[Magazines]

A dollar?

Blimey! It's about 8 pounds here!

[Magazines]

I am a huge fan of Orange Page!

It has lots of good home Japanese cooking, great photography & easy to follow instructions. I tend to skip the sections on being the perfect housewife though.

I used to buy it all the time when I lived over there (and had time to stay home cooking all day!) It's only a couple of hundred yen, but it's very expensive to buy here in the UK. Fortunately, all the Japanese guys in my office (& those coming over from head office) are trained to purchase a copy at Narita before they board their flight to London. No matter how embarrassed they may feel!

[Moussaka: Cook-Off 7]

With regard to the folks who have had trouble buying fresh lamb mince (though that's not too much of a problem in the UK) when I make Shepherd's Pie, these days I always use lamb left over from a roast chopped into tiny pea-size pieces (more 'bite' than if whizzed in the processor). I got the idea from my adored HFW 'Meat' book and the results have been wonderful, especially if the meat is cooked with a reduction of some stock made from the lamb bone as well as tomato. (We enjoy this left-overs dish more than the roast dinner!) I wonder if this method would work well for Mousakka? Or would it over-power the aubergine?

As for a veggie version, I like to used finely chopped mushrooms (you need LOTS!) combined with a variety of lentils & maybe a minced vegetable like turnip in place of the meat, you need to be quite generous with the seasoning.

[Five courses from the French Laundry Cookbook]

I'm very impressed by the challenge you have set yourself and thoroughly enjoying the ringside seat!! I'm getting the urge to dust down some of my fancier, less creased-up books!

I have to agree with Jinnmyo with regard to the peas. My husband & I grow (or try to grow) all our own vegetables on our our allotment; the only thing we don't bother with is peas. They're lovely if you happen to be able to pick them, shell them & throw then in the pot all within 5 minutes (from one's own lovely cottage garden!), but if left for too long they lose all flavour and tenderness. I once embarrassed myself by purchasing "fresh" peas to accompany a particularly luxurious fish pie..... never again.

Garden peas are, I think, the frozen food industry's one triumph.

[Guam]

Some American friends and I visited Guam for Christmas once when I lived in Saga-ken. It was a loooong time ago (about 12 years! ) so it may be very different now.

I'm afraid I have no particular delights to report (apart from cocktails by the pool!). Mostly it was American fast food chains thanks to all the American servicemen based there with their families - pizzas & bugers - but we had no complaints about that since we were very young, it was years before any of the big chains had really made inroads in Kyushu & we wanted us some FUN FOOD after months & months of Japanese food. (Like I said, we were young!) For Christmas lunch we bought a packet of turkey slices, some fresh bread and a bottle of champagne and had a picnic on the beach - classy huh?

There were also LOTS of Japanese places to eat, from swanky to mom&pop ramen shops. In fact, it's quite hard to get a taxi driver to take you downtown to find out where the locals eat - if you stay in a Japanese hotel (as we did) the drivers automatically take you to the shopping/dining malls aimed directly at Japanese holiday makers with lots of cash spare, so you have to be insistent or get a bus. We did find a couple of fun bars that locals went to where there was lovely food (again burgers, fries, tex-mex, HUGE portions when you're used to Japanese style) and bands playing, but I guess that won't be what you're looking for with three children.

I've probably not been a huge help, but I hope you have a lovely time!

Oh yes, did I mention the cocktails?!

[eG Foodblog: torakris - Pocky and the geisha]

What a fun day out you had in Odaiba! And the coincidence is, the company I work for built & manages Aqua City!!

Really enjoying this blog Kristin, it encouraged me to join up. I've really been interested to see the variety of family meals you devise (I'm a stickler for using up everything) and the bentos you make for your husband everyday.

Actually, I have an embarrassing bento story to share - many years ago living in a small town in Saga Prefecture, when my (now ex) husband first left the Self Defense Force & began working at a motor repair workshop I was more enthusiastic than skilled in my bento preparation. I knew how much he loved to eat tako-yaki (octopus snack balls) when we went to festivals so one day, as a surprise I filled the top layer of his box with tako-yaki (I got about 12 in, it was a huge man-size bento box!) and I thought he'd be really happy about it. However, he was the laughing stock of the garage that day and it took a couple of months to live down!!

My bentos became a little more traditional after that....