nakji

The one in the foreground is the miso tare. It came premarinated at the supermarket - I don't think anything else was mixed in, but I didn't pay close attention to the label. I bought it meaning to cook it for bentos, but things were so crazy this week it got pulled out for dinner by mistake. It browned up really nicely, though - there may have been a touch of mirin in there as well. It was quite delicious, and some survived to be packed for lunch the next day, so all's well that ends well. I'm going back to the supermarket today, I'll see if there's any more, and check the label.

Just a quick weeknight dinner from the other day - I had some chicken thighs marinated in miso and negi, and pan-fried them. I had some bits of plain chicken thighs leftover from making lunch, so I cooked them in a simple teriyaki sauce. We had them with cucumbers in sanbaizu, chili daikon banchan, and grated daikon with wasabi. And steamed rice, of course.

Omigod, it looks fabulous. I haven't posted yet, but I've been following this thread and your senior's thread for a while. I'm so glad you're finally cooking for an appreciative audience! The food looks fabulous, and I wish I were there to eat it. I've never had pulled pork, can you believe it? If you're sending a care package to Doddie, please send one for me too!

Took me a while to translate that. Apologies, thank you, and I hope to hear about your Hanoi holiday. ← Sorry, I meant, "it looks delicious!" There will be a trip report thread. It looks like I'll just be in Northern Vietnam, but I plan to do some serious eating in Hanoi and surrounds for about a week in August.

Qua ngon! Oooh, only two months til I'm back in Hanoi on holiday! I have to make an eating wish-list.

I made these two side dishes from recipes over at Just Bento - on the left is asparagus in a gochujang-miso sauce, and on the right are green beans and carrot with ginger. I guess they're more technically Japanese, but any small vegetable side dish will always be banchan to me, so I decided to post them here. We need some sort of pan-asian fusion thread to honour the cold-veggie side dish tradition. Actually, I almost put both of these in the recipes that rock thread, because they're soooooooo yummy. Perfect with a cold beer while waiting for hubby to get home from the train.

I love tofu in dumplings! That's what we put in our mandu in Korea, "for our health" according to my friends. It really makes the filling hang together, and it's so fun mixing it all in by hand. Your dad's right, I know the feeling of, "Why the heck am I doing this, I can buy food for cheaper and less trouble?" but you and your dad will always have the memory of making bao together while your mum was away - that kind of thing you can't put a price on! As for distracting relatives - well, that's when you ask an innocent question like, "What does auntie put in her filling that makes it so good?" And then everyone is talking at once and defending their own recipes and methods, and you can slip out the back door with a tray of fresh made dumplings and a diet coke for yourself. One of my favourite cooking moments in Korea was when my friends (who were sisters-in-law) were showing me how to cook japchae, and one added a slug of soy sauce to her water for boiling the noodles, and the other saw it and shouted, "Ha!" and it turns out that was her secret move for good noodles all long, and she was totally busted. Classic.

Send extras to: Nakji, Chigasaki-shi, Honjuku-cho 101, thanks. Don't trust him! This is my trick exactly when I go back to Canada and make Yorkshire Pudding for my family. I have a "secret" ingredient I never reveal, and it drives my father-in-law nuts that he can't replicate. I'll have to head into Yokohama for a bao fix now, you're killing me.

Hmmm, no it's got a different cover than that, although the recipes may be similar. I'll e-mail and ask my mother-in-law for a photo, it's bugging me now. She must have the largest collection of Nova Scotia United Church Ladies' cookbooks. My husband thought he hated lasagne for years, until I met him and made him one.

Oh, they look beautiful, like little pork-filled roses. I once went on a day-long mandu making binge with some of my friends in Korea....the results looked quite similar to your bao, except for the wrapping technique - we tried half-moons. What did you put in your bao filling?

I was under the impression that they didn't grow so well in Ontario (which is why they're more expensive there), and Oregon blueberries are all high-bush blueberries, aren't they? In fact, that's what we were really fighting over - he maintained that a larger berry was juicier, and I thought a smaller, wild berry had much better flavour. Arguing about wine, however, is far above my pay grade. Sorry, Kerry, I guess you get your revenge when peaches are in season.

I actually once practically got into a fistfight with a co-worker from Oregon who had the temerity to suggest Oregon blueberries were superior to any other sort of blueberry. Chuh-huh! We didn't have any fresh local samples for a blind taste test, sadly. The best use for blueberries? Selling them for $40 a flat to Ontarians. (heheh) The second best? In muffins. Or pancakes. Or grunt.

I'm a transplanted Nova Scotian, but neither of my parents were originally from Nova Scotia, so I grew up eating the dishes of my father's childhood (in Hong Kong and Singapore) and my mother - well, she was from the North, so she cooked a lot of game and things from scratch that most people bought - beans, bread.... but I don't remember eating "Nova Scotian", except in August, having to deal with all the blueberries. My mother-in-law has a large collection of Maritime local cookbooks, however, and one of them was from Lunenburg...I can't recall the name now - but have you seen it? I think it's called Recipes from Old Lunenburg town, or some such. My very first post on EGullet (worst meal in someone's home thread, I think) was about my first taste of Rappie pie. I'll let that stand as my only voiced opinion. I also seem to remember that it's claimed that pasta primavera was invented in Nova Scotia. Don't know who's claiming that, though, it seems a bit farfetched. And what of potage?

I was in an Okinawan-themed izakaya last weekend, and decided to try Awamori for the first time, attracted by the extensive selection of bright bottles behind the bar. The barkeep seemed doubtful that we would enjoy it, but was game enough to serve it to us liberally cut with ice. I had no idea what it would taste like, so imagine my surprise on taking the first sip and ..... ....was transported back to Vietnam. The whole bar staff jumped when I slammed the glass down on to the bar and shouted, "Xeo!" excitedly to my husband, who had been waiting to see my reaction. (I can handle much stronger drinks than he can, usually.) Xeo is the fuel that runs the hill tribes of Northern Vietnam, kept in paper-corked old Tiger beer or Coke bottles, and brought out to ring in the new year and other various auspicious occasions, such as the arrival of 20 or so foreigners on the backs of Soviet motorcycles. Mornings spent quelling the resultant Xeo shakes with banh trung, Trung Nguyen coffee, and lightly filtered Vinataba smokes came back in flashes. The staff asked me, quite worriedly, if it was okay, and I immediately ordered another round, of course. Fortunately for my health, the price of a glass of Awamori in my local izakaya could buy the three or four bottles of the stuff in Vietnam, and still have money left over for dinner, so I was finished after two rounds. Does anyone have any brands they could recommend? I've seen it for sale in the liquor store, but I don't know where to start. I'd like to take a bottle back with me when I go to Vietnam in the summer, I'm sure my friends there would get a real kick out of it.

Yo - add a squeeze of mayonnaise there, and you've got the sort of kick-ass banh mi that wouldn't get you kicked off Hai Ba Trung st.

Why not write what you wrote above? It came across as sincere and honest, which I think most people respect. The shopkeeper may not like what you have to say, but really, you have no control over his reaction; only yours. I think over the long term you'll feel better about not having a niggling feeling at the back of your mind about the situation. I think different bloggers have different goals for their blogs - for example, I frequent Lunch in a Box, and the blogger always issues disclaimers about products and vendors she's featured on the site. The goal of the site is to serve as a source of information and inspiration people preparing children's bentos. The focus of the site is very tight, and it's informative and easy to navigate. There's a clear vision for the way she wants it to look, and you can see that she takes it quite seriously; any products referenced or reviewed come with disclaimers. When she mentions a product, readers take her seriously. Other blogs, like Pim's, seem more lifestyle-y. Come and look at what I'm eating, here are some nice photos and recipes...but I can't say I see a communicative task or a purpose to the site. When she mentions she's eaten something or used something, it's more like food voyeurism for me - which...I kind of think is the feel she is intending. The vast majority of blogs out there, though are fairly unfocused in intent, design and content, and might not be targeted at anyone in particular, or are for any special purpose other than "look at what I cooked" . My own blog falls into this category - I started it as a way to show my friends and family in Canada how I cook and live, since they're pretty curious about it. From what I can see, readers take a blog as seriously as the blogger him or herself treats it - if the blogger want to be seen as a trustworthy source of information on a particular topic, then he or she has to act as if they were working for a real publication, as Fat Guy suggests. Although readers know the differences between blogs and magazines, newspapers and the like, I still think they hold bloggers to the same standards.

Yum, parsnips. I had forgotten about those. Isomer, where do you live in Canada? I expect a good asian market would carry myoga. It tastes like a very mild leek or shallot - it has a nice flavour and crunch.

In fact, thatis exactly it. But......I upped the cream to about a half cup, which mellowed out the sauce considerably, and I used really good miso, because it was the main flavour. I have to take back anything bad I have ever said about the scallops in Japan, because these were succulent, right from the fish market. Fabulous oyakodon, isomer. I've never thought of adding carrots. And your red onion made me think of adding myoga to mine the next time round. Thanks!

Well, if you're looking around for scallop recipes..... I made this one the other night, again from "Harumi's Japanese Cooking" - scallops with a miso cream sauce. It was sooooooo good, I even convinced my husband to try a bit. I served it with a loaf of bread to sop up the sauce, and it made a perfect easy meal. She recommends serving it on watercress, but I couldn't find it at the market, so I just used lettuce and was perfectly happy with that. If you'd like, I'll pm you the recipe.

Care to share how you cooked your turnips? I've been seeing these turnips at the market recently, but I don't know how to treat them. That salad looks just the thing for when I get home from work. This past weekend I bought "Harumi's Japanese Cooking", and I've already made several recipes from it that I'm quite happy with. Last night I made her scallops with miso cream sauce, which were fan-freaking-tabulous and tonight I made Steamed Chicken Salad with Sesame Sauce, which was similarly good. In fact, I had earmarked leftovers for tomorrow's bento, but that will not be happening. I served it with some steamed rice and Korean radish pickles.

Curse you Ce'nedra! I had forgotten that I missed those! Now I will crave them all week.

"the Tavern"? "What the Dickens"? eeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh? Are they counting atmosphere more heavily than food? I love "What the Dickens" but I go for the live music and the Hitachino Nest Beer on tap, not the food.

Well, I've seen views like that from the Ebisu Garden Place, but really, it could be anywhere...you're not looking at either Shibuya or Shinjuku, so you're probably in one or the other. If you could potentially see Mount Fuji, then you must facing west... I dunno. But I'm looking forward to your report.

Looks like some sort of set egg custard to me.

He got back to me - on first thinking about it, he said that he thought it was just fish sauce and vinegar, with chips of green papaya and carrot in it for sweetening, but he's going to check for sure with his regular lady. Then he got cranky because I made him crave bun cha at midnight, when it's impossible to get. Oooh, bun cha....*sigh....