff" (see the dashi thread) I have completed the great "japanese ramen egg" cookoff. Here is the method and results. Bring a pot of water to a boil. poke a hole with a push pin in the non-pointy end of the egg. add the room temperature eggs to the boiling water using a spoon to lower them in. Let the water return to a boil. Boil the eggs for 5 minutes to produce ramen eggs and 6 minutes to produce salad eggs. Remove the eggs from the boiling water and let them stand for one minute and then run them under cold water for 5 minutes. crack the eggs all over with the back of a spoon and then peel. Then marinate the eggs overnight in a mixture of dashi:soy sauce:mirin 2:1:1, I also add a pinch of shichimi tougarashi. I use the same liquid over and over again, I then freeze it. I also use this liquid for boiling daikon to make oden style daikon. To achieve the perfect sliced eggs first cut in to the egg white and the split the egg open the rest of the way by hand. below you can see eggs that were boiled 4, 5, and 6 minutes respectively. 4 minutes makes a coddled egg which is almost impossible to peel, you can see the raw yolk. 5 minutes changes the color of the yolk and slightly thickens it, as you can see it still flows freely. 6 minutes produces a yolk that is not over cooked and will not flow freely. The eggs below are unmarinated, marinating them firms the yolks slightly. enjoy!

No, umeshu is sweet and is generally considered a sake for women. My mother used to make it every year. So, you ended up making umeshu or is sake brewery in progress secretly? ← I haven't started the sake yet, i need to buy koji again and devote a weekend to making it. umeshu is so simple that I thought I would give it a try.

I have never ordered omakase in Japan but I think it would be a good way to splurg/celebrate. I have a style question: is it okay to ask the chef for a $100 omakase by saying something like "omakase please, i would like to spend about $100" 万円ぐらいおまかせ下さい ? Or is it one of those things where price is not an issue and even asking/suggesting goes against the spirit of the meal? What is the average price of a sashimi omakase in Japan?

It's ume season again! In fact today was 梅の日　umenohi or ume day. I started my umeshu yesterday and am excited to taste it in 2 months. I used more ume than usual and less sugar, so my umeshu will be a little dry with extra ume taste. the basic recipe is as follows: 1 kilo ume 1.8 liter white liquor 300-500 grams rock sugar 3 months time I used ume from a region famous for ume production in kansai, Wakayama. Did anyone else start their umeshu?

did someone say goya addict? goya is good on anything, im just waiting for goya ice cream. a few years ago I experimented with hiyayakko with a sort of shoyu granita and negi mignonette, but most of the time I don't get so fancy and just have it with negi, ginger, and shoyu.

I can't seem to get my tougarashi to sprout. Any have any tips for germinating tougarashi, or peppers in general? My window box Japanese garden is coming along nicely, but it is mostly western herbs and a goya plant.

where can I find semolina (course ground durum wheat flour) in Japan and what is it called in Japanese?

I've worked for free for several chefs. A few years ago when I had no industry experience and no street cred. a few chefs gave me a chance and let me "intern", stage, or just bum around. It was an invaluable experience, I met many people, and experienced lots of amazing food. This was in the very beginning of "farm dinners" and winemaker dinners in California. I worked for free, ate my fill, gained a lot of experience, and best of all I can say I was there. I was in college at the time and had worked an IT job for about a year to allow me to explore food work for a while with little or no income. after that I started getting paid but was still jumping around from place to place, sort of a hired gun. I showed up with a knife roll, was taught the ins and outs of an event or restaurant, banged it out and moved on. too bad I can't put "freelance chef" on my resume

check out this video of hand pulling noodles shot by out very own egullet member zenkimchi:

GET! the text reads: Pleasure Supply The simple form makes a beautiful and practical lunch box. You can have full realization of its high quality, use by use. I totally agree with this message . there is a place to put your chopsticks and the inside has an adjustable divider. tomorrow will be rice with umeboshi and pork with nira.

I need a bento! Now that I actually have to be at work during lunch, and sometimes dinner , I need something to save myself from spending a fortune on eating out, or the other option, convenience store bentos. I need something small, sleek, with self contained chopsticks, and hopefully the option to have soup. Right now I ride my bike to work, and soon I will be riding my baiku (motorcycle), so I need something that I can carry in my small bag. I don't recall seeing bentos in any of the stores I have been in, but surely I just overlooked them. Recommendations? maybe I can just order one on the internet to save time on bento browsing? Something stylish and unique would be bonus points!

I haven't seen this product before. I like S&B medium curry but for some reason it is hard to find in the supermarkets near me. I have to agree with other posters fat+flour = roux. roux from a box = so so . I will try to browse several "Japanese curry" recipes to see what they have in common. I know that apples are a fairly common addition. I have all the indian spices now, so I might even try a recipe. Curry shops are cool. They will sometimes have gimmick curries such as extremely spicy curry, black curry, or indo curry rice ("Indian" style curry and rice). The smell coming from curry shops is soooo good. My favorite is gekikara katsu karee raisu(extremely spicy curry with tonkatsu) with extra fukujinzuke(reddish daikon pickles that come with curry)

There are rules for romanizing Japanese. The problem is that there are several sets and people seem to choose different ones. I highly recommend the Modified Hepburn, because I think it is easiest to use and read. Without getting into nasal and plosive sounds I'll just say that when N precedes P or B in Japanese the pronunciation of the N sound more closely resembles the english M. For example: Nipponbashi is how the station name in Osaka is written in Hiragana but it is romanized as Nippombashi There are other examples of this such as when a SU sound following a N sound becomes ZU. For example: kaiten zushi (conveyer belt sushi). There is another class of sound changes that actually change the way a word is written in hiragana. I think that kudzu (bean curd skin) is an example of this.

Thanks zenkimchi. I just got back from Seoul but I will probably have another chance to use these phrases, maybe even in Japan. And I'm sure they will be useful for other visitors.

Food Jammers is a new show airing in Canada on Food Network. From the show description: I am going to hold back my opinion and see what other people have to say. Has anyone seen this show?

I think I found a piece of bone in my sausage HORROR a very over ripe durian

I tried this dish today and it turned out very well. I had one problem however. I mixed some yogurt with corn starch and a little cold water and added it to the boiling curry base but the yogurt broke. what is the proper technique to stabilize the yogurt? When would you add vegetables and to what stage do you usually cook them?

I just got back from Korea where I found an Indian spice store where I bought everything to stock my kitchen in Japan for Indian cooking.(a little bit complicated right?). I love making Indian food at home but most of the time I use a recipe. I would like to learn some base techniques and recipes so I can begin to be more creative with Indian cuisine. I know about adding spices to the oil. And I have made a lot of recipes which start by caramelizing onions. What other bases are there? Good dishes to experiment with?

tallow (home) rendered pork fat failing that, peanut oil I think the manual is BS. But using solid fats will increase the warm up time for sure. You might want to use a blend of peanut oil and a more flavorful fat such as pork fat to create a mixture that thickens when it cools but it doesn't solidify. What I did with mine was fill it full of peanut oil and then top it up with any drippings/renderings that I generated in my day to day cooking (as long as they were not strongly flavored). Fat lost in flying is replaced with yummy fat, it keeps the oil fresh and increases the flavor at the same time. *disclaimer: of course you should follow the manufactures instructions for operating any (potentially) dangerous kitchen item.

thank you for your reply. do you know of any other vegetables and why they become high in salt content? Mayby it has to do with where theire planted? Mineral rich soil etc? ← It probably has to do with the minerals that are in the plants themselves. Different plants produce different minerals sometimes regardless of what type of soil they are planted in. As I understand it these minerals have a similar molecular structure to table salt and are perceived as "salty". I'm curious ... why do you want to know which vegetables are "salty" ?

there are a lot of greens that contain natural salts and therefore do not need a lot of salt added to season them. I am thinking mostly of beet greens and chard.

fellow onion ring lovers who are disappointed by MOS burger's lack of onion rings should check out sasebo burger. There is one in Osaka and I think a few in Tokyo I have a picture of their menu but I cant get to it right now in Korea. Their burgers looked really good, but I had just eaten so I didn't get one. After reading a few Japanese sites people seem to like the burgers but complain that they take a long time to prepare them. I guess Sasebo is a region famous for hamburgers?

I like fire grilled meats salted just before serving. Everything else can be salted before cooking in my opinion. Heat will draw water out of the meat anyway. Sometimes I will salt a piece of meat and let it sit then just before searing pat it well with paper towels, this gives good results. Kosher salt on cold leftover BBQ'd chicken is amazing. just hand-shred, sprinkle or dip, and enjoy.

That actually sounds interesting. If I see it I will buy it and let you know. I bought something called La Tomato at YaMaYa about a month ago hoping it would have some real tomato flavor. Unfortunately it was disgusting and artificial tasting So I am a little wary or buying other gimmick liquors.

Sometimes I would go to Ikea in the states just to sit on furniture and then eat in the cafeteria. They have this lindonberry drink that is really refreshing. I don't know if a trip to Chiba is worth it though . I would just be sad that I couldn't buy anything and bring it back to kansai. I guess I will have to stick with Muji ... but they don't have meatballs.