nakji

I'm not sure if it's nuoc cham, really, but whatever it is, it's used as a kind of dip. In Hanoi, they give you a bowl of the soup with the meat patties in it, and a plate of rice noodles and a plate of herbs. Then you add the noodles and herbs to the sauce as you like, with crushed garlic and chilis as condiments, and then slurp it all up, a bit like eating zaru soba. You're not really supposed to have the soup, you just use it as a dressing for the meat and noodles.

Well, I went digging through my notes, and I couldn't find a recipe for the broth. If you ate it in Hanoi, however, I can guarantee that large amounts of MSG went into both the patties and the broth to make them extra succulent. And I don't know why, but I feel like it's pineapple juice that is the fruit juice that gets added. I'm going to e-mail a good friend of mine in Hanoi and try to find out for everyone. In the meantime....from Mai Hac De street, in Hanoi..... And if you're interested, here's my eGullet foodblog from Hanoi.

They only do they pork patties in Hanoi. In my experience, most VN restaurants outside of Vietnam are run by Vietnamese from the South, where the cuisine is a little different. I have a recipe and some Bun Cha photos, but I'm late for my train - I'll post tonight!

It was never something I found readily available in Hanoi, but every dry good shops carried a variety of peanuts - whole; roasted, salted, plain, ground....maybe people were making their own? But actually, now I think about it, people in Hanoi always served both spring and summer rolls with nuoc cham, never peanut sauce.

My argument with makkoli was that in Korea I had waaaay too easy access to it! In fact, I remember one Saturday night in Hongdae, walking through the park on our way to the clubs, and a guy walked by with a wheelbarrow full of the stuff, selling it. We ditched the idea of hitting the clubs and sat in the park drinking it instead. Did you mean in restaurants? I can never go out for grilled meat in Japan, because it kills me to pay for garlic and kimchi. Usually I just make it at home. In Roppongi that's certainly the case! But my first month commuting in Tokyo, I was waiting to get on the Keio line in Shinjuku at 9 o'clock in the morning, and one salaryman shoved another too hard on his way out of the train. The shoved hauled off and roundhoused the shover in front of all the other commuters. The shover, flat out on the platform, looked shocked, and the shover was immediately lofted in the air above the crowd by his co-workers, and carried thusly up the stairs to the JR level - a lone salaryman, crowd-surfing his way to work.

Word. Especially the bit about economies of scale - I do a lot of home cooking for my husband and I because it's economical for the two of us - but if I were alone, I doubt I would bother. Most of my single co-workers seem to survive on konbini food and spag bog cobbled together from ingredients bought at the 100 yen shops. Horrors! That's why I recommend donburis - if she tires of supermarket take-out or tuna-mayo omusubi, it's nothing really to buy a small portion of meat and have a small bottle each of mirin and soy on hand in the cupboard and slap it together when she gets home. Because prepared rice can be pricey, it's a good idea to cook that for herself - I usually make a big batch on Sunday, portion it, and freeze it for the week. Donburi saved my life last fall when we were living in a Leopalace, and couldn't accumulate any reasonable pantry staples. Or, she could simply freeze some rice and pick up some pre-made side dishes or pickles at the supermarket on her way home - add some instant miso soup to that, and you've got a reasonably square meal in no time. MoGa, I've recently started making my own cold teas at home. I put them in a thermal flask in the morning, and I don't have to spend the whole day trying to find a place to ditch my PET bottles.

I hate to flog my blog, but that's what I'm dealing with right now...how do I feed my husband and I using local, seasonal ingredients? I'm having to re-learn cooking, and how to set a table, and change my perceptions about how a meal should be composed, but it's a process I'm enjoying. If she's going to be living alone, then donburi are a great solution. Just fry up some meat and veg, steam some rice, and have some store-bought pickles on the side, and dinner's served. Hiroyuki's Dashi, Soy, and Mirin ratios thread really helped me get a handle on the basics of Japanese cooking, and it's a glimpse into how a Japanese person puts together meals. His eGullet blog is also great for this. click And don't forget Smallworld's eGullet blog! I also recommend Elizabeth Andoh's "Washoku", which I'm currently cooking my way through. It gives an excellent run-down of a traditional Japanese pantry, and gives recipes that use everything available in a Japanese supermarket. The only criticism that I could level at it is that it's perhaps too traditional, and a lot of the recipes are quite time consuming the first time you do them. I think these days, more and more Japanese families are relying on mixes and simpler preparations to make their week-day meals. I've heard a lot of buzz about "Harumi's Japanese Cooking", which I think reflects a more contemporary style of cooking, but I haven't had a chance to look at it myself.

That's quite a list! I keep about a third of that, and my cupboards are overflowing. What do you use the white poppy seeds for? That's a real "mum" thing to do. I'm freezing these and using them as bento cold-packs.

Wow, I must confess I didn't think anyone other than Pan and Peter Green had read that thread. I must warn y'all, I'm going back for a visit in August, and it'll be an eating orgy...my list of things that I miss is huge.

I was in Siem Reap last May, and I remember how hot it was...even our hotel pool was too hot to go into. We had to get all of our wat viewing done by 9 am! We stayed at La Noria, which was lovely, quiet, and French. The bungalows had these fabulous traditional Khmer bathing urns that were so refreshing in the heat. I thought the Thai food at Dead Fish was tasty as well - I was there in the evening, and it wasn't nearly as tacky as it seemed to want to be. Prasantrin, if you're going, and plan to be in Phnom Penh as well, I strongly recommend the cooking class we took there. It was really hands-on, and the food was sublime. I have all the pictures on my hard drive here somewhere, and meant to do a write up on it here, but got sidetracked somehow...... Peter, the bar scene then was exactly how I like my bars scenes...affordable. All I remember from my last night there was convincing a couple of young Korean girls to ditch their boyfriends (who were frowning grumpily at a table and wearing ridiculous straw hats) by sending them a round of B-52's. We then took over the dance floor and made the DJ play "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". I cannot remember how I got back to the hotel, but I suspect my husband was somehow involved.

Wow, I saw white asparagus in the store today for the first time (in my life, if you can believe that), and I thought, "Wow, I wonder what's the best way to eat that?" Now I know!

You read my mind! I was remembering just that combination! Cucumbers are getting cheap here, so I'll probably put some oi kimchi on for my husband, who loves it. Mmmmmmm, and bibimnangmyeon is refreshing as well. Do you have any other favourite summer dishes?

You're right! I was thinking she meant picture #5 - the kimchi with the baby radishes with their tops still on, but picture #16 is what I was thinking of. I'll have to get some of that started now that my mul kimchi is almost gone. Anyone else made any interesting kimchis lately? It's also getting to the time of year when a nice bowl of mul nangmyeon is in order. I can't remember what kind of noodles are used, though - they aren't straight up buckwheat noodles, are they? Because I remember the noodles being quite chewy.

Neither, I think - although I like both of those. No, this is soupy, exactly like mul kimchi, but instead of having chinese cabbage in it, it has some sort of green leaf - it might be radish tops, but it's a cold soup, not a pickle. It might not be a kimchi at all, it might be a panchan. I'm not sure.

Bump! It's getting a bit warmer in my area now, and I'm a little worried about the temperatures that my bento is reaching on my way to work. I'm already following general bento safety guidlines - cool everything down first, season heavily, cook everything thoroughly, etc., but I'm wondering if there aren't some things that are well suited for spring/summer bentos? I think salads would be at risk of wilting...any good ideas out there?

Scud's one lucky kid! Those Ryugin pictures made me snuffle in self-pity. Why was I foolish enough to marry a man who hates fish - and then move to Japan? The anime fair looked so fun, and my husband covets one of those mousepads- were we going to go, but we went cherry-blossom viewing that day instead. It's a shame you missed the Ghibli museum; my favourite part of it was a mock-up of Miyazaki's desk and study, and an artists' studio, with all the cells and paints. Very old-school.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I make some variation of this quite frequently. It is so light as here is no oil and the pork slices are just barely boiled. Try it with yuzu-koshou instead of the wasabi for a wonderful twist. I also vary the vegetables depending on what I have in the house, any kind of lettuce or mizuna works, as well as bean sprouts and avocado. Sometimes I leave out the wasabi all together and add something like kaiware (daikon sprouts) for a different kind of kick. Often in the summer, this will be the entire meal (with rice, of course!). ← Oooh, yuzu would be fantastic. I'll definitely give that a whirl. And my husband loves bean sprouts, so I know he'd enjoy that! It made up our entire dinner, with some leftover rice with new ginger. It was a great meal.

Here's a list of wine and liquor stores in Tokyo. In fact, bento.com is a great all-round food link for Tokyo. Any time I'm looking for something in particular, I go straight there. I wanted to find a decent bottle of marsala once, like one without a cook on it, and it lead me right to an amazing liquor shop in Ikebukuro. As for cocktails, in my experience, you're always better off trying to "drink local", if you know what I mean. I imagine you'll find a lot more disappointing cocktails than disappointing sakes/shochus in Tokyo. That being said, if you're living here, and just want to have a really good drink once in a while, Tokyo seems to have everything - I'm sure there's a place somewhere on the Yamanote line that has just what you want. This magazine does a reasonable job of reviewing what's available. Good luck, and if you find some place, please, let us know!

It's summertime, and the living's kimchi! Okay, that was really bad, I'm sorry. Anyway, when it's warm outside, I like really sour, cold things, so of course I made mul kimchi - the kimchi that eats like a soup. I first had this in Chuncheon, at one of the famous ddalk galbi restaurants there. It was winter, and they were keeping all their kimchis outside in traditional jugs, so when they served it to us, it had shards of ice along the top. I like to have it this way in the summer time, I think it's even more refreshing than gazpacho. There's another kimchi like this, that I like even better, and it's made with some sort of field green instead of cabbage. I can't remember the name, though, to look up a recipe. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

I've been wanting to try Torakris's Pork and Wasabi salad since I first read about it last fall. I finally got around to making it, and I wasn't disappointed! It was exactly the perfect sort pf dinner for me - easy to assemble and light on the stomach (since I usually eat dinner quite late). It was a hit with my husband, too, and he usually dislikes wasabi - I served the salad western-style, in two separate dishes, and added more wasabi to mine. I love things made with vinegar and sugar, especially when the weather's a bit warmer. Does anyone have any more recipes they'd like to share?

I went back to the shop to look for them, but they were sold out, so sorry! Rona, it was a "Saty" department store, I don't know if they have any in your area - I'll continue to keep my eye out on this end.

Okonomiyaki must be in the air. I made it for the first time last week - it's really easy and super convenient for me as a late-night dinner. It doesn't take a lot of prep, and it's reasonably filling. My husband doesn't like a lot of the standard seafood fillings, so I make it with pork, cabbage, and lots of fresh ground pepper. I use a mix, too, because I still find most of the Japanese produce section intimidating. I put the pork on last, so it gets extra crispy when it's fried. Standard toppings (I don't tell my husband that those flakes are made from fish - he eats them) I-got-creative-toppings I also went out to an amazing okonomiyaki restaurant in Tokyo on the weekend - a really fabulous place in its own building, all wooden beams and private rooms and a garden outside. We had a set menu - I don't know what it was, someone else ordered, but my favourite was made with mochi and cheese. I'd like to try making one with kimchi and pork.

I've always eaten dishes made with daikon, but I was intimidated because I had never cooked with one before. I had some free time to experiment this week, so I looked up some recipes (I boiled those leaves first, don't worry) and decided to buy one. The thing I didn't anticipate was how big the darn thing was, so even after I had made mul kimchi, kinpira, cold udon salad, and cooked the tops with sesame dressing, I still had a large hunk on my counter and I was out of ideas. Pickles seemed like a good idea, but I don't have any recipes for them, so I decided to ask around here. They were successful, so I guess I won't be intimidated by daikon any more.

A fusion plate - carrot and radish peel kinpira, rice with fried tofu and new ginger, some sesame chicken of my own devising, and a few edamame on the plate for colour contrast. Normally, I would plate this Japanese style, since my husband and I would be eating together, but he took off down to the pub to meet some friends, so tonight I dine alone! No point in dirtying more than one dish in that case. Oh, gosh, I completely missed Cinco de Mayo! I hate missing an excuse to drink Corona and eat tacos! Now I'll have to wait for next year!

MoGa P/M'ed me a recipe for daikon with yuzu that I had everything on hand for (well - I used lemon peel instead of yuzu peel), so the daikon has been completely vanquished. I blanched the tops and served them for dinner last night as gomae, some went for grating on udon yesterday, the peels went with some carrots for a kinpira, and some went for the mul-kimchi, which is bubbling happily as we speak, and should be ready for consumption tomorrow. The rest - pickled as above. It's a nice, mild pickle with a subtle lemon taste. I'll definitely buy a yuzu to try this out as originally intended. This would make a great breakfast pickle. I'm feeling very virtuous now, since I didn't waste a bit of the first daikon I've ever bought.