JasonTrue

If it is agedashi-doufu, nothing more than katakuriko (a kind of starch similar to potato starch or cornstarch, but slightly better for translucency and with a penchant for slight gelatinous texture in parts) is required, along with a seasoned soup stock. I use dried kelp and dried porcini to make the soup base, but more traditional would be kelp and dried shaved katsuo, brought to a simmer and immediately strained. The soup should be seasoned with soy sauce, salt, mirin, and sometimes additional sugar, and finished with freshly grated daikon...

I usually use Japanese wood lacquered chopsticks at home. I avoid disposable waribashi, although sometimes I've sacrificed some disposeables when handling Japanese charcoal. I don't guard them jealously because, well, Japanese dinnerware is meant to be used, and I can always get replacements if they start chipping. They're not terribly expensive ones, though; I think one set of five pairs were about 800-1200 yen. The other thing that makes me avoid guarding them jealously is that my collection keeps growing over time... I received the first pair as a gift about 11 years ago, a set of five was given to me as a gift on a trip to Japan about 6 years ago, and the third set of five was given as a gift fairly recently. Strangely, every time one of my old pairs starts to suffer from scarring, I seem to end up with a new set. I also have 2 pair of sujeo (Korean spoon and chopstick sets, metal) which are very extravagantly decorated, that a friend gave me as a gift. I usually use the metal ones when I've made Korean foods. I'm not a fan of plastic chopsticks, but there's probably a pair or two in my drawer from takeout several years ago. I've seen a Japanese interpretation of plastic chopsticks that actually worked fairly well, but the common Chinese shape seems guarantee to send a few pieces of food flying. I have a few pair of wooden chopsticks with a Chinese shape that see occasional use. I also have 3 pairs of differing length saibashi, simple long wooden chopsticks, for cooking purposes.

I posted an early incarnation of my recipe on the first page of this topic, but I've since revised my recipe to use just 1/4 cup of the matcha latte mix (available on YuzuMura.com), which would be roughly similar to one tablespoon of matcha and 2 tablespoons sugar (the very fine sugar we use is easier to dissolve than most granulated sugar). I shake up the matcha-blended gin once a day or so for about 7 days and keep it cold. I think I want to make karinshu again this year... and maybe something with mikan.

I've been to the Bellevue one once. Their analog to a baguette was sort of like a mildly chewy Wonderbread, without any character. I can say fairly that in the four months since going there I never felt an urge to return. I think the U-District location started around the same time, and was reviewed without particular hostility. It reminds me of Rudy's Barbershop in that it attempts to make up for its chain-style ordinariness with a big-attitude shtick.

I liked Boka quite a lot, and Hiromi was very fond of it. It is, however, not very Seattle-ish, namely because it has a "scene" full of 22 year olds dressing up and people-watching. Of course, I may be a bit biased since Seis is a customer of mine. (actually L.C.G., not the restaurant). It's comfort food improved by small extravagances.

As far as I can tell, mizuame is sometimes corn syrup, but I think it's usually maltose heavy blended with some glucose... as I recall, it's often made with some kind of millet or barley. I think rice was used in Japan when rice was cheaper, and it's possible to make it with sweet potatoes also. I don't think all corn syrup is "high-fructose" but I could very well be wrong about that. Karo isn't exactly the same product that is used in soft drinks, for instance. Oligosaccharides are common in beans, gobo, various roots, onions, etc. but the processed form origo-tou is probably not much different than corn syrup except that the sugar molecules are polymers. At FoodEx about a year ago I met a Chinese producer that makes Oligo-syrup from soybeans. I'm sure any number of other plant sources are possible. I'm pretty sure the process to purify oligosaccharides is very similar to the one used to make corn syrup, though that doesn't mean anything for the healthfulness or unhealthfulness of Origo-tou. A Japan-based subsidiary of a Korean fruit tea company I once met with told me that they "quit using sugar", by which they meant they were using oligosaccharide syrups instead. I don't believe that this affected calorie content in any way, but in his "beans" episode, Alton Brown said that oligosaccharides are harder for the body to digest than other sugars. The products I've encountered so far appear to have a slightly lower level of perceivable sweetness than other sugars, but that may just be a question of level of purification... Corn syrup comes in different levels of sweetness, and 55% fructose is about as sweet as regular sugar. I don't know Japanese labeling regulations AT ALL, but my impression is that manufacturers get away with a higher level of ambiguity than even US manufacturers. One manufacturer of (non-edible) products I met with offers a complete manifest of ingredients including various botanicals used for satisfying European customs, but the actual packaging showed something like "perfume" in Japanese. As another example, in the US a certain threshhold of presence of MSG in foods requires a specific callout in the product label, instead of something like "nutritional yeast" or "seasoning", whereas in Japan it's covered by the description "amino acids." Well I'm glad this came up because I've been meaning to ask about it for a while. I've never seen HFCS listed on an ingredient label here. Does it go by other names? Or is it allowed to be called "mizuame"? And what's up with this "origotou"? I've had a hard time figuring out what it is, but as far as I can tell it's simply beet sugar. Which is certainly not the low-calorie health food that it's touted to be. ← (typo fixed, etc).

Ah, yes, I have missed out on new additions to this thread as I've been very busy for a few months. That photo is the Hermes one I remember... a few years ago (circa 2000) I saw another brand/label, also, although that might have been just a different version of the label. The US-marketed green tea liqueur is this one: http://www.bevmo.com/productinfo.asp?sku=0...99&area=spirits It runs about $32-35 in Washington state, as I recall, but at that web site it's cheap for states that allow direct sales of liquor by mail order. Most states restrict that, however. But like described in the earliest days of this thread, I just buy a $10 gin and make my own with my partner's sweetened matcha product.

The Suntory green tea liqueur, if it's the same as the Hermes brand I saw in Japan, is dreadfully sweet also, but it's good mixed with about 3/4 gin or shochu. Milk helps if that's not an option. I haven't tried the one that Suntory introduced to the US market, which may or may not be the same as what you can find in Australia... I thought it was extravagantly expensive for something that I recall being about $10 in Japan. (about $30 here in the US). Of course, I just make my green tea gin by myself, which only takes 7 days or so.

ichijuu sansai -- I might be wrong, but I vaguely recall from one of the translation and proofreading projects I worked on, or maybe from a Japanese history book, that ichijuu sansai was actually promoted by the government to encourage the "affluent classes" to eat more modestly. My understanding is that as merchants and non-noble classes started to have more money, moral authorities were concerned that wealthier homes were indulging in as many as 7 dishes at dinner time, which was considered hopelessly wasteful. I might have to go and dig out this reference. In contemporary lifestyles it must often seem like 4 small dishes is too much work for a weekday meal. But I think it was meant to encourage thrift...

I didn't use shochu. The only passable shochu in the Washington state liquor stores is iichiko, and it's far more expensive than iichiko should be (maybe a factor of 3 vs. the Japanese retail price). I just use a neutral vodka @ 40%. In Vancouver, I think you'd have more options. I can get some ordinary Korean shochu as well, but I'm not sure it's high enough in alcohol to be safe for infusion, and as it's available only in small bottles it works out to be a bit more expensive than vodka. Though my friend Hal tells me that his mother-in-law made the most fantastic umeshu ever, one or two years old... it turns out the secret was a Remy Martin cognac base.

Try around April-May in the Pacific Northwest. I got some good ones last year, but the season is very brief here, and sometimes the quality isn't that good. This year they were expensive and terrible, so I didn't make umeshu at all. I learned that I can make less sweet versions of these drinks when I tasted my friend's karin-shu (quince liqueur). It's true the ume flavor was more intense when I made a higher-sugar one two years ago. The main reason for lots of sugar is the infusion is faster. I suppose you could do a high dose of sugar for two or three months then add some more vodka/brandy/gin whatever.

From Japanese, the impossible-to-simply-translate: sappari (light, refreshing, generally slightly acidic foods) (saw-ppa-ri, with short a sounds). assari (light, balanced seasoning, in the sense that the natural flavors are awakened rather than hitting you over the head) (ah-ssaw-ri, also with short A sounds).

I don't know the Mercian brand you're referring to. But in my old age, Choya is becoming unbearably sweet. I think it tastes best diluted with some club soda... or more shochu My umeshu at home, which I'm running out of, is not very sweet at all. I suspect that most homemade umeshu is lighter than Choya. I was surprised that a "natural flavors" umeshu that I tried last year more pleasing to me than straight Choya, thanks only to the less syrupy nature of the drink. I still prefer a homemade one. I do recall some excellent umeshu in a restaurant in Futako-tamagawa, at Tama-no Baiken restaurant. http://blog.jagaimo.com/archive/2006/03/15/2314.aspx In Japanese: http://www.hotpepper.jp/A_20100/strJ000024603.html One made with green tea (which I didn't try), one made with black sugar, and one which is pretty much like the one I make at home, "unfiltered", except a tad bit sweeter. My favorite was the kokutou, but I didn't get much of it, because it was Hiromi's

Interesting... I've never been there for lunch, though my girlfriend has and was quite happy. On the other hand, we tend to like minimalism when it's done right. I remember a simple rapini side getting rave reviews from Hiromi, though I could imagine most people wouldn't be that excited by it.

I like Matt's in the Market... one entree, an appetizer or salad, and a glass of wine won't make you poor, but I think it will be over $30. I think we spent $80 for two including dessert, but it's been a while. A bit crowded, and it may not be "fast", but I think it's a perfect Seattle experience.

It might be kuromitsu, black sugar/honey syrup, that just happens to have red beans in it.

I can understand matcha+kinako... I've made waffles with that combination. But I don't see how ume would fit in...

When I was making daifuku on my first trip to Japan in 1998 or so, I believe we started by taking a small chunk of mochi from the mass, rolling it back into a ball, then slowly molding it around a cube of anko, pressing between fingers. Rolling out or flatting the mochi probably would be harder to work with, because you can't easily massage the flat mochi into a seamless ball. I don't think the technique would be different with a frozen filling; the anko was pretty firm too.

I think it's usually just eaten with rice. The advertisements I've seen for it have some on top of freshly cooked rice. Think of it as furikake, but more pastey than furikake-y. ← I've never seen it used any way other than atop rice.

Another Mr. Wong pointed out, in my efforts to be as careful as possible, is that moving somewhat faster than you think is a good idea is actually necessary, because the candy wants to melt while you're pulling it. I was trying to avoid unevenness and resulting broken strands, but if you spend more than about 10 minutes doing the pulling you're likely to make things sticky.

That's visible on the video of Mr Wong making the candy on my web site; look for the "download video" link on this page. It's more obvious when Mr. Wong is personally scolding you for not doing it, and forcing your hands into the correct movement. I think people who've studied aikido might get the idea faster than me. Also note that candymakers to not use scissors to cut the strands; if I remember correctly, that was done by flatteing my thumb and forefinger together and pulling somewhat suddenly.

I believe some Koreans drink a powdered nagaimo drink as a tea... not sure exactly how it's flavored, though. I have to admit that sounds a little bit gross to me.... ←

When I was demoing with Mr. Wong from Bamboo Garden, he gave me a chance to try once. The spiral movement was a deceptively important part of the process of stretching; When I was moving correctly, things worked quite well. When I used my more natural clumsy approach, it was harder to stretch evenly. The first time I did this with his instruction, instead of the ad hoc approach I tried at home beforehand, it went surprisingly well, though my results were not nearly as fine as his own work. If you use the hard crack stage (which I think Bamboo Garden's uses also), you might benefit from the trick that they use: after the sugar mass has cooled, microwave the mass for about a minute to soften it up enough to manipulate. They stored small cups of the sugar mass at room temperature. The sugar was never so hot as to burn my hands. Though I did use latex gloves.

Please note that their websitewill still live on and accept orders. (Full disclosure: they are a customer of mine). Seis is apparently busy working on his new restaurant project (discussed elsewhere on this thread, if I recall), but Pia is working on switching the business model toward a web-only business.

I never find trips to Ikea in Seattle much fun either, as they are crowded when I have time to go (weekends, like everyone else), the trip there is almost an hour, and the store navigation is designed to guide you to walk through as much merchandising as possible, even if you take the "shortcuts". But I almost never fail to reward myself with a small frozen yogurt from the cafe near the cash register, regardless of whether I buy anything or not, solely for enduring the pain of navigating Ikea.