_john

There is a lot of Korean history in Osaka especially in Ikuno ward. I used to live there and ate a lot of really good Japanese-Korean food. There is one place that I keep coming back to again and again. It is a reimen restaurant in Ikuno called Reimen-Kan. Is it just me or is Korean food generally expensive in Japan?

I have a collection I have made over there years of dashi-soy sauce-mirin ratios but it is all in Japanese. would anyone be interested in me posting it here (untranslated)?

I went to this festival when it was in Osaka. so much good beer! one of my favorites was a "caramel" beer. Another favorite was my local Minoh brewery's double IPA. Only complaint about the festival is that some beers ran out very quickly.

I am trying to make an asian pear sorbet. I am pureeing the raw fruit and then adding a sugar syrup and freezing it in an ice cream maker. When it is frozen it has very little asian pear flavor. Any ideas for concentrating or bringing out subtle flavors like asian pear? Thanks.

At Per Se, French Laundry, Charlie Trotter's and Chez Panisse service is included in the bill (as in the better restaurants in France). You're certainly not expected to tip, though it's not forbidden. ← How exactly is it included? Is there a part on the receipt that says "service: $19.94". Is this advertised on the menu, how are customers informed of this system? In France does the price on the menu include service and tax at all restaurants?

Does anyone know an example of a restaurant in the U.S. that does not allow tips? In Japan the price of service is included in the menu price. TIpping is seen as bribing for good service. When you are finished eating you stand up or ask for the check, walk to the register, and pay. What do you think the reaction with this type of system in the U.S.?

great ideas so far. amazake sounds like something worth experimenting with. I'm leaning more towards sorbets because they are cheaper to make and the cheaper I can make them the more impressive it will be. Using cream and cheese also seems too fusion for a fairly strictly traditional Japanese restaurant. I like houjicha too, I'll give it a try. Garnish and finishing ideas are also welcome, I'm going to make a soy sauce syrup and the red shiso syrup at least.

I have been asked to develop some new flavors of sorbet and ice cream for a kappou restaurant. I will be making them in small batches in my ice cream maker. When you think washoku sorbet/ice cream which flavors come to mind? They currently buy black sesame, yuzu, vanilla, tsudachi, and mattcha ice creams. I'm thinking of making my umeboshi sorbet, a shiso sorbet with red shiso syrup, kinako ice cream, adzuki ice cream. I need more ideas for different seasons. Dream washoku sorbet/ice cream?

Your mentor was absolutely right when he said so. Don't look for answers in books; just go out and interact with as many people as possible. Right? ← Books can be useful for ideas that you just didn't think of because they are just to simple or unseen. For example my mentor's restaurant employs an oshibori hand towel service. The hand towels come from the company individually sealed in plastic sterilized and cleaned. He individually unwraps each one and cleans it under running water because he found that small pieces of the towel degrade during the cleaning process. He then rolls them up again and stores them. His is restaurant is a counter kappou restaurant so there is a lot of direct interaction with the customers. Jason is right about the level of service staff at most restaurants. "professional" waitstaff can are only found in high class places. Everywhere else seems to use baito type waitstaff, young 16~25 year old part time workers. here are a few things off the top of my head that I think create a good service atmosphere in Japanese restaurants: bottle keep service oshibori free tea waitstaff call buttons (although the best places don't need them, I swear they have hidden cameras in the zashiki at kaiseki places) keigo polite Japanese language

One of my cooking mentors in Japan says that the ultimate chef is someone who can adapt the food to the customer. For example making a dish stronger in flavor for a man in his 30s and lighter for a man in his 60s. Or focusing on beautiful presentation for a group of young women. In his mind making food delicious is natural, any chef should be capable of this. What is difficult is adapting to the customer and providing the perfect experience. There are a few keywords he uses a lot when describing this. 持てなし motenashi hospitality, お客様 okyakusama the honorable customer, 見てないサービス mitenaisaabisu unseen service. I have seen many comments on this forum and elsewhere about the amazing service people have received when visiting Japan or eating in Japanese restaurants. Perfect service seems to be almost a stereotype. I asked my mentor what the best way to study service is. He said simply eat at as many restaurants as possible, high class, low class, and everything in between, and pay careful attention to what leaves a good impression and what leaves a bad impression. I would love to hear about any service experiences you have had in Japan, good or bad. What impressed you? What was unexpected? Did you get a glimpse of any unseen service? Bad experiences? side note for Japanese speakers: I am looking for a book in Japanese on this subject. If you know of a book, or can help me search for a book, about 持てなし in Japanese dining establishments (restaurants, hotels, ryokan, ryotei, etc) I would be grateful.

Some members on this forum probably get boxes of somen as summer gifts like I do. My question is what to do with it all? Besides summer cold somen what are some satisfying dishes? I want something I can make for dinner and not be left feeling like I have an empty stomach and want to eat rice. nyuumen, age somen, any recommended dishes?

I marinade my karaage overnight in milk or yogurt mixed with ginger, garlic, msg, salt, and shichimitogarashi. I then drain off the marinade in a colander and shake the pices in a plastic bag with a fifty fifty mixture of potato starch and flour with salt, pepper, and more shichimi. This is my attempt to get something close to buttermilk marinaded fried chicken. it works really well but you need to have some foresight when you want to make it. What is the most likely place to find chicken thighs with the bone? I never see them. The few times I have asked a butcher for them they said they could special order them.

recently I have been developing a keitai miso shiru, or portable miso soup. I wanted to have good miso soup at work but none of the instant miso soups are any good. I decided to make my own after seeing a similar project on a Japanese blog. First I made a concentrated katsuo konbu dashi. I then added half of the miso, weighed, for 10 portions. With my miso this is 18g per portion. I then added various seasonings to help out the miso: koikuchi shoyu, sake, and mirin. While stirring constantly I boiled off all the water until the paste returned to the original consistency as the miso. I let it cool and added the remaining miso (sashi miso, or miso added so that the raw flavor of miso is not lost). I then weighed the miso mix into individual portions in plastic wrap and added: mitsuba stems, kona sansho, koya dofu (freeze dried tofu), and parboiled flounder. I then wrapped them up in balls and froze them in a zip lock bag. I put this in the freezer at work. When I want miso soup I just have to unwrap the ball, add hot water, and stir. restaurant quality miso soup "instantly". why don't you try keitai miso shiru with your lunch? a much easier version can be made with instant dashi powder, miso, and your choice of frozen parboiled ingredients.

this is the old aluminum bento i have been using recently. you may ask yourself "what is the advantage of this type of bento over the plastic, water tight, microwavable bentos?". the answer: vicarious nostalgia. it has a smaller container that is water tight that fits inside. but most of my okazu are not liquidy so i dont use it very often. If I have no leftovers (which is almost every day) my bento is: dashimaki, nukazuke, and white rice. I also have "portable" miso soup which I will talk about on another thread.

And of course, there are none in my area! Poor Kansai...always the bridesmaid, never the bride. ← in kansai shop99 has these crate and barrel plates, but it seems to be totally random which stores have them.

from wikipedia: short version: Japan->Korea+sesame oil

Does this style of watercolor painting of single ingredients have a name? Also, is there a name for the watercolor sketches of dishes that accompany recipes in some washoku books? I would like to learn more about painting them and see more examples but I don't know what to search for. thank you. examples: example 1 example 2 example 3 example 4 example 5 example 6

tamgoyaki/dashimaki questions: what kind of pan do you use (copper, teflon, steel?)? how long does it take you to make tamagoyaki? what do you add to the eggs and how many do you use? I use a cast iron tamagoyaki pan (kansai shape). it takes me about 4 minutes to make but i want to cut down the time to about 2 minutes. I add about 30cc of konbu katsuo dashi to 3 eggs, salt, msg, and usukuchi soy sauce. after cooking I let it cool for a few minutes in a makisu bamboo sushi mat. I would love to hear the way you make it.

I was talking to the owner of the shop where I buy my eggs the other day and she told me she had a special item. Ukokkei eggs, or eggs from a silkie hen. They are widely believed to have more nutrients than regular eggs. I don't know if this is true or not but if you mention ukokkei to a Japanese person they will tell you if you eat one every day you will be healthy. Silkies are not especially suited to egg production. One egg can cost up to 500¥. This time I bought 5 for 1000¥ and gave all but 2 away as presents. I ate the rest in tamago kake gohan. I couldn't tell the difference in flavor between an ukokkei egg and a regular egg. The shop owner told me a good tip however. Ukokkei eggs generally weigh 50g, if it is marked as ukkokei and doesn't weight the right amount it might be a counterfeit. Considering that you can buy 20 regular eggs for the same price as one ukokkei I can see why people would counterfeit them. Anyway that leads me to a question. I have seen 卵掛けご飯専用醤油 soy sauce for use only in tamago kake gohan. Has anyone tried this or know what makes it different from regular soy sauce?

Sorry, doesn't answer your question exactly but here are some dishes with interesting names that make you think: 親子丼 oyako don parent and child donburi. かぼちゃのいとこ煮 kabocha itokoni pumpkin and cousin boil (the cousin is usually adzuki). 他人丼 taninn don stranger donburi.

New knife I got a flea market. It looks like it was once a bigger knife that broke and was ground down to a honesuki. Very handle heavy but that makes it feel quite nimble, great boning knife. Can anyone identify the maker? It is probably made in Sakai if it is from this area.

I don't drink beer that often but I do always have Ginga Kogen Komugi Beer stocked in my fridge. I think it is the best beer that you can buy fairly conveniently. but 248¥ for a can. There is a good local beer factory in Minoh called Minoh Beer that makes a good weizen. I seek out places that serve it when I go out. I really don't like average Japanese beer at all All the non-beer beers make me a little bit sad too. I don't think Ebisu is all it is cracked up to be either.

Ek Chuah is a great shop. Their salt chocolate and is really nice. They have these ice cream floats that are essentially ice cream floating in melted ice cream that are way better than the hot chocolate in my opinion. Ive only been there a few times, I feel a bit self conscious as the only guy in a room full of oshare women eating chocolate. But the atmosphere is worth it. What was your overall impression of Osaka? Did you stay in the 1700¥ a night hotel in Dobutsuenmae?

I have been making a lot of onsen tamago for udon lately and have been using a new method. You need a thermometer and something that is insulated to hold the water. I use a small styrofoam cooler but you could use a thermos or some styrofoam take-out containers. I add the eggs to cold water and then heat it up to around 155°F. If anything you want the temperature to be a little bit high. When it reaches the right temperature I put the eggs and as much water as I can in the container and wait on hour. If the water stays fairly hot you should have onsen tamago at the end of that hour. If the eggs spins on a flat surface it worked, if it doesn't spin it's not done. I found that the lower temperature - longer time methods make superior onsen tamago to the high temp. - short time methods.