chibirisu

Demonstrating yet again that while it may be physically possible to put adzuki and matcha flavors into everything on the planet, it is not always a good idea to do so... and not necessarily at the same time either! I suspect the American equivalent would be the cooking-with-water-joe concept ("not wired enough yet? Make your espresso with caffeinated water and go for exponential levels of caffeination! Next step: mainlining No-doz!" @_@ Again, making coffee with water-joe is possible, and caffeine goes into everything around here, but it's not necessarily a good idea even though it's possible...)

Here's one of the most jaw-dropping bento sites I've ever seen: http://www.e-obento.com/ ..."boggle" doesn't even cover it really. I think I recall reading on one of the dozens of pages on the site that the site creator is publishing a book in Japan this fall, too...

^____^ I tried to find the one in Bloomington when I was there for college homecoming, but I got lost in mall-itis! I have a horrible sense of direction when they start making roads non-grid-shaped. Must try again with someone who can actually navigate in mall-space. Sometimes Am-ko has dolsots too. You might try them... I've discovered an interesting split among the Asian markets on where I go for what. Am-ko: I get cooking tools and dried, canned, and frozen things there, but their fresh section isn't too great. I once tried to get a package of pita and they were molded there in the display case. @_@ But they have all kinds of dried and canned foods I don't worry about; I like their Indian microwave dinners too (about half the price you'd find them for anywhere else in town, literally. $1.39 at Am-ko; closer to $2.50 at IGA or Meijer...) Green Onion: Here's where I go for fresh stuff and desserts and beverages. I like seeing what they have in the deli or on special. They have a lot more desserts and beverages than Am-ko does, but they don't have as many tools and such. Lee's: There's no one thing I go there constantly for, because their stock shifts a fair amount (as does the quantity of freezers they have functioning at any given point). But I wander through for occasional discoveries, or when I'm shopping for American stuff in the same run and can stop at the IGA for staples. At the moment Lee's has the best satsuma-imo and chestnuts in town. Get the little chestnuts. They're sweeter and less expensive both. Roast 'em for about 25 minutes at 350 and peel and split and munch. I'm not looking forward to when chestnut season stops (hence the reason I've got a stash of 'em in my freezer!) They also have a shifting assortment of tools/dishes/etc. I know there are like six more Asian markets in town, but they're in areas I don't get to much, so I tend to forget they're there. I'm particularly amused by the one that looks from the outside like someone decided to start selling cabbages out of their dad's car repair shop, the sign was literally spray-painted on the garage door last time I saw it -- it's up by University, by where Pho Tran used to be...

Cage bach (Welshcakes) Serves 24 as Dessert. When I was studying in Carmarthen (southwest Wales), they had a market with fabulous cage bach (called Welshcakes in English), sold warm in little packages. Top 'em with clotted cream and strawberries, or even just a bit of butter, and they were delicious. This is my best shot at reconstructing 'em, after fiddling with three or four recipes from various locations and substituting things like sugar (easy to find in America) for "golden syrup" (much harder to find here but easy to find in Britain). 2 c self-rising flour (or add 1 to 2 tsp. baking powder to regular) 1 stick of butter (4 oz or 1/2 cup) 1/2 c sugar 2/3 c currants, soaked in hot liquid to plump up 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp ginger 1 egg, beaten 1 c milk (but you probably won't use all of it) Hot liquid of choice for the currants - could be water, apple juice, Ribena (a currant drink), or something like brandy * Rinse the currants well and put them in the hot liquid to soak for at least 30 minutes or until they're plump and tasty. * Stir together the flour, baking powder (if needed), salt, and spices. * Cut the butter into small bits (I quarter a stick lengthwise and then chop into little bits that way) and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it's like fine crumbles. * Drain the soaking liquid off the currants. * Make a hollow in the middle of the flour mixture and add the sugar, the beaten egg, about 1/4 cup milk, and the drained currants. Stir together. If it needs more liquid, add the rest of the milk, but it should be a somewhat stiff dough (stiffer than chocolate chip cookie dough). * Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick (I often do this between two floured sheets of waxed paper) and cut in three-inch circles (you can use a juice glass for this). * Cook over low heat on a griddle or nonstick frying pan that's been very lightly oiled with something flavorless like canola oil. (Don't use olive oil or they'll turn out smelling like a salad!) Cook them like little pancakes -- wait a while until one side is toasty golden, then flip and toast the other side. They won't really toast any further if you keep flipping them, so make sure one side's nice and golden before you flip the first time. (Try one as an experiment to get the timing right before you cook up a big batch, because I never seem to get the same amount of heat out of my stovetop twice in a row.) * Sprinkle the top with sugar while they're still warm. * Eat as is or top with something like honey, jam, lemon curd, a bit of butter, or Devonshire double cream. They keep well in an airtight tin if any survive the initial ooo-warm nibbles from anyone in the building. (Don't put toppings on until you're ready to eat them though.) I've read that you can bake them at 350 for about 15 minutes instead of griddling them. Technically, you can, but they don't turn out quite right -- they won't be that toasty golden color on both sides... stick with a griddle, even if you don't have a cast-iron Welsh bakestone. Keywords: Dessert, Vegetarian, Intermediate, Snack, Cookie, British ( RG1491 )

Easy peach lassi Serves 2 as Appetizer. One night I wanted lassi to go with a spicy dal I was having for dinner, but I didn't have any mango on hand. Canned peaches made an easy and tasty alternative. 1 pkg canned peaches (8 oz. size) 1 c plain yogurt 1 T sugar Pinch of salt Half a blender full of ice cubes Put them all in a blender and pulse until smooth. Keywords: Non-Alcoholic Beverage, Dessert, Vegetarian, Easy, Fruit, Indian ( RG1490 )

Daifuku mochi (Mayan hot chocolate style) Serves 12 as Side. Daifuku mochi (rice cakes stuffed with something else) are very traditional Japanese food. What's not so traditional about this recipe is the chocolate! If you want a more traditional version, leave out the cinnamon and almond and chocolate and fill the mochi with something like anko (sweet bean paste) and strawberries. I got started developing this recipe from online daifuku mochi recipes from both the Tsuji Culinary Institute (in Japanese) and a person named Konny with a wagashi website, but I found the Tsuji method would take a lot of time and some of Konny's simplified microwave directions and proportions were a little difficult to follow (particularly how much sugar was supposed to go into how much water). So I played around until I came up with a version I could manage more easily. Mochi 1 c mochiko (glutinous rice flour) 1 c water Flavored syrup 3/4 c sugar 1/4 c water 1 tsp almond extract 3/4 tsp cinnamon Filling Semisweet chocolate chips (or more traditional ingredients) Dusting powder Mochiko as needed Sugar and cocoa are tasty additions A Silpat and heat-proof spatulas are very useful here. <b>With the syrup ingredients:</b> Microwave 1/4 cup water for about a minute, then add 1/4 cup sugar and stir. Microwave for another 45 seconds. Add another 1/4 cup sugar, stir, microwave another 45 seconds. Add the last 1/4 cup sugar, stir, microwave 45 seconds. (It should be bubbling at this point.) With a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon, mix in the almond extract and cinnamon. Don't worry when it crystallizes like mad; just mix it together until it's the color of fudge and set it aside. <b>With the mochi ingredients:</b> Mix together a cup of mochiko and a cup of water and a pinch of salt in a microwavable bowl. Cover with saran wrap, microwave for one minute and stir; repeat until it starts getting puffy (about 5 shots in my microwave; it may take longer or shorter at a different power). At this point you have unflavored mochi that you can use by itself if you want. Rewarm the sugar syrup for about 20 seconds (because it's probably set up into a solid mass while the mochi is being microwaved), then pour the syrup over the mochi and stir like mad for a long time until it's turned smooth and brown-sugar-colored again. (It'll look like a gloppy mess at first but it does mix up fine... just keep at it. I've discovered a heat-proof silicon spatula is REALLY useful when mixing mochi.) <b>For shaping and filling the mochi:</b> Scatter the cocoa-mochiko-sugar mix all over your Silpat or whatever you're using for a catcher. Pour the mochi-napalm over the mix. Scatter more coca-mochiko-sugar on top and put a piece of Saran wrap over it and roll it flatter to cool (take the Saran wrap off when done, it's just there to keep the mochi-napalm from adhering to your hands and burning you). When it's cool enough to handle, cut or tear off bits and make thin palm-sized disks out of the mochiko. (If you cut them in rectangular shapes, you can get little mochi pillows instead of balls, and they're a bit easier to handle and shape.) Either way, put some chocolate chips in the center and pinch the edges closed and roll into a ball shape and then re-roll in the cocoa-flour-etc mix. (Stop and reroll everything whenever anything starts sticking, actually.) I get about a dozen of them out of this proportion of ingredients. When you're done rolling them, put them in a pile on a small plate and put them back in the microwave for two or three 15-second shots. The chocolate melts in the center but doesn't get scalding, and you bite into this oozing chocolate center. Yum... Keywords: Dessert, Vegetarian, Intermediate, Rice, Snack, Japanese ( RG1489 )

They're pretty generic American-influenced Chinese, but it's hard to mess up steaming, and I've got a soft spot for agedofu (not sure what the Chinese term for it is, basically deep-fried tofu). If you like steamed stuff with sauce I recommend the R5; there's really not much besides that and the tofu I eat there just 'cause I can't get those two things anywhere else and haven't figured out the knack of making my own General Tso's sauce yet... (and believe me I've tried. And failed many times. ^^;; I've heard everything from "half chili paste and half duck sauce with a tablespoon of orange marmalade" (er, NO) to some convoluted thing involving species of vinegar even Am-ko doesn't carry, and am still working on whittling it down...) The peanut sauce is pretty easy to do at home if you like, though. Heat some Chinese soy sauce, melt some chunky peanut butter in the microwave, add a splash of chili-infused sesame oil and some chopped green onions, and you're good to go. ^__^ Yeah, I got that impression too - it was really tasty and I liked the assortment of side dishes that came with it! Unfortunately, being a Scottish redhead, my heat tolerance is pretty much limited to kimchee, and when you start layering other spices on top of kimchee my brain starts melting. (Love kimchee, but have to have something else to "dilute" it with - I like A-ri-rang's method of making dolsot bibim bab so you can adjust the spiciness level to your own taste with the gochuujang... learned to make that one at home too; Lee's Oriental Market on Kirby by the IGA sometimes has stone bowls in stock, I grabbed several of 'em one of the times they did. GREAT winter food too...) That's the impression I got too - all the dishes seem oilier than they need to be, but the breads and sides are nice. (I wonder if they'd let me order naan to take home to eat with my own Indian food... Put me on top of a stove and I'm fine. I can't bake to save my life. Of course, part of that could be that my apartment's electric oven is older than I am and I've had to personally rewire the thing to keep it running, but that's a different ramble...) WE SO need a Vietnamese place again! The little old guy in the yellow place that's changed hands like eight times since he retired, I loved his spring rolls to bits... and Pho Tran didn't have nearly long enough a tenure there. (And I didn't think it was possible, but the decor has gotten even scarier since Dos Reales took it over. What the heck did they do to that poor innocent roof? It never hurt anybody...) And we need a Mongolian barbecue again too. Have you ever been to the Flat Top Grill (I think that's what it's called) in Evanston or Peoria? I think that would go over really well in Chambana, given the number of different cuisines you can simulate from the range of ingredients and dressings and starch options (rice, noodles, fresh-grilled parathas, you name it) on their bar. But I sure don't have the money to start one up... so I hit Evanston a couple times a year while on the way to Arlington Heights for the Japanese mall...

Dim sum! I want to try dim sum again sometime - the only local place that I knew did it was a Green Streeter that shut down a couple years ago after getting taken over a couple times, and it only did it on Saturdays. If any of the others have started doing it, I am SO all over that. ^__^ About the BBQ place - that's definitely more recently than I've been there, so it sounds like there's hope! Just wish I could remember the guy's name... it was a nickname, like Junior or Mac or Bear or something, though I might be thinking Bear just because he was about on scale with a grizzly... I don't know much about the backstage of the various pizza places. If anybody did go for the wood-burning oven approach, it'd probably be Papa Del's, though I can't guarantee it; it's just the most likely candidate. I know both Za's and One World have "standard" pizza ovens with the belts running through them. I miss Sukothai too; I really liked their soup with the moo dang and baby bok choy in it. (Liked it enough I figured out how to make a vague approximation at home, in fact, though I've never quite nailed the difference between moo dang, char siu, and chashuu, and I do a lot more Japanese than Chinese or Thai cooking because it's so much easier to understand and master the ingredient set...) And you're right, the place on Green and the place by Krannert are two branches of the same thing, but it does seem like the food at the by-Krannert spot is better. Maybe because they have so much more space to work in and can have better kitchen routines and possibly offer more dishes there? One other Green Streeter I have an odd fondness for is Empire right across the hall from the Thai place, actually. Most of their food I can take or leave, but when I'm feeling healthy-minded I like the soy-peanut-sesame-oil dipping sauce they serve with their R5 thing ("Buddha's delight?" steamed broccoli and tofu and peapods anyway) and when I'm feeling unhealthy-minded they're the only place in town that serves tofu General Tso's style. ^__^ (Or at least the only one I'm aware of...) The spice level is highly variable depending on who's in the kitchen that day, but when you've got an hour for lunch and don't dare move your car 'cause you'll never get another parking place, you learn to adapt. (On that note, Sushi County is far better than it has any right to be under that name and that tacky sign and horrific paint job and bad music. When I go, it's certainly not for the decor! They don't do nigiri, which is probably a good thing considering what they are and the price point they're aiming for. But I like their rolls as well as Kamakura's, and they have better tempura. Of course Kamakura's tempura has always been kind of a let-down to me too; I miss the tempura the guy who owned the first incarnation of Asiana used to make. Near-white and crispy and fluffy, as opposed to the usual gold beer batter style you encounter over here...) Ah, Steak & Shake. My brother's source of disposable income all the way through high school and college. He learned several of their sauces in the process -- the Frisco Melt sauce is half and half thousand-island and ketchup, for example... and did the Bean Crock fad hit your friends and associates? (From the old commercial. Someone got the bright idea of randomly calling someone they knew and saying "beancrock" in that commercial voice and hanging up. It's like phone tag that never ends... it was going around Bloomington like mad when I was there in college...) (er, stopping rambling now. Did I mention the "could go on for hours" part? )

Kennedy's is about like Silvercreek, from what I've heard, though I haven't been to Kennedy's either. Seems to cater to the same clientele though - the people who feel abandoned after Chef Jean-Louis shut down. I think I've been to the BBQ place you're talking about (run by an ex-police officer who serves everything himself and talks to everybody who comes into the store) but it was a couple years ago and I think I read that he's retired since then... I don't remember the name or the location, just the guy himself and amazing barbecue... There seem to be two camps when it comes to Chinese food and it comes down to the "do you speak Chinese or not?" divide. Everybody who likes American-style Chinese food recommends Peking Garden. I believe they also have an untranslated menu, which I've never had the chance to ask any Chinese speakers about. The people I know who speak Chinese are all students, so that gives them an inherent location and price bias, but they all go to Mandarin Wok (on Green Street again) and order in Chinese off the untranslated menu (which is a lot longer than the translated menu). Of course, these same friends were the ones who tried to get me to eat tripe on a lark. I don't know exactly how the kanji differ in Chinese or how to pronounce anything on their Chinese menu, but I do know enough of the kanji involved to recognize that that was in one of the dishes they were passing around the table and trying to get me to eat... I'm fairly food-adventurous, but I just draw the line at eating pieces of something else's digestive tract somehow...

Another Champaign-ite here! If anybody's in Champaign and in the mood for unusual pizza, there seem to be three main not-a-chain options in town: 1) The grandpappy, both in terms of age and in terms of pizza size - Papa Del's on Green Street. They make specifically Italian varieties of pizza in a deep dish, and have apparently sent their pizzas all over the world (including to Tokyo). 2) Really fun international pizza - One World Pizza also on Green Street. (Yes, these are both campus town joints - I work on campus, what can I say?) One World's got all sorts of fun international-influenced pizzas that I adore to bits. In addition to the usuals, they've got specials ranging from a tandoori chicken pizza for the meat-eaters to a channa masala pizza for the veggies, and two or three Mexican-influenced pizzas, and they're inventing more of 'em all the time. (I'm waiting for them to come out with East Asian pizzas... one of the managers is working on it!) 3) California-style decorate-your-own personal pizzas (or pasta or salad) - Za's (yes, ALSO on Green Street... these are all within a few blocks of each other in fact). Za's has a menu of ingredients you pick from and they put those toppings on a personal-sized pizza. The options range from standard (pepperoni, sausage) to fruitcake (almost literally: apples, pineapple, raisins I think...). If you're in the campus area, check out Moonstruck near the corner of Green and Wright. Yummy truffles, lots of cheesecakes, several hot chocolate and coffee variations, great way to catch dessert... I can also go on for hours about each of the Indian, Thai, Mexican, Japanese, and Chinese restaurants in town, but unfortunately many of the Green Street stores have a half-life measured in nanoseconds because of the rents that the property owners want in Campustown. Those three have been around for a while; there are some international newcomers on campus that, while not high cuisine, are tasty and warm and I'm hoping they survive, but there are just so MANY of them (approximately two dozen Asian restaurants and half a dozen Mexican ones within a six block area last time I checked) that it's hard for any particular one to survive more than about the span of your average student's tenure at the college... I used to also really like Milo's (a little cafe type place on the back of Lincoln Square Mall), but I'm under the impression they've surrendered to the creeping blight which is Lincoln Square's slow descent into gibbering nothingness. The Art Mart seems to be the only thing that can actually survive there...

Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki! Very different from Osaka-style - made in separate layers, has yakisoba in the middle, almost like a crepe sandwich kind of construction... complicated enough I've never made it myself, I'm an Osakan okonomiyaki girl all the way, but it's fun to watch the pros do it and fun to eat....

I have invented something INSANELY good. Mayan hot chocolate daifuku mochi. It's not very traditional, of course, but Torakris mentioned liking cafe au lait mochi, and I'm allergic to something in coffee, so it got me started thinking about hot chocolate mochi, and Mayan-style -- with cinnamon and nuts -- is one of my other addictions, and hey if you can do ice cream mochi, surely the other end of the temperature scale is doable too, right? Anyway... YUM. Based on Konny's ichigo daifuku recipe online, but adjusted to taste... I cut down the sugar some, and I don't usually have a scale around so I worked with cups instead... Makes about a dozen. 1 cup mochiko 3/4 cup sugar 1 1/4 cups water, separated 1 tsp almond extract 3/4 tsp cinnamon Pinch of salt Semisweet chocolate chips Mochiko, cocoa powder and sugar mix for rolling them in A Silpat and heat-proof spatulas are your friend here. Microwave 1/4 cup water for about a minute, then add 1/4 cup sugar and stir. Microwave for another 45 seconds. Add another 1/4 cup sugar, stir, microwave another 45 seconds. Add the last 1/4 cup sugar, stir, microwave 45 seconds. (It should be bubbling at this point.) With a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon, mix in the almond extract and cinnamon. Don't freak out when it crystallizes like mad; just mix it together until it's the color of fudge and set it aside. Mix together a cup of mochiko and a cup of water and a pinch of salt in a microwavable bowl. Cover with saran wrap, microwave a minute and stir; repeat until it starts getting puffy (about 5 minutes). Rewarm the sugar syrup for about 20 seconds (because it's probably set up into a solid mass while the mochi is being microwaved), then pour the syrup over the mochi and stir like mad for a long time until it's turned smooth and brown-sugar-colored again. (It'll look like a gloppy mess at first but it does mix up fine... just keep at it. Have discovered a heat-proof silicon spatula is REALLY your friend when mixing mochi.) Scatter the cocoa-mochiko-sugar mix all over your Silpat or whatever you're using for a catcher. Pour the mochi-napalm over the mix. Scatter more coca-mochiko-sugar on top and put a piece of Saran wrap over it and roll it flatter to cool (take the Saran wrap off when done, it's just there to keep the mochi-napalm from adhering to your hands and burning you). When it's cool enough to handle, cut or tear off bits and make thin palm-sized disks out of the mochiko. (If you cut them in rectangular shapes, you can get little mochi pillows instead of balls, and they're a bit easier to handle.) Either way, put some chocolate chips in the center and pinch the edges closed and roll into a ball shape and then re-roll in the cocoa-flour-etc mix. (Stop and reroll everything whenever anything starts sticking, actually.) When you're done, put them in a pile on a small plate and put them back in the microwave for two or three 15-second shots. The chocolate melts in the center but doesn't get scalding, and you bite into this oozing chocolate center... It's a good thing I could get those out of my apartment and unload 'em on the club kids, 'cause otherwise I would've eaten 'em all!

So you use pounded mochigome rather than mochiko and end up with daifuku? What's it like to handle? / is it easier or harder to shape? (I've never had the chance to work with real pounded mochigome before...)

Because I have a feeling that the people in the club are getting their terminology mixed up! ^^;; A lot of mochi-sweets are sold in the US just identified as "mochi," including some stuffed with ice cream and frozen, and so when someone uses the word "mochi" the things people think of can be wildly different. Some of them may be thinking of New Year's mochi, but I suspect most of the group is thinking of daifuku or the ice-cream-containing frozen ones, because those are the type seen most frequently around here. Although everyone's enthusiastic about having "mochi", I need to figure out for sure whether the group is wanting "pure" mochi or "sweets" mochi before I start making them, and I have a sinking feeling their answer is going to be "we want all of 'em of course!" which would mean a whole lot more work than even the amount of work involved in making any one type of mochi for a hundred people. So if the machine made something I could use for both types, then I wouldn't have to worry about the "dough," so to speak. But if most people in the club are thinking of sweets and the machine doesn't make the right type of mochi for sweets, then I should stick with the mochiko... I think I need more information on both ends really... Thank you for the links! Yeah, I can read Japanese, though slowly and often with the help of a kanji dictionary... must look them over!

When I'm making yakisoba for a gang, I play it safer than I do when making it for myself. Typical ingredients when making it for a gang: --Shredded napa cabbage --Possibly some spinach for color contrast --Green onions --The meat or tofu state depends on who's in the crowd --Okonomiyaki sauce or yakisoba sauce (depending on what I've made most recently) --Red pickled ginger and ao-nori on the side --Sometimes I sliver and stir-fry in some crystallized ginger when cooking it for a friend who doesn't like the pickled variety; it turns kind of translucent and sweet-sharp, kind of honey-crystal-colored. When I make it for myself, I get a lot wilder (and a lot lazier). One of my favorite improv-yakisoba events: --Chopped-up kimchee --Scrambled egg --Sesame oil mixed into veg oil for the yakisoba-frying --Leftover shabu-shabu meat and leftover little cocktail shrimp --Green onions --Splash of soy sauce and sake with some dashi granules mixed in --Ramen noodles for the yakisoba noodles (a notch above the ten-for-a-dollar variety, but still the type that you put hot water on and wait three minutes for...) Took about 10 minutes from the time I opened the refrigerator, which was also a bonus.