mochihead

Wow. That's really pricey meat, not that I eat any land meats. But, wow! Is there anything foodwise in Japan that is cheaper to buy locally than in other parts of the world? I know Torakris had talked about rice being more expensive in Japan than in the US. We've also heard about the astronomical fruit and fish prices - but would that only be for premium supplies? I can't imagine sitting at a heated dining table to eat - not when the weather doesn't get below 65 here. Are the kotatsu expensive to buy? Do they normally come with the home and are they standard within a Japanese household?

Oh, yum yum yum! I'm going to be having lots of fun between your blog and marlena's blog! Why do you not eat anything at your MIL's table that you haven't seen prepared?

I wish I could show you how we used to do it - with all the men pounding and turning the mochi! Do you remember what kind of mochi you ate while in Tokyo? Did you enjoy it?

Noooooo! Don't stop eating! How am I supposed to live vicariously through your eating adventures? Diet halvah? Say it ain't so.....

I LOVE cheese, especially good cheeses. And between you and Swisskaese, I'm now crying and suffering from severe cheese cravings. You just can't get great cheese here in Hawai'i. Except for goat's cheese. mehhhhh-mehhhhhhhhh!

You're multi-lingual between species, too! I would love to hear you "speak" the difference between goats and sheep. Do you ever have problem with jet lag and the time zones what with your bohemian lifestyle?

YIKES! I'm so glad that you're better now, and hope for a speedy and complete recovery... despite the hospital trying to kill you with "food". What a nightmare for a foodie! Aesthetics and taste aside, I wonder at their substitutions of tuna for chicken (and mandarin oranges?!). I would assume that they would maybe be more careful with food allergies and religious/diet preferences? In a recent trip to the hospital a few months ago, their menu choices for vegetarians were rather grim, but at least there was a halfway decent salad and fresh fruit selection. Their veggie entrees consisted of plain pasta with butter substitute. They didn't allow soda or candies because of the sugar and caffeine in them, but you could drink all of the leaded coffee that you wanted. Go figure.

I think my arteries just clogged, and not in a good way! Actually, though, it's not so much the fat, but all the preservatives and salt in that one meal. I wonder what the nutritional servings would be like. Of course, ethnic authenticity issues aside...

Oh, yes! I forgot about the kazunoko. We had that too! Do you do anything special to prepare your kazunoko? The one we get here has to be soaked overnight to remove all the salt, then it is eaten with shoyu and lemon. I love the way the eggs crunch. I haven't had tazukuri in awhile - I'll have to see about buying some later on. I'm not a fan of date maki either. Actually, I have to be in the mood to eat eggs - and usually not as a breakfast item. I also forgot to mention that we had ikura and tobiko with the meal, too.

A good attorney talks his clients out of doing stupid things! ← Double amen to that! I work for an attorney (dad) and he always advises his clients when they're doing something stupid. If they still insist, he shows them door and recommends they go elsewhere. Well, if Carol Greenwood wanted to do reverse psychology to generate publicity for her restaurant, she's certainly doing it. Or maybe she subscribes to there is no such thing as bad publicity? Sheesh. And they talk about us musicians being divas and having too much artistic temperment!

I heard that if you eat them raw, they will make your fur coat shiny. ;-)

Wow! That looks amazing and makes this here non-land meat eating gal want to dive right in and scarf up all those sandwiches! That seems like so much food... did the both of you finish every last bite of your taste testings? What did you have to drink with them? And please excuse the ignorance of this island gal, but is there a customary beverage that is paired with the cheesteak sandwich?

You're very welcome, JumblyJu! I'm so glad you enjoyed the pictures. I'm pretty sure that mochi makers have become a lot more high tech than our 10+year old one. It's a fun family tradition, even if we don't do it with the true "pounding" (and drinking of lots of sake). They have mochi makers that actually do EVERYTHING for you - steaming, pounding and forming the mochi. To me, it's just not right. There's something wrong with not starting off the new year without callouses and blisters from hot sticky mochi. One year my brother decided he wanted to help form the mochi and tried using a plastic cup and cut out the mochi like biscuits. UGH! That was just so WRONG! It seems like I'm always making mochi of some sort all the time. There are always boxes of mochiko and jars of dried azuki and katakuriko in the kitchen. When you get your mochi maker, please post pictures of it and the mochi that you make with it!

Yay! It's so good to hear people celebrating the New Years with traditions and customs. What kind of osechi ryori do you usually get? I am also not a regular drinker of sake, and no matter how many types I've tried (my friends here are sake afficionados), I still don't like the taste of it. But I drink the tiny cup every year, because we're supposed to.

Thank you, Hiroyuki! That's really interesting. I didn't know about the actual days that one is supposed to put out the kagami mochi, but it does make sense. It's the same reason why we four is bad luck, too, because it is similar to death. Does your family celebrate the New Year, too?

I would need a recovery from your 5 mile recovery runs!!! I do lots of green tea, mugicha (barley tea), water, fruits & veggies. I tend to stay away from the sweets and the heavy foods. Also lots of yoga, stretching & aikido.

The olive oils, the cheeses, the fresh produce... especially the cheeses and all of the fabulous pastries. Oh, my! I'm learning so much from the both of you and am thoroughly enjoying all of the pictures and history!

I've seen one of those dunk mugs before, but with my accident prone track history & lack of gross motor skills, I would probably always end up with cookies in my lap! I don't think I have proper dunking technique, too, since whatever I dunk always disintegrates before it gets to my mouth.

Jai and nien gao is a must for our family. Our family and relatives always like eating nien gao, but then our family loves sticky rice desserts. It's great freshly made, but it's also good toasted or simply cut into pieces and fried in butter. Jai is something I can eat for days and not get tired of. It's "monk's food" made with hair seaweed, gingko nuts, bamboo shoots, chestnuts, lily buds, tofu, cabbage, etc. Every family seems to have a different recipe and it's usually vegetarian, although my mom makes a separate batch flavored with pork belly.

For the longest time I didn't even know what a real metal spoon was since our family always used the porcelain/plastic spoons for soup. I still dislike the way the metal spoon gets so hot and leaves a metallic taste in my mouth. The only thing I usually use a metal spoon for is stirring sugar into coffee.

Happy New Year, Hiroyuki! The firecrackers/evil spirits are from my Chinese heritage. But it has also been a local tradition for many many many generations here in Hawai'i. Normally we would use yomogi, but this year we decided to try something different. The green tea leaves are ground and added in two batches to the rice - half before cooking and then half while being pounded. Here's the tea & the tea grinder that we used. This year we used about 15 pounds of mochi gome. We did the mochi in 10 cup batches (4 batches total). My whole family loves mochi, and we eat in many ways. We grew up eating it with kinako-sugar, toasted, fried, grilled, with shoyu-sugar, wrapped in nori. Almost every birthday party, Girls Day & Boys Day I'm drafted into making the mochi. Usually I'm requested to make mochi filled with Okinawan sweet potato (purple potato), tsubushian, chocolate, peanut butter as well as the ohagi mochi & chichidango tri-colored mochi. I've also made nantu mochi and fresh strawberry mochi (mochi wrapped around anko & a fresh whole strawberry). I'm hoping to have time to try the whipped cream filled ones. As far as kagami mochi, I just wasn't sure if I got the translations right. I'm not completely sure about the significance of the kagami mochi, except that it's usually placed in front of the family altar before New Years and eaten soon after. Mirrors are a part of the imperial treasures, so it's supposed to represent wealth and fortune. I'll have to double-check with the family later on or dig through my books again to find out for sure. Would you happen to know?

Watermelons wouldn't fit in the car with him, and the cow kept backseat driving! Here's an article from Nascar about their branding.

Yes, know all about mochi ice cream! One of my mom's cousins has a business on O'ahu making their own mochi ice cream and other assorted mochi varieties. Despite my screenname, I find making mochi for money to be way too much work. Bubbies is also known for pickles. Or so I've heard. Hilo, home of the loco moco originated by Cafe 100, hasn't changed that much in 10 years. Definitely no nightlife, but wonderful scenery and fun to travel around the island. And no insane traffic like on O'ahu or Maui. You must come back and visit!

Just from reading your posts all over the forum, I still consider you "Japanese"! I love soba, too! This year we had to get leafy tangerines from one of our friends (we traded Tom Thumb cherry tomatoes from our yard for them) because our own tree fruited early and we didn't have any for our own. GRRR! My parents are both Year of Dog people. I'm a rat.

Here's the new year mochi. Green Tea & plain, filled with tsubushian. Process