MoGa

In Alicante there is Nou Manolin http://www.noumanolin.com/index.php?seccion=menus It's been a while since I've eaten there, but a quick look on the internet shows that it's still well regarded and has even spawned an off shoot. A lot of restaurants have opened in Alicante in the last couple of years, one of the most intriguing is La Ereta in the newly built Ereta park near the top of the mountain where Santa Barbara castle is. The views should be wonderful Some photos here: http://trashjimmy.blogspot.com/2006/12/la-ereta.html and here: http://juancarlossoler7.blogspot.com/2008/...e-la-ereta.html I've not been and would be curious to learn of anyone's opinion A photo montage here And positive reviews here: http://www.taula.es/Noticias/noticia.php?noti=26

Another Beard Papa fan If you're near Bond Street and want a repose there's one of London's best kept secrets nearby for tea and a slice of cake. http://www.postcardteas.com/ 9 Dering Street A cup of tea costs GBP1.50 (there are many to choose from) and will be prepared perfectly and served in an appropriate vessel (please don't expect quick service). If you like the tea and wish to buy it, your cup of tea is complimentary. The teas are absolutely first rate. They also have delicious home made cakes at 1.50GBP a slice. Best bargain in central London. I am worried about the longevity of the shop, it's not in my interests if it stays a secret. Do please give it a try, and if you like it, pass the word. It's a real treasure.

You are very lucky. My husband (from Tokyo) absolutely loves ramen, passionately. And there's nowhere in London where he can have it. Ramen is off limits to me (I don't eat pork or chicken), I am crazy about soba. My husband... not so much. This created a massive conflict of interests on our last trip back to Tokyo as I couldn't go anywhere without him pushing me there in a wheelchair. This did mean that I visited his favourite ramen place a few time, Azabu Ramen. I also realised that his favourite part of the dish wasn't the ramen itself (not in this place) but the chili beansprouts that were served separately - although these were added in copious amounts to his ramen. I could have eaten a fairly decent vegan meal combining a bowl of rice with the beansprouts and a few of the other condiments, unfortunately, I hated them. I would like to make these chili beansprouts for him though, if anyone has any pointers I'd be very grateful. They were very hot, sort of like beansprout kimchi.

Quite a big 'but' there. As mentioned, most of the ramen will be off limits to you, however there are tonkatsu places where you can eat plenty of other meats and sea foods (eg Tonki in Ginza) This is the Tonki sign Inside, the entrance looks like this: The address is 6-5-15 Ginza. The station shown in the following map is Yurakucho (just South of Tokyo station) MAP I particularly like the breaded hotate - scallops - here, but non shellfish fish are also offered. RAMEN You haven't mentioned shellfish, if this isn't off limits as well there are a couple of places you might be able to try ramen (and I stress might be able to - I cannot assure you that pork is not used in either restaurant's broth) Nidaime Keisuke at 2-14-3 Takadanobaba (near Takadanobaba station - a few stops South of Ikebukuro on the Yamanote line) This place specialises in shrimp ramen. Here's a video introduction on youtube - the shrimp gyoza look really good (gyoza is another dish you won't be able to have at most places)Just outside Tokyo there is a place that does ramen made with seafood (the speciality is tuna) Kunigamiya http://www.kawasakionline.jp/gourmet/noodle/kunigamiya/ It's just next to Kawasaki Station, the URL has a map (ignore the kunigamiya.com website - it's been appropriated by another company) As this would involve a bit of a hike, I'd advise you to get your hotel concierge to call them and make sure they'll be open as well as ensure that no pork is actually used in their broths first.

This leads me to suspect that there will be a shortage of reasonably priced Japanese Christmas Cakes, either in this or in the coming years. Perhaps now is the time to develop and start marketing alternatives suitable for the Japanese palate (British style Christmas puddings and dried fruit cakes in marzipan and icing are too rich and sweet). Spanish food is currently en vogue and out of the confectionery that gets marketed as 'turrones' at Christmas, 'turron de yema tostada' could do well as a Christmas time wagashi-style sweet, it just needs to be portioned and packaged appropriately (Turrones 1880 have individually wrapped yema tostadas now).

This will depend on where the Spanish was being spoken. As Poffertjes just mentioned, in Argentina it might mean beef, but in my part of Spain (Alicante/Valencia) carne just means meat, one would have to quantify which kind. The same might go for a cut of meat, such as a cutlet. In English (South East England) I might associate cutlet with pork, but when saying this word in Spanish I'm geographically 'programmed' to think of lamb (chuleta de cordero). To be honest, in my part of Spain, certainly within my own family circel, beef is probably the meat least associated with 'carne', other parts with a stronger history of beef rearing may feel differently. It's usually called Ternera, Añojo or Novillo depending on the animal's age, there's not even a word that means 'beef' in the way it does in English, not unless you specifically refer to English style 'rosbif'.

Have you considered making something smaller (as well of or instead)? I'd suggest adapting ganmodaki (which usually look like this http://allabout.co.jp/gourmet/washokukotu/...up/CU20050720C/ or this http://recipe.meinyu.jp/menu/recipe27.html )into tapered mouse shapes. You could add carrot ears and eyes and noses made out of bits of nori seaweed and tails made of fried curled cooked spaghetti. Ganmodoku can be made into simple tofu balls by omitting the usual carrots beans and kombu, this might make them look more 'realisitic'. Wrap a piece of firm (cotton) tofu in a clean towel or kitchen paper and press with a weight on it for several hours to drain. Either grind (pestle and mortar) or put the tofu in a food processor and add an egg, a dash of soy sauce, a dash of mirin (or teaspoon of sugar) and a pinch of salt. Grind or blend until very smooth. (The first link I posted http://allabout.co.jp/gourmet/washokukotu/...up/CU20050720C/ suggests pushing the tofu through a wire mesh first - scroll down for photos of process I've described) Then you shape the mixture into the form of a mouse (this sort of thing - http://www.chinawholesalegift.com/pic/Offi...17194725943.jpg but perhaps a little 'rounder/more bulbous' and drop them into a deep fat fryer until they become golden. Add the deep fried pieces of spaghetti, ears, eyes and noses and you should end up with lots of cute little mice. The more pieces of vegetable you can add to the tofu balls (soaked dried shitake, corn, red ginger etc...) the tastier they'll be Or make them into dome shapes, cover them with a piece of cooked red pepper, trim and decorate with pieces of nori seaweed to make ladybird bugs. I'd use canned piquillo peppers but might roast a few yellow peppers to make some yellow bugs.

Many of these products are available labelled Clearspring in the UK http://www.clearspring.co.uk/japanese I've not been won over by this brand (which is one of the easiest to find when looking for Japanese food in Britain), their seaweed products have been disappointing and their version of yukari: http://www.clearspring.co.uk/content/shiso-condiment was downright disgusting (a real achievement as I generally love this stuff). I'd be curious to know how someone familiar with well known Japanese brands of shoyu (such as Kikkoman) compare with something like the Johsen Shoyu http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/...oyu__500ml.html

Not one of the world's top 100 restaurants in Japan??? Yeah... right!

The filet-o-fish was the item I most like as a child, and the only item from the menu I still occasionally order. The original post is a wonderful account of its inception, the part about the sauce having to be mixed daily is fascinating even if that is no longer the case. The sad part about this product is that it varies wildly around the world. It isn't particularly nice in Tokyo (the prawn burgers there are much better), nor in Spain and I didn't care for it at all in New York. Strangely, it's consistently best in England, and from what I can tell (as a 4 minute wait is almost standard for me) it's made to order outside the peak periods. I'd like to give up MacDonalds entirely but the craving I have is specifically for the tartare sauce (which I am sure is premixed and has been since the 80s in England). A couple of times a year I'm drawn back, I put napkins around the bun (because the tartare sauce inevitably drips off onto my clothes or shoes) and eat one. One is never enough, but eating two makes me feel queasy, so I stop after the first. I don't know what it is about the tartare sauce that has me hooked. I never put tartare sauce on anything I make, and I don't like any commercially available brand. Perhaps it's just as well I probably never tried the original multi-component version, I'd probably have loved it. Strange how the strongest cravings we get are often for foods that we acknowledge as not being particularly good or delicious.

With my current finances, that's hardly likely. My Japanese husband also adores them so we literally fight over the slices. We did spend a Christmas near Toronto once and unexpectedly found a jumbo 30oz (approx 0.9kilo) bag of them in the small town of Minden, I managed to force some restraint on ourselves so that they lasted a full 4 days, but yes, I can testify that you have a very good point there... (I'm going out to get some more - I'll post the address in a moment Mabethay Me Minimart, 21 Chalk Farm Road - opposite the Camden 'Stables', London Brand is Young's - which isn't quite as good as 7D but is still one of the better kinds... not too fibrous) Mmmmm....

I'm another person who can't stop when it comes to pistachios. But most of all, the snack I absolutely cannot eat in moderation is Dried Mangoes. Not the dried husks you get in healthfood shops, the plump sugary ones from the Philippines. Oh, those are so good! My downfall is that a convenience store a few doors away from me has just opened up their basement and stuffed it with lots of Thai-friendly goods, including one of my favourite brands of dried mango. Instead of having to go to the centre of London to find them, there's a place selling them even more cheaply nearby (I use cheap loosely - they're 1.30GBP - $2.50 a bag)

Unfortunately, some of the best meals I will ever have in my life were given to me at a time when I didn't have the maturity to appreciate them. Not to say that I didn't enjoy them, I just didn't understand how special they were and the near impossibility of being able to replicate the experience later in life. I grew up in the UK, but every summer, for between 6 and 8 weeks, I was sent to Spain to live with my family there whilst my parents worked in London. I stayed in houses in a small city (Alicante) and also in the country, in farms and on estates. This was in the 1970s and this Spain seemed awfully 'backward' to me, now I look back and I feel immensely privileged. One uncle had a job managing the estates of a Count (these lands are sadly now a golf course), his salary was the game and vegetables he took from this land. His wife (my aunt) had previously cooked for aristocracy, when he brought back a brace of pigeons she'd know exactly what to do with them. I particularly remember eating the hearts and enjoying their chewy texture. When this aunt got together with other family members, the results were extraordinary. The whole family and a few friends would get together at someone's country finca (a place with no electricity where the water was drawn from a well). The men would go out hunting, us children would be sent out to get fruit or snails (ones that were feeding on herbs like thyme and rosemary which grew abundantly in the area), and the ladies began preparing the food. The snails always filled me with 'pena' (made me feel sad). The snails we picked that day would be used on another occasion, the ones which would be used would have been starved for at least a week so that their guts were clear, these were then washed which would make them foam, and the really sad part was when they were taken outside in shallow water. The sun would beat down and warm up the water and the snails would pop their heads out, once that had happened, they were placed over a fire and cooked (if you put them on the fire directly they stay inside the shell). Sometimes I'd ask to help pluck a chicken (most of my family kept them so this would have been slaughtered earlier that day). When my uncles and granddad returned they'd have freshly killed rabbit. And that's when cooking would start on the chicken, rabbit and snail paella on an orange-wood fire. This was always a noisy affair as each of the ladies would have her own opinions as to the best way to make it - especially when it came to the seasonings, grinding ñora seemed to invoke the most passionate debates. The resulting rice was incredible, even if I didn't realise just how incredible it was then. Even eating in Albufera restaurants (an area in Valencia famed for its paellas) I've never had anything to touch it. And those family reunion paellas still hold their own as the greatest meals I've ever had against the food I've had in my travels in Europe, North America and repeated visits to Japan. I might have been 'programmed' during this time. I went back to Spain a couple of months ago and a childhood friend from Murcia made me a simple dish of potatoes, green beans, beans, pumpkin and pear - it was one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten.

I don't see a huge difference between eating an occasional packet of instant ramen and making a bowl of soup using dried noodles and ready-made-dashi (some of the commercially available dashi are quite high in sodium and other additives). Having a few packets of the Thai Mama brand Tom Yum Shrimp flavour noodles around is a satisfying alternative to getting 'takeaway' food. Within 6 minutes I can stir fry some vegetables, add the noodles, soup stock and some water to the pan and have it all served in a bowl. I wouldn't like to eat this way every day, but as an occasional treat, it's great! Once you have a bottle of ready made dashi around, making soba or udon noodles is just as 'instant' and straightforward as anything from a packet, soba in particular is quick and easy with a cooking time of just 4 minutes. I'm currently using this stock: http://www.yamato-soysauce-miso.com/produc...esoupstock.html which I particularly like. Add a pinch of dried wakame if you like it, another instant classic. Some of the Vietnamese Vifon brand's packet noodles are really enjoyable, unfortunately, I never kept notes on which ones we particularly liked This guy has: http://noodleson.com/review/category/vietnamese-brand/vifon/ But we have started to keep a folder recently with packets of noodles we do like. So far it's made of: Japan - Nissin's Ramen Yassan (ラメン屋さん) - salt flavour しお (the blue packet here: http://ramenyasan.com/ ) Korea - Samyang Foods - Rich Hot Flavour Noodle (also called Sutah Ramen https://www.samyangfood.co.kr/eng/products_pac_2.htm ) Also by Samyang Foods - Chacharoni https://www.samyangfood.co.kr/eng/products_pac_10.htm Japan - Sanyo Foods - 名古屋こく塩 (green) and 博多とんこつ (yellow) both of which are shown on this page (second and last) : http://www.sanyofoods.co.jp/product/produc...%C2%83p%83b%83N Japan's Myojo Chukazanmai brand is consistently good http://noodleson.com/review/category/japan...jo-chukazanmai/ but these and the sanyo foods recs contain meat so its my husband who will vouch for them them (I draw the line at fish) So far we've tended to agree with the writer of the noodleson.com website so I recommend it. There are some really horrid noodles out there, a lot of very mediocre ones and just not enough help in avoiding them

As the recommendations in this thread are so grim, I wondered if this post would help In response to a vegan visitor. I realise there are certain vegan foods that should not be eaten at passover, but a phone call to this restaurant might find that they can accommodate these requirements. There are other longer established Saf restaurants around which have links in this page http://www.thelifeco.com/safrestoran.aspx These websites show sample menus which give a good idea as to what they have available.

Doh! And that's why you said you were going in the first place Hope the Alicante to Elda bus information is of use at least. I used to go to Elda occasionally, but that's because a friend of mine had a job calling out Bingo numbers there (it was pretty grim*, the punters took their games very seriously). Did give me a chance to find out about the pasteleria. However, this was many years ago. *Early 90s but just like the Bingo hall depicted in the 1979 classic "Los Bingueros"

As there is at least one Spanish contributor to this thread I'll try my luck Would a superbag be appropriate for straining horchata/orxata? I'm wondering if the extra filtration would make the drink a little less 'granular'.

I'm glad this thread has been resurrected. I'm certainly keen to make this as a future project (although I'll have to wait until I can spend some time in Spain). I was wondering if the superbags mentioned here http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=104404 would provide a suitable way of filtering the liquid. The whole process does seem much more straightforward than I would have imagined. It's lovely to have the chance to share the results... especially this late on when my curiosity about each stage was quickly satisfied by scrolling down

My mum's from Alicante and I have family (and a house) there. I've been going back regularly since childhood and went to University there (4 years). Unfortunately, not so much lately as I used to. My husband is Japanese, with holiday time being limited I've ended up in Tokyo instead. I did spend 3 months about 4 years ago and went back for a few days a couple of months back (HUGE changes had taken place in the interim regarding eating out options). Most of the time I've been there (certainly when I've gone for long periods) has been on a budget where I've got by on under 100 Euros a week. Prices have gone up a lot in the past 4 years, Alicante has also be getting hotter and more humid during the summer and from earlier in the year (the sea temperature seems to go up noticeably every year and this affects the land temperature, especially at night, making it difficult to sleep). If you're used to Singapore, you should be fine. As I said, the standard of fresh produce and food is very high, it's also very cheap as long as you stick to local food in season. Thankfully, the variety available is very wide. If you hunt around you'll also find a few stores run by East Asians offering dry and frozen Oriental food and cooking utensils, so staples such as fish sauce and Asian rices are also available. (Unfortunately, I don't remember addresses, but there are a few of these stores). More and more shops are selling South American foods as there's been a recent influx of South American immigrants. Harder to source cheaply are bags of Italian arborio-style rice and other Mediterranean foods not-native to Spain. For instance, you'll find a lot of capers, but in vinegar, you pay a big premium to have them packed in salt. Thankfully, the premium for Italian pasta (not the El Gallo brand or any of the horrid Spanish variants - similar to Japanese pasta) isn't too excessive. This would be a good thing to make yourself. Best way to eat well and have money to spare is to adapt your cooking and tastes to the local produce. Eating out is getting more and more expensive. I think the recent boom in Kebap places is reflecting this as it offers a cheap, somewhat dependable alternative. Also, don't expect too much in the way of nightlife outside of the weekend until the holiday season kicks off. Alicantinians prefer to hold back during the week and then go all out on Friday and Saturday or on festival days. They'll meet their friends for coffee in the evening, have something to eat and only go out at around midnight, staying out until 4-5am. Those with less money to spend may meet up somewhere to have a 'botellon', basically a bring your own party. These aren't always legal and because of the resulting garbage of smashed glass they've been actively discouraged over the last few years. This means you are less and less likely to encounter them in the middle of the city. There isn't a huge tapas tradition in Alicante compared to other parts of Spain, but more and more tapas bars have opened up. Don't expect anything too wonderful as many of them are part of chains. Alicante's speciality is its 'arrozes' - not necessarily paellas (although the traditional paella for this region is made of chicken, rabbit & snails). Unfortunately, good arrozes are particularly hard to find, certainly within the city. Try and find a cook off/competition related to a fiesta for a chance of eating this, hopefully you'll meet Alicantinos who can invite you to an event where it will be served (my own family make it at family reuinions). A large proportion of older Alicantinos have second houses, often in the country, this is where they might make it. It will probably be easier to go to the Albufera region outside of Valencia in order to try it (not Albufereta beach nearby). If you can go as part of a group, all the better. Remember that this is lunch time food - beware paellas sold by the gram or in the evenings. Outside of the tourist season lots of people go to Benidorm and other nearby towns for BBQ foods such as 'chuletas a la parilla'. A lot of the popular restaurants frequented by the locals are outside of the city centre may be difficult to access without a car, the new tram line should help considerably. Do try the horchata - it provides wonderful sustenance in the summer. Alas, the gorgeously tiled horchateria azul on Calderon de La Barca has closed (seemed that way on my last visit) but Heladeria Gori is still open. Good horchata shouldn't be drunk with a straw as you lose some of the complexities of the flavour that way. The quality of horchata varies wildly, Gori have a patented method of pasteurising the tiger nuts before extracting the liquid. Other places may wash them using chemicals... sometimes you can taste this Chufas (toger nuts) are readily available, with some sugar, a little lemon and cinnamon you can make your own (the traditional way is with a huge marble pestle and mortar but a minute in a blender will do the work easily, then strain. (I'm pretty sure a 'superbag' would be perfect for this - but a muslin lined colander is fine) Try Confitería Seguí for another local specialitiy - Coca (coca de molletes is particularly good here). The empanadas are also excellent. Another reasonably priced treat is the Antiu Xixona icecream parlour on the Esplanada. It's been open for less than a year and Antiu Xixona has a long tradition for making nearby Jijona's most famous speciality - turron. Many of the different kinds of turron offered have their ice cream equivalents here, and these are especially good. I can recommend the yema tostada (toasted egg yolk). Another famous local company is Valor Chocolate (which started in Villajoyosa in 1881). Personally, I don't rate the milk chocolates very highly, but the dark chocolate, especially with almonds, is pretty good. You may be interested in making a visit to nearby Elda to sample Paco and Jacob Torreblanca's work: http://www.torreblanca.net/ there are lots of buses during the day from the bus station - journey time is 35 minutes (avoid some buses that take longer) and costs 3.10Euros each way. Bus company that offers this route is http://www.alsa.es. Generally (Monday to Friday) first bus out is 7am, last 9pm in either direction and they depart on an almost hourly basis. Plug in your route and intended date here: http://www.alsa.es/VentaParticulares/contenidoHorarios.jsp I remember it from a long while back as Pasteleria Totel (admittedly, I remembered it badly as Pasteleria Total :oops: ) You can also use the Tram to get to Denia - http://www.elpoblet.com/ is very famous (not somewhere I've been able to go myself yet though) Once you've tried a traditional Arroz dish, this might be a good place to try a contemporary twist on the classic. And at the end of June, Alicante celebrates its wonderful Fogueres festival Some info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonfires_of_Saint_John From the 25th to the 29th there is the firework competition on Postiguet beach (tip - best not to swim in the Postiguet... few locals do, instead they travel up to one of the beaches further North, notably that of San Juan) I find some of the torreblanca confectionary creations quite reminiscent of some of Alicante's more abstract Fogueres (google images link: http://images.google.com/images?q=fogueres...-US%3Aofficial) Don't ever eat at a street side Barraca without finding out the price first. A lot of tourists get caught out this way. A modest lunch at one of these places can easily cost 40-50Euros and it won't necessarily be very good. Barracas are erected all over the city during festivals.

I couldn't remember a cover charge at Kuroitsuki and looked to see if it had anything written about it in English (I can't read Japanese, I can just about decipher parts of it) and found this by putting in the address - 33-10 Udagawacho http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fg20080125nc.html The name isn't quite right, in the article it's 黒月 - Kuro Tsuki, they've left out the い (i) part of 黒い月, but it's a good description. Unfortunately, they don't mention the cover charge either. This page has a bit more information http://www.netlaputa.ne.jp/~TANTAN/mise/mise3c.html but it is 10 years out of date. Hope the Japan Times article is of use. P.S. cheese is particularly expensive in Japan (has a 40% import duty). Be wary of ordering it without knowing the price, it's very much a luxury food.

Thank you very much Hiroyuki for looking this up for me. It's much appreciated. I'm sure I'll develop my own ideas/preferences regarding konnyaku but it's invaluable to get an insight like this. I like the parboiled thread suggestion especially. I'm drawn to the konnyaku option as I imagine it can give some additional texture to a cabbage heavy okonomiyaki patty and make it even lighter (and because I don't eat any meat except for fish, although I'm always interested in vegetarian alternatives). Bite sized chikuwa pieces might be interesting as a convenient squid substitute. I'll keep a hold of that idea, thanks again. --- One of the reasons I've become so hooked on okonomiyaki lately is because I get so much pleasure and satisfaction from beating the nagaimo rich batter. There's something I find irresistible about the feel of it against a fork - kind of how it might be if you could whip a completed flan/creme caramel and it would retain its gelatinous integrity (rather than dissolve). I don't like the idea of eating raw okonomiyaki batter, but somehow I'm already drooling, heavily, before I even add the shredded vegetables. It's even eclipsed another of my great kitchen pleasures, that of seeing beads of water collect on a fresh cabbage leaf.

I've arrived at the Okonomiyaki party quite late on. My Tokyo born husband has never been too keen on it, and the recipes from books I'd tried to make had been vile, rubbery failures. I'm not even sure why I persisted as the only time I'd had it before (at a now closed okonomiyaki restaurant near London's Piccadilly Circus) I hadn't liked it much. What I did like was the 'idea' of it. And then, a couple of months ago, this recipe was posted (I hadn't got to grips with egullet then) http://www.justhungry.com/okonomiyaki-osaka-style just as I was able to walk and cook again. I've managed to overturn my husband's distaste for okonomiyaki (it's now one of his favourite foods) and it's become a (minimum) once a week dish. As he works near the Japan Centre (a handy source for nagaimo - I've still not seen yamaimo there) I can tell when he's hankering after some as he'll buy nagaimo especially. It's often twice a week we eat it (I guess the novelty is still fresh). We put more cabbage into the batter than in the recipe I linked to. We also like to add those vermicelli-like strips of dried cuttlefish as well as or instead of the sakura ebi (dried tiny prawns). As 'toppings' we enjoy fresh prawns and a sprinkle of fake bacon pieces - junky but convenient - as well as kewpie mayonnaise (although I like Hellmann's too), okonomiyaki sauce and bonito shavings. The suggestion for frying and breaking up tenkasu from the batter works a treat. For the times I want a cheap lunch and haven't had the foresight to get nagaimo, I bought a pack of okonomiyaki flour. But I combine it with grated boiled potato and add a little extra dashi. It's a little nicer this way than with grated potato and standard flour or with okonomiyaki flour without any grated tubers. I've used various green cabbages to make it, all have worked. Our favourite was probably last night's where I used sweetheart/duchy cabbage. My husband thinks I'm particularly fond of it due its resemblance to Spanish 'Tortilla de patatas' - potato omelet. I certainly flip them over the same way (thankfully, I have tons of practice) --- I have a question though. I've just bought konnyaku for the first time and I've noticed that some okonomiyaki places include it amongst the ingredients. How would one go about adding konyaku to okonomiyaki? Does it have to be cooked first? Do I mix it in the batter or cut it into slices to add on top - and if so, would there be a problem with konnyaku coming into direct contact with the heat of the frying pan when flipped over? If I should mix konnyaku into the batter, what sort of sized pieces should I cut it into? Sorry about this, but I really am clueless about konnyaku - I've only cooked and eaten it in Oden.

You too? Panky in a Hanky (furoshiki style) has proved a popular omiyage. Thankfully, within my budget. It is bread inside - hence the name: 'pan'ky - geddit?

Kuroitsuki (black moon?) 黒い月 in Shibuya Map: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&ge...z=17&iwloc=addr 3rd Floor, 33-10 Udagawacho (In Japanese 東京都渋谷区宇田川町３３−１０, 3F) ０３－３４７６－５４９７ I stumbled on this place trying to find another cocktail bar in the same area (I visited the other bar during my first trip to Tokyo, all the drinks were named after movies and served in appropriate vessels, the bartender there shook those drinks fast and he shook them hard). Failing in my quest I asked a stranger and got the Kuroitsuki recommendation. The lady who prepared my drinks was awesome, so I made sure not to 'lose' this bar too. You'll need to find this copper coloured door to find Kuroitsuki: http://www.townnet.com/tokyo-hit/hit/bmoon.html

Thank you for trying my recipe, melonpan. This furikake is one of my favorite breakfast okazu (side dishes). Why don't you modify my recipe to suit your Korean taste and post it here? I always keep the furikake in the refrigerator: ← I've made Hiroyuki's magic furikake a few times now and heartily recommend it (it's become a refrigerator staple). Success with this recipe led me to overcome my distaste for canned salmon and try making salmon flakes this way (instead of with fresh salted salmon). I'm still in the experimental stage, but so far the results have been positive. I drained 2 x 210g cans of pink salmon and turned the fish out onto a frying pan (no oil) on a moderate/low heat setting. Using a spatula I flaked the fish and stirred it periodically until the flakes dried out a little (5-10 minutes). Then I mixed 4 tablespoons of light soy sauce, 3 tablespoons of mirin* and 2 tablespoons of sake and added this to the fish, stirring quickly to incorporate it. Then I continued stirring until the flakes dried out further (I imagine that the drier the flakes, the longer they will last). The main challenge is allowing the fish to dry out without letting it colour or burn. Finally, I added a dribble of sesame oil and mixed this in before setting aside to cool. I'm almost sad to report that my husband preferred these salmon flakes to the ones I've made with fresh salmon (he suspects the prolonged soak in brine makes them tastier)... at least it's cheaper this way and we'll never need to buy more jars of pre-made salmon flakes (currently about 6GBP/$12 for 300g in London) The first thing I did with the resulting canned salmon 'furikake' was to mash a couple of umeboshi plums and mix this with some of the salmon flake furikake - it made delicious onigiri, but the flakes don't clump in the way that bonito shavings do when mixed with ume, so ume-blended salmon flakes make very tasty furikake in their own right. This morning, I folded some into an omelet. Also very good. Thank you again, Hiroyuki . I would never have considered the possibility of making this at all if I hadn't tried your recipe first. ---- * I'll try adding another spoon of mirin next time to better approximate the golden 1:1 mirin:soy sauce ratio.