nakji

I use my microwave a lot. First, I love that it has a "warm sake" setting; I use that quite a bit, it's terribly convenient. Second, I use it to nuke my bento fillings in the morning, to bring them up to temperature. I even have a small microwave steamer that cooks small bits of vegetables perfectly. I also use my microwave to cook some things like chicken, for chicken salad - I have a recipe that calls for chicken to be steamed with shaoxing, ginger and green onion that works out great. The broth it creates is magnificent, and goes into the salad dressing. I'd trade it in a minute for a real oven, though, which I don't have. Convection/microwave ovens seem to be popular in Japan, but I'm not convinced I'd get a good baked/roasted product out of them - has anyone used one, and can comment?

Much like opening the South China Morning Post and reading the cricket scores, I only directly understood about half your first post, racheld, but the bit I did get was so evocative of a time and place, I feel like if I ever have the privilege to sit in front of a plate of barbecue, I will sigh and say, "of course, that's what she was talking about." Hopefully I'll have enough room left over for some banana pudding, that sounds like a must. Strangely enough, my first encounter with tea and sweet tea came in the mess hall in Panmunjeom, Korea. The drink dispenser had nozzles labelled "tea" and "sweet tea", and neither appeared to be the heated urn that I generally associated with tea from my Canadian upbringing. I flagged down the nearest buzz-cut young GI and asked for a translation. He told me, "Miss if you like your tea plain, take some 'tea'. If you like your tea sweet, take some 'sweet tea'." 'Nuff said.

Thank you. I thought it might be a little chewy. Everything looks beautiful, and I applaud your attempt to photograph discreetly in what must be challenging conditions. Some things defy easy description - I can clearly see the difference in the two "ash" dishes, which would have been very hard for you to relate easily without photos. Is it me, or have a lot of your desserts involved french toast? Do you happen to like it a lot, or is it enjoying a moment in Spain?

Heheh. The first time I tried it, I was hesitant as well, but I find I can get used to anything if I eat it enough... As for "squooge", the bottle/tube they put Kewpie mayonnaise into invites the invention of new words. "Squeeze" doesn't seem quite right, because of spluttering, sucking sound the mayo makes as it's released in large quantities. Hmmm, that sounds appetizing. We should have a show of hands over who prefers semi-mashed potatoes to firm cubes in their salad.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I love it, and frequently eat way more of it then I intend to. I'd also like to find a substitute for the tuna for a variation, though. My husband doesn't care for tuna that much, and I'd like someone to prevent me from eating a whole batch by myself. Any ideas?

If I sat down at a table with this bowl, all I'd need is a spoon and I'd probably die of happiness. My favourite potato salad is Double Mustard potato salad, from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything, but recently I've been making a lot of "Japanese" potato salad. I call it that only because it's the sort of potato salad that I see in supermarkets in Japan all the time. I take May Queen potatoes, boil them, and keep half of them cubed, and mash the other half. I add one carrot and cucumber that have been salted, lightly pressed, and then rinsed and drained, along with a half onion that's been soaked in cold water to take away the harshness. Then I add vast great squooges of QP mayonnaise, until the whole lots becomes velvety smooth.

The light in this picture is perfect. I can imagine pulling up to this plate with a warm summer sunset in the distance, and a cold beer sweating onto the table...

Yes, I was wondering if it was like one of those new, er, I don't know how to describe it - -flavour sheets? Like, that you could use instead of nori? I'm fascinated by those, I don't know why.

What exactly are those summer gift sets anyway? I've been seeing them everywhere, like gift sets full of jellies and soaps and things - are they just to celebrate summer, or are they for a special occasion? I've been making Harumi Kurihara's somen salad for lunch a lot recently - it's not really a full meal sort of thing, but it's great for a packed lunch, and would make a substantial side salad. I give the details here, but if you're not familiar with the recipe, it's basically a stack of somen, cooked and cooled, tossed with a can of tuna, mayonnaise, cucumber, and onions. I serve it with lots of ground pepper, and I love it. I always have my co-workers drooling over it at lunch. I think it's really nice if you can find red onion for it.

Can you tell me more about the onion "paper"? What is it? What does it taste like?

Fabulous! Now I have an excuse to buy another bento box for my rapidly-expanding collection....mwahaha.... I love the styling of the aluminum. I saw one in Kamakura with a Totoro theme that I'd really like to get. I do this! I mix up mugi miso, chopped green onion, and some powdered dashi, and then wrap it up in individual portions to pop in my lunch bag. I got the idea over on Just Bento. Great with a couple of tuna-mayonnaise onigiri for lunch.

Any Tim Horton's should have them, but I can't speak to the quality. Mary's Breadbasket at the Brewery Market is the only bakery I can think of right now, but I can't remember if they do butter tarts.

I ate at Jane on the Common when I was at home at Christmas. I liked it - but it gets busy at lunch. Go early or expect a queue. There's really not that much else up in that area, if I recall correctly, especially for anyone living in and around Gottingen st. I have always enjoyed Chives, and its location on Barrington is easy to get to if you're coming up from Pier 21 and the cruise ship docks. Lunenburg has my vote: more to do than Peggy's Cove.

Yes, the vibe in both Shinjuku and Shibuya is very "modern" Tokyo, I think, although there is that old alley way of broken-down yakitori joints under the tracks in Shinjuku....overpriced, maybe, but fun atmosphere. A definitely old-school - organ meat, cartilage, the whole nine yards.... I prefer Shinjuku myself, but that's because it feels slightly less full-on to me. You might be looking for the in-your-face craziness, in which case, Shibuya has the edge.

Ah, thanks. I googled "bacillus cereus", and the textbook of bacteriology calmed me down. It seems like its not that common a form of food poisoning, and outbreaks in the US seem to be related to rice dishes that had been cooked and held at warm temperatures for long time periods, like fried rice in warming trays at buffets. Not really what I'm doing - although now that it's getting warmer, I'm thinking of stowing the bento box for the summer in favour of a lunch bag with onigiri and some ice packs.

I was reading through a site today called Love Food, Hate Waste, which has a lot of great ideas for people like me who are trying to minimize their kitchen budgets. As I was reading, I came across some information about rice safety, which essentially says, never let rice cool for more than an hour out of the refrigerator, chill it under running water, never reheat it more than once, and don't serve rice at room temperature, especially if it's been reheated from frozen. I routinely break all these rules when I make bento and onigiri for lunch, and now I'm left wondering if I'm dicing with death. Anyone know what they're talking about? They don't say why these rules are important - am I risking salmonella? e-coli? What?

As for me, I always see rambutans as little muppet heads. To this day, I can't eat one and not hold the discarded skin up and make it talk like Animal. But that's just me.

I saved up this thread all week so I could enjoy it with a large mug of coffee, and it was worth it! It's just turned steamy in my area, so I could really feel the heat you're evoking...The food looks marvellous as always. Peter, nobody does it better than you when it comes to travel gluttony. And I know you'll take that as a compliment. But I'm a little cranky that you made me remember how good Beer Lao is...I'll just have to slip over to the market and pick myself up a Hitachino Nest Weizen to console myself with. Who are these purists?! I'll help you pelt them with rotten papaya. I'm an equal opportunity eater when it comes to food - I'll eat French food in Tokyo, Indian food in Hong Kong, Japanese food in Hanoi...you never know what you're going to find! I always think of Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong as cities where anything is possible, gastronomically speaking - but also in other ways. When I travel to these cities I feel like, more so than anywhere else in Asia, that I'm plugged into the world, and that anything is possible and everything is open to me. I don't know why, but I just feel a different energy in the air.

Congratulations, nonetheless! It looks like you had a fun time conceptualizing - and eating! I love a good saltwater petting zoo. Did they have any octopuses?

Really? There's rice in gochujang? I guess that's what I get for never bothering to read the ingredients. I always use the Korean-made stuff in the red tub, I have to go read the label now...... What do you use your gochujang for in lunches, I'm intrigued?

Well, I finally got around to making mapo-dofu this weekend. Unfortunately, the board was down, so I couldn't use the recipe linked to upthread, so I just googled it, and found a simple recipe. (Which I then proceeded to freestyle on. Mainly I just use recipes as guidelines ) I used firm tofu, which I further drained in my pickle press for 30 minutes, and used sanrensho instead of sichuan peppercorns and gochujang in place of chili paste, since that's what I had on hand. Verdict? My husband loved it so much, I got a thumbs up text message when he got it in his lunch thermos the next day, along with a "better than chili!" It's going into the rotation. Incidentally, can anyone tell me if toubanjan differs from gochujang substantially? My fridge is so small, I hate to add another little bottle in there.

Have you seen the berry-flavoured ones? I think they're quite foul, but my husband loves them.

I give my spinach very little time in the water as well. I usually tong up some spinach, and dip it, stem first, in the boiling water. I give the stems about ten seconds in the water, then let the leaves fall. I pick them out almost immediately - when the green of the leaf begins to change slightly. I proceed in small batches until it's all cooked and draining, and I rinse with cold water, since I never seem to have any ice around. Ooh, I think I'll make it for dinner tonight.

I bought a ball of the kurozato ones 6 weeks ago at my supermarket, and the last one is still sitting in the bag in the cupboard. That never happens to chocolate in my house! I just couldn't reconcile the taste of chocolate and molasses.

Oh, goody. The Kamakura location is within cycling distance from me! Just in time for my birthday! I'm usually fairly disappointed in 100 yen dishes, but those look nice.