torakris

word for 5/1: 鮎せごし　 ayu segoshi This is a type of sashimi、but a bit different than the one you are used to. With segoshi the bones are left in and the fish is sliced and then placed in some vinegar to soften the bones . It can be served with soy sauce, sumiso (vinegared miso) or as a sunomono (vinegared dish). segoshi this picture is not of ayu but a similar fish, the ayu pictures were too small...

Well.... it all started when I got this silly idea of mountain biking to the top of Mt Fuji... We were just getting into the start of our second 12 hour day when it started pour, we decided to push on anyway. It was raining so hard it was difficult to see, when suddenly my front tire hit a large rock..... I wish it had been that exciting.... I tripped over a toy just outside my front door....

Kyoto seems to be the place of the month! Here is a short report with great pictures from Tokyo Food Page on Nishiki market and some of the recommended shops.

I have the cookbook Shunju: New Japanese Cuisine from the retaurant of the same name and although I have been dissapointed in some of the recipes (mostly very bad editing) they have some interesting cocktails. One that they call Aya or spring blessing is made with vodka, grapefruit juice, lemon juice, sakura liqueur and garnished with cherry blossoms. Kunpu or summer breeze is made with matcha, vodka, sudachi juice and a bit of sugar. Waiting for dusk or yoimachi is made with gin, yuzu liqueur, lime juice and yuzu juice. they also have a section on making fruit/herb liqueurs (they refer to them as tonics) incluing umeshu and others made with pears, cinnamon, gomishi ( a wild berry), catnip, strawberry, bayberry, raspberry, hasukappu (another wild berry), pine needles, mulberry and apricot.

great picture! I think it looks better in that Mashiko wine cup than it would in a martini glass..

Ben, I had no idea it was used in China.... I just started a new thread in the China forum discussing it. shiso in China thread

interesting article! and wow: For what shiso costs, it should add something that mint and basil don't. Jody Denton, chef of Azie in San Francisco, estimates that he pays up to 25 cents a leaf. Rocco Dispirito at Union Pacific in New York pays even more: $3.80 for a pack of 10 leaves. and I thought it could be expensive in Japan sometimes...

These just jumped into my shopping basket Cafe Latte Kit Kat quite good actually After devouring the package I notice it says on the back that they are even better chilled, guess I will need to get them again...

The most recent Nipponia that is on line is entirely about Kyoto

I LOVE banh mi! I have just decided Monday's lunch....

The Umenohana restaurants often have a small shop in the front that you can purchase some of their popular dishes. Yesterday a friend brought me over some of the tofu shumai that I loved so much. They were just as good at home.

4/30: 鮎巻き ayu maki These are whole ayu that are wrapped in kombu (kelp) and then simmered in a soy based sauce. 子持ち鮎巻き komochi ayumaki These are ayumaki made with ayu that have their belly swollen with eggs, komochi literally means "with child" I like to call them pregnant fish... the steps for making ayumaki thesea re the komochi type

I had never seen ayu translated as trout before... Doing some searching on the web (both English and Japanese) only comes up with a handful of sites that say that. If you look at the actual scientific classification they aren't even related. I had always thought the confusion lay between trout and salmon, as some of the fish referred to as salmon here are called trout in the US, or is it the other way around???

It probably just has two meanings, though I have no idea how well the awamori one is known outside of Okinawa. I have never heard of it but that doesn't mean anything.... Kara Kara could go either way (good or bad name) since I am not a native speaker I am unsure of the actual connotations it might have. Hiroyuki? It is pretty hard to find a recipe for these.... this looks pretty good though

kara kara is also the onomatopoeia for something that is very very dry, like bone-dry, it would be used to describe your throat when you are parched....

all I can say is wow! I didn't realize they were eaten all over the world.... I eat the Japanese versions a lot and actually have two tins each of iwashi (sardines), saba (mackeral) and sanma (saury pike). The difference is the Japanese one are filleted and seasoned in a soy based sauce. I just open a can and eat them with rice. I hadn't even thought about eating these sardines that way, I even have the sriracha and lemons, unfortunately I don't have any sandwich worthy bread but I do have lots of rice... I really like the pasta idea as well, I will eat anything that has fennel seeds in it.

My MIL gave me 5 tins of these. I have never used tinned sardines in any type of oil before and am unsure what to do with them... help...

I passed my crockpot onto a friend a couple years ago....

I am getting tons of ideas! The strange thing is that if someone else posted the question I would be able to rattle off a bunch of things, but I am drawing a blank when I need it .... My husband will go shopping on Sunday to stock up for the week and I am getting some great ideas for the shopping list.

I just found a bottle of this here in Japan, made by Kadoya (the big Japanese sesame oil maker). It is good it has a slightly more burnt flavor (but in a good way) and I think you would lose the flavor during cooking but it adds a nice accent when drizzled on foods or used in dipping sauces.

Eric, Thanks for the updates. I will be heading to Cleveland in 3 months and can't wait to try some of these places. My aunt has been raving about Phnom Penh since they opened and my parent's have even ben a couple times but for some reason I never make it over these on my trips home.... (born and bred eastsider ) It is on the top of my list for this summer!

I have never seen those second ones, they sound great. the poteko (first ones) are very popular here and a favorite of all children! My kids like to pile them on their fingers up to the tip and them eat them off one by one...

甜茶　is tencha. Tencha is the base tea for some of the best matcha, it is also high in poliphenole which is supposedly good for a variety of things. more here about poliphenole The name of the tea is: mitsu no sukkiri sozai de kaiteki kouka roughly translated it is something like pleasant results with 3 materials/ingredients It is sort an antioxidant drink

tepee, not only are cherry blossoms edible they are delicious. check out the cherry blossom thread hhhmmmm... now think I know what I will send to you in thanks for the tea, especially since my kids ate the other stuff I had bought to send.

I just checked but it isn't in stock at Amazon Japan... by the time it gets here from the US I won't need it anymore... anything else?