cookaburra

My wife and I will be in Japan from 25 December-about 15 January.We will spend most of our nights in Fuchi Shi(Tokyo) where my wife's father lives,a night in Shinjuku while a few nights will be spent somewhere in the Northern part of Honshu on a tour. We will depart Japan from Narita and will be looking to spend some time in a must do restaurant or dining experience for our last day.Either lunch in Shinjuku or dinner somewhere near Narita. Also if anyone has any ideas for what I can do during my days/nights spent in Fuchu Shi I will be very grateful . I am a passionate chef interested in tasting all kinds of food,especially if it is unique and uses new ideas or concepts.I also like traditional foods such as those featured in Kaiseki Ryori. I realise these kinds of restaurants may demand the highest prices so am preparing myself for that.But at the same time I am hoping there are some other must do dining places that may save me a few yen. Either way, could someone please give me their suggestions or reccomendations on their must do foodie haunts.I realise this sort of topic must have been discussed in the past in these forums so any links from the past will also be very useful to me. Arigatou Gozaimasu

I buy the Entertainment book every year.I use it all the time.I also bought it when I holiday'd in San Fransisco and British Columbia.Great value once again and a good guide to a city's eating houses

thanks for the suggestion.I'm new to this site so I'm slowly finding my way around it.I shall check out the search engine.

Thanks Mandarin.I'll try that one.

Hope you don't mind a Midwesterner hijacking your topic, but I had bookmarked their website for our trip in August! http://www.waterfrontwines.com/index.html ← Thanks for the link.I had saved the newsletter upon returning from our trip but somehow did not save the menu.It is saved now though.

Thanks for the links .Shall check it out.When we were there we had a very juicy and flavoursome flat iron steak and the hand cut potato chips with aioli.Those plates really stood out for me.Though all of the food was top notch.Sharing was a great option for all of us as we could try a good selection of the chef's food. We went on a quiet night and the music was really cool too.As was the DVD playing in the background of a very funny movie called"The Party"

I want to put a warm chocolate self saucing pudding/molten cake/souffle pudding on my cafe menu for this coming Winter in Australia.You know the kind with the soft saucy centre.Is there any difference in the names of these cakes or is it all the same sort of thing , just that different people call it a different thing? As I am the only chef in the cafe, my time in prep and service time is limited,so I want to keep it simple, but delicious both in taste and texture. I want to be able to have a product that I can freeze and take straight from the freezer to the oven and be ready in about 10 minutes after the order comes in.Is this possible?The other option I would consider would be to have the 1/2 baked cake in the fridge, ready for heating. I have 150ml souffle ramekin moulds and hope I can use these in the recipe.

I had a wonderful meal in Kelowna last September with a chef friend of mine who lives and works in the region.He took my wife and I to an interesting little place attatched to a liquor shop called Waterfront Wines. Does anyone know if this restaurant still operates?I was amazed by the quality of the food and service.Especially as the only staff working on the night were one chef and another guy who did the bar and the floor all by himself. I was looking for their website and hopefully a menu from them to recall the beautiful food we shared that night. Can anybody help me with this information?

both. use them fresh in pounded sauces or folded into little meat balls, etc. you can also dry them--this will change the flavor to be more like the commercial seeds (though not exactly; i believe a different variety is used for the seed). do make sure they get plenty of air circulating. they grow quite large and exotic colonies of molds very, very quickly (yes, you can assume this comes from personal experience). ← sounds good,I'll try that. Thank you

yes I believe so too about the nasty stuff on foods these days thanks for the ideas on cooking the tender parts

It's coming in to winter here in Australia and I noticed that there are quite a few plants showing their seeds.Are these good to pick anytime or should I wait till they dry out a bit on the plant?Then should I dry them out further some how once picked?I assume these would be useful in a spice mix for crusting meats and fish.In general, can I just use them the in same way as everyday fennel seeds?

Thank you to everyone that replied so promptly.I will aim for picking the young fronds and try to get them where the dogs dare not go. will also keep those recipe ideas in mind too.

Whilst cycling alongside some mangroves nearby my home I discovered a large patch of wild wild fennel growing.You know, the stuff that you see growing along side the railway. As it is in a quiet area where not many people go,and well away from any pollution from factories or cars, I assumed that it would be safe to use in cooking. Does anybody know if the fronds from these plants are safe to use in cooking? And does anyone have any great uses for them.I thought of infusing them in a fish soup.Are the fronds edible if washed and chopped?

Thanks everyone.Good advice. I'll try the taste test and the vinegar in the water test.

I have a bucket of flour at work and the label which was written on the plastic has worn off.I'm not sure whether it is self raising or plain flour. Can anybody tell me if there if is any test you can do to find out which one it is without ruining the recipe I intend to use it for?

That's one place I've always wanted to check out. Thanks for the very informative and detailed description of your experience/s there.Even though you pointed out a few faults I still intend to visit there one day. I thought your post was fair to the chef/s as you not only expanded on their bad points but also mentioned the good side. This is my 1st post.I hope I make some sense.