SuzySushi

I vote for Brawny Pick-A-Size. Ingenious for us. Probably sells fewer paper towels for them, though. Much less waste.

Saw them in the market today, for the first time, and remembered your post. My daughter wanted to try the apple-cinnamon variety. We're not impressed. Thre's a strong apple-cinnamon flavor when you first put a chip in your mouth, but as you chew it, that dissipates quickly leaving just a cardboardy potato chip. "Betcha can't eat just one" definitely does not apply!

Here ya' go: Pink-fleshed Eureka Lemons. (I just bought one at the local farmers' market--haven't made pink lemonade yet.) http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/lemons.html#pink

Don't feel bad... the bugs (or rather the larvae) were most likely in the shiitake when you bought them. EEEEUUUUUUUUUUUUWWWWWW!!! It happens sometimes. Just throw them out and get another batch... maybe not from the same market or brand.

Along with everyone else, I thank you for sharing this wonderful slice of life in Japan, and wish your family (and especially your wife) the best of health!

I'm interested in buying an assortment to keep frozen, now! Tell us - did you just bring them home and put them straight into the freezer, then use directly from there as you need them? Do you find the stated 6-month shelf life in a freezer is realistic? ← Yes, I stuck them in the freezer as soon as I got home. They kept just fine for six months after being first opened.

Re: Melamine sponges - Mr. Clean "Magic Eraser" sponges are that new type of melamine sponge. Their packages don't say whether or not they're for food use. Hiroyuki, you keep apologizing for how "messy" your place is. I don't see any mess at all!

Sounds like a scene in a movie! You wouldn't want to be a screenwriter, would you?

My husband and daughter are staring at me wondering why I'm laughing at my computer monitor. . . I love your writing style. You have a real knack for description!

Reminds me of a vaguely Chinese dish I "invented" years ago, based on what was on-hand: Ground or finely chopped beef or pork, peas, and chopped tree-ear mushrooms. I think I seasoned it with hoisin and soy sauce, but I'll check my notes to make sure. It was great comfort food, served over rice.

I tried these too -- can't recall the brand -- Safeway carries them in its "Lifestyle store" remodels. I thought they were quite good and "fresh" tasting. I bought the lemongrass and basil pastes, and kept them in the freezer (they don't harden completely). They were very convenient for when I wanted "a dab" of seasonings to add to soups or stir-fries, etc. I have a black thumb when it comes to herb gardening, and the stores are often out of the herbs I want at the time I want them. If these were more readily available, I'd buy an assortment to keep frozen. They're expensive (about $5/tube), but a little goes a long way!

I like House Java curry best too, though I go for the "medium hot" version. Haven't had that for a while either because it's too hot for my daughter, so I usually buy S&B or Golden "mild." I will not stoop to using Vermont curry -- it's much too sweet!! BTW, you did answer my other questions -- except I still can't figure out how those tiny fish can be boneless!

Reviving this thread because Cinco de Mayo is coming up and we're invited to a potluck... Now, should I make empanadas or flan? Decisions, decisions!

Some great ideas here! Need to bookmark this thread. Of course, though, the first thing I thought of when I read the thread title is that the packages make great icepacks. . .

Probably due to Mr. Kellogg... and to the USDA. I dunno. My grandparents owned a farm for a while, and my father told me the "farmers' breakfast" he & the farm-hands ate was steak & eggs, and maybe some fried potatoes, AFTER they were done with their morning chores. Growing up, my usual breakfast was orange juice, and Rice Krispies with milk, though I recall going through a phase when I insisted on grilled cheese sandwiches. My parents had juice, toast, and coffee. Constitutionally, I'm usually not terribly hungry at breakfast, and eat whatever I feel like that day. Sometimes it's coffee and a naked slice of bread, other days it might be dry cereal with fruit and milk. Still other times, I've eaten leftover anything -- from cold pizza, to fried chicken, to curry. And every so often I'll get a craving for a bowl of udon garnished with shrimp and cilantro. Of course, if I had my druthers, breakfast would be brunch at a dim sum place.

Gomen-nasai, Hiroyuki-san! I am just catching up reading your wonderful blog, after nearly a week of burning the midnight oil working. I hope your wife's health is improving and that she'll be home soon. And I admire you for blogging and. . . yes. . . dealing with ImageGullet!. . . during this stressful time. I have so many comments and questions that I've opened a second window on eGullet to try to go through them in order! You keep making self-deprecating statements like and but it seems to me you're fascinated with food (and your blog is fascinating to read!).Like many others here, I'm in awe of your organized refrigerator and your use of recycled tissue boxes -- (did you know, BTW, that you can turn boxes inside-out for a clean, label-free look? ) -- and your many uses of recycled milk cartons are pure genius! I'll have to some of those ideas with orange juice cartons here -- we go through a lot of milk and buy it in plastic jugs. Like jkonick (post #47), I'd also like to know more about what local food specialties are available in your area. I've never been in "snow country." Furthest north I've been in Japan was Takayama, for the Spring festival (in cherry blossom season). I'm very curious about the V-shaped tea filter shown in this picture: Where did you buy it? Did it come with a teapot, or is it sold separately? I imagine the rim fits right over a cup or mug to hold it in place. I've never seen anything like that at the Japanese stores here. It would be nice to have. . . In post #52, you showed a photo of a seimaijo (rice-milling station) where customers can mill brown rice into white rice. Is that because your area grows rice, or is that popular in other parts of Japan? Tabata-ya makes me so natsukashi! I love wooden-structure Japanese restaurants. It reminds me of places I used to dine in with friends. And I'd almost forgotten about soba yu. No one bothers to serve it here! (And I didn't know it contains rutin.) That kyushoku (school lunch) you show in post #55 looks good! My daughter would eat that kind of mean anytime! (And no, she's not Japanese! ). Here in Hawaii, because of the dominant Asian-American population, the schools serve rice at least once a week, and dishes like stir-fried noodles and teriyaki chicken or beef also show up on the menus frequently. . . but never miso soup! From post #88 So that's how you get the flan to unmold! I never knew! Post #120 - Daiso 100 yen shop is awesome!!! In the past few months, the Japanese supermarkets here have cut back on their 99-cent stores. Marukai closed one of theirs, and raised prices on most items in the other. And Don Quixote, which has taken over the Daiei supermarkets here, eliminated the 99-cent section from the Daiei store it remodeled, and has not been getting new stock at the two other branches I've seen, so I'm sure those will soon go, too. (I don't like Don Quixote's remodel -- too cluttered.) Post #157- That "morning market" in Yuzawa looks a lot like the ones I saw in Takayama (except those were busy in the Spring). And the trees in the museum look like sculptures! I'm curious about the shishamo with roe (post #183). (My husband loves them!) Do the roe grow naturally inside the fish (don't laugh!), or are they stuffed into them? It seems to me the fish are gutted and boneless. Post #200 What is "gum syrup"? Is it a sugar syrup used to sweeten coffee? Ack! There was some other food you mentioned that I hadn't heard of before, but I can't find it now. . . Oh well, a question left unasked, for another post!

Woo-hoo! You know I'll be an avid reader of your blog! I'm so sorry to hear about your wife's hospitalization. I didn't know about her illness. What a stressful time this must be for your family! I'm sending lots of good wishes her way.

While not a chef, I can confirm that the shrimp used for this preparation are not regular shrimp, but a particular variety known as amaebi ("sweet shrimp"). Some of the Japanese restaurants here in Hawaii fry the heads, too. Don't know if anyone sells them fresh in your neck of the woods, but you might be able to find them frozen in their shells at an Asian market. The shrimp, minus the shells, are usually served raw as sushi and are the only type of shrimp that are eaten raw.

Nice haul from today's Sunday farmers' market at Mililani HS: Ho Farms assorted color cherry & grape tomatoes, Kula baby romaine, fragrant fresh basil, an enormous red papaya, fresh heart-of-palm, fresh turmeric, a beautiful purple-and-white eggplant, and a Eureka lemon (my first!!), all topped off with an order of taro mochi. Would've bought more except my husband scored lots of salad fixings yesterday and our vegetable bin is full. Hey, are any of you members of Slow Food Oahu? We've been thinking of joining...

What I've read is that Whole Foods, as part of its corporate initiative to "walk the talk" in offering consumers local products, is encouraging farmers' markets to set up their businesses in the parking lots of some of its stores on Sundays. WF said that wherever possible, it will work with exisiting farmers' markets in its trading area. The space will be offered to farmers at no charge, and WF is not asking for a cut of their sales. It's apparently a "good neighbor"/publicity gesture, as well as a means of bringing more customers to its stores--and my personal feeling is that if Whole Foods is perceived as offering more locally grown products through these independent farmers, maybe some of the criticism directed at WF will die down. (Adding more local products is partly in direct response to Michael Pollan's criticism last year, and partly due to increased retail competition from Wal-Mart and supermarkets carrying more organic foods.)

I think they taste a lot like dates, so any recipe calling for dates should work. Just chop them up.

Thanks for the recipe! Will try as soon as we finish the current batch of store-bought! The package in my fridge says ingredients are cucumber, green pepper (I estimate about 10%), ginger, water, soybeans (soy sauce?? I don't detect any beans themselves), salt, amino acid, citric acid, MSG, some kind of sorbate, and food colorings. I also see shisho buds in the mixture, which are not listed on the label.

Susan, I use Con-Tact shelf liner -- the kind that has light-tack adhesive. It's impermeable, wipes clean, and can be pulled off without leaving residue if it gets too grungy or you decide to change your decor.

One often leads to the other. . . (and it pertains in both directions)

From the April 1, 2007 issue of Restaurants & Institutions: Americans are still infatuated with dishes like kung pao chicken and teriyaki, writes the trade magazine, but "Diners are ready to graduate to the next class of Asian recipes filtering down to mainstream menus." I don't know whether to be elated or dismayed! And you? (Article includes recipes for two "fusion" dishes: Korean Kimchee Beef [sushi] Rolls, and Nyonya Chili Prawns.)