nakji

I made the miso sweet potato soup last week, and tried it with three types of acidity: chinese black vinegar; ginger rice vinegar; and yuzu juice (sudachi is out of season, I think). The black vinegar gave the soup a dark, molasses-y taste that seemed heavy and dominant. It was okay, but not my favourite. The yuzu gave a much lighter result, but the strong flavour of the citrus competed with the already complex flavours. I felt like there was too much going on. The ginger vinegar gave the nicest result, in my opinion, as it was (obviously) lighter than the black vinegar, so the acid seemed to be more of a top note. The ginger complemented, rather than competed with the other flavours. It was definitely a clear winner, and it brightened up the soup considerably.

This has been an incredibly useful topic for me to read through. Sadly, I feel, it has almost talked me out of purchasing a Japanese knife. I live in Japan, and use a basic knife that I purchased at a home furnishing shop. I'm fairly happy with it, as I'm a beginner cook, but I had thought since I was living here, now would be a good time invest in a fine knife. I don't do any major butchering - I get the fishmonger and butcher to cut things down as I like; but I do dice a lot of onions, and generally chop a lot of vegetables. I'd like a tool that would make that task go faster and more efficiently. I can see by the pear photo above that a good knife clearly makes a difference in the final product. However, I can't see myself investing much in the way of sharpening technology right now, and extensively messing about with angles and such. Currently I use a hand-held sharpener, which sharpens my knife a little, but I'm sure not very well. I'd like a basic knife, one for a beginner cook and sharpener. From Steven's assessment, I'm drawn to the Shun, and I see from Hiroyuki's post that it's sold under a different name here. Is it worth my while to upgrade, and what sort of knife would be suitable for me?

Sorry, I'm not sure at all. But wikipedia suggests it should be "...boiled to a puddling-like consistency then poured into a dish to set."

Due to some shifty bribery on my part, I just got a hold of a large sack of what the electronic dictionary is calling "Chinese citrons" I think I have about five large ones. I'd like to make citron tea - the kind that's like a marmalade that you pour hot water over? Anyone have any recipes?

Recently I've gotten into a bit of a gifting spiral with my local allotment man. It started when I introduced one of my co-workers to the idea of buying his produce at the allotment stand. Turns out, he's an early riser, and he now regularly beats me to the stand and snags all the best bits daily. Whenever I run into him in our neighborhood, we now play "I got a broccoli - what did you get?" one-upmanship. Okay, so the other week, he wins with "cauliflower". Cauliflower! They're 400 yen at the shops! Unacceptable. Bribery is an important weapon in ingredient sourcing, so I hit the stand with my secret weapon - daikon yuzu pickles made with daikon and yuzu I'd bought at the stand. Boom. I have a friend for life in the allotment man (cue evil laugh) - and this week I got my own cauliflower, a bag of citrons, and I giant bunch of leeks! A result, as the British say. I don't have an oven for roasting, so I decided on second best - soup! I took a leek, sauteed it in some butter, threw in a spoon of Japanese curry powder, a tablespoon each of chopped garlic and ginger, then a chopped potato and cauliflower. A few minutes in the seasoning bath, then I topped it up with some chicken stock and a bit of apple juice, and let it stew over night in the fridge. Never underestimate the power of time for a good soup. The next night I added a bit of cream, pureed it, and dinner was on the table in ten minutes. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the citrons.

Okay, my Korean is parlous. But it looks like you want to add 100g of dotori muk powder to 900 cc of water. Or - and I get lost a little here - it suggests one cup of powder added to four cups of water. Mix, then over heat, stir for three minutes. Then, possibly, you're to pour it into a bowl to set. Eh. That's all I can get from the pictures and numbers. I wish I could be of more help.

My husband and I reached an agreement early in our marriage: I cook, he cleans. If he learns to cook, I have to start doing dishes. I keep all of my cookbooks under lock and key. The only time I can ever recall enjoying doing the dishes was once, before I was married. I threw a wedding shower for my friend who had just returned from six months in St. Petersburg. I decided to cook blinis, and dirtied every single mismatched hand-me-down dish in that kitchen. The blinis were fabulous, but so was the vodka she'd brought back with her...I have only vague memories of clattering around the kitchen that night, cleaning up and singing Dido songs at the top of my lungs to the accompanying CD...which was also cranked. Dido. Yikes. I woke up the next morning to a spotless kitchen and a random pile of softly snoring friends on the sofa and floor, which has got to be the best morning-after scenario there is, really.

The meal I showed above cost around 50,000 won, or around 3,200 yen at today's exchange. Friends from Korea visited us at Lunar New Year and were weeping at the combined exchange and prices in Japan. Korea is a bargain, for sure. A sweet, delicious bargain. Shinchon This neighborhood has both Yonsei and Ehwa universities, so it's a great area for shopping, eating, and people watching. And it's cheap. "Don-mania" or "Ton-mania" depending on your romanising preferences. Our hands down, favourite meat restaurant in Seoul is up the back alleys of this area, amongst the love hotels and san nakji joints. The older couple that runs it remembered us from years ago. The adjumma used to give me her kimchi to take home, since I always complemented her on it. She makes it herself, and swears up and down that she ages it six months before letting it out on the floor. The aging gives it a lovely cider-y fizziness and tang that strips the grease from the samgyeopbsal right off your tongue. Her galbi salad is the standard I set mine by - in perfect parts sweet, spicy, and sharp. And constantly re-filled, which is good, since I can put away a lot, alotalotalot of galbi salad. And the pork? Oh, the pork. Sweet, creamy slabs of it. Not for nothin' is this place called Pork Mania. The focus here is pork, and we divided our time between o-gyeobsal (five-layer pork belly) and galmeggisal (disturbingly translated as pork diaphragm by just about every electronic dictionary in existence. It's the kind of linguistic precision I can do without, thankyouverymuch). Galmeggisal has an amazing richness of flavour that belies the pink lumps on the plate, and the pork belly - well, it's pork belly. Side dishes are minimal, as the focus is rightly on the meat. Garlic's Mother-and Child reunion: pickled scapes and cloves in chili sauce Standard rice at this place comes with a little red rice mixed in, the sort of touch that lets you know you're in the hands of professionals - people who know their pork is so good, you'll need some kind of fibre to counteract the administered dosage of pork fat. If you need to push the envelope, you can always order an "egg roll"; an omelet stuffed with cheese and kimchi (What? They're both fermented) which, I think you'll agree, is not the sort of egg roll you probably grew up with if you're a North American; you will regret this fact after your first bite. Directions: Exit Shinchon station by exit three. Follow straight along that street - McDonalds will be on your right. You'll pass a shop called "Andrew's Ties", also on the right. Keep going until you reach an alley on your right with a Paris Baguette on the corner. Turn down the alley - go about 50 feet, until you reach an intersection with a GS 25 convenience store opposite. Turn left onto the street with the GS 25. From there, it's another 100 ft. on the right.

That's an interesting article - especially about the theft of the plant stock. But I knew this fruit in Korea as the "Hallabong", famed for growing only on the slopes of Mount Halla on Jeju-do. How did the Koreans start growing this in Korea if it's a Japanese hybrid with murky beginnings? It's my favourite citrus as well, nothing compares to that incredible sweetness and heady smell. I just wish they weren't so expensive.

This vinegar sounds amazing; I'm going into the kitchen to make some right now. I love ginger. This would be a lovely addition to sushi rice, I think - with the doll festival coming up, I can see making a chirashi sushi with gingered sushi rice and salmon, cucumber and egg. I'd like to stay away from limes, since they're not really used that much in Japanese cooking. I could try sudachi, though. When I have time next week, I'm going to make up a batch of this and try it with a couple of acids. Sudachi, ginger vinegar, and then maybe chinese black vinegar or similar....I'll report back.

My husband still reminisces about Vietnam, where no table is complete without a small dish of sliced chilis, limes, salt and pepper. This reminds me of a soup I've been fiddling with for while. It's a pureed soup, as mentioned above, and I haven't been able to get it "just right" yet. I know it needs an acid, but I'm not sure just what. I've tried rice vinegar, and it's not quite right. Basically, I saute a cubed sweet potato in a mix of dark and light miso, sesame oil, and Japanese leek; add some dashi and simmer until the potatoes are softened, then puree the lot and top with some more shredded leek and sesame oil. It's good, but it doesn't pop. Suggestions?

This is still true in much of Asia, I think. You'd never offer someone a drink without putting it on a little tray first. Sometimes the tray is only big enough for one cup - I love those. Cup, saucer, tiny tray - twee, but charming. I've been coveting the handsome square wooden trays at Muji for a while, I think this topic has finally given me an excuse to buy one. I'm always running back and forth between the kitchen and my living room getting forks, pickle plates, and whatnot.

I made two more soups last week, one directly out of Marcella's Italian Kitchen: Savoy cabbage soup in D'Aosta style. I completely undid all the good work I'd done by spending 150 yen on a cabbage and using it in at least six different recipes by topping the soup off with a crouton dripping taleggio I'd secured from the Sogo department store at 1,100 yen for around 100 g. It was worth it - the first time I'd tasted taleggio, and really, if the rest of the soup is so cheap, why not top it decently? The bread for the crouton came from the LeNotre bakery I found also buried in the Sogo - I unearthed a couple of French-style baguettes amongst the curry-pans and hot dog rolls. The other soup I made was less directly Marcella - it was Marcella influenced, in that I looked at the recipe for Tomato Gorgonzola pasta sauce kicking around on the Recipes that Rock 2008 topic, and cut out all superfluous seasonings like garlic, basil and balsamic. I then simmered the onions in a ridiculous amount of olive oil, added tomatoes, cream, and gorgonzola. My husband, a blue cheese hater, decided it was only mildly "footy" and deigned eat a spoonful. I had the rest. When I make it again, I might add back one of those ingredients to see if it makes a dramatic difference. But it was pretty near perfection to me. It tasted like the most perfect marriage of tomato soup and a cheese sandwich, together in a bowl.

A great read, David. It's interesting to hear your thoughts on Las Vegas's sense of place. I've never been there myself, nor do I ever plan to visit as I imagine its charms would be lost on me. Especially since I'm not a high roller. It seems inevitable that if Las Vegas is always re-inventing itself, and is yet in its infancy that its food culture and ingredients would have to be imported from elsewhere. How could restaurants use local ingredients when the town only exists for the tourist trade? There's no there there. (Is there - ? I'm assuming there's not family farms and decades of traditions contributing to the development of local delicacies.) So chefs will have to look elsewhere to provision their kitchens. But if the best is imported from other places, what makes fine dining in Las Vegas special? What can I get there that I can't find in other fine dining cities like New York, Paris, or Tokyo? As for the low-end of the dining scale - Steingarten said that “Las Vegas doesn’t exist from the street up” -If you agree with this statement, do you think that someday it will exist from the street up? What are your thoughts on the reasons for this? Are there any bright spots or local specialties that may, with some nurturing, help develop a local food culture in Las Vegas?

I was back in Seoul over Christmas and New Year. I was meeting up with some old friends, ones I'd made while living there from 2002-2006. A lot of us had had pretty crap years - broken bones, parents diagnosed with terminal illnesses, work stress, fortunes made and lost, parasites gained and lost, suicidal roommates and poor real estate investments. Needless to say, we all really, really needed a drink. Fortunately we had some old haunts we wanted to check out. I found some new places, as well. Giving restaurant recommendations is hard, since addresses don't really follow a western system, so I'll do my best to give landmarks and storefronts. Insadong The first neighborhood in Seoul I wanted to check out was Insadong. It's a famous arty-type neighborhood, and it should be on your list of places to visit in Seoul. I wanted to go to one of the restaurants in the alleys off the main road. We started from Anguk station, and walked down Insadong-gil, the main street. At the third or fourth alley on the left, we turned down. This is a view of the alley standing in front of the restaurant we chose - at the end of the street, you can see a sign that says, "Artside". That's on the main road. Coming down from Anguk, when you reach that sign on the right side of the road, turn into the alley on your left. Walk towards the end of the alley, and the restaurant should be on your left. I picked one of the places that had the most people in it, and was rewarded with a place that not only had lovely traditional decor, but had some pretty great food as well - this is not always a given in Seoul, I find, although things seem to be moving in this direction. It looked like this: It looks to be called "Dudaemun". We ordered bulgogi: It came pre-cooked, which is unusual - usually it cooks on a hot plate at your table. Which, being Korea, came with a luxurious selection of side dishes. A sampling: Deonjang soup with radish tops: Paper-thin slices of pickled daikon with wasabi: Either konnyaku or acorn jelly with sesame-chili-soy topping Greens with a deonjang-gochujang sesame dressing: Cool radish soup: (So refreshing! So addictive!) A small salad of fresh vegetables and blanched chicken; dressed with a vinaigrette: Garlic scapes with soy: Kiiimmmmcccchhhhiiiiiii...and far more attractively presented than usual. Because we are greedy, greedy, and we wanted to eat as much kimchi as possible, we also ordered a kimchijeon. The English menu identified it as "a type of Korean pizza", a mis-identification propagandistically reproduced on many a game attempt at an English menu at restaurants across Seoul. Everyone knows Korean pizza comes with sweet pickles and a ring of sweet potato puree embedded in the crust. Kimchijeon is clearly a kind of Korean pancake. And it is so, so good - crispy fried edges giving way to a melting interior of hot kimchi and green onion. Dipped in soy and sesame oil, you can't help but want to wash it down with something - We had the bokbunjaju, a red berry wine. Everything we had here was expertly prepared and delicious - I thought they had a nice balance of side dishes, as well. Some restaurants in Seoul will offer limited side dishes, or - and this happens especially at meat restaurants - everything will be heavy spiced with chili. In Seoul, I expect a restaurant will have superb meat - I go back on whether or not I was impressed by the side dishes. This place is worth a second visit.

I found the Meltykiss partypack at my supermarket last week, a discovery which has done nothing for my New Year's Resolution to eat less sugar. For those keeping track, this year's flavours are plain, strawberry, and dark rum. I much preferred last year's - matcha and raspberry.

Tofu is a great meat stretcher! I don't know how cheap you get it in the US, but I imagine Asian markets would have it fairly cheap. For example, mapo tofu, which I learned about through this magical topic, magically spreads meat - I usually get dinner and lunch for two out of one recipe, with judicious addition of pickles, stir-fried greens and rice, of course. One meal I like to make is a Japanese-Vietnamese fusion. I take one boned chicken leg-thigh, pan-fry it in a little olive oil, then cut it in strips, smother with chopped green onions, and dose with ponzu. As a side dish, to make this stretch for two, I drain a block of tofu, pan fry it, then remove the tofu, fry up equal amounts of chopped fresh ginger, garlic and green onion, add the tofu back to the pan with two or three chopped tomatoes, and simmer for another ten minutes. These two dishes really complement each other, and makes one chicken leg feed two.

I got a whisk. I haven't used it yet, though. I'll have to make some custard to try it out.

A timely post indeed! I have a large pile of cucumbers sitting on my counter as I type. I was thinking that I had to pickle them, but was feeling very uninspired. Now, for the szechwan pickle you speak of, what spicy paste are you using? Can you post pictures of these pickles, or tell me how you cut up the vegetables? I think quick-pickling is an over-looked area when it comes to dealing with bulk vegetables. And nothing picks up a meal like a small plate of pickles. Beeeeeeeeetssss I wish I could find beets in my area. They are genius, aren't they? Beets greens are great wrappings for Korean barbecue as well.

That's funny, my husband came home with a large pink daikon yesterday, with the comment, "I know you like different coloured vegetables." How's that for love? I was going to pickle mine in the Japanese style.

Lucky you! I can't find them for less than 200 yen for 100g here! Insane. I don't why they're so expensive. Oooh, very nice. Please let us see the dry cure when it's ready! You could use a little bit of that flaked in the middle of some onigiri for lunch - that would really stretch it.

Why yes, yes there are. Asian noodle soups cook-off Also check out the laksa topic, which appears in need of reviving. Do we have the perfect pho broth? Thai cooking and ingredients topic. Thai soups topic Plus many more! Check out the links in the cook-off topic, and frolic through the Elsewhere in Asia Pacific cooking and baking forum.

I think it's a sencha - I can't read the kanji except to read that it's tea. I say "standard" because it was a box of the cheapest tea you can buy at the supermarket. It was one of the last bags, though, I think I'm going to pick up some nicer stuff at the depaichika today.

Excellent question, and one I'd like to hear the answer to myself. When I buy miso in Japan, the only thing I really have to go on is the quality of the packaging, and the price. These are only semi-reliable indicators, however. What is a "good" all-purpose miso brand - one that's useful for a variety of tasks? What is a good brand of high-quality miso - one I might use for a simple miso soup or dressing, where miso is the star flavour?

I say, "If it tastes good, do it!" And then post here and tell us all about. What kind of brown rice vinegar? Please share.