greenspot

My friend gave me a Japanese mizu-ame jelly called "Goro awase" (ŒÜ˜Z‚ ‚킹). The jelly comes with three different toppings - kurozato (brown sugar), maccha, or nanko ume (“ì‚”~). We forgot to chill the jelly in the fridge first, so we squeezed it out of a plastic tube into a bowl of ice-cubes. We then added some sugar syrup and maccha powder. It was delicious and very refreshing. Is goro awase a traditional summer wagashi?

The photos of everyone's mentaiko spaghetti look so delicious. I never tried using mushrooms or sake before and usually only add butter and shiso with a bit of dashi stock. I tried out an interesting recipe for mentaiko carbonara last night. It's from the LEE Creative Kitchen series. Spaghetti mixed with one egg, one egg yolk, 1/4 cup cream, couple of teaspoons of grated parmesan, and karashi mentaiko. I also added some fresh uni, shiso leaves and nori to the pasta for extra flavour.

Hi RAHiggins Here's a photo of the "Okinawa no Soba" - I hope it brings back good memories! :-) Soki soba ƒ\[ƒL‚»‚Î

Here's the osmanthus jelly recipe from my Aunt Mei: Crystal osmanthus jelly ®Ûªá¤ô´¹¿| Ingredients: Dried osmanthus flowers, 10g approx Dried chrysanthemum flowers, 10g approx Crystallised osmanthus sugar, 80g (about 1/3 of a 250g-jar) White sugar, 300g Osmanthus flower wine, 1 tsp Gelatine powder, 50g Wolfberries, small amount Cantaloupe melon or apple, small amount Water, 1 litre (4 rice bowls) (to boil the gelatine) Ice, 1 litre (to cool down the gelatine mixture) Extra ice Add the gelatine powder and the litre of water to a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the dried osmanthus and chrysanthemum flowers. When the fragrance of the flowers is released, turn off the heat and drain. Return the drained water to the saucepan and add the white sugar, osmanthus sugar and osmanthus wine to the drained water. Bring to the boil and turn off the heat once the sugar is dissolved. Pour the hot mixture into a bowl or jelly mould and add the litre of ice. Place the bowl onto a larger bowl filled with ice to cool down the mixture quickly. Wait for the ice in the mixture to melt completely, add the wolfberries, fruit and the osmanthus and chrysanthemum flowers. Leave it in the fridge for at least 4 hours. (Ingredients in Chinese) §÷®Æ¡G ®Ûªá°® 3¥÷ 1¨â ®Ûªá¿} 3¥÷ 1(250g)¾ê µâªá 3¥÷ 1¨â ¥Õ¨F¿} 8¨â ³½½¦¯» 50§J ¬e§û ¤Ö¶q ª÷¥Ê¢AÄ«ªG ¤p¶q ®Ûªá°s 1¯ù°Í ¤ô 4¸J¡]µN³½½¦¯»¥Î¡^ ¦B 4¸J ¦B¶ô

My first Taco Rice mmm... I must try and make it at home sometime. What kind of taco seasoning is used for the minced beef? Is it similar to El Paso? I also tried a yummy Mexican omurice at the American Village. The rice inside the omelette was stir-fried with taco seasoning, minced beef and onion.

Hi Domestic Goddess, I ate the moyashi champuru in an izakaya in Okinawa. It contained moyashi beansprouts, nira (chives), corned beef, onions and lots of garlic. I picked up an Orange Pages cookbook on Okinawa when I was in Japan and there's a similar recipe for the dish. (I hope it's OK to post a picture and translation from the book.) Here's a rough translation of the recipe: Tofu, Corned Beef and Vegetable Champuru Ingredients (serves 4) Coarse-texture "cotton" tofu - 1 block (300g (before water extraction)) Corned beef - 1 can (100g) Moyashi beansprouts (small size) - 1 packet (200g) Cabbage leaves - 2-3 pieces (100g) Nira (chives) - 1/2 bunch (50g) Oil, salt, black pepper Preparation of tofu First, extract the water from the tofu. Place the tofu on a heat-resistant dish, gently rub salt all over it. Use 1/3 tsp of salt for one block (300g) of tofu. Cover the dish with clingfilm, and heat in the microwave for 2 minutes. Leave for about 20 minutes and add to the frying pan while it is still warm. After the water is extracted, the block of tofu will weigh around 250g. Preparation of champuru 1. Break up the tofu into big chunks with your hand. Cut the corned beef into 2cm pieces. Wash the moyashi and drain. Cut the cabbage into 4-5cm squares and the nira into 4cm-long pieces. 2. Put the moyashi and cabbage in a heat-resistant dish, cover with clingfilm and heat in the microwave for 2 minutes. 3. Add 2 tbs of oil to a frying pan. On medium heat, stir-fry the tofu and corned beef until they are coated in the oil. Add the moyashi and cabbage and stir-fry. Add 1/2 tsp salt and a little black pepper, and then mix in the nira. From "Uchi de tanoshimu Okinawa no genki ryori" (Healthy Okinawan home-cooking), Orange Page Books

Besides goya champuru (my favourite), I also tried a version with chikina (leaf mustard) Mamina champuru (beansprouts with corned beef)

Ume-budou (sea grapes) - another kind of seaweed. I like their crunchy texture.

Mozuku and Aosa (Okinawan: asa) seaweed Fresh mozuku - it is slightly salty from the seawater and tastes much better than the salted version in the packet When I got back to Tokyo, I made a mozuku salad with the katsuo-flavoured sauce and fresh shikwasa juice. I wish I'd bought more mozuku, it was delicious.

Ube and durian are some of my favourite flavours of Hong Kong ice-cream. Local ice-cream in Okinawa - the goya flavour was quite tasty, not bitter at all.

Blue Seal Ice-cream - beni-imo, passionfruit, goya (yummy but tastes nothing like it) and shikwasa Autumn and spring ukon (turmeric, known locally as ucchin). Ukon is said to improve liver function and you can buy ukon hangover pills in the market. Coffee and ukon awamori

Goya tea - I drank this in the hotel to ward off the awamori hangover... The sign at the bottom recommends ukon (turmeric) tea for hangovers - I also drank that too. Both of them tasted pretty rough. Goya curry And Goya Man! Has anyone tried Miki (drink on the right-hand side)? I read that it's a rice drink derived from the fermentation process of sake. Ingredients include white rice, sugar, glutinous mochi rice, wheat and lactic acid. Does it taste good?

I had a great time in Okinawa and really liked the local food. Thanks again for the recommendations. I managed to try them all except sata andagi and left the island heavily laden with all kinds of ingredients - kurozato, Kurozato Pretz, shima-togarashi (chillies in awamori), aosa and mozuku seaweed, awamori, fresh shikwasa, shikwasa Hi-Chews (the best flavour ever!)... I took loads of photos and will try to post them in the next week or two. Let's start with goya... People in Hong Kong eat bitter gourd (fu gua) in the summer to cool down the body, but I've never been a big fan of it. But in Okinawa I ended up trying all kinds of goya concoctions - champuru, kara-age, ice-cream, tea, juice, candies... My first taste of Okinawan goya was champuru. I was expecting it to be really bitter but was pleasantly surprised at how mild it tasted. I wonder whether it's something to do with the use of mirin and sugar to balance the bitter taste. The only goya I had with a slightly stronger bitter taste was at Kiraku, a Taiwanese-run restaurant in the Makishi market in Naha - the goya was stir-fried with black beans and garlic. Goya kara-age

I like muscovado sugar and dark cane sugar and enjoyed the taste of block kurozato during my holiday in Okinawa last week. It was like eating Scottish fudge. I bought the Kurozato Pretz there too.

Kristen, Hiroyuki, thanks for your tips and the Wiki links. Yes, I meant mozoku seaweed. I didn't try any kurozato when I was last in Japan so I'll definitely look out for it in Okinawa, along with soba and sata andagi. I'll post some photos when I get back. ‚ ‚肪‚Æ‚¤I

Hi Eduardo, I'm also reading up on restaurants for my holiday to Okinawa and Tokyo next week. I found this thread helpful for sushi restaurants at the Tsukiji fish market, which is very close to your hotel. It's worth visiting early in the morning for a sushi breakfast. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=104099

Kristen, I love the photos of the Okinawan dishes. The goya-champuru looks delicious. I'm going to Naha next Friday for four days' holiday and can't wait to try out the local food, especially the champuru and soba. I plan on buying some Okinawan ingredients, tableware or cooking implements, and have got some good tips from this thread. Tofu-yo, seaweed, warabi (bracken) mochi, pineapple tea and awamori are on my list so far. Any recommendations for food souvenirs or restaurants would be most appreciated!

Thanks hiroyuki, I will look out for the milder hachimitsu ume when I am in Tokyo next weekend. I had the umeboshi sour in a Chinese-run Japanese kama-meshi restaurant in Hong Kong. I didn't like the drink very much, it tasted like salty soda water.

The three-course tea in the photo looks very similar to what I was served in Dali. And yes, the third course of tea was served in a lidded teacup as shown in the photo.

Hi Naftal, I was in Dali in 2004 and got served the san dao cha ("three-course tea) by some old Bai ladies while taking a boat cruise around Lake Erhai. As far as I remember, the first cup is called "bitter tea" (Chinese: ku cha), a small cup of strong tea. (I think it was green tea, but cannot remember exactly) The second was "sweet tea" (tian cha) with rock sugar, peanuts, coconut and sesame. The third tea was a milder tea with puffed rice and was called "hui wei cha" - a final "after taste". There are many sites in Chinese on san dao cha and the ingredients and methods seem to vary. Photo of san dao cha from Chinese travel page zhuangchend.travellife.org Xinhua news agency has a feature on san dao cha: http://news.xinhuanet.com/travel/2005-01/1...ent_2476403.htm Rough translation: "The first course is called 'bitter tea' [ku cha], because people should endure hardships if they are to achieve anything. First, high-quality green tea leaves are ground and heated [presumably in a wok], and when the heated tea leaves start to turn yellow and give off an aroma, a small amount of boiling water is added, and the brew is heated up for a moment. When the tea turns an amber colour, it is poured into a teapot and served. The second course is the 'sweet tea' [tian cha], which symbolises how life can only have meaning if sweetness [happiness] follows hardship. Boiling water is poured into a clay guan [container of some sort], sugar, walnuts, sesame seeds, etc, are added. For the third course, the 'aftertaste' [hui wei cha], a toasted rushan ['yoghurt fan', a dried wafer made of yoghurt, used in Bai cooking] is added to the tea, as well as red sugar, honey, osmanthus flowers, puffed rice, hua jiao [Chinese prickly ash, gives numbing sensation to the tongue] and other ingredients. The tea has an invigoratingly fragrant, sweet and slightly spicy taste, which can refresh one's spirits. The symbolism of the third course is that the success of one's work will leave a long-lasting 'aftertaste'."

The Tai Cheong bakery on 35 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, does tasty egg custard tarts. You usually have to buy four, but they're so yummy, it's still worth buying them. I can eat two or three in a row easily! It's a good place to stop if you're exploring the Soho area (near Mid-Levels escalator). As insomniac says, Fernando's on Coloane island, Macau. is a good, inexpensive option for Portuguese food. The location by the Hac Sa beach is wonderful. I always have the garlic chilli prawns there. Mmm.... If you don't have time to go all the way to Coloane, A Lorcha (Cantonese: Suen Uk) on the Macau Peninsula is another good place for Macanese and Portuguese food. It's run by a Macanese family. I recommend the clams with coriander and garlic. Address: 289a Rua do Almirante Serigo, Macau (round the corner from the A-Ma Temple in the south peninsula) Here's a link with the name of the restaurant and address in Chinese: http://www.macautvl.com/eating/alurcha.html (useful for showing the cabbie) Lord Stow's is really good but if you can't make it to Coloane, there's a conveniently located Portuguese cafe - Cafe Ou Mun - on Travessa de Sao Domingos, a tiny alley right next to McDonalds in the Leal Senado square in central Macau. It's an okay place to stop for a galao (milky coffee in a glass) and nata. A Leiteria I Son, in the Leal Senado square (look out for the cow sign) serves hot or cold Cantonese steamed ginger milk pudding and boiled double-skin milk pudding. They're really tasty! Enjoy your trip!

Peanut butter in sushi? I've seen recipes for nigiri sushi topped with strawberry and kiwi fruit but have never seen it served anywhere. I've tried British sushi in London. The Marks & Spencer department store sushi set has smoked mackerel nigiri, smoked salmon nigiri, and a cucumber/red pepper/tuna mayonnaise rice roll. Kind of like eating rice and sandwich fillings, with no wasabi.

My aunt Mei made an osmanthus jelly for my birthday last year. I can't remember all the ingredients, but I think she used agar agar jellly and added yellow sugar, dried osmanthus flowers, waterchestnut, gouzi (wolfberries), longan, and maybe chrysanthemum petals. I'll have to try and get the recipe from her (she's always vague about measurements though). Here's a link to a delicious-looking osmanthus waterchestnut jelly by Peony: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=97856&st=90

Hi, I'm new to eGullet! I only recently got into umeboshi when I lived in Japan last year (I'm now in Hong Kong). I wasn't aware of the differences in the salt content and ended up buying incredibly salty and sour umeboshi. I also made the mistake of popping the salty ume whole into my mouth! The experience reminded me of the delicious salty-sour-sweet taste of waa mui - dried sour Chinese plums - but the ume I bought didn't have the sweetness to balance the saltiness. Besides umeboshi o-nigiri, I've tried umeboshi sour. But I must admit I found the saltiness a bit strange in an alcoholic drink. I remember trying a huge, juicy unsalty ume at Tanaka-ya, a soba and udon restaurant in the Matsuya department store, Ginza. The ume topped a dish of cold soba noodles with grated daikon, katsuoboshi, nori, negi. The ume was the best I've tried so far. (The smaller dish is goma-tofu - cold sesame tofu.) I wonder if the ume in the photo was the hachimitsu ume mentioned earlier. Helenjp, I enjoyed reading your photo blog on pickling umeboshi.