Kiem Hwa

黒豆せんべい Roasted Black bean Senbei I just had this today - my freind came back from Japan recently - Oishi!!! http://www.kawarasenbei.com/kuromame_f.html

So far, all Ive made sucessfully is crab korroke, we use potatoes with imitation crab meat, and panko them (patty-shaped). I also really like curry (kare) korroke. Kabocha korroke sounds fabulous! I love kabocha...maybe Ill try making some with the kabocha i bought the other day. I wish more adventurous ones existed around here, since all Ive ever had is curry, cream ones, and various seafoods.

I found something called "Pearl Barley" in the store the other day. I cooked it up and it was like a fatter version of rice with a brown line down the center, similar to what I remember in the restaurant. I cant say if it is the same flavor or not, (I overcooked it - opps). Well, Ill try again in a few days. However, I am definately going to try the oshimugi as well like Kristin suggested. http://www.foodsubs.com/GrainBarley.html

Im not sure if that is what it is.... does that come out looking like rice grains? The one I had looked like rice, but they called it "barley rice".

I recently went to a Tonkatsu restaurant in Kyoto (I think its a chain) that was quite good. One thing that impressed me was thier rice, which they said was "Barley Rice". It looked like good quality rice with a sublty different flavor, so the question is, what is this dish and how is it made? Is it rice cooked with barley? would that be barley grains, barley water, barley tea, barley extract? Or is this some sort of barley that just looks like rice? I would love to learn how to make this!

Im trying to grow Shiso, and am interested in Yomogi. As for Shiso, i have the following concerns: My Shiso was doing really well for awhile, but was recently discovered by the bugs and is now a disaster. So like Kristy, any suggestions?? I bought both a red shiso and a green shiso seedling: does anyone know the difference between these two varieties as far as flavor? I live in a tropical climate (Hawaii) and because of this was told the red shiso may turn green, which it has almost completely. Thus, im concerned about what a tropical climate does to my plant's flavor. Finally, about yomogi, I just want some to put into my mochi, but so far I havent found any at the grocery stores, thus I am considering just buying some seeds and growing it myself. Any suggestions on growing this plant?

Yaki-Fugu and Fugu-Nabe. These are the dishes I had in Osaka (Dontonbori Ave) recently. The prices were ok... about 5,000Yen/2 people. It was quite fun, they brought out a small table-top charcoal grill and grilled fugu, dipping it into a lemony sauce - ponzu maybe. We also had a hotpot with fugu in it. They also put the cheek of the fugu into the hotpot - our waitress seemed to indicate this was something special, though my Japanese was too poor to converse with her about it. However, I agree that the taste of Fugu is not very exciting. It reminds me most of chilean sea bass, a thick, oily, rich fish, but without distinctive flavor, no tingling either. Well, at least I can say Ive tried it, though we passed on trying the fugu-sashimi.