rykomatsu

Disposable microwave proof ziploc brand container (i reuse it), add popcorn, microwave for 2-3min, spray and toss with olive oil, add seasoning. I think I only add about 20-30 calories from oil at most with the spray...no need to use oil for the actual popping. Need to keep the lid open a bit so steam can be let off...otherwise the popcorn gets soggy...

Thought I would have gotten the second edition since I ordered in early April and through B&N which appeared to be problematic for some folks on here, but somehow managed to get the first edition (and half off at that ). You guys weren't kidding when the term "amazing" was used to describe this set. The content is well written and having a science background, the concepts presented make sense...just that I never thought to associate that knowledge with cooking. Admittedly, a friend who's just interested in the "how" and not the "why" of cooking didn't find it as interesting as me. Whether this translates into me becoming a better home cook is another story altogether, but we'll see where this takes me.

Mmm...at the SF Farmer's market by the ferry building in the back, there was a shop that used to let me take herbs by the handful for $1 per type of herb...one time the seller even told me to take more. Definitely cheaper than the prepacked fresh herbs at grocery stores...

Interesting...I asked to order, for which they gave me a printout of the order itself, took it to the register, and paid without so much as having a manager being called. Hope your copy ships this week Cancelled my Amazon order since it seems like my B&N order didn't get cancelled...

Pre-order vs backorder I think. I just noticed it said pre-order on the website, however...

Hopefully posts like these are allowed...? For anyone who was on the fence at the current Amazon price, you can get it for 50% off at B&N in-store if you don't mind waiting an extra month or two... http://www.barnesandnoble.com/email/nav.asp?r=1&PID=37767 Goto the service center and ask them to ship to your home (or work or some other address). Downside is, you have to pay upfront instead of waiting until shipment. Had a $20 giftcard so total came to $230 after california tax Expires at close of business this Sunday.

eVe in Berkeley, CA is higher than your quoted price at ~$40 for a 3 course (but I'm quite full after 3 courses there, I find), but I think their concept is pretty similar to what you had mentioned, as well as the other locations listed in this thread. Not sure of the cost, but they also recently started a cooking class series it seems. I agree with Chris that this would be heavily location dependent, but from what I heard from the chef at eVe, they've been pretty successful in carving out their own niche in the last year and a half or so.

i eat my korokke with soysauce too sauce is just...too sweet for me

one of my friends said this was blasphemous, but...i prefer my tonkatsu with soysauce rather than tonkatsu sauce...anyone else in the same boat? >.>

rice in a nabe can be great. I actually did this for about 2-3 months while I was deciding on a rice cooker (and still am as I forgot that I needed a stupid transformer after importing one from japan ) It ends up being personal preference, but I really like the aroma that okoge (burnt rice) imparts on the rice when you open the lid. I know quite a few people that don't like that scent, but I love it...especially when you prepare zosui with it Unfortunately, I only have 1 nabe, so it's kinda hard to prepare nabemono when i'm also using it to make rice

this is very true lol. Cut up the ingredients while you're preparing stock (if you use stock), dump everything in, cover, wait a few min, voila. i've been known to eat nabe 5 days out of the week sometimes...add to that, since gas burners are portable, sometimes i just prepare something at my desk while working into the wee hours of the night

Was the kohada suzuke? or are there other ways of preparing it for sushi neta? Admittedly, all the kohada I've had have typically been too sour from the overuse of vinegar

This isn't meant to be offensive, but I find it hard to believe that you would be able to find similar quality in the bay area; style yes, but quality? I know this is somewhat of a blanket statement, but with the experiences with sushi I've had in Japan, I have yet to find a sushi bar that matches that of Japan. Kabuto came close, but you can really tell the differences in the way Kohada is prepared. One of the itamae that I talked with in Japan mentioned that Kohada is very difficult to prepare as it is very delicate in flavouring; most places use too much vinegar which can become overpowering and if not prepared properly, will also have a gamey scent/odour...and the places I've been to in the Bay Area that do serve kohada I can say with certainty that it wasn't prepared well (I usually use this as the first evaluation of a sushi bar when it's available). Add to that, still moving octopus? can't get much fresher than that

Mister Hiroyuki, The pictures are gorgeous Out of curiosity, do they happen to serve some of the lesser well known cuts of maguro such as sunazuri and i think the other is called...hireshita?

Not sure if too many people who frequent this section have had this, but it's a fun (well...it CAN be funny in retrospect) culinary event...aaand if you haven't done this before, I encourage you to try with no hard feelings Yami nabe (闇鍋) isn't an official hot pot per se...there's no official recipe...no official soup stock...hell there isn't even any official ingredients to add. It translates directly as "Darkness hotpot". This can be done in a few ways, the gist of it is, what you're going to be eating is shrouded in darkness until it reaches your mouth. One trustworthy person can collect the ingredients in secrecy, cook, then serve to everyone while the room's dark, or you can keep the room dark the entire time and everyone will just dump their items in and hope that everything gets into the pot. I'm sure there are other variations, though these are the 2 that I participated in. Adding items in during the dark isn't safe...period. One of our friends couldn't pinpoint where the pot was, tripped on the table corner, and fell on the pot. 2 people got second degree burns (ie. blisters). Upon fumbling around and tripping on other household items trying to get to the light switch, we saw what was supposed to be our dinner: strawberries, squid, natto, inago (look like grasshoppers/crickets), some oden items, tofu, ground nagaimo, and rakkyo...not a very good looking combination... The second time we did this, we had one person go around and collect everything and served it in a covered bowl, then turned the lights off...considering no spills, this actually wasn't too bad. Little did we know the horrors that awaited us. Most of the items seemed normal; chikuwa, tofu, sliced pork or beef...the less appealing items were sliced kiwi (i suspect it was the same person who brought strawberries previously), liver, gizzard, chex. But this wasn't the worst...unbeknownst to us, there was a sadistic soul in our group who decided to have a little too much fun and mess around with what was inside kinchaku (the thing that looks like a small purse in oden). I ended up with one filled with a whole tube of wasabi One of the guys ended up with one filled with mochi and Dave's insanity sauce...another filled with baby food...and yet another filled with Ika no shiokara (squid fermented with its guts...this alone with rice is very good). My face was red and was drinking water non-stop for a while to get the burning out of my mouth...my friend was doing the same except he made the mistake of using the same napkin he used to wipe the corner of his mouth with to wipe the tears from his eyes and his eyes became swollen (from dave's insanity sauce) and well...it was a dinner disaster. Fast forward a few years to now...it was a fun experience and I encourage you guys with courage (and trustworthy friends) to try this

But it looks great. Although I am in Southern California my son went through a phase where he had "bento envy" of the Japanese children in his school.That's completely opposite of what I went through during my elementary school years...my mom would make bento for me, but I would get teased and harassed for bringing something so "foreign"...

I'm not sure of the actual difference between shrimp used for amaebi in general and nanbanebi, but for amaebi, what usually happens is the meat is removed from the head/carapace with the tail still attached and placed on top of shari (sushi rice) and served. The head then is fried and consumed as well, though some people do not like the head. The meat itself is actually quite sweet, though not the flavor of table sugar...much milder, for seafood. Consistensy is less resilience than cooked shrimp by far...almost to the point where it might be a smidge gooey but succulent and good

Never tried it so can't say anything about taste, but calpis butter runs about 1200yen/lb and calpis unsalted butter runs about 1300yen/lb. http://www.calpis.co.jp/butter/lineup/index.html

Sauces I don't think are used. They're generally really delicately flavoured; atleast the ones I've had and the ones I prepare (ochazuke is a little different though)...like mentioned in this thread, I think, many times it's eaten by people who are sick and what not so a "shocking" flavor isn't used. In the context of wrapping up a meal, it's not really desireable to have something that has a heavy lingering taste either. A dash of soysauce isn't unheard of, but generally speaking the sauces would overpower the delicate nature of the flavouring in the context of how okayu/zosui is served. For additional taste, it's common to have tsukemono (pickles) on the side such as takuan and umeboshi, as stereotypical examples.

I remember when I was a kid and my mom put inago tsukudani in my bento. All the kids around me screamed But I would think the asakusa area would be the home of some of the best tsukudani in Japan.

aaaah...IC. That's not a huge concern then to be honest. I don't cook less than 3 cups at a time

If you don't mind me inquiring, what do you mean by the ease of cooking smaller batches of rice? (did you just go from a 10cup to 5.5 cup cooker or it's easier to get quality small batches of rice out of it?) Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of okayu...I prefer zosui so I don't think the okayu function will be used much by me As for the microwave cookers, I didn't have much luck with a plastic one and it cools down rather quickly. I have a ceramic one that I had in storage which I pulled out. While the quality of rice isn't superb, I do have to admit that it holds heat much better. Sometimes I'll just be moseying along with dinner while reading a book or newspaper or what not and 30min will pass by with me still on my first bowl. It's nice to still have very warm rice. Admittedly, though, the quality isn't that great and the consistency isn't even throughout. It's passable, though

There's one place in Wajima city on Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture that has takoyaki that's almost as impressive (though not quite) as that....this was 10 years ago so I'm not even sure if it's still even around. Those okonomiyaki are HUGE...and look so good with the egg on top!

While this may not help you in your travel planning (actually it might), if you're a foreigner or a Japanese national with permanent residence in the UK or married to someone who's not of Japanese origin, then you can basically get a "free pass" for all the JR lines except Shinkansen-Nozomi and sleeper trains across Japan. http://www.japanrailpass.net/eng/en001.html You might already know about it, but a surprising number of people, even from Japan, don't know about it so just thought I'd toss that out there for ya!

that's like...$100 in pears in CA...4 asian pears are about $5 in the major grocery stores last i checked...I prefer finishing the evening with one vs a cake or wagashi or what not. Very light and crisp...delicate and the taste doesn't linger heavily after eating /envious