mkayahara

This, folks, is the drink that started it all. A few years ago, I was wandering through the liquor store on my lunch break (as I did, back in those days), and was seduced by the look of the Campari bottle. Only... I didn't really know what it was. So I searched on the Internet, and found this really neat site called eGullet, where people seemed to know everything about everything! After reading about the Negroni, I not only bought that bottle of Campari, I also bought my first bottle of sweet vermouth (even though I had to search all over Montreal for a half-bottle, "in case I didn't like it." Montrealers like their vermouth, and tend to buy it in litre bottles.) That, in turn, led me to the Manhattan, but the Negroni was my gateway drug to eGullet. Cheers!

Actually, I sliced that pork by hand myself! (Stay tuned to see what I do with the rest of the belly. I'm open to guesses.) I've thought about asking my butcher to do it for me on the slicer - since I can't talk my husband into letting me get a slicer of my own - but he never seems to be around when I pick up my pork bellies. I bought nagaimo once, from Sanko in Toronto, my go-to source for hard-to-find Japanese ingredients. I think the best way to describe the resulting okonomiyaki is "mushy". I'm sure it's something I'll try again at some point, though; I think it was just a heat control issue. When we were in Japan, it looked like some restaurants made a distinction between okonomiyaki made with and without nagaimo, but I can't remember the menu terminology just now. Is it common to find both versions?

Yeah, the University of Guelph is one of the most important agri-food research centres in Canada. In fact, if you'll all turn to the Book of McGee (2004 edition) and check the credit for the whipped cream photo on page 31 (the credit is on p. 884), you'll see our name there in black and white. Unfortunately, although my husband does work for the university, it's in the history department, so I haven't made any real connections in the food sciences area yet. So it doesn't really have any impact on my cooking.

Three afternoons a week, I go to the gym, and by the time I get home, my body is yelling at me to throw calories at it. As a result, Monday, Wednesday and Friday dinners tend to be quick and reliable. Tonight was no exception. In keeping with the theme that has emerged for today, I made okonomiyaki. I first had this dish at Okonomi House restaurant in Toronto; in general, I get tired of people thinking that Japanese food starts and ends with sushi, so I made a point fairly early on of seeking out other Japanese dishes. We also ate lots of okonomiyaki while we were in Japan in May, both Osaka and Hiroshima style. Despite having family roots in Hiroshima, I preferred Osaka style, so that's what I made tonight. We start with the mise en place: batter (flour, eggs, baking powder, salt and dashi, though usually I use water), sliced cabbage, shiitake and green onions, and pork belly. (Prasantrin, does that make up for the chicken breast I ate at lunch? ) Mixing the vegetables and batter: The belly goes into the pan first... ...then it gets flipped, and some of the batter mixture patted down on top of it. (There was enough mise en place for three okonomiyaki in total.) The whole deal gets flipped to cook the other side. Then, it slides onto a plate, and gets garnished with okonomiyaki sauce, Kewpie mayonnaise, ao-noriko seaweed flakes, bonito flakes and more red pickled ginger. (Funny, davidkeay, that you mentioned okonomiyaki when asking about it earlier!)

That book was my friend in Japan! Have you tried any other recipes out of it that you enjoyed? I am a big fan of her pickled lotus root. I haven't cooked out of it as much as I would like, but I've enjoyed everything I have made, with the notable exception of the soy-simmered kabocha with adzuki beans. The beans just never got tender! (Not the cookbook's fault, obviously.) Favourites include the sesame-miso sauce and the kitsune udon. I'll have to try the pickled lotus root. Ha! It's true, I did use breast, mostly because it's what I had on hand. In general, I do prefer thigh.

Oddly, I don't feel sufficiently conversant with Japanese flavours and points of reference to play around with them in the way that avant-garde technique allows (demands?). It's something I think about every now and then, but since I've only been seriously exploring Japanese food for a few months, I'm just not convinced I'm there yet. Yup, that's all it is! It's called beni-shoga, and is like the pickled ginger you get with sushi, but far less sweet. Off to prep dinner shortly...

I'm in what I think is a highly enviable situation for anyone who loves to cook: I work from home. Better still, my office is on the ground floor, right next to the kitchen. This means I can have a hot lunch whenever I want. Often this means reheated leftovers in the microwave, but sometimes it means cooking something from scratch. And what better opportunity than when you're blogging your week of cooking for eG? I realized the other day that, despite all the Japanese cooking I've been doing for the past 11 months, I've never made oyakodon. So, since I had some leftover dashi from the weekend, and a spare chicken breast hanging around, and eggs - I always have eggs; I get twitchy when the carton drops below half a dozen - it would be a good lunch to make today. I added nori strips after taking the photo. Nori wilts so quickly in steam that I don't like the way it photographs. I'm convinced you can make any dish taste Japanese by garnishing with nori, pickled ginger and bonito flakes, though. The recipe was from Andoh's Washoku. The dashi didn't reduce as quickly as I would have liked, so I ended up draining some of it off before topping the rice. Delicious, and easy!

We've been planning a remodel ever since we bought the house over 2 years ago; we just haven't gotten around to it yet, in part because the kitchen is so awkwardly laid out. And yes, I'm sure I can do a fridge shot!

I've been known to cook the oatmeal from Bob's Red Mill, but I find that I don't like the texture. Maybe I'll have to see if I can find proper steel-cut oats somewhere and give them a try this week... no promises, though. You mean apart from sodium chloride and sodium bicarbonate, I assume. As I said in my intro, I like to try things out for myself... what I didn't say was that once I've tried them out, the chemicals often go into a cupboard, never to be seen again. (Or, at least, not very often.) So I have amassed a pretty good collection: sodium alginate, calcium chloride, xanthan gum, soy lecithin, tapioca maltodextrin, two kinds of methylcellulose, sodium citrate, isomalt, agar, ultra-tex 3, calcium lactate, sodium hexametaphosphate, low-acyl gellan, locust bean gum... uh... I think that's about it. Some of those arrived just the other day, and I haven't gotten a chance to play with them yet, so I'm looking forward to that. Edit: Extraneous, comma.

Thanks, all, for the warm welcome! I think Japanese food is going to be the theme for today, so you won't have to wait long! I'll have to take some photos of my kitchen to post. I could use your guys' help redesigning it! Err. I was hoping no one would ask that. I always buy quick oats, because when it comes to weekday breakfast, I'm not patient. (Yes, I know that 10 minutes is not much longer than 3 minutes.) Normally, I buy organic oatmeal from President's Choice, but I didn't make it out to the store that carries it when I needed to replenish, so this is just Quaker.

This morning started off like most of my mornings do. I am a daily breakfast eater, but weekday breakfasts are almost always the same (especially lately): oatmeal and a cup of French press coffee. For me, oatmeal always has dried fruit (usually raisins; sometimes apples or apricots), and often some cinnamon or a touch of vanilla extract. I don't generally sweeten it, but I was feeling a little indulgent this morning, so there was a drop of maple syrup on it. (Hey, I am Canadian, y'know!) Although I have an espresso machine (a Saeco Aroma), I prefer French press in the morning. There's just something so comforting about the large mug of warmth, especially as the days are getting colder here. The beans are from a local roaster, whose roast profiles tend to be a little darker than my preference, but I like supporting the local business. Sometimes, though, I'll pick up beans from 49th Parallel, which I can buy in Toronto.

Good morning everyone, and welcome to my foodblog! I'm really excited to be here sharing a week in my kitchen with you. Thanks to Prawncrackers for hosting such a great blog last week: you'll be a tough act to follow! Why don't I start by situating you a little bit in my life? As you saw in the Coming Attractions topic, I would say that two of my biggest interests - and two of the topics on which I've gotten the most help from the eGullet forums - are cocktails and "molecular gastronomy" (or avant-garde cuisine, or whatever you want to call it). I'll be trying to incorporate both of those topics into my blog this week. I think it's safe to say that both of those interests are symptomatic of a more general desire to "tinker" in the kitchen. When I first learned that there were chemicals you could buy to make spheres out of pea puree, I had to order them. Similarly, when I learned that the whisky I'd spent my whole life calling "rye" was different from an American whiskey that is also called rye, I had to buy a bottle to find out what it tasted like. "Trying it for myself" is my guiding principle when it comes to food. In the past year, I've also developed a fascination with Japanese cooking. You see, although my family name is Japanese, I'm only one-quarter ethnically Japanese. (The other three quarters are an Anglo-Celtic blend.) Growing up, I didn't eat much Japanese food, but as I've gotten older, I've become interested in exploring that facet of my heritage. So I'll be drawing on that cuisine this week, too. So thanks to eGullet for asking me to host this week. I hope you enjoy reading along!

The shipping costs can be steep, but I've had good luck ordering from Cocktail Kingdom.

My guess is that, inasmuch as all aromas are classified in terms of flavour only associatively (cinnamon is a sweet spice in European cooking, but presumably either sweet or savoury in North African cooking), there must be some aromas that can be classified as umami. I was thinking of this just the other night, actually, as I had made up a batch of dashi for miso soup, and I stuck my nose over the pot and inhaled. My tummy rumbled, and I thought to myself, "That's what umami smells like." Smelling a bag of dried shiitake mushrooms produces the same reaction. I'm not sure I've ever had any cocktail ingredients that I'd identify as having a strong "umami" aroma. Then again, I've never looked for it. I can certainly see tequila and certain rums as being a good place to start.

I'd love to hear more about the quail eggs. Were they just hard-boiled and then peel-and-eat? I've never cooked quail eggs before, but they always look so cute!

My first thought was ginger (and then, by extension, rum), but I'd definitely order it with coconut, too!

I know it's not the very top shelf, but my favourite chocolate to eat on its own is Scharffen Berger semisweet, at 62% cacao. To my palate, there's a bright, almost floral flavour to it that I love. Unfortunately, it's not easy to find around these parts. More reliable is Dolfin, but mostly for their flavoured products. (Earl Grey being the easy favourite.)

Yup.

Curious to see what you come up with. I like it just fine, but I've actually found it tough to mix with. Do try a Last Word variation, though. (Which I think Sam has called a Favorite Word.)

Kir Royale, when made with a light hand on the cassis and a nice sparkler, is a decent apéritif, but not good for much else, IMO. While you have the cassis open, I'd recommend trying an El Diablo or a Mississippi Mule (which works equally well with lemon or lime juice).

+1. I picked up a bottle of this the other day, as part of the LCBO's current push on whisky, and it is just as amazing as I remember it being. I'm looking forward to having this bottle around for the next little while.

Are you really kicking off the meal with a whole dug leg as the first course? Or are you shredding the meat and serving it in some other form? Overall, I'd be worried about the amount of food you've got here: there's a lot of rich and sweet ingredients, and even with a good dose of balancing acidity, you may find that you quickly overwhelm your guests' satiety signals. Of course, it's hard to know for sure without having more information on the composition of each course.

Thanks for sharing this. I'd like to second the call for details on how you broke them down!

Does anyone have any thoughts on the current lay of the land for comprehensive pastry books? I'm interested in expanding my knowledge of pastry work, and having a go-to reference for those times when I suddenly decide I need to learn the basics of making a dacquoise (or financiers, or buttercream) right now. So a wide-ranging book is key for me. That said, I don't need lots of info on bread or confectionery, since I already have specific books that cover those subjects, but I wouldn't object to having them included. I've looked at several of the titles that have cropped up in the threads around here (Friberg, Gisslen, CIA, Peterson), and feel like The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts is probably the closest to what I want, but I thought I'd check with the knowledgeable folks here first to see if there are better options. Thanks for any advice!

Is it worth mentioning at this point that, in the article in question, it calls for you to broil the peach pits before infusing them?