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sk_ward

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Everything posted by sk_ward

  1. I pick up croquettes and gyoza from my supermarket every now and then. When I get off of work late, most of the freshly made foods are 50% off and then I'll add maybe a gobo or potato salad.
  2. When I am very hungry but have very little time, this dish saves the day! I poach a chicken thigh in water to cook the chicken and to make a broth. When the chicken is cooked through, I take it out, let it cool and then shred it with a fork. I add a bit of sake and soy sauce and the soup is done. In a separate pot, I boil some noodles, either udon or somen and after they are cooked and rinsed, I toss them into the soup, warm them back up a bit and then add the noodles and soup into a bowl. Top it with some green onion and the chicken and a healthy dallop of yuzu koshou. The yuzu koshou bumps up the flavor factor at least five fold and it really makes for an easy, healthy meal. You can buy yuzu koshou at the 100 yen shop so before I leave Japan, I am going to load my suitcase up with the stuff!!! I can't imagine being able to get it for that cheap outside of Japan.
  3. I happened to catch the episode of "Hakkutsu! Aru Aru Daijiten II" that aired on Kansai TV on Jan 7. They discussed how natto could help you lose weight, even if you made no other changes to your exercise regimen or diet. They attributed natto's magical weight lose powers to the high level of DHEA found in natto and claimed that you should eat two packs a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. After stirring vigorously, you were supposed to let it rest for about twenty minutes before eating it. On the show, they showed people who followed this diet and lost weight and had an improvement in various blood test parameters. I can't remember exactly what they were, but maybe cholesterol or maybe just DHEA levels? The show sparked a national natto buying frenzy and a natto shortage developed. Several natto companies took out advertisements to apologize for the shortage. From personal experience, natto was NOWHERE to be found in any grocery stores near my apartment! But, alas, it was all lies, and Kansai TV issued a formal apology on tv. They actually used pictures of people who had lost weight, but not by being on the natto diet, and blood tests were never actually carried out. I guess that they weren't expecting this kind of response from their show, but it makes you wonder how many other shows like this are all just bogus... I just want my natto back! Mainichi Daily News Report
  4. The old way of grinding tea leaves to make matcha powder. My arm is blocking the top, but the gyokuro tea leaves are placed in a hole on the top and as you turn the handle, it gets ground into a powder and comes out the bottom. The modern way. I'm not exactly sure how these work, but you can see the tea leaves in the instrument on the right. The silver things rotate around pretty quickly and the matcha powder comes out the bottom. If you're interested in green tea, try to make it to Uji someday! It's an easy trip from Kyoto, the scenery is beautiful, and the smell of tea really permeates the air. And if you're a literature buff too, you'll enjoy all of "The Tale of Genji" monuments and the museum there. At the Mitsuboshien Kanbayashisannnyu (sorry, the kanji from my Mac always comes out strange) on the main tea street, you can grind your own tea leaves, make matcha from it and drink it with a sweet for 840 yen a person. It was a fun, quick, and casual lesson. They also have a little museum. The same family has been in the business for over 500 years!
  5. I've seen those natto stirrers in Tokyu Hands and in Loft. I almost bought one, just for the novelty of it (and so that I could post a picture of it! ) but then figured that it probably couldn't do anything any better than my chopsticks. What exactly is the point of the bowl?
  6. Next time, I would try to leave out the raw egg, unless you really like to eat raw egg with other kinds of foods (eg sukiyaki, soba, etc). I don't know what other people think, but that seems like an advanced step to me and maybe a little much for the beginner!!! I would second the vote for whole bean too.
  7. This is a great example of joubi sai, like we discussed in that thread. It should keep for quite a while in the refrigerator. Let us know how it freezes though. The long cooking of the daizu (soy beans) is usually why I omit them most of the time. In a pinch I use canned but I don't really care for their flavor as much. Beautiful picture by the way. ← I just defrosted the first batch and it actually tasted just fine. The carrots became a little bit soft, but I was actually mostly concerned about the bean texture and there was no problem there at all. I missed a couple of konnyaku bits before putting the batch in the freezer, but I was glad that I tried to take them out prior to freezing! They shriveled up and turned out really grody.
  8. For the first time in a long, long time, I actually took the time to make some dashi from konbu and katsuobushi. It made me wonder if okaka can be made from the used katsuobushi. Or is it supposed to only be made with katsuobushi in its fresh (dry?) form. Maybe soggy katsuobushi with shoyu would taste really bad! It seems like a waste to use all of those flakes for just a minute and then toss it all in the garbage! Also, when making okaka, is it really just katsuobushi and shoyu or are there some other ingredients added as well?
  9. My first takikomi gohan of the season! I always have trouble using up an entire stick of gobo before it gets soft, so I figured to give takikomi gohan a try. I also tossed in some kabocha that I wanted to use up. I wasn't sure how the combination would taste, but I was pleasantly surprised. I also wasn't sure if I was supposed to cook the kabocha a little before tossing it in with the rice, but I decided to just slice it into relatively thin pieces. It managed to become nice and soft without falling apart. I don't like how takikomi gohan becomes hard if you try to keep it for future meals, so I only made one gou of rice. I based my liquid measurements on what Hiroyuki suggested for hiratake takikomi gohan (Hiroyuki's Hiratake Takikomi Gohan Recipe), but I cut down the amounts to be appropriate for only one cup of rice. I put in the rice, then the liquids, then the gobo and the kabocha, then added water to the one cup mark, stirred gently, closed the lid and pressed start. The smell from the rice cooker was great and it took a lot of restraint to not cheat and look inside to make sure that the amount of liquid was okay! It came out with a great texture, not too dry at all.
  10. Wow, your 10,000th post!!!! Cool! I think that deserves a congratulations!
  11. These are seasoned bones of the "kisu" fish. I tasted them in a depachika and loved them. The fact that they have so much calcium and are tasty was really the selling point for me. They really are addictive and before I knew it, they were gone! I haven't been able to find them again, but sardine (iwashi) bones are very easy to find. I bought three packs for ¥1000 in Ueno. One was spicy, seasoned with mentaiko. I liked the kisu senbei more, but the iwashi senbei is a much more reasonable price!
  12. I bought a pack of yatsuhashi with both cinnamon and matcha flavors. Are they curved like this to look like a bridge (hashi)? They are very crunchy, but after a few seconds in your mouth they become soft and the matcha and cinnamon flavors really come out. I loved both flavors!
  13. I thought about posting this in the wagashi thread, but since I have never seen this outside of Kyoto, I figured that it belongs here. This is called ajyarimochi. It looks sort of dorayaki-like, with anko inside, but the outside has a really interesting texture. It's really soft, thin and is actually kind of stretchy. It reminded me a little bit of those foam mattresses that have "memory" because you can see my finger impressions still formed on the outside. But of course, it was much tastier than a foam mattress!!! I actually got this free at a tasting booth in an exhibition hall, but I liked it so much that I wanted to buy more. However, I never saw any anywhere again! I kept the wrapper and I know that they have a store somewhere, so the next time I'm in Kyoto, I will be on a mission to find myself some more!
  14. Yuudofu! This is probably the simplest of tofu preparations, so if the tofu isn't fresh, it will taste horrible. Along with some big pieces of tofu, there is a little bit of yuba, mitsuba and a piece of fu (the pretty leaf), all in a konbu broth. The tofu was really delicious, with so much nut flavor that you rarely (if ever) can find in regular tofu from the grocery store. I ordered a teishoku set, so along with the yuudofu, I also got a side of ganmodoki (tofu with chopped vegetables inside) with hijiki, a green bean, and daikon. Even if yuudofu were readily available to me, I probably wouldn't eat it that often because it's pretty bland. But, every now and then it's nice to eat foods in their most basic forms and it's always something that I always look forward to when I go to Kyoto!
  15. A visit to Kyoto wouldn't be complete without eating yuba!
  16. sk_ward

    oden

    On a recent trip to Kyoto for work (sometimes work has its perks! ), some co-workers and I happened upon this oden restaurant in a side street after wandering around Kyoto Station for quite a while with not a lot of luck. It was a great find! After taking the oden out of the broth, a miso sauce was added. Maybe that is more of a traditional style of oden (from o-dengaku), maybe it was just a touch of the restaurant, or maybe it is Kyoto style oden, I'm not sure. This was the first time I had ever eaten oden this way. And actually, now that I think of it, we weren't given any karashi. Maybe karashi and miso aren't supposed to go together? Daikon, suji (beef tendon), mochi kinchaku (mochi in an aburage pouch) and tsumire, kind of hiding Chikuwa (with a bite taken out of it!) and satsuma-age
  17. No pictures yet of chawanmushi on this thread, so here's one that I remember especially enjoying. It was a chilly, autumn evening and the warmth of both the food and the serving dish were perfect! It was a restaurant in Kyoto that specialized in "banzai," Kyoto's version of small dishes. I guess that this would make it a Kyoto style izakaya? I don't remember exactly what was in it, but I jotted down that it was labeled as "Gomoku kawari chawanmushi" on the menu (assuming that I read the kanji correctly!)
  18. This is a nimono made by my aunt. Potatoes from her garden, konbu bow-ties (is there a special name for these in Japanese?), takenoko, and chikuwa. Yum!! I hope that she'll teach me how to make it some day!
  19. Here is my latest nimono--gomokumame. This version differs a little from the version that Torakris posted a while back. Hers had carrots, renkon and konbu. This version has daizu (soybeans), gobo, konnyaku, carrots, and shiitake. Boiling the beans took much longer than I expected. The recipe said to boil them for about 45 minutes, but I wasn't sure if I was really supposed to keep it at a full boil, so I brought it to a boil and then turned it down to a very gentle boil. It took forever to get the beans to soften!! However, the smell made it worth it. The recipe made an "easy to make amount," which turned out to be way too much for just me, so I froze the leftovers. I wasn't too sure about freezing konnyaku, so I took all of the konnyaku bits out of what I ended up putting in the freezer. Actually, I wasn't sure about freezing it period, but we'll see how it goes!
  20. I very rarely buy potato chips and other such snacks, but I couldn't resist the idea of a snack flavored with habanero, the "hottest pepper in the world." Something about the chili pepper's expression seemed like it was challenging me to even try it! I don't know if it really has a chicken tandoori Indian flavor, as labeled, but if you are looking for something spicy to give you a little jump start, this is the snack for you! They were super spicy, but very addictive. Even though my mouth felt like it was on fire, I couldn't put the bag down. Usually chips labeled as spicy really are never all that spicy, but this one lived up to its claim. These days I rarely eat anything spicy, aside from kim chee, so I was very happy with the purchase!
  21. Thanks for the nice pictures! I will be making a trip out to Tsukiji in November when a friend comes to visit. I was just wondering if there was a specific reason why you chose Daiwa Sushi Bar and how much you paid for your breakfast. Would you recommend it again? Also, did you drink a beer with your morning sushi like many of the men?? p.s. Glad to see that you got so many great obento goods! I want one of those egg molds...
  22. It has been very interesting to read everybody's posts here on this thread! The following is the full version of the answers that I usually give ("It's my favorite" and "I love Tokyo") when asked, "Why do you love Japanese food so much?" and "Why did you move to Japan?" It's a convoluted explanation, but for me, this is why I feel that Japanese cuisine is worth learning. But, of course, aside from personal reasons, I think that learning about Japanese food has tremendous value! I was lucky enough to experience a lot of Japanese home cooking growing up, but unfortunately, those experiences were only to be had during trips to Japan. Aside from miso soup, rice and the occasional curry rice, I rarely ate a true Japanese meal (rice with okazu, tsukemono, etc) at home. When I was young, I just assumed that I ate Japanese food in Japan and ate everything else when I was at home. I knew that I couldn't get any Japanese family style cooking in restaurants or at home and was okay with that because I probably assumed that the family get togethers and family style meals in Japan would be a never changing, permanent fixture in my life. Now that my Japanese grandparents are gone and visits when the entire family is together are few and far between, I feel nostalgic for those times. I feel like during those experiences was when I probably felt the closest to my Japanese side. In my opinion, if you lack a working knowledge of how Japanese food is woven into daily life, I think that it's impossible to say that you possess more than a rudimentary understanding of the culture. On top of that, if you can't speak the language, then it is even more impossible to not only develop a true understanding of the culture, but also to not feel as though you are more than a mere outsider looking in. I can fumble through a conversation in Japanese, but am nowhere near fluent. I can whip up some basic dishes, but I don't consider myself in the same league as people who intuitively know how to put together a full Japanese meal on a daily basis, above and beyond just adding a Japanese touch to a meal that is for the most part, not Japanese. I consider this as having two strikes going against me. Even though I "feel" Japanese (whatever that means, I know), I feel that these are major impediments to breaking through that wall and getting into that inner circle where maybe I will "feel" more Japanese and be perceived as maybe at least 50% Japanese! It sounds silly, but I think that there may be some people out there who can identify. It is an odd position to be in, to feel very close to a culture to which most people see you as an outsider. I would be a millionaire if I got a dollar for every time I've been told that I don't look Japanese. Outside of family, very few (if any?) people in Japan would even begin to consider me as Japanese. I don't really blame them because who would believe an odd looking person who claims, in barely recognizable Japanese, that they are Japanese?!? I decided long ago that the only way to prove to myself that I tried my best to overcome these two obstacles was to up and move to Japan, so here I am now writing now from my very small Tokyo apartment! Too bad this thing called a job cuts into my time to accomplish the above goals.... Before I came to Japan I learned by reading as many cookbooks that I could get my hands on and by reading all the posts on eGullet. Now that I'm here, I watch a lot of cooking shows on TV and I have continued to build a collection of cookbooks. I spend a lot of time in department store basements, looking at ready made dishes and studying contents of bentos. And now that ingredients are so easy for me to get, I experiment as much as I can, while trying to create a recipe base that I will be able to use after I go back home. My focus has been on trying to create entire Japanese meals that are balanced nutritionally, with okazu that actually complement one another. My goal is to be able to do this with less effort because at this point, it still requires a lot of planning and if I end up at the store without my list I feel lost! Furthermore, I know that my children will not have the same kind of childhood experiences in Japan that I had so I want to somehow find a way for them to have a connection to Japan through at least the food. (Hmm, maybe I should be married before I talk about dreams for my kids, but I can't help it! ) So, for me, learning about Japanese cuisine is not only a personal quest to deal with an identity crisis , but also an effort to keep cultural ties for future generations. And yes, to answer the initial question, I do think that Japanese cuisine is misunderstood in America! If it wasn't, I could have just gone to the local Japanese restaurant for culinary lessons. I know that it is impossible to duplicate the cuisine exactly in a different country because the full experience of eating the food of a culture is more than just what ends up on your plate, but when eating at most Japanese restaurants leaves me with the deepest longing to just buy a plane ticket and fly to Japan for the real deal, I think that it's fair to say that the cuisine is not well understood. But, I agree with many of the other posters who have said that most cuisines are misunderstood outside of their native lands. I am always curious to learn why people are motivated to learn about Japanese food, so keep the stories coming!
  23. I thought that I would be able to enjoy natto prepared basically any way, but then I made this... It is natto stuffed into aburage. I boiled the aburage to get the excess oil off and made little pockets. I mixed raw minced onion, natto, the karashi and sauce that came with the natto all together and then put it in the oven to cook for awhile. I think I saw it in a book somewhere, and tried to make something up because the picture looked good. I might have forgotten a vital step in the recipe, but I think that the biggest problem is that I realized that I just really don't like warm natto! Usually the smell of natto doesn't phase me at all, but the smell emanating from this creation was horrible and I didn't like that the strings were gone. It seemed like something other than natto and I couldn't eat much of it at all. Oh well! Back to just plain ole natto with okra atop of steamed rice!
  24. The texture is definitely different. Unlike a lot of yogurt in the states which, if everted onto a plate, would maintain the exact shape of the yogurt container, Japanese yogurt is much creamier. If you tried to stick a spoon in the container, it would probably fall to the side. Actually, I've never tried this, but I think that it's true! There are 3 grams of fat per 100g serving, which might be higher than some American yogurts, but that is probably what gives it a richer, creamier taste. Also, the taste is just a little bit sweet, but also a tiny bit sour. This particular kind is plain, but even the types that come with fruit aren't nearly as sweet tasting as Yoplait or Dannon. I like the fact that you can adjust the sugar content by yourself because each container comes with it's own little sugar package. Here's a picture of the yogurt currently in my fridge. It has "Bulgaria" written on it in big, bold letters, so I guess that they are emulating the Bulgarian style of yogurt making. This is what one website had to say about Bulgarian yogurt Answers.com "Bulgarian yoghurt is popular for its specific taste, aroma, and quality and is commonly consumed plain. The qualities are specific to the particular culture strains used in Bulgaria, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus bacteria. This type of yogurt is often labelled and sold as Greek yoghurt, especially in British and American markets. Bulgarian yoghurt producers are taking steps to legally protect the trademark of Bulgarian yoghurt on the European market and distinguish it from other product types that do not contain live bacteria. Bulgarian yoghurt is often strained by hanging in a cloth for a few hours to reduce water content. The resulting yoghurt is creamier, richer and milder in taste because of increased fat content. Hanging overnight is sometimes employed to make a concentrated yoghurt similar to cream cheese." I tried Fage Greek yogurt one time, and I didn't think that it tasted like Japanese yogurt at all. It wasn't sweet at all, had a much stronger flavor and was more sour. As I said before, the closest thing I have ever had in the States was the Italian yogurt sold at Trader Joe's. It's called Spega and it comes in really cute glass containers. I heard somebody once say that Japanese yogurt tastes exactly like French yogurt flavored gelato...just in case you can use that as a reference!!! The quote above mentions that the live bacteria are what give it its special characteristics. This brand has L. bulgaricus 2038, S. thermophilus 1131 and LB 81. Anyone have any American yogurt around to compare??
  25. What will I do after I have to go back to the States?!? I wonder if anybody has ever made Japanese style yogurt at home, and if so, can this be done outside of Japan? Or, is the flavor partly attributable to Japanese cows? I would actually buy myself a yogurt making contraption if I could duplicate the flavor at home! ← I did a little more research and I learned that all yogurt is non-pasteurized because the pasteurization process would kill all of the live cultures. I guess that makes sense! So, thanks MomofLittleFoodies, I suppose that's the reason. ¡¡Better eat as much Japanese yogurt as I possibly can while I'm here!!!
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