easternsun

i tried this for the first time last weekend and it worked out really well. i think it was the first time my cookies were all the same size!

my husband is in india and it seems his daily diet includes a lot of porotta! i love them too! especially with chili gobi...yum! i went to school in kerala and studied cooking. i asked about learning to make porotta and some of the kitchen staff just laughed and said "oh, its much to difficult for you" - so i never did learn to make them. just how difficult is it? thanks!

i was honestly looking for record shops when i came across : SUSHI

i want to have a kid so i can make all this stuff! i do have heart shaped egg poaching cups. my husband gets heart eggs when we have "canadian breakfast". i have to comment that those little hot dogs are SO popular! adults as well as kids seem to have an amazing appetite for them. i have never been to a home party or bbq party that did not have mini-dogs. the really red coloured ones freak me out.

today i was in a shop that exclusively sells products from okinawa. one of the products was tacos-soba i gather the military base has had some influence on the local cuisine!

i was born in canada. the gomi truck song reminds me of the ice cream truck tune from when i was a kid! the song is almost the same! warabi-mochi vendors - maybe it is an osaka thing. i have always thought that the start of summer was indicated by the warabi-mochi vendors in the neighbourhoods. (like the first time you smell oden in the autumn at conbini) i wish this forum had audio so i could sing the sing for you all! i was in india last summer, so i am just hoping that my new neighbourhood has a travelling warabi-mochi vendor!

yesterday around noon i heard the familiar tune of my childhood>>>>the ice cream van!! in february? no, just the gomi (garbage) truck - but oddly enough, the songs are quite similar! it got me to thinking about the ramen truck that used to come by our old apartment every night around 11:30pm, and the tako-yaki van that used to set up down the street. both had unique and easily recognizable tunes that would have couples in pajamas out on the street looking for midnight munchies. we also had the yaki-imo man in the winter and the warabi-mochi guy in the summer. a tune and a food guaranteed to force a battle between your brain and your belly last august, we moved from the heart of the city (mostly singles and kidless couples) TEN MINUTES AWAY, to a family neighbourhood. the thing is - there is no ramen truck or late night tako-yaki. these days, all i see is the vegetable truck in the afternoon, twice per week - AND HE DOESNT EVEN PLAY A SONG so my question is what food vendors come to your neighbourhood? ps. i dont think i will recognize the start of summer without the WWWAAAA--RRAAA-BIIIIIII, MOOOOO-CHIIIIII, WARABI-MO - O -CHI!!!!

well...i am still working on the perfectly round thing!! i am not sure they would hold up in the post!

thanks i will try that! i didnt make it last night. tonight i will try to make a small batch of chapati. tomato fry is my second fave after chili gobi! it is so easy to make and the best compliment i can pay a chapati! it is really nothing more than tomatoes, onions, garlic, and ginger - fried with some chili powder, mustard seed, g. masala and red chillies. that is it.

thanks for the replies...once torakris said it, "ohyou" is definitely what i am after. i immediately recalled a conversation i once had with a japanese fisherman who spends a month in canada every year. that is what he called it too. funny thing, i checked several dictionaries - no halibut! thanks for the translation! i am from the west coast of canada - hence, the search for pacific halibut. fish and chips on the beach, wrapped in newspaper - and it must be halibut! it is a family thing that goes back a few generations! hirame and karei are lovely, but not what i am after. i might just ask him to bring along some fish on the plane! thanks for the tips ladies! i will have a chat with the folks at the fish market

i love to roast green beans with a few dabs of butter and ...wait for it...a sprinkle of lipton onion soup mix....it sounds gross but it tastes great!

things i see often: ice cubes in red wine - is this something only japanese people do? (they also chill reds) stirring champagne with wooden chopsticks "to reduce the bubbles" knowing that they frequently chill reds, i asked the staff at an upscale restaurant to serve a bottle of red that had not been chilled - they microwaved it! i wish i was kidding! my own personal crimes: i love a red eye (beer & tomato (or clamato if you are in canada)). fabulous hangover cure. yes, the raw egg is chock full of vitamins and protein! this one is going to put me in the hall of shame: girlie-friends nights out when we were all still single, our favourite shot to start the night was vodka, a little raspberry liquer and a few dashes of tabaso

this is going to sound weird. i wanted pizza but i wanted calamari too..so i made a veg pizza with calamari on it! with lots and lots of green tabasco sauce.

i am soooo addicted to apple pie flavour it has big chunks of pie crust and apple filling and the ice cream tastes like the gooey in-between. i never seen to get a good piece of apple pie a la mode in japan - this is the next best thing!!

good one! i used to work in my friends bar to help out and you never refuse a drink from a customer! in eight hours, you could be in for as many as 20-30 shots. seriously! so after "cheersing", when the other person has the shot glass up to their face, i dump the shot over my shoulder on my back. of course, the taxi drivers who took me home thought i was stinking drunk! actually, just stinking!

i have a craving for tomato fry and chapati - but my recipe for chapati makes sooo many!! i am terrible at splitting recipes - it never works out. does anyone have a chapati for one or two recipe?

yes, well it is mcleod ganj - just up the hill from dharamshala

i have been trying to figure out if there is halibut in japan and how to say it. my pops is coming, so i am planning to make all his fave foods. halibut and chips would be one of them. i have tried talking to so many people about it, but no one seems to understand what i mean. please help!

torakris, you are the best! you just saved me some money! i have had my eye on this fancy fondue set, but i am going to try the nabe instead. thanks for the tip!

after reading this thread i had to add these! THEN this one: and finally: CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHERE I TOOK THESE PHOTOS??

I lived in kerala for about six months. I took cooking classes for one hour everyday for about three months. I came across this thread so I will tell you one of the recipes I have...maybe it is not a southern dish 450 g paneer 50g cooked peas 5 onions 4 tomatoes 3 knobs of ginger 8 cloves of garlic 1 tsp fenegreek 1 tbsp cashews 1 tbsp raisins 1 tsp chili powder 1 tsp tumeric 1 tsp coriander powder 1 tbsp garam masala 1/2 tsp black pepper 50 g ghee 1 cup milk (maybe a little more?) - WE USED MILK STRAIGHT FROM THE COW coconut oil to fry paneer 1) julienne onion and tomato 2) dice ginger & garlic 3) drain & cut paneer into small pieces (cubes) 4) fry paneer until golden brown 5) add ghee to cheena chetty (cast iron wok) i dont think i spelled that correctly but that is how it sounds in malayalum 6) add raisins and cashews and cook for onE minute 7) add 1&2, cook until veg is soft and liquid is absorbed 8) add all the spices, mix well 9) add paneer & peas 10) add milk, mix well 11) cook for five minutes serve with rice (keralan) or chapati is this south indian? i ask because once i left kerala, i never ate the same food in the north... i really noticed huge difference in things like the rice, that everything wasnt cooked in coconut oil and the difference in the daal. i never saw tandoori or naan in the south either. i absolutely love paneer! paneer butter masala, palek paneer....oooh paneer

i had a ladies lunch last week and made my first quiche in years! i used spinach, enoki and maitake mushrooms with gruyere and feta cheese. i decided to make quiche because it is so easy and i could make it ahead of time it was delicious. we ate quiche all the time when i was growing up - now i wonder why/when i stopped! it is definitely back on the list!

i must try that! looks yummy! when i first came to japan, i was craving tortilla chips and salsa. i finally tracked down a bag of doritos, when i got home and tucked into the bag, i couldnt figure out what the flavour was - it turned out to be butter flavour!! that was the day i decided to learn to read katakana!

easternsun-- interesting question. seeing that i can get some but not all necessary Japanese ingredients in my Western metropolis (Montreal), i have to answer your question in reverse. in other words, and perhaps i should start another thread, i find myself adding Japanese ingredients to Western food. examples (please do not cringe, as i take great liberties with traditional ingredients): --if i make a genoise or sponge cake, i'll add a tblsp of matcha (green tea) powder and black sesame seed, and i love this cake. as a "jelly roll" with chunky an (sweet azuki bean) paste, it's nice, and also visually interesting. --i have added a square of konbu (stock seaweed) and katsuobushi (smoked shaved bonito) to chicken stock. --i'll sprinkle furikake on a grilled steak at the table. --i routinely make salad dressings with part sesame oil, part rice wine vinegar. --i have a fruit salad in my fridge now that i put about 1/2 cup of sake on to macerate. i know this isn't the exact question you were asking, but maybe it'll encourage people to post here and/or try new things. edit: OMG it's hard to spell "katsuobushi". ← hi gus, i have always experimented like this! matcha is delicious in cakes! i put it in banana smoothies too. i think the japanese are highly evolved when it comes to re-creating western dishes to suit the japanese palate. look at any dominoes or pizza hut menu in japan and you will know what i mean!

anything that melts quickly! usually i have brie or swiss cheese in the fridge. everyone says yuck until they try it!