nakji

So glad to have been of help! I was wondering why ours were so cheap, but then I thought maybe because I live near Izu or something. I'm going to a pho place tomorrow in Fujisawa that I've gotten a strong recommendation from some co-workers about. I'm a pretty harsh critic, having lived in Vietnam, so I'll let you know how it turns out. Are you the sort of person who'll make a field trip for good noodles? Your journey into Asia sounds a bit like mine. My husband and I just got on a plane one day, shocking our family, friends, and (suddenly former) employers and have never looked back. We never intended to stay, it just happened that way. Sometimes I don't know if I'll ever be able to feel comfortable in Canada again... I've been teaching myself Japanese home cooking, since imported foods are more expensive. Fortunately for us, my husband and I have no standard with which to compare my efforts! I learned nikkujyaga from Torakris's eGCI course, and Hiroyuki's threads on home cooking, especially the Soy, Dashi, and Mirin ratio thread have really helped me cook with confidence using Japanese ingredients. Helenjp's bento tips have saved me tons of money on conbini lunches. Without eGullet, I don't think I could have survived my first few months in Japan financially! What resources have you used to learn Japanese techniques and recipes?

Yay! Japan Forum represent! I had a bowl of strawberries for breakfast as well, since they're ridiculously cheap at the supermarket. 180 yen for a punnet of small ones - why does anyone ever buy the big ones? I think the small ones are sweeter.

I'm planning a chirashi-sushi bento tomorrow with smoked salmon. I'll post pictures if it turns out.

Yeah, I'm really happy with the 1,000 yen knife I bought at Muji. Sharpest knife I've ever owned, which I suppose is not saying much. But now Prasantrin has championed Aritsugu, I'll have to check it out. Check out 100 yen shops for fun gadgets. There's a big Daiso in Harajuku, on the main shopping street, which has a large selection.

What kind of mushrooms have you got there? It looks yummy. I've been on a fried rice for breakfast kick, as I use up leftovers from my bento making.

Yes! The bento thread could use more posts! I've struggled with the same problem for my bento photos. Recently I moved into a new apartment with great morning light, and my pictures have brightened considerably. In fact, some mornings, the light is too harsh and casts a lot of shadows. I'd like to know how to neutralize this. I've been experimenting more with low-light food photography in the evening with dinners, and I find a tripod makes all the difference - check out this photo. It was taken with only a lamp and 40W bulb as a light source, but a tripod makes it fairly light. The tripod takes up a little space when it's out, but can collapse and be tucked into the closet when not in use. (Theoretically, that is. Ours sits around and clutters up the place. I know for small spaces - I live in Japan. ) What kind of camera are you currently using?

That looks delicious. The bowl really brings out the colours! Very spring-like. I received Elizabeth Andoh's "Washoku" for Christmas, and I've been cooking my way through it. I've made Hiroyuki's nikomi hamburg recipe before, but the sauce requires ketchup, which I usually don't keep on hand. In Washoku, there's a recipe that only calls for soy sauce and sake, so I tried that. It was a hit, and I made my hamburgers a bit smaller than she calls for so I'd have some meatballs for the next day's bento. It came out perfectly, and I was quite proud of myself!

I had an "izakaya night" at home. Some salt yakitori and sauce yakitori, along with a green salad, and some carrot kinpira. Rice on the side, which isn't really izakaya-like, I guess, but was needed to round it out. I drank all the sake the night before, after a ridiculously frustrating day, so drinks were coke and Mitsuya cider. I guess it was only an izakaya night in my head.

They probably would mix well, but they're not available in my area. Garlic scapes, however, are 55 yen a bunch right now, which got me thinking. They're pretty crunchy on their own as well.

This is quite depressing. Any thoughts on appropriate bento fare for hina-matsuri? I was thinking chirashi-zushi. Thoughts?

I might try this with sake and a touch of wasabi in place of the sherry and dry mustard. And garlic scapes instead of the long beans. Hah! I'll keep the pork though. We'll see how it turns out.

Missed it! Where was it? I've been without internet for a month, and I feel like I lost a limb. Catching up on bento-ing, I invested in a Muji two-tier box for my husband, and it's been two bentos a day for the last 6 weeks. Thank goodness I work evenings, so I don't have to be up at 5:30am to make them. Some highlights: My husband loves sandwich bentos. I've been cooking through "Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen", and this uses the gingery ground chicken recipe. I like it a lot, but my husband complains that it's hard to eat. Next time he gets a spoon, like a pre-schooler. I also tried out the recipe for grilled omusubi. A nice change from plain rice. I like making udon noodles instead of rice sometimes - these are stir-fried with miso and ginger and some veg. It's really filling, which is important when you're away from home for 10 hours! This one was really tasty and used some leftover meatballs and grilled eggplant from dinner the night before. I boiled potatoes together with the edamame, and made mustard potato salad. It came together quite quickly, without a lot of clean up afterwards.

That looks amazing. I'd like to try that with garlic scapes. How did you do the glaze?

It's beautiful! What thoughtful students. Where did the box come from? Does the school keep a set on hand for the cooking classes, or did the students have to bring their own? And yet another question, what are the leaves used as garnish with the fish and lotus root, and on the rice?

I love this salad, too! It's so crunchy and delicious! I like it even more with a squirt of fresh lime and some chopped cilantro mixed in at the end. I can never get enough cilantro. Yeah, it's a big list, getting longer every year!

I recently did a Vietnamese feast for 14 after New Years. It was fun to show all my friends in Canada what I'd learned overseas. The thing that took the longest was the summer rolls - after I'd done all the prep, I farmed out the task of assembling them to an enthusiastic helper. I was thankful I did, because I hadn't made anything else in advance, and was prepping it all at my friend's house, as a kind of ad hoc cooking lesson. The chopping of the veg and the assembling of the mise en place took a couple of hours, but I was able to cook it all in 30 minutes (save the pork) once it was all ready. I also made a lemongrass tea by steeping lemongrass in hot water, and then cooling it. I served it with fresh lime juice and sugar over ice, and it was well received. I like Gewurtztraminer with Vietnamese food, but I prefer soju and beer with Korean dishes! Good luck, and I can't wait to see the pictures.

Stunning menu, Shalmanese! Is that a menu curled up in the background of the first photo? What kind of scallops did you use? And when are you inviting us all around for dinner?

Oh boy, does that ever look good! That would be a great twist on the traditional ground chicken and egg topping for Japanese bentos! Did you mention that you got the recipe from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen? It's on my short List of Books to be Acquired when I Finally Have a Kitchen Again. (Cross referenced with the List of Reasons I'm not Moving Again for at Least Three Years).

My mum's copy of the Purity Cookbook - it doesn't even have a cover anymore, but the spine is saved by the fact that it's spiral bound. All of the pages have odd notations and additional recipes stapled in. For years it was her go-to book for simple recipes, like pancakes, dill pickles, bread, etc. I read through it for a laugh over Christmas, but I found some recipes that I'll be able to make in Japan - squash and bacon croquettes, anyone?

I saw both fairly regularly in Hanoi. Cilantro was chopped fine and pre-sprinkled into my soup at the pho place on my street.

I would often find the odd hunk of this when eating green papaya salad in restaurants in Hanoi! Waste not, want not.

I'm glad you're going to try it out - I love turning people on to Vietnamese food, or showing them there's more than just pho and spring rolls. Everything above I made with ingredients I found at a regular supermarket, except for the long beans (which could be substituted with regular beans) and the green papaya. Of course, these are mostly northern dishes, so making southern-style dishes might be a different story.

:swoons: I'm going to look that one up! It's the sort of thing I would be back at the fridge, an hour after dinner, gobbling mouthfuls from the leftover dish, hoping no one could hear me....

Awesome! I'll pick one up the next time I'm on knife street in Hanoi, now that I know what to look for. Most of these dishes are so simple, they don't even have real recipes. The eggplant, for example, is just some sliced long eggplants, fried in a wok in a neutral oil until they get soft. Then I push them aside, add a little more oil and lots of chopped fresh garlic. I let that sizzle until the garlic gets aromatic, then I add soy and honey in about a 2:1 ratio, toss it all together, and it's done. The fish I followed an actual published recipe, so I'm going to mosey on over and check out the eGullet posting rules for that - I think if I reword it, I can post it, but I want to make sure. I'll put it in Recipegullet. My caramel pork recipe is so easy, it kills me every time I show it to someone - they're like, "That's it?", which is exactly what I said to my friend in Hanoi when she showed me. It's more of a method, really. It goes like this: Take about 500g of pork shoulder, and mix it in a dish with one chinese soup spoon of Knorr chicken powder (or fish sauce, if that's to your taste - my Vietnamese friend doesn't like it ), some chopped shallots, and a good grinding of pepper. Set aside. Take a deep pan (one with a lid) and put it on medium heat. When the pan is hot, sprinkle two spoons of white sugar in. Watch as it melts (don't stir), and when it becomes brown and bubbly, add two rice bowls full of water. Then dump in the pork, swish it around, cover it, and let it cook down for about 20 minutes - until the pork is cooked and the sauce is reduced. That's it! If you're interested, I could post a pictorial.

My electronic equipment has finally aligned in in the proper house, and images have been uploaded successfully! I made a Vietnamese dinner for 14 of my closest friends the week following New Year's. As per the menu above, I made: Caramel Pork Fried Fish with Dill - haddock in this case, but catfish usually in Vietnam. Eggplants with honey and garlic Trivia: One of the five words I know in Vietnamese is "eggplant" - it's my favourite vegetable, and it wasn't always visible in the pile at my vegetable lady, so I learned how to ask for it. Spinach with garlic and soy sauce In Vietnam this dish would usually be made with morning glory leaves or pumpkin stems and leaves. I like both, but they're kind of hard to find in Nova Scotia in the winter, and spinach is a worthy substitute. It was a surprise hit with everyone, especially when dipped in the chili-lime-salt dip we had on the table. Fried Rice with pineapple Normally fried rice is served by itself as a lunch dish; steamed rice is served with a meal, but I made this because I knew everyone would enjoy fried rice as a part of the meal. I would normally include Chinese sausage as a part of this, but vegetarians were present, so I left it out. Chicken fried with five spice powder Not so photogenic, but also popular. Tofu and Tomato Summer Rolls I set everything out for these and had volunteers roll them for everyone watching me cook. Kind of a standing appetizer for the meal, if you will. I wimped out and used a packet mix for the peanut sauce, which I regretted since it was too thick for dipping the summer rolls. We spooned it on, instead. Green Papaya Salad I lacked a proper grater, so I had to cut the papaya by hand - has anyone got a papaya grater they could show me a photo of? You could buy it pre-shredded in the market in Hanoi. Whew! I can't believe I cooked it all. It took a long time to prep all the veg, but it cooked up quickly. I forgot to take a picture of the lemongrass tea, but it was delicious. We had Vietnamese coffees and fresh fruit for dessert. I was happy with how it all came out - the only thing I think was missing was a soup to serve with the rice at the end of the meal, like a simple broth with chayote or similar, but didn't think it would be appreciated.