nakji

Yo, I was worried. I used to live in Incheon, and I was like, "Incheon? Why the hell did he go to Incheon?". But Icheon is much nicer. I have never been to Ichon. This message has been brought to you by my Thursday night bottle of wine. Thank you.

Sapporo and Krispy Kreme donuts and ddalk galbi were pretty much what defined my weekends in Korea! Can you believe you they give them away free? We used to make our friend who was allergic to wheat go through the line with us and we'd eat his, too. Good times, good times. Fried chicken was a Thursday night thing, my husband and I would go out and get a plate, a pitcher of beer, and I'd eat as many pickled radishes I could until I got a stomachache. The Family Mart was always our last stop before catching a cab back to the burbs around 4 am on Sunday morning. We'd stock up on tuna mayonnaise rolls and Pocari Sweat to fortify ourselves for the long drive back to Incheon. There was a fabulous duck restaurant we used to go to in Ilsan, where you grilled duck galbi-style, and they bury sweet potatoes in your ashes - at the end of the meal we would fight over them! There were always bonfires burning outside and we had to wait at least a half-hour to get in. It was called Canna An. MMMmmmm, duck fat. We also used to go to a killer pork place in Sinchon, in the back alleys (isn't that always where the best restaurants are?) called Don Mania, and the adjumma there made the best kimchi - no shrimp, and she aged it for 6 months before she served it in the restaurant. She always gave me a little doggy bag to carry home, because I loved it sooo much. *Sigh.

Just regular old COPs - carrot, onion, and potato. I love the rice in Japan! Unfortunately, I have to cook it on the stovetop, so it's always dicey if it's going to turn out or not. Last night, it did. Yeah, that's pretty much why I took up cooking in the first place. Continuing on my tour of Japan's least healthy dishes, tonight I made yakisoba, right out of the package. I think I've discovered the Japanese version of Kraft Dinner. Put the noodles in the pan and add powder! (And veg, and chicken, but minor details..) Dessert was the remains of yesterday's kitkat. But I was dreaming of Dodie's apple pie.

angeljolie:I love a good cephalopod! C. Sapidus: Garlic scapes taste more like mild garlic, with the texture of young spears of asparagus. I love them, and they're super cheap here. I often use them in place of long beans when I make a Thai green curry, and they're great cold, with sesame dressing. Dodie: I knew it! Marlene: I shake my fist at your perfect potato rosti. Did you parboil the potatoes before frying them? Tonight was curry rice, perfect for a cold drizzly day in Tokyo when all of your trains have been running late. The last time I made curry rice, I doubled the amount of potatoes and carrots I prepped, and froze half. I took them out of the freezer this morning, and they were ready to put right into the curry when I made it this evening. Timesaver tip! We had "eternal" cucumbers on the side. They're such an easy vegetable to prep for dinner! Dessert was a "marron" kitkat, for the fall season.

Oh my goodness, those look gorgeous. I love eggplant in all forms. Do you eat those as an accompaniment to something, or as a plates with olives, dips, etc.? Lebanese food was quite popular where I grew up (in Nova Scotia - would you agree, Peter?), but I mostly just remember shwarma gulped down after a night of drinking. I'd love to see what dishes are served at home.

Mmmmmmayotard. I love mayo and mustard mixed together. That looks like it was eaten in about two minutes flat. Am I right? Dinner tonight was stir-fried pork with ginger and garlic scapes. Due to an aborted attempt at rosti Saturday night (who knew you had to cook the potatoes before grating?) we had latkes for dinner. Here's one before my husband scarfed it down.

I will, but I've just discovered that I don't have the right converter for my camera charger. D'oh! I can tell you that it was Mizkan brand, and it says hon teri in hiregana on the label. And of course, there are numerous kanji that I can't read. It was very cheap.

Oh yeah, that ddeok on a stick is a classic. Peter, it's great to see all these photos of Korea. When I was living there, that museum was still by appointment only, but I wanted to go in! Maybe when I get back for a visit. I don't suppose you remember the name of the artist that did those spiders? Because I'm sure they have one of them in Tokyo, in Roppongi Hills. It's hard to forget something like that. I need to get back to Korea so I can catch up on the trends for bottled liquors - I miss sansachun. (But I don't miss Hite).

Yes, Hiroyuki, I'm living in Tokyo now. I made nikomi hamburger tonight for dinner, which was a hit with my husband. No photo, since the plate looks almost exactly like the one I posted of the meatballs above. I found carrots on sale for 98 yen/bag, so we've been eating a lot of them. I made a mistake in the sauce, and put vinegar in instead of mirin ( the bottles look quite similar next to each other - I should have read the label first!) but I just added more sugar, and it tasted great. I ended up scraping the pan with the leftover rice!

Ooooohhh....merguez frites is one of my favourite meals, but merguez tacos? They look fantastic. And that pie floater makes me think of Australia - ooh, I miss the meat pies there. I especially liked the ones with a scoop of mashed potato on the top. As for that amazing Halloween display, I think I'm going to go watch the Nightmare Before Christmas, just so I can sing "This is Halloween".

I cannot even begin to count the number of times in Asia I have seen strawberry yogurt employed in capacities beyond what it was meant for (that is to say a socially acceptable breakfast dessert and/or a wimpy dessert your mom would pack with lunch, along with an apple) - not the least of which was as a salad dressing on iceberg lettuce and corn. So strawberry yogurt masquerading as tzatziki doesn't shock me at all. Getting decent Greek food in Asia is hard. What island were you on?

D-uh. (smacks head) Of course, it's in katakana. I'll know what to look for now. I can always hit Koreatown, too, though. I go through Shin-Okubo every day on my way to work. It's the stop between Takadanobaba and Shinjuku, where no one gets on or off. I like to mix a little ginger and sesame oil into the miso when I use it for dipping. It is indeed a great beer snack.

That was miso. But I also love dipping in daengjang - are miso and daengjang functionally the same? I've never done a side-by-side taste test. I can't find any Korean sauces at my local grocery store - at least; not the ones in the brown and red tubs. I'm dying for some gojujang. There's probably a Japanese brand in the store somewhere, but my kanji doesn't stretch far enough to identify it.

First and second breakfast! An excellent tradition. One of my favourite quotes from a movie is: "I don't think he knows what second breakfast is!" -from Lord of the Rings. That cheese looks lovely. Can I ask what epazote is? A kind of chili or herb?

They look great. I wish nem nuong paste was available here! What are you dipping them in?

I made a dish that we used to get at one of our favourite restaurants in Hanoi - I don't think it's traditional Vietnamese food, but I love it anyway. It's thinly sliced beef, sauteed with garlic, and topped with a dijon-cream sauce. I served it with garlic scapes and baked potatoes. I also learned that having the microwave and both burners of my stove going causes the power to cut out in my kitchen pod. Also: I hate induction stoves. There's no traction for my fry pan.

Wow, this echoes my experience exactly. Although I often don't end up cooking food from one country until I've moved to another country, and start missing it. I'm looking forward to seeing daily life in Mexico. I'd love to learn more about the cuisine, and the type of food you eat on a daily basis!

Dinner tonight was quick to make. Red leaf lettuce salad with a sesame and red chili vinaigrette (like the galbi houses in Korea serve), Pan-fried mok-sal (pork neck); And because there wasn't enough pork fat already, some gyoza I had in the freezer. Please note the empty butter container doubling as a dip container. I need some dishes! Chufi, your salmon looks so fresh. Now I live near a fish shop, I have to remember to go in and pick a piece up some time.

Yes - about two or three strips. I leave the fat in the pan. It makes the tomatoes cook down nicely. I was hoping we'd have leftovers for my lunch, but we ate it all up.

That beef pot pie looks amazing! I would totally have to stop myself from eating the whole pan! Now that I'm finally in a kitchen with running water and a working stove again, I've been back over the heat! Last night was a pasta amatriciana that was perfect after a rainy day spent exploring shrines. I don't have an oven anymore, though, so I'll be watching this thread for recipes I can make on two burners.

I made these chicken meatballs I picked up at the supermarket with a 1:1 soy:mirin ratio for the sauce. I put a tablespoon of sugar in, as well. They were scrumptious! Next time I won't put the sauce on the plate, though, as it was quite salty after it had reduced. I think I'll use better quality soy sauce the next time around, as well. But I was pretty thrilled with how they tasted! Thanks, Hiroyuki, this thread has been really helpful, especially now that I'm cooking in Japan.

Glad to hear it! I don't feel so decadent now. With Torakris's help, I finally uploaded my nikkujaga picture. I cooked this meal on Sunday - Canadian Thanksgiving! Not exactly traditional, but I had just come from seeing a hockey game, so I guess that was Canadian enough for the day. I made nikkujaga, and cut the carrots into flowers, because I know Hiroyuki is looking. I made it on the soupy side, but I liked it. Side dishes were fusion-y. I made stir fried bean sprouts with sesame oil, something I ate a lot in Korea, and spinach with sesame dressing, a kind of spin on the traditional spinach with sesame. I think there was a bit too much orange on the plates, but there you go.

That fish looks lovely, helenjp. Is that a flower garnish next to it? I was so surprised to see flowers for sale in the produce department in my local grocery store. Are they edible, or just for looks? Here's yesterday's lunch, made with some leftover curry rice I had from earlier in the week, and some rosu katsu from the supermarket. I also included some cucumbers as a side, so I felt like I was eating something healthy. It's the first time I'd tried Japanese cucumbers, and they're fantastic! I'm not sure if I can ever go back to North American ones. Apologies for the tonkatsu sauce and the curry sauce. Appalling, I know, but I can't give up an opportunity to have it. I wanted to post a picture of tonight's dinner, which was nikkujaga following Torakris's recipe from the eGCI course, but Image Gullet isn't letting me upload, for whatever reason. I'll try again tomorrow, I guess.

Yo, sorry, just moved to Tokyo: I've been out eating ramen. Yeah, the seal I had was cooked. It has kind of a rich, fatty taste - the meat's really dark. I can't say I liked it. Caribou, on the other hand, is delicious. My favourite meal up north (in Labrador) was eating river trout I caught with my dad and great uncle. We went fishing, and pulled a ridiculous amount of them right out of the river. I remember the black flies were so bad, they were crawling in and out of our eyes and nose. But my uncle fried the fish up right next to the river, and they were soooooo sweet. I have never ever had fish that tasted like that since then. As for parasites, don't seals have a lot of worms? Or am I just making that up in my head? Every year when the seal hunt in Newfoundland comes around, and the CBC does its obligatory story on how appalled the rest of the world gets about it, my mother gets all high dudgeon-y and (picture her ironing in front of the TV) shakes her iron and shouts "Club 'em all! The little bastards eat all the cod!" Those are my seal memories.

Try subbing in a rice vinegar. Although, to be honest, if you'd asked me what was in the nuoc cham I was eating in Hanoi, I probably wouldn't have guessed limes were in there. Limes in (northern) Vietnam are small and round, unlike the ones I used to see in Canada, with the small nubbly ends. They tasted a bit different, too - sweeter? Depending on where you are, the restaurant might be using a different type of lime than you're used to. Why don't you ask the staff at the restaurant? I'm sure they'd tell you how they make it.