ogkodansha

I guess in the olden days they thought various stages of growth were completely different fish, and to confuse matters the fish is also said to have different names in Kanto and Kansai which of course escape me just now, maybe Hiroyuki knows.

Helen, Thanks so much, I enjoy a glass of imo shochu myself on occasion.

No reply so far--guess this part of the food inflation equation shall remain forever a mystery to me.

Yes we are starving for decent Mexican food and BBQ ribs, otherwise we have plenty of lovely things to eat. To Helen: 3) Pressure from popularity of non-rice based Shochu ( distilled rice liquor), especially barley and sweet potatoes. This sounds quite interesting, could you expand a bit on this, were these items used as feed, or something else?

The guide mentioned in Torakris' link, Tokyo ii mise umai mise, is the best all around guide as far as I can see, but it is only in Japanese. It covers a lot more ground than the Michelin guide and not just super high end stuff, it is very dependable. I think Michelin did a pretty fair job, they are just a little thin and wasted a lot of space on teppan cooking and fugu.

Hiroyuki Thanks so much for this, I hope I don't forget, I have a couple of books about Jiro Ono. The Edo mae program was very also interesting. Also a bit late but the Oishimbo drama in November was absolutely fabulous. Lots of very interesting food ideas and great direction, I think it was the best adaptation of a manga or anime I've ever seen.

The Michelin name carries a lot of weight but to have any kind of a success with this project, it would have to be in Japanese. There is a certain brand snobbery here that a Michelin guide could play to and I think Japanese foodies would be interested to know what they thought of the local restaurant scene.

Anyone interested in unusual ways to use Japanese ingredients might want to check out the Breakaway Japanese Kitchen by Eric Gower, he also has a new book coming out soon, I believe it is called The Breakaway Cook. He uses a lot of Japanese ingredients in ways that look startling to me, but people rave about his recipes. He also has a blog on the yahoo food site.

In a different direction, it seems that the Japanese, as much as they love sweet corn, cannot get behind the corn tortillas common to mexican food. I'm not sure why this is, though I've heard they find corn tortillas have a smell they don't like. Anyone have any experience with this. Flour tortillas are not hard to find but the corn tortillas are rare.

Kristen, Were you thinking of self-publishing this? Everyone sounds real excited about this but (to me) it looks like it might be hard to sell to an editor. Once you get things figured out a little more, a good exercise is to make a mock-up of pages or an excel file and rough out what will go on every page and figure out just how you want the book to be, then figure out how you can simply explain the book so that anyone can easily imagine what it will be like, that will give you a more solid base to stand on if you are trying to sell the idea to a publisher. Please ignore this advice if you've already got someone interested or if you are going to publish it yourself. Good luck and if you really want to do it, don't let anything stand in your way.

A couple of ideas: how about buying a whole rotisserie chicken, or buy a French turkey (about the same size as a large chicken, i've bought them before at Kinokuniya) and use Helenjp's method, or stuff it with ground sausage meat and poach it on the stovetop as the French do.

Blimbing, Indonesian for starfruit and wingko babat, a chewy coconut cake, the best one is Diesel Train and Jet brand. Xorxog (horhog), Mongolian mutton cooked with hot rocks in a sealed container, usually a milk can.

Offended by the F word fuck-em. The kitchen is a sweaty nasty place and chefs are a profane bunch. Once I was cooking with several women who were cursing up a blue streak. I think I said something like "What is this, fucking ladies' prison?" You can be sure they singed my ears as they urged me not to be such a delicate flower.

Chives are called asatsuki and seem be be pretty widely available in Tokyo anyway, they are not exotic or foreign so I would imagine they must have them in Kansai as well. If you can't find them, very thinly sliced ban no negi would be an OK substitute.

Torakris At 5775 yen for the book, I can't call you kechi. The US Amazon will be selling it for less than $30. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/477003022...2904831?ie=UTF8 Kaiseki has been sighted at Books 1st and Kinokuniya. Don't blame me if you have to have it after you see it, it really is a gorgeous book. O.G.