Chihiran

Domestic Goddess, we call those "decoration chiffon" in Japan They're very pretty!!

Such gorgeous pictures! Chufi, your applepie looks so rustic! Do you have a recipe? As for me, I went on a huge chocolate binge yesterday. Oh well, it happens.

I've never heard of a tres leches. It sounds fun. I don't really know what cake is popular here in the US, but in Japan, chiffon cakes and crepes are so popular. I've even tried a spinach chiffon

I received my copy of the book on Friday and I baked the citrus berry muffins today. I brought them to a meeting and they disappeared quickly! This is really rare with "American" food for Japanese people. Some of us have difficulty getting past the supermarket cakes. They're so light and just sweet enough. Thank you!!! (it's a huge picture, next I have to learn to make them smaller!)

I made the no-butter buttermilk scones. I also took pictures, but I can't figure out how to take a shot that's not a bright, white flash, or a blurry blob... They didn't taste like I imagine scones to taste like, they were good, more like a biscuit? I substituted all of the ingredients. I didn't have self-rising flour, so I used AP flour with a tablespoon of baking powder and some salt. I also substitued a yogurt-milk mixture for the buttermilk. It was great with dried cranberries. Swisskaese, Japanese cake flour is very lumpy and finely ground. It feels soft, but I don't know any other way to describe it...

andiesenji, I just noticed the no butter part now. It almost looks like a recipe for Irish soda bread! I always thought that scones had to have cream but I guess not

Wow!! Such great pictures... I'm inspired to try more then my usual yogurt and dry cereal angejolie, the dilis looks like Japanese ojako. Do you eat it with rice too? I want to try them!

Can't find a recipe? You've not been looking properly! Here are approximatel 1.3 million of them Scone recipes ← Oh... you're right! I never thought of searching with Google UK!! I live in New Jersey, USA. How different is the flour here from London? I also use Japanese cake flour. ^^ Thanks for the recipes, andiesenji, clerkenwellien! I can't wait to try them!!

This summer, I visited London for the second time and had afternoon tea twice. What I really loved were the scones. They're round, not sweet, kind of bread-like, very high, and with raisins. I can't seem to find a recipe for them! Does anyone know how to make them? Sorry, for the bad description!

First. I love konyaku! I love the thin konyaku (itokon) best, but block konyaku is great in simmered dishes, like oden. And I have always been an enormous konyaku eater. Along with all of the seaweeds, kanten (only sometimes), and natto, it is the best food to add to a meal for good health and figure!! I ate so much of it, especially in high-school, when I had a huge appetite all the time, but of course, I had to be able to wear my uniform! I refuse to believe all of the health risks of konyaku that people are bringing up in this thread. I'm sure there are so many things that are worse for you, and no one in my family (all konyaku lovers) has ever had any problems. None of my friends either. So I don't know of a serving size that is "safe", because I think that you will know when you're too full to eat more, like with any other food. And I need to share my favorite preparation! (or one of). Konyaku has a very funny smell/taste when it comes out of a package, so it's really necessary to either cook it for a long time (like with oden) or to boil it first. If you boil the strands of konyaku for about 5 minutes, drain them, and then toss them with a little mentaiko... so good!!

I moved to New Jersey from Japan last year, and I've been looking for good close-by Japanese food. I've been to Wild Ginger, which was good, but my favorite sushi place so far is UMEYA (Cresskill) It's a really small restaurant (owned and run by a Japanese couple) but the sushi is the best I've found here, especially the bara chirashi!! My biggest mistake was going to East, which has the turning counter. It was terrible. I'm also happy to see another great looking restaurant in this thread. I'll definitely try Sakura Bana! It looks great for an anniversary dinner.

Gateaux in Closter Parissiene in Fort Lee St.Honore in Edgewater (Mitsuwa) Sunmerry in Fort Lee I personally like Gateaux's tiramisu cake, Parissiene's green tea, and St.Honore's mont-blanc. All of these bakeries are Japanese/Korean.

Hmmm... I think that Italian pizza is much better than Japanese. I do love thin Japanese seafood pizzas, but the cheese is different! As for curry, it's so different from Indian curry, that I can't make the connection. They're two completely different things to me, but I think the Japanese one is much more comforting because I grew up on it. House mild-hot with grated apples, coffee, and chocolate. Mayonnaise definitely goes to Kewpie, but Japanese bagels aren't good. But my favorite is cream-puffs! The bakery close to where I lived, Benkei, had the best cream-puffs!!

My very first foods for babies in our family are mashed udon, pumpkin, and tofu, along with grated apples. After that, anything goes. My nephew, who was about 11 months old during our wedding reception, was eating an adult platter! Spinach, potatoes, steak... we did it western style

I use cornstarch to make custards and flans all the time, I've never had a problem. My favorite recipe is the Parisian flan from "Paris Sweets". The recipe is from Pierre Herme and it's completely delicious!

megan blocker, that gelato looks delicious! Did you make it? I had a cherry-almond coffeecake. It's the first recipe I tried from "Kaffeehaus" and it was delicious! It's also big and rich enough for me to have to share it. I'll bring it to friends tomorrow, and my husband is bringing some to work.

I bought everything at hyakkins. I transferred with my husband to New York last year (we don't know how long we'll stay. companies never tell us, but 2~4 years?), and on a trip back this New Years, I bought... furikake and chopsticks. It's one store I miss. But Hiroyuki, I've never bought actual dishes at a hyakkin. (everything else, yes. I even bought a knife once.) Do they hold up?

80%? It's because natto is the best diet food! But I remember eating it over rice with (a lot) mayonnaise, soy-sauce, and tonburi. That's when I was in the tennis club during college.

Chufi, I made the sugar-bread, sorry, I will have to look up the proper name again, and the speculaas. Everybody loved them. I think I might have made a mistake with the spice mix in the speculaas (I couldn't find cardamon and I ended up with 3 tablespoons of mix and not 2), but they taste great anyway. I'll work at the correct ratios for next time. The bluf looks delicious! I'll try it for a hot day. Today, it's rainy. And thanks about the pubs. I was really wondering why there were so many! Especially because there weren't many "Dutch" restaurants (that I could find)

Warabimochi = stomach cancer!!? Oh no! I've never heard of this. It's one of my favorite summer-time desserts! ... But I'm sure that the high stomach cancer rate in Japanese people must be from all of the salt. yunnermeier, try making shiratama dango and putting it over ice cream or crushed ice. Warabimochi is eaten by the entire country now, kind of like natto.

I might like natto with tomatoes, it's probably already a recipe in a health magazine! I like to mix it with cucumbers and takuan over brown rice.

umeboshi! I love it, but I'm from Kyoto. I also like natto, because my father was from Tokyo and I grew up eating it. Still, I haven't met many people who will eat umeboshi. On a trivia show, a Swedish couple was given a traditional Japanese breakfast, and they said the tamagoyaki, misoshiru, aji, was fine, but they couldn't eat the natto and umeboshi. I can't eat cilantro.

Thank you Chufi! I plan on baking the speculaas today. I bought a package of them from Dandoy in Brussels, and ate them breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I also want to ask, is there a large Irish population in Amsterdam? I saw so many Irish pubs where the menus were entirely in English.

I must say that Yamazato (at Hotel Okura) is excellent. It's the delicate Japanese food I have been missing ever since my husband was transferred to New Jersey last year. The service is courteous, and the only down-side is that it's packed with businessmen who don't seem to be enjoying themselves (naturally).

I wish I read this thread before leaving Amsterdam! It was the last stop during our vacation (London, Paris, Brussels, Bruge), and we were only able to stay for three nights. I stayed at the Hotel Okura, which is very seperated from the center of the town, but it was very close to the markets on Albert Cuypstraat. I lived mostly on pastries during the trip, because we weren't able to go to any traditional Dutch restaurants (so sad!) I tried Indonesian food at a restaurant near the Bloemenmarkt called La Selecta (?). I'm sure that it's not one of the best Indonesian restaurants in Amsterdam (we wandered in randomnly) because it really didn't match my tastes. The spices were so heavy, that both me and my husband were full until the evening. I loved the speculaas, pofferties, pancakes, and every other sweet. The boterkoek that came along with my tea at Pattisserie Kwekkeboom (so close to our hotel, has anyone heard of this?) and was so deliciously buttery. I didn't have my camera with me the day I had the pofferties, there was such a huge scoop of butter on top of them that I thought it was ice-cream. I couldn't eat all of it, but the pofferties tasted like Japanese pancakes. My favorite non-culinary attraction was the Van Gogh Museum. It's just the right size, I could have spent the entire day there. We also toured the Heineken Brewery, but we both thought it was too commercial after the tour in Bruge. But I'm so glad that we went to Amsterdam, it's joined Paris as one of my favorite cities in Europe.