MoGa

Now that looks more like it.

Authentically vegetarian Japanese food can be found in Ikuko Hisamtasu's "Tsukemono, Japanese Pickling Recipes". Out of the 73 recipes, about a dozen call for non-vegan ingredients, and around half of these are for dashi or bonito shavings which can be easily substituted (i.e. shitake/porcini stock or shavings, miso even marmite). Japanese 'Pickles', for those not familiar with them, can be very different from those in Europe. Many involve vegetables which are lightly braised, or marinated for between 30 minutes and an hour, only a few are made with vinegar. They are an important part of any Japanese meal. This is an excellent source book for delicious Vegan dishes, especially suited for those with access to Asian groceries (if you can grow your own perilla/shiso leaves, all the better)

Neither of those look 'right' to me as premium examples of Jamón Iberico. I was back in Spain a couple of weeks ago looking through gourmet produce and the packaged slices of jamón de bellota I looked at were about 50% fat, just like in those photos I linked to. I still think you'll probably be better off going somewhere with a proper selection (like R Garcia & Sons) and trying portions of everything they have. Or better still, get a cheap ticket to Spain, go to a good source for charcuterie and decide for yourself which hams you actually like the best. It seems to me that you have a newly awakened passion for Spanish Jamon Serrano. Take your time visiting this world, don't just rush to the most celebrated attractions without stopping to savour the 'in between' bits, some of them might turn out to be your favourites after all.

There are so few true iberico hams and such a massive demand now (both in Spain and worldwide - it's boomed in Japan recently by the way) that you'll be paying dearly for it. Only a few regions have properly regulated and designated Jamón Serrano Ibérico, and within those the figures for 2003 are: 142,517 pieces of ham (from 51,437 monitored pigs) from Huelva (including Jamón de Sierra Los Pedroches) http://www.jamondehuelva.com/ Other labels/areas for this ham are Dehasa de Extremadura http://www.dehesa-extremadura.com/, Jamón Serrano de Guijuelo. I can't imagine that more than 1 million pieces will be available per year. Why not seek out the best Jamón Serrano that isn't from a black footed Ibérico? There's an enormous range of quality within Jamón Serrano, why not develop your taste for the stuff with good quality Serrano first before joining the Iberico craze. suggested alternatives are: Jamón Serrano de Teruel (try http://www.jalonca.com)* Jamón de Trevélez (try http://www.jamonesdejuviles.com/enindex.htm* - this firm can also sell different grades of iberico ham at reasonable prices) --- I've seen a lot of non-Spaniards shy away from Jamón Iberico over the past few decades. Most of the time it was because of the bands of fat in the properly cut slices. I've even seen people strip them off and discard them. It should look like this: http://www.azuaga.es/feriadeliberico/lonch...ico_bellota.jpg or this: http://www.ibergour.com/images/loncha_do_extremadura.jpg Yet most foreigners seem to want and expect this: http://www.igourmet.com/images/products/slicedserrano.jpg If you come to London, be sure to visit R Garcia & Sons, 248-250 Portobello Road, London, W11 1LL (Notting Hill) They sell a wide variety of hams in their deli you can try. EDIT TO ADD Only the links marked * lead to online stores

I hope nobody minds me resurrecting an old (but obviously valuable) thread with my own contribution. My absolute favourite is La Cocina Gitana de Matilde Amaya Link here to some of the recipes (have to admit that some of the least 'appetising' recipes have been chosen to represent the book, the only ones I'm fond of are the Pestiños & the Asparagus dish) http://www.el-mundo.es/magazine/2002/142/1024040757.html - amongst the many which aren't featured is one for a salt cod and orange salad which is divine A more descriptive link here: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundolibro/2002/11...1038230132.html Thankfully, a good deal of the recipes don't feature lard (I don't eat lard or pork so I neither use, nor can recommend, any of the books in my mum's extensive collection). The recipes in Matilde Amaya's book do pretty much sum up the kind of Spanish food that was cooked for me by my grandmother (who doesn't come from a gypsy background) and which I most love to eat. Alas, I've never found a book for potajes and guisos which even touches on the recipes I get from a Murcian friend of mine who inherited and adapted them. As a rule of thumb for anyone trying to decide if a Spanish recipe book is 'authentic', just turn to the recipe for Paella. If the main ingredients are meat OR seafood, fine, but a paella should never have seafood AND meat together. The other telling detail is whether the 'paella' features onion (or chorizo/sausage). When it does, I put the book down and move on. Any trust I might have in the book's authenticity as a source for properly researched and genuine Spanish recipes is completely lost. http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r1784.html is a classic example of something that is probably a very nice rice dish yet which isn't a paella. I've looked through lots of Spanish recipe books in English at bookstores over the years, pretty much all of them feature a recipe for paella that includes onion. Even Gordon Ramsay calls his risotto style seafood dish 'paella' in his book "Passion For Seafood" (he also calls a sauce made with sieved cherry tomatoes and cream 'gazpacho' sauce... He seems to know about French cooking, he neither knows nor cares about Spanish food.) There's a bit of a Tokyo theme in this thread, only times I've eaten decent paellas outside of the Valencia region was on Christmas day once in Kamakura, and at the Ginza Espero which has since won a respectable second place in Sueca's 2007 'Best Paella in the World (including Valencia)' contest. There seems to be a bit of a Tapas 'boom' going on in Tokyo right now, and they're doing a much better job at replicating them than London has. fung jiao bao mentioned the Culinaria book's recipes not being accurate. I can testify to that. It's an interesting read, but the recipes themselves get a huge thumbs down from me. My mother has a copy that was given to her and she asked me to use it to make ajo blanco. The result was a pasty sludge rather than a refreshing soup. Nasty. --- Is Japanese rice an acceptable substitute for paella? Afraid not, not at all. But it's not a bad substitute for any number of alternative Spanish rice dishes. For instance, a classic simple dish served to children in the late afternoon is Arroz con ajo Heat 4 tablespoons olive oil, add two chopped cloves of garlic and cook until the garlic starts to become golden. Add 1 cup of rice and stir briefly (20-30 seconds is fine), then add two cups of water or stock, cover and leave to simmer gently for 10 minutes. At 10 minutes, add a couple of pinches of salt, and leave for another 10 minutes. Take off the heat and set aside for a few minutes. Serve with fried tomato sauce and a fried egg. The Japonica rice may need less water than the Spanish kinds (try initially with 1.25 or 1.50 cups), but even Spanish grains vary (bomba rice is particularly thirsty)

A bit late I'm afraid, But Chust Godoy within the city beat off all the Albufera (and Tokyo) competition to win the 'Best Paella' title in the last Sueca International Paella Contest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GsvsxGPZ18 (the comments in 'About this Video' are worth reading - as well as the cooking competition they describe how it got hijacked by a colourful slang fest between the invited right wing PP dignitaries and a Catalan left wing group) http://www.chustgodoy.com/ C/ Boix, 6 - 46003 Valencia Tel. 96 391 38 15 Fax.96 392 22 39 Google Map

I did mention her book above. It's a very good book with nice recipes. That's where I first started cooking NikuJaga. Sorry Hiroyuki but she calls for beef, not pork. ← My apologies, I somehow missed this mention. Thanks for pointing it out!

Whilst this book can serve as a good introduction, it does have some serious flaws. Many of the recipes are far too sweet, I suggest using half (or less) of the sugar recommended. I understand that tastes have changed in Japan, especially during this century, so this book probably reflects a now outmoded taste for heavily sweetened food. This means that the fried aubergine with Miso Sauce recipe is rather horrid. Also, a warning not to waste good prawns and scallops on the nasty rubbery okonomiyaki recipe (called Cabbage "Noodle" Pancake). Also, a few of the recipes call for large quantities of sake and give brief cooking times. The results can be overbearingly alcoholic... and not always in a pleasant way. It should be a good book for beginners, but I believe that only those who are familiar enough with Japanese food and have the confidence to tweak and adapt the recipes are going to get the best from them. And in this case, they're probably better getting off a different book entirely. --- I've noticed that there's no recommendations or comments on books by Tokiko Suzuki. I'll post again when I've worked my way through some more of her recipes.

Here's an amazing burger blog by someone who seems to be based in Tokyo. I dread to think what his cholesterol level has to be now. http://palstage.blog.ocn.ne.jp/palog/2006/01/post_aab3.html My own favorite is this one: http://palstage.blog.ocn.ne.jp/palog/2007/...r_caf_c745.html Zats Cafe, which sells Sasebo burgers* and is near the East Exit of Yoyogi Station (next to the train tracks). My fish burger was excellent, but I have to go on my husband's opinion of the massive Sasebo burger with avocado. It was huge, it was delicious, and what made it a very Japanese burger was that he didn't feel sick afterwards. The ladies who worked there made up the nicest burger crew I've ever come across. Even sitting in the tiny veranda with the Clock Tower above Takashimaya and the Yamanote line and Narita Express trains forming part of a constant rumbling and clanging backdrop was a delightfully unique experience. I can't wait to return! My husband likes Kua'Aina burgers very much, but this was unquestionably better. (Sasebo is a town in the south of Japan which has a fine reputation for burgers - introduced in WWII and adopted as the local delicacy. I believe Sasebo burgers have some kind of trademark on them.) Link to our own photos (taken Oct. 2007) Big Sasebo Burger Burger & Tower

A bit late for the OP, but I thought I'd mention some of my favourites. Number 1 is Leith's Vegetarian Bible (Polly Tyrer). It's a huge tome which will take me years to work through. So far there hasn't been one dud recipe. Plenty of simple options, but tons of more difficult ones when I feel like a challenge. Meat substitutes are barely touched on, and the recipes are well balanced and appetising (there isn't a heavy reliance on soy sauce or cheese). It's simply a great cook book that just happens to be vegetarian, and a constant source of inspiration. In Britain, The Vegetarian Epicure 2 by Anna Thomas is called 'From Anna's Kitchen '. I'm also rather fond of this book as a source of hearty comfort food and as a basic introduction to Mexican cooking (ingredients for which are particularly hard to source in the UK). I guess it helps that I'm not really a vegetarian (I was for nearly a decade but reverted to eating fish some time ago). Quite a few of her recipes feature Worcestershire sauce (which has anchovies) and then there's the infamous 3 pages written by her husband, Greg Nava, (see the scathing reviews in US Amazon) where instructions are given on how to spit roast a Turkey that "even 'vegetarians' want to try" . I think it's strange that so many Amazon reviewers fixated on these pages rather than comment on the inclusion of Worcestershire Sauce as a vegetarian ingredient, a potentially much more serious issue. (I'd suggest instead using a little marmite, or miso, or/and a dashi/porcini concentrate). Still a book I enjoy and can recommend. The third book I use and love isn't written for vegetarians. Nevertheless, it's been of enormous help to me in introducing new vegetables to my diet. I purchased it because I get a box of organically grown vegetables delivered weekly (mostly grown in the UK) and this forces me to confront vegetables I took an aversion to as a child, or which I'd just never cooked with before. Sophie Grigson's 'Vegetables' has become a real friend in the kitchen, helping me get the best out of familiar and unfamiliar ingredients (the Heston Blumenthal recipe she includes for cooking calabrese is sensational, yet very simple.) She's been instrumental in turning a vegetable I absolutely loathed to one I now love... passionately. I only bought this book a year ago, but I can now state that I like vegetables even more now than I did before I started using it. If you don't mind skipping (or adapting) the few recipes and tips that involve meat and fish, this really is an excellent resource.

I'm afraid it's been about 4 years since I spent any significant amount of time in Alicante. I went back for a weekend a couple of weeks ago and there had been enormous changes which makes most of the information I knew about restaurants and prices redundant. First, be reassured that there are some excellent markets in the centre of Alicante with very good prices. The Mercado Central has 3 large, separate sections. One is for meat, another for fish, and another has fruits and vegetables. A kilo of young artichokes was around 1.6 Euros. You might find even cheaper produce at Campoamor, where a large, temporary market is held weekly (near the Plaza de Toros). As the local produce is so good, I tend to indulge in cooking it when I'm in Alicante rather than going to restaurants. There has been a very recent 'boom' in kebaps in Alicante, kebap takeaways are now everywhere! Rotisserie chicken from pollastres is an enduring lunchtime favourite 'fast food'. These cost just over 5 Euros. The Casco Antiguo has also been revitalised and many restaurants have opened in the past few years. You're probably best off asking for recommendations when you get there. Depending where you live in Alicante, you may know someone who is a member of one of the regional associations. Once invited, these are wonderful places to eat. They specialise in food from the area they promote and this is offered at little above cost. On my last trip my husband and I had a two course evening meal with drinks for 5Euros each. List of associations here: http://www.alicante-ayto.es/p_ciudadana/po.../principal.html These associations tend to organise annual trips to the regions and can be excellent places to find out more about these areas. www.renfe.es will give you information about travelling to other parts of Spain. Murcia is one hour away by bus and costs about 4 Euros to get to. There is a stunning, newly built tram system (TAM) which will take you right up the coast to the edge of the region. Tickets start at 1 Euro. Apart from the more expensive Euromed and Talgo trains, there are a few cheaper trains each day to Valencia. These take only half an hour longer yet cost half the amount (just under 13Euros each way - you get a 40% discount on the return segment). I would recommend you avoid doing your grocery shopping at the Corte Ingles. The food is more expensive but does not taste better. It has more packaging and the food is more even, glossy and standardised (similar to how it is presented in the UK). They have opened a new gourmet section with specialities from around the country. Tempting, but very expensive. If you keep your travel to Barcelona to a minimum, 500Euros a month will be fine. (I've lived there spending much, much less than that and ate like a princess) I'd be very interested to find out which restaurants you like best.

I live in London but find that nagaimo (Dioscorea Opposita) from Japanese food stores is rather expensive, especially for the quantities we eat (or would like to eat) at home. When looking through the African and Caribbean stalls at Dalston Market recently, I noticed that amongst the many tubers there was one that looked exactly the same as nagaimo. According to wikipedia, nagaimo is pretty much the only yam that can be eaten raw, the others have toxins and require specific types of preparation. As you can imagine, this isn't something I'd like to get wrong. Unfortunately, I didn't ask the name of the tuber I saw that looked just like nagaimo, but I was hoping that someone with familiarity with African and Caribbean ingredients could tell me if there are any similar tubers that can be mistaken for Dioscorea Opposita, especially if these tubers can't be eaten raw. - I'm also interested in sourcing yamatoimo/yamaimo and tororo (tororo pic: http://storage.kanshin.com/free/img_26/263015/k982549537.jpg ) - but these tubers also seem to be called Dioscorea Opposita even though they all seem slightly different to me. Any help in making okonomiyaki more economical would be much appreciated.