Jump to content

Kiem Hwa

participating member
  • Posts

    389
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Kiem Hwa

  1. Kiem Hwa

    Okinawa

    I found a nice article about ingredients used in Okinawan cooking: http://www.okinawa.com/food_article.html From here: "For special occasions, Yamada prepares jimami dofu, a tofu made from ground peanuts, carefully cooked and jelled with potato starch. The white block has a creamy, dense texture reminiscent of an unctuously rich, soft cheese. The nutty flavor is very subtle but not lost beneath the light-colored delicate soy-mirin-dashi-sesame seed sauce with which it is served. " Has anyone ever tried jimami-dofu? ジーマーミ豆腐, 落花生豆腐 I found these recipes: http://www.recipehound.com/Recipes/1842.html http://www.dodo.jp/cooking/jimamidoufu/jimamitofu.html Next weekend is the Okinawan festival here in Honolulu! Okinawan restaurants in Hawaii: http://www.hawaii.rr.com/leisure/reviews/a...9_ocihawaii.htm
  2. The obon festival at the church I went to growing up (a Soto Zen one in LA) featured tacos, tako yaki, ika yaki, grilled corn, okinawa dango, shave ice, kintoki, ohagi, sushi, udon and teriyaki beef and chicken. I will admit that this particular church seems to have a larger population of more recent immigrants from Japan than norm. The big Nishi Hongangi (sp?) down the street serves the same kind of stuff. The Jodo Shinshu church that my husband's family goes to doesn't have food at their Bon Odori, but they do have a bazaar in the spring where they serve things like grilled steaks, curry beef, chirashi, futomaki, udon, burgers and hot dogs, grilled corn in teriyaki sauce, egg rolls and chinese chicken salad... a much more americanized affair. Cheryl ← Ohhh.... just where is this Soto Zen temple in LA? Ill be in LA during next year's obon season. How popular is Obon in LA? Do many non-Japanese attend? Which temples there have the best bon dance and best foods? I am only familiar with the temple right off of Sawtelle, and thier parking lot is so tiny I cant imagine they have a very large Bon Dance unless they close the street (or is there space in the back??) Here in Hawaii, the obon-regulars are usually the older Japanese that attend various Honganji, but all other people of all ethnicities and ages join in, and surely outnumber them by far. Also its so popular here that the Obon season is pretty long, although I have no idea how long it lasts in other places or in Japan. http://starbulletin.com/2005/05/28/features/story1.html
  3. Has anyone made sakura gohan with these salted preserved sakura blossoms? Any tips? If you had one package of sakura blossoms, what would you make first..... sakura desserts, sakura gohan, sakura cha.....???
  4. What is the best way to rehydrate those delicate dried yuba skins? I just want to do something simple like eat it with shoyu/yuzu koshou or ponzu sauce. Also, someone mentioned frying the yuba....if it is fried, do you reconstitute it first or can you just fry the dried piece? I want to eat the yuba my sister just brought me from Japan
  5. In Hawaii the most common foods Ive noticed this season at the Bon Dances are....shave ice, saimin, hotdogs, and chili... Also, depending on the Honganji, there may be more elaborate foods, like bentos, yakisoba, meat skewers, sushi, plates lunches of various Hawaii fare, etc.
  6. JasonTrue, Are you planning to import the yuzu concentrates or the ready to drink Yuzu juices? Shirokiya had imported some ready to drink yuzu juice over here, but it was sooooo expensive... like 3-4$/bottle, that I never tried it, and last time I was there I didnt see it anymore... perhaps it was discontinued. I have see the Korean versions of yuzu juices here, but I dont really care for those ones.... they just cant compare with JAL-Skytime yuzu drink. I'd be very happy if I was able to get yuzu concentrate in the US! Right now I have to wait for my sister to visit from Japan to get such things Her next visit will be in..... another year maybe
  7. Wow, I am so impressed by the treatment youve gotten from your construction company! Is this typical for these types of "buisness transactions" in Japan? Here in the US, I only hear horror stories from friends who are remodeling homes and have to keep a heads up just to make sure the contractors are not ripping them off, much less are doing thier job in a timely fashion! Im sure if the contractors were to give gifts or dinners, it would be absolutely astonishing!
  8. Prasantrin, Thanks so much for your offer! I don't think my sister is interested though, although Im still going to try convincing her . Ill be in Osaka in two weeks, so I'll PM you if she changes her mind!!!! ← Over the past few months my sister has become interested in Cooking.... now shes thinking of taking a cooking class to learn more, and maybe make some friends Besides ABC, what other cooking schools are there in Osaka that she could consider? Prasantrin, are you still taking classes at ABC? How is it going?
  9. Bookmarked! I thought we're not allowed to mail seeds from the mainland to Hawaii... or does that just apply to individuals (not commerical nurseries)? ← I dont know why we wouldnt be able to mail seeds? Seeds are much less likely to be containing rotten things like coqui frogs, bugs, lizards, etc. Probably you cant mail any live plants to Hawaii unless you are a nursery.
  10. My sister just got here from Japan with loads of goodies for me including this Yuzu no kome! Cant wait to try it out!!!
  11. I got all my citrus seeds (yuzu, kaffir lime, key lime) from the same place: http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/order.htm I had a really high germination rate...maybe it was even 100%? So far one Kaffir lime has died and one looks sickly, though the other ones look fine. The only thing about growing citrus from seed is, I dunno if they will be able to get very big or how healthy they will be later on, since most citrus grown commercially are grafted to a much stronger root stock.
  12. We had an Okinawan Fair recently in Daiei.... i picked up this Yomogi-Kokuto..... It tasted like.....kokuto......I couldnt taste any yomogi flavor
  13. Garden Update!!! My first set of Soybeans have matured!! On the down-side, those 3 kabochas I mentioned earlier.... The plant caught some bad powdery mildew and kind of died out.... I picked these anyways, but I dont know yet if they were mature enough yet.... Ill let them sit around for awhile before I cut them up. I have no idea why one seems to be an albino
  14. Tai Karaage: Made Mochiko-style: I got this idea from a lunch at Shirokiya, a yummy mochiko-batter fried Tai, dipped in a ginger-teriyaki sauce. The one at Shirokiya had a pile of sansai on it too.... i forgot to put it on when I made this one. Also, I had a delicious mochiko-butterfish, at the recent Taste of Honolulu.
  15. A new tea i picked up: Shincha-Ume??? Why "ume", when there is apparently no ume in it?
  16. Matcha Dessert-Chocolate Cookies: These were yummy....so I thought, My friend didnt like them though. They were chocolatey-matcha, with an almost uncooked texture.
  17. Mugi Miso: I recently found this....I wanted toppings for veggies and tofu... any other suggestions for using it?
  18. Like Suzysushi mentioned, here in Hawaii... and in California, people love sushi like crazy, and the realtively new Kaiten sushi chain, Genki Sushi is extremely popular and always packed on weekends, though I haven't been there yet because I prefer the actual sushi-chef experience. I think Genki Sushi is a franchise. Genki's Japanese website I wonder how people on the East coast feel about sushi though.... I visited my sister who was going to school in upstate NY (Rochester), and we went out for "sushi".... about 90% of the menu items were cooked, and only some of that included fish..... and all my sister's friend's thought it was fabulous and wouldnt even dream of eating raw fish... as for me, after years of eating fabulous sushi in Hawaii and LA... I couldnt handle it Needless to say, the "dim sum" we had over there was equally dissapointing.... So....how do people on the East coast (not including NYC) feel about "real" sushi??? Is there are big interest over there in sushi? Are people afraid or not of raw fish? I wonder if you will have to have a bit of cooked items on your menu.... To answer your question though....My likes and dislikes about kaiten.... I think its pretty fun to get the sushi on the conveyor belt (Kaiten sushi in Japan was my first restaurant sushi experience and it was really fun!), I think in some place they have the boat on a little river with the sushi... even funner, but probably pricier to set up. However, I dont like when the quality of fish is really poor (like a 100yen place I went to in Osaka that was awful...and since then havent been to a Kaiten place...another reason I havent been to Genki yet). The best kaiten sushi place would consistently have good quality fish, still very fresh when it is travelling around the belt, and is at a reasonable price. Article about Kaiten in Hawaii
  19. Today I took some of my left-over Okara (prepared the simmered way), and made it into a sandwich with a little bit of mayo, alot of avocado, cucumbers, and tomatoes. It was pretty yummy, the okara went well particularly with the avocado. Hmmm....tomorrow we are planning to make pizza....Okara pizza anyone???
  20. What are the summer pan-ya flavors? When I was there in the fall, I saw Kuri- and Mont Blanc-buns everywhere. When I was there in the spring I saw alot of Sakura- and Yomogi-flavored pans. Also, I saw kuro-goma (black soybean), but I dont know if that is seasonal, and newly popular product, or I just missed them the first time.
  21. As far as the Gohei mochi, I think it was there because it was mostly made from the koshikari rice. As far as the koshikari rice, it is probably a 5lb bag then since any products imported here from Japan have the prices raised 25-300%. (For instance, i saw the Asahi ponzu in Japan for about 600yen, but here it is 9.50$ (a 50% increase), and anything I can find in the 100 yen stores over there is usually at least 2.50$ (250% increase) over here. )
  22. Are you going there? ← I went for lunch today I sampled alot of various pickled daikon (shiso, miso, shoyu....), rakkyo, some pickled shiitake and nasu (yum!), other tsukemonos. I also saw some dried? shiitake coated with sesame seeds with maybe a slight shoyu-sugar flavoring, looked like a snack, but they didnt have samples There was also various seafood products to sample, including mentaiko & tarako, and ika shiokara. They had koshikari rice musubis, but I had the koshihikari rice:mochiko rice (80:20%) grilled "gohei mochi", painted with a shoyu sauce while grilling and then mine was dipped in kinako. I also has the kushi-dango set pictured in the ad, with an, goma, and shoyu sauces. Wow, the koshihikari rice bags were so expensive. I think it was 5 or 10 punds of rice for 30$.
  23. Shirokiya in Honolulu is having a Niigata fair this week http://shirokiya.com/cart/shopcore/shop_im...f1876b1fc96.gif
  24. Okara 雪花菜 (おから), is the residue left after making tofu. You can buy it really cheap at grocery stores, and even get it free from some tofu-makers. "You should steam or bake/ toast raw okara for 25 to 45 minutes and cool before using, to make the proteins more digestible and remove undesirable enzymes. It is also traditionally prepared by frying with some oil until thoroughly cooked, at least 20 minutes. Steamed, sauteed with vegetables and then simmered in a broth to serve over rice is the most popular and traditional Japanese recipe for preparing okara". From here. I recently made some Okara prepared this way following this recipe: http://www.suresave.com/recipesofhawaii/sa...e_jun_2004.html Awhile ago, I saw a place somewhere in Tokyo that makes tofu, and uses the left-over Okara to make donuts, which were really popular with thier customers. These recipes look yummy: http://gourmet.yahoo.co.jp/bin/rsearch?p=%...srt=1&ord=1&b=1 Can Okara be frozen, before or after making a dish with it? How do you like to prepare your okara?
×
×
  • Create New...