JasonTrue

Yes, he's sort of continuing that tradition.

It looks like a kind of steamed cake formed into the shape of an omelet, based on the descriptive text. It falls into a category of foods once known in royal European banquets as the "deception." They used to generally be savory pies shaped like fish or whatever, but most contemporary deceptions are sweets. In Europe such deceptions are popular with children, like "spaghetti" ice cream with strawberry sauce (I always wanted to make that with some chestnut ice cream and kuromitsu and call it "soba ice"), and eggs with apricot yolks and vanilla ice cream.

Actually, there is some creativity with sushi, but not in the same way that would be expected in the US. But I would say generally not at sushi places (I've only been to a small number of restaurants that serve sushi in Japan, since it's considered a specialty, and not nearly as commonplace in Japan as in the US). Another key point is that US restaurants seem to emphasize makimono (rolls) rather than nigiri-zushi; some Japanese say makimono are "not sushi." I've had some innovative "nigiri-zushi" in kyoto made with yuba, and at Yuuan in Nishi-Shinjuku several years ago, where various vegetables like pickled myouga (a sort of sweet leek) and maybe even a kind of marinated anzu were served. It's been a long time so I can't remember the details, but they were all simple and surprisingly nice. (My second visit to Yuuan more recently was less impressive, but I don't know if that's because I changed or they did). While unconventional, they were much more Japanese in approach because the fundamental flavors were refreshing rather than heavy. Eric Gower's book is probably a better example of how Western influences can be incorporated into Japanese cuisine while still being equally palatable to Japanese and American mouths. On cream cheese in Okinawa... I'd say Okinawan cuisine is almost another category in itself (though most of my experiences of Okinawan foods have been in restaurants in Tokyo or Kansai area), and is not reflective of Japanese cuisine in general.

These are rather rare in sushi in Japan, although avocado is popular in other contexts. I can't say I've seen cream cheese used much outside of "rare cheesecake" in Japan. Chilies are a Western ingredient everywhere, as all of them originated in the Americas, but the chili has worked its way into many cuisines in the last few hundred years. I rarely found fresh jalapeno in Japanese supermarkets or even department stores, though. Americans seem to want strong, heavy, dramatic flavors in their Japanese food, which tends to make the food not very Japanese. I usually laugh (when I'm not wincing) when I read a Japanese restaurant review that contains a paragraph like "the standards like California roll, spicy tuna roll, and spider roll were good, but..." because not one of the "standards" would be found in an ordinary restaurant in Japan.

I can't think of many restaurants that specialize in nabemono... though I guess there's chanko-nabe, which is kind of its own genre. However, if you go out of Tokyo to almost any rural ryokan, especially at a hot springs place,, you're almost sure to have some kind of nabe with dinner. I can't think of one ryokan dinner or onsen experience that lacked for one.

In my experience, "The Girl From Ipanema" would be the most appropriate soundtrack. But that's true almost anywhere background music is played in Japan...

Maybe caffe corretto (espresso with some liquor such as cognac, tequila, rum, etc) poured affogato-style over vanilla ice cream, drizzled with dulce de leche. It's not a cocktail, but it would certainly do the trick. Alcoholic ice cream concoctions were popular when I was in Germany....

If you were around 12th & Yesler, that's probably the Thanh Son Tofu company that I mentioned... they have momen (medium) tofu, and custardy tofu which I use as oborodoufu (though they don't do kinugoshi/soft). They also have good atsuage in about three or four variations (deep fried tofu). When I'm able to go down there on a Saturday, I definitely snap up some warm tofu from them (they sell it just minutes out of the tofu making equipment). Alas, they never seem to be open on Sunday, though most of their products are carried at other nearby Asian markets including Uwajimaya and is usually reasonably fresh. Here's some of their momen tofu with yuzu-kosho http://blog.jagaimo.com/images/ul/hiyayakko_2Dyuzukoshou.jpg And atsuage with yutsai: http://blog.jagaimo.com/images/ul/yutsaiandatsuage.jpg Somehow I seem to have neglected to publish a photograph their custardy tofu, but it is quite good without the syrup. It looks somewhat similar to godoufu: http://blog.jagaimo.com/images/ul/godoufutoshiso.jpg Godoufu isn't actually tofu, but it's an interesting mochi-like kuzu starch and katakuriko thickened soymilk common in Arita. I can't buy it readily (even in most of Japan) so I just make it from time to time. Actually I think Vancouver and Seattle are similar in terms of offering pockets of good inexpensive food. Seattle's strengths tend to be in breads and, to some extent, pastry, whereas in Vancouver the better inexpensive options tend to be Korean, Chinese or sometimes Japanese restaurants, preferably with short menus. I find the same thing in Portland. It's just that the local cliches are slightly different and tend to be more interesting when you're not used to it. My girlfriend has been making short trips to Seattle for almost 3 years, and she was convinced that Seattle was full of spectacular and amazing restaurants because those were the only ones I took her to... then when she moved here this year she started complaining about many disappointments, realizing there weren't so many gems in the less extravagant realm (we had exhausted most of them before she moved here ) It looks like I missed a chance to eat good soba in Burnaby earlier in November: http://knifeskills.blogspot.com/2006/11/soba-lunch.html Though I'm not sure I'd serve soba with ponzu, it's not entirely unheard of.

Since Kara-age is in the same realm as drinking foods, you could be all trendy and serve leaves of raw cabbage and some kind of cold miso-based sauce or mayonnaise along with it... (This "saabisu" offering seems to be the most unifying experience of my last 2 years of izakaya visits in Tokyo).

Mostly, the city restriction that limits street-vending carts to 3 feet deep by 5 feet wide combined with the health department regulation that says street carts must have minimal-to-no-on-cart-preparation of food, that carts preparing food have fully functional, full-sized handwashing and refrigeration facilities, and that all prep work done in a certified (inspected) commercial kitchens are what restricts the street food scene in Seattle to coffee and stale muffins. I don't mean to suggest that the health department regulations are inappropriate. But the size constraint makes it rather hard to comply and offer good, fresh food; allow 4ftx6ft designs and it suddenly becomes feasible. Outside of the US, the commercial kitchen requirement usually goes away or is gleefully ignored with minimal consequence. Rainy areas frequently do have street food scenes, and there are vending umbrellas. I think being a city that rains and/or snows for 3/4 of the year really puts a damper on street foods. ←

I suppose I worded my complaint a bit carelessly... I just don't like that it's so hard to find places that are in the "affordable/everyday-dining" range that have the same kind of attention to detail that I can expect in the same price categories in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong or Germany/rest of Europe. Simple, fresh, not-heavily-processed food, made with an obsession for getting it right, instead of just turning tables as quickly as possible. I can find a good sandwich or decent slice of pizza, but I can't turn to the Turkish Imbiss that uses same-day-baked Turkish bread and well-made things to stuff it, I can't get soba that's made so perfectly it needs nothing more than a house-made tsuyu and a couple of bites of pickled vegetables to accompany it, or a nicely done bibimbap, or piadina, or whatever... the kind of food you might spend $5-12 for here. The specifics of the cuisine aren't so important as the focus on quality (instead of, for example, size and speed). There are, I think, pockets of this attention to detail in Seattle, but it's far easier to find in service of making coffee than it is to find in food. The minimum bar for quality in Japan or Korea, in my experience, is much higher, even on the most ordinary of foods. It's hard to survive by selling "big", for example, instead of "good."

While this doesn't make much sense for upscale Korean restaurants, since Koreans tend to use undifferentiated metal chopsticks and don't identify with a particular pair, the use of waribashi in Japanese restaurants has been discussed elsewhere on eGullet. Basically, Japanese tend to consider it somewhat strange to use someone else's chopsticks, and waribashi became popular because they guaranteed you were using ones that nobody else has used before. I talk about it here: http://moriawase.com/blogs/jason/archive/2...05/13/2389.aspx Another thread where a New Yorker expresses bewilderment at disposable chopsticks in fancy Japanese restaurants, and I talk about the taboos related to chopsticks in Japan: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=78184&st=0 A thread in the Japan forum discusses it here, with a bit of an environmental focus: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...0entry1193143

Not Chinese, but... In Japan at one restaurant, I've seen fuyu or other sweet-crisp persimmons hollowed out and used as a bowl, with a blanched scallop (not dramatically seasoned, maybe with salt) and some simply seasoned vegetable. It's been a few years so I can't remember what the vegetable or preparation was, but I think it was a kind of aemono (simply dressed cold vegetable which might have something like a a ground sesame "dressing"), or a kind of sunomono (slightly sweetened vinegar marinated vegetables). You can see one variation of this general idea on Obachan's blog.

I usually fry items separately unless their cooking time is really similar... the maitake and arugula (ルコラ) I did recently required maybe a couple of minutes for the mushrooms but probably about 30 seconds for the arugula. Of course, that means sometimes some items can get a bit cold by the time they are eaten, since I don't have an industrial size fryer at home... but then, I don't serve very big amounts anymore. Also, when I ate tempura at Japanese homes or, for example, in most ryokan meals, it tends to get cold

Good to know it's just a misspelling Tonkatsu ramen sounds much more frightening than tonkotsu ramen.

By the way, (and since I'm vegetarian I probably won't be sharing your joy), do you mean tonkotsu (豚骨) ramen (which seems more likely, since you're talking about pork broth) or are they actually putting tonkatsu (豚カツ) on ramen?

I suspect that's "ajitsuke tamago" which, if memory serves me correctly, is usually a hard-boiled egg stored overnight in a bunch of salt or sometimes soy sauce, which somehow permeates the shell and contributes saltiness to the egg.

Except for the as-yet-unnattainable Vij experience, not so much. Of course, part of the problem with North American dining is I have to ask people... the minimum bar to restaurant success is so low, that I can't expect much without doing so. In Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong, I've had fairly good results without needing to ask too many questions, though I've certainly benefited from help when it was available.

I'm in Fremont... though I'm pretty familiar with my nearest supermarket options. The PCC locations seem to be the worst place for finding soft, fresh tofu... QFC has it sometimes, but not usually in very good shape (thanks to optimistic expiration dates). Trader Joe's once upon a time had soft tofu but now it's hard or harder. If I go north toward the Korean shops in Shoreline or south to the ID, I can find decent options, just not in nearby markets. I'm aware of La Spiga but it's not quite the "everyday dining" spot, or price range, that piadina would normally be, except maybe at lunch, when I'm generally not nearby... The fact that it's La Spiga is the exception is basically my complaint. I haven't been to Vij's yet, but my stumbling Indian dining experience in Vancouver was less than remarkable (the same is true in Seattle for the most part, with a few Eastside exceptions).

I suppose I might be identifying problems that are national in scope, but I've been traveling far more internationally in the last several years than domestically, so my point of reference is primarily not the US. Also, although they may be problems everywhere in the US, I have a personal interest in seeing improvements close to home! Sure, I've had some particularly hideous dining experiences in Orlando and even Chicago without (and with) proper research. However, I've had fairly good luck stumbling around San Francisco (not so much the rest of the Bay Area, though) without doing much advance research; I trust my instincts when on my own, which usually helps screen out total disasters, but the same instincts don't always work everywhere. I suspect that not every town is full of mediocrity... Of course, most every city has its own kind of common milieu of mediocrity and redeeming charms... In Chicago, bad coffee, overcooked pasta and big food are commonplace, but then they have a higher minimum bar on Greek restaurants than much of the rest of the country, for example (granted, that may not be saying much). In San Francisco, although most of my Japantown dining experiences were unimpressive, it seemed easier to accidentally walk into a good Italian or Chinese restaurant than Seattle. In Vancouver, BC, most cake, pastry, Italian and Indian spots that I've found are reliably disappointing, but you can fall into a Japanese, Korean or Chinese restaurant and expect reasonably good results (or maybe I was just lucky). In Tokyo, the most frightening things are done to Mexican food... I remember tortilla chips made from flour tortillas, served with tabasco sauce mixed with canned tomatoes as the salsa. But I can find almost-fresh food in convenience stores (not that I particlarly like it) that rivals what average US Japanese restaurants serve, and then there's not a bad soba shop to be found. (The fact that on most trips to Japan I have enough time to find myself eating at non-Japanese restaurants is another issue, I suppose).

OK, I think it's possible to eat very well in Seattle, and we have access to great ingredients if we look in the right places, etc. On the other hand I'm sure everyone has some pet frustrations with dining or food shopping in Seattle... Feel free to share yours. Here are some of mine. Dining: $17 plates of pasta that are almost four times the amount of food a normal human stomach really needs, making it impossible to order anything else to enjoy along with it. (Granted, it's not as bad if you know where to look, but you do have to know where to look; you can't just stumble into an Italian place and expect it to be decent). An almost complete lack of effort to offer high-quality lowbrow daily dining options, other than maybe sandwiches and some passable pizza-by-the-slice. A little attention to detail, please! If we can do it with coffee, we can figure out how to get decent soba, maybe a quick piadina, and Mexican quick-service spots at least smart enough to eschew yellow Irish cheese without having to run all over town. The majority of lunch spots and inexpensive dining places aspire only to mediocrity, rarely approaching the level of professionalism I can expect from a local indie barista (Yes, I know there are a few exceptions, but I find a much better success rate when I am in Japan, Korea, and even Germany, purely by stumbling in; it seems to be harder to succeed if you're not at least good, whereas you can open a terrible ambiguously Asian restaurant on Broadway and gain a loyal following simply by offering big food.). The Japanese restaurants that get the most buzz/attention (which shall remain nameless) primarily offer weirdly presented food with inappropriate scale, decidedly un-Japanese combinations of ingredients that aren't actually even "innovative", and a strange tendency to try to cram too many unrelated categories of food onto the same menu, doing little better than an average middle-of-nowhere "family restaurant" in Japan. Shopping: Frighteningly bad to mediocre supermarket tomatoes, generally from BC Hothouses, even during the late summer/early fall months when perfectly good ones are in season locally. The softest tofu at most supermarkets, including PCC and Whole Foods, starts at Firm and goes to Extra Firm, and is usually old. This is a travesty, as it continues to perpetuate continued abuse (and the myth that tofu needs to be excessively seasoned to become palatable), and makes preparing Korean and Japanese food at home a serious problem unless I plan my week around trips to Asian markets or Central Market. I want custardy, fresh oboro tofu, soon dubu, and kinugoshi tofu, momen at the firmest, and it must taste like soybeans, not sour milk. (Yes, I know I have options at Uwajimaya and some Korean markets, and at Thanh Son if I ask to skip the soft tofu's syrup. But they aren't in my neighborhood). Pastries that are so big they lose their charm about half-way through... Even the bakeries that I like are guilty of this. I know they need their average ticket prices to meet a certain threshhold, but do I really need a croissant to weigh a half pound? OK, enough venting for one day. I'm sure I can keep ranting.

People always forget that so many things have carcinogenic properties in one way or another... moderation, rather than complete elimination of ingredients, is usually called for. In fact, burnt/smoked food is in that category, yet I doubt anyone will avoid smoked food completely just for a marginal improvement in cancer risk.

I suspect there are other factors. One biologist friend suggested that earlier use of talc in rice production can't have been very helpful as there is some evidence that the mineral is associated with higher stomach cancer rates. I'm not sure that talc is still in widespread use, but it probably explains the Japanese concern with cleaning (or polishing, if more literally translated) rice before cooking it.

I guess you could press it through a cutter like the ones used for tokoroten, but it's likely you don't have such equipment. I'd just use it for something like dengaku-konnyaku. Here are a few other ideas: http://blog.jagaimo.com/archive/2006/05/30/2416.aspx (You can do any of the things you see there with the white konnyaku) Dengaku konnyaku just requires sugar, mirin, miso, and optionally some egg yolks cooked until thick. Warm up the konnyaku, flip, add the sauce, and lightly broil the konnyaku until the miso sauce is bubbly. The dengaku miso is not the best one I've made, but it should give you an idea.

Even French cuisine has that movement with "nouvelle cuisine" and more recent les... Neue deutsche Küche, or new German cuisine, or is also less heavy than the bürgerlich cuisine that Germany is more well known for. But Japanese cuisine actually emphasizes this "assari" and "sappari" taste as a central characteristic. Unlike French or other European cuisine, it's impossible to really make adequate Japanese cuisine without having a good understanding of these attributes. Overseasoned Japanese food doesn't really taste Japanese. I did notice an interesting cookbook a while back (in Japanese) that featured contrasting recipes (stamina vs. sappari)... Of course, there are some foods that are also fairly "heavy" by Japanese standards popular in Japan, like curries, yakiniku and yakitori, and tonkatsu, but they also happen to have fairly clear foreign lineage (India, Korea, probably Austria).