SuzySushi

Online here: http://www.sushivan.com/b2b/dg/dg_m.asp?subcode=19 ← Eek!!! At those prices, I think I'll leave it to professional chefs!

The sweeping effects of Hurricane Katrina.

I wonder if it's available in Japanese stores in the USA, or whether it's banned from importing. There's a lot of stuff on the shelves that's not labeled in English... I'll have to take along the picture next time I go shopping and see.

Simmered in chicken broth until barely tender, then sauteed with butter, shallots, and pine nuts. I can't do this any more because my daughter is highly allergic to pine nuts (!!! what a strange allergy) so we don't bring them into the house any more. Brussels sprouts were one of my favorite vegetables as a child. I perceived them as "baby cabbages" and ate them by carefully peeling off each leaf.

Just treat it like a big chicken and you'll be fine! (Resist the temptation to turn a bird that big unless you're really muscular!)

Add me to the bleudauvergne fan club. Lucy, I am awed by your artist's sensibility, which extends not only to the food and photographs here, but to every corner of your life... even insofar as choosing writing paper. You seem to come from a quieter era, when people had more time to reflect. Thank you for allowing us to peek into your life.

Try pressing the tofu before you use it. Place it on a rimmed plate lined with paper towels. Place a flat-bottomed plate or small cutting board on top and weight down with canned goods or a pot/bottle filled with water. Let stand about 20-30 minutes. You'll be amazed how much liquid comes out of the tofu and how much firmer it is!

I would think that cross-contamination would be the problem. FYI, because of the high percentage of Asian-background population in Hawaii, all the supermarkets here sell packages of beef, pork, and sometimes even chicken sliced for sukiyaki, teriyaki, shabu-shabu, etc. (different thicknesses). It's impossible to get lamb sliced that way, which I was able to find in Chinatown in NYC, because lamb is not very popular here. BUT, I encountered a reverse cross-contamination issue. When I wanted the butcher to slice a whole ham, he couldn't do it because the ham was already cooked. I had to take the ham to the deli department to do on their cold-cuts slicer!

A study just released by the Food Safety Research Division of the Korea Food Research Institute says experiments found that naturally-fermented kimchi is effective in killing salmonella, staphylococcus, vibrio germs and E.coli bacteria. "Our study shows that kimchi can effectively ward off food poisoning by varying the ingredients or fermentation temperature," said the lead researcher. "When eating foods susceptible to harmful bacteria, such as meat and fish, one can prevent food poisoning by accompanying them with kimchi." Article According to a BBC report earlier this year, scientists at Seoul National University also used kimchi to successfully treat chickens infected with avian flu. Is kimchi the new wonder drug?

I live in Hawaii and I never heard of brining a pineapple! Personally, I buy the low-acid varieties such as Del Monte Gold, which don't seem to have the mouth-puckering enzymes.

We can get pomelos and kaffir limes easily here (Hawaii), but I've never seen any of the other fruits. I can't eat pomelos (or grapefruits) any more, though, because they interact unfavorably with a medication I'm taking.

That grape jelly sure gets around. Many years ago, a friend gave me an otherwise very good recipe for oven-baked breaded chicken, which I've made many a time. The accompanying sauce recipe -- which I never made -- was composed of grape jelly, bottled chili sauce, and yellow mustard. My friend was as horrified that I never made the sauce -- "That's the best part!" he said -- as I was by the sauce!

Wooden or bamboo chopsticks. Often they provide more finely finished chopsticks made of cedar or another fragrant wood. They're still meant to be thrown away, though. (I reuse mine!)

I'm pretty sure what I eat here is the first version. Some restaurants add bits of pork as well. It's one of my favorite dim sum dishes. My 9-year-old's, too! Last time we had it, we got an extra dish (2 packets) free because an overly zealous busboy cleared away her plate before she was finished picking the last tidbits off her lotus leaf! She was so visibly dismayed that the manager sent over another order. (We're regulars at that restaurant, so the staff recognizes us.)

I personally never eat raw salmon because of concerns about parasites. I don't know whether farmed salmon is free from parasites.

AFAIK, the taboo against passing food from one pair of chopsticks to another derives from a Japanese funeral ritual in which the bones of the dead are picked from the ashes after cremation and passed from one mourner to another before being interred in an urn. I've never seen this personally.

From my 9 year old: Breakfast: Cheerios banana milk (This is, in fact, the breakfast she eats every day.) Lunch: chicken noodle soup milk Dinner: rice char shu, "wonderful char shu" carrots -- "No, dump the carrots." Me: "What vegetable would you suggest instead?" "Okay, let's keep the carrots." milk banana -- Me: "Two bananas a day?" Her: "Yes."

This looks delicious! Would you use the same mixture to steam in lotus leaves, or is that made from glutinous rice?

Better than an online site, I'd suggest you shop in person at a Japanese store, such as Katagiri on East 59th Street or Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater NJ (the latter has bus shuttle transportation from Manhattan).

Good, thoughtful responses, Jason. It's sometimes difficult to understand Asian cultural taboos -- and even more difficult to explain them to "outsiders." Many of the ones to do with chopsticks are deeply ingrained.

Sanitation is, in fact, another concern. Plastic chopsticks, like the ones used in Chinese restaurants, are not used in Japan, except for children's chopsticks. They're uncomfortably slippery and, in fact, most Chinese restaurants in Hawaii have a supply of Japanese disposable wood or bamboo chopsticks on hand for customers who request them. Lacquer chopsticks must be washed by hand; even the "plastic lacquer" ones peel if placed in a dishwasher. Thus, most Japanese prefer to use disposable wood or bamboo chopsticks in restaurants.

Me too -- and that's why if you watched, those plates would be returned with one bite taken out of them. God only knows how many of those bites are spat into napkins. Try this: follow one of these tiny women who declare that they "just love to eat, eat, eat!" to the restroom after the dishes are cleared, they never, EVER leave before you. They don't make a noise in there. I have no doubt purging is going on. When db Bistro Moderne first did it's burger, a friend from out of town went with me for a rare lunch out. Of course we had the burger, and when we went to the ladies' room after, we were near a group of women who were at db for the burger experience. None of them ate the bun, just a bite of the burger and a bite of the frites. When my friend and I spoke of how fantastic those things were and how we were licking the plates clean, we were assumed to be purgers just like them. Ewwww. ← I forget now which of the original LWL made famous the quotation "You can never be too rich or too thin." That was decades before anorexia and bulimia were in the vernacular.

What Jason said... and the better Japanese restaurants here usually use disposable bamboo chopsticks rather than wood. It's chic in certain Japanese circles to carry a pair of personal chopsticks with you (in a special box or fabric envelope) to be environmentally correct and "save a tree."

I have one of those three-pronged plate lifters, which I must've bought 20+ years ago. I never realized it's so hard to find, although I must say I don't remember seeing any of them in stores recently! It doesn't work on everything... if the plate/dish doesn't have a lip, the edge slips right through. In such cases, or for those who can't find the plate lifter, you can improvise by making a criss-cross of folded foil handles under the dish before you place it in the steamer. Make sure the foil has been folded enough times so it won't break through as you're transferring the hot dish.

Most of the foods have already been listed, but... Canned tuna, salmon, chicken, ham, beef stew, beef hash, corned beef, Spam. Canned fruits and vegetables. Canned pasta sauce. Dry pasta, rice, cereals, crackers, instant ramen. Peanut butter, jelly or jam. Fruit juice in cans, shelf-stable bottles, or juice-packs. Baby food.