torakris

PacMan was conceived at lunchtime... literally. The designer was very hungry, and ordered a whole pizza for himself. He took one slice, and Pacman was born. The name PacMan is derived from the Japanese slang word "paku-paku", which means "to eat". The game was called "PuckMan" in Japan, but due to American's predilection with changing words to vulgarities by scratching part of the word off (Puck to..well, you know), it was changed to PacMan. from here you learn new things everyday now the question is what to do with that knowledge.....

OK, thanks Kristin! so i found some nigari (tofu coagulant = bittern), and it is magnesium chloride, and i have my soybeans. questions: --do i dissolve the crystal MgCl in the equivalent amount of water that is in your original tofu recipe? --are there any standout recipes i should make with the soybean pulp/lees after draining the milk? i've heard it's widely used in Korean stews, and is called "combini" or something in Korean... --does the amount of coagulant, as well as the amount of draining, determine how firm the tofu is? thanks for any answers in advance, and i'm sorry if i'm repeating questions (hope not). gus ← Gus, I have only worked with the liquid stuff, but I found this (answers your third question as well ): Prepare coagulant – dissolve either one teaspoon Nigari (natural magnesium chloride) or two teaspoons natural calcium sulfate in one cup of warm water. Less coagulant produces softer tofu, More produces harder tofu. from here as to the soybean pulp/lees, this is called okara in Japanese and I gave one simple recipe in the soy class but doing a search on okara recipes on google gives many results of both Asian style dishes as well as western ones and baked goods...

3/17: 鯉のぼり koi nobori Colourful carp-shaped streamers are beginning to appear on bamboo poles all over Japan, as Boys' Festival (May 5) approaches. Parents hope that their sons will grow up strong and healthy like the carp fish, which are strong enough to swim up-stream and even jump upwards over waterfalls. The streamers are called koinobori in Japanese. more about koinobori with pictures

when I was 8 days overdue with #3 some Chinese friends told me to eat bamboo shoots, so I did and labor started less than an hour later..... good luck!

A couple very good points have been brought up. If you really want to eat at a specific restaurant find out as much as you can about it. Japanese restaurants can have weird hours, many are closed one day a week, others are open only for dinner, many stop taking orders after 9:00 or 9:30. To avoid the crowds, don't try to have lunch between 12 and 1 and try for an early dinner around 5 to 7. Cash, cash, cash Japan is still very much a cash using country, I use my credit card less than once a month. Though they are being more common many smaller restaurants still do not take cards and neither do many stores. I have never been concerned about carrying large amounts of cash in my wallet here. Though 24 hour ATM machines are being more common they can still be hard to find in many areas, at the bank I use the ATM is only available from 9 to 9.....

makimaki, I have a question.. can you go to the same restaurant more than once? or is there only one ticket per restaurant? do both people eating have to have the coupons or is it only needed by one person?

幽庵焼き yuan-yaki Last night I grilled some saba (mackeral) in the yuan-yaki style, it was first marinated in some soy, sake, mirin and yuzu slices then grilled. The picture doesn't do justice for how good this is... yuan-yaki isn't just for fish, I have seen chicken and even vegetables grilled with this marinade.

another great use for yuzu is yuan-yaki! Last night I grilled some saba (mackeral) in the yuan-yaki style, it was first marinated in some soy, sake, mirin and yuzu slices then grilled. The picture doesn't do justice for how good this is... yuan-yaki isn't just for fish, I have seen chicken and even vegetables grilled with this marinade.

yesterday I picked up some sakura senmaizuke senmaizuke ("thousand slice pickles") are pickled large turnips that are sliced very thin, usually seasoned with konbu (kelp) these were seasoned with sakura leaves and blossoms. You can see the blossom at the top of the package. These were great, the sweetness of the turnip blended perfectly with the saltiness of the sakura and the fragrance.....

We sort of skipped over two important chcolate eating days! 2/14 Valentine's Day in Japan the men get the chocolates... 3/14 White Day when the men give the sweets to the women a survey that was done about the two days

time to move away from hamo... 3/16: コイ　　鯉 koi carp koi

Don't bother trying to find Hiroshima-style in Tokyo, stick to what they do best and go for monjyayaki/monjayaki instead!! The best place to get this is in Tsukijima, Tokyo were there are somehing like 60 shops in 500m block, lots of okonomiyaki as well. Here is some information on how to eat monjyayaki as well as information about the all-you-can-eat monjyayaki boat cruise in Tokyo Bay.

You might try getting some buttermilk starter so you can make your own. I ordered some of this a while back but still haven't tried it. I believe that the process is just like making yogurt. Anyways, I'm sure that the milk-and-lemon-juice wil work fine for marinating the chicken. ← Edsel, I can not thank you enough for that link!!! I have been wanting to do some cheese making experimenting as well and now I have found the perfect place. Make your own buttermilk, wow, never thought of that.... I have tried that Saco (?) product of powdered buttermilk and it was ok in baked goods but didn't work for things like dressings and soups.

one of my favorite foods in Japan is a grilled ayu....

ayu is a summer fish, but if they start on May 11 I am assuming you should be able to eat it.... It is done at night but I am not sure until what time. all you ever wanted to know about ayu a bit about Ukai comorant fishing: Ukai (cormorant fishing) can be seen every night from 11 May to 15 October (except during a full moon or the 2 or 3 days following a heavy rain). In this ancient, 1300-year-old Japanese fishing method, trained ukai (seabirds) dive into the water in search of ayu, a small Japanese trout. At nightfall, wooden fires are lit in suspended cages at the front of long wooden boats to attract the ayu, whereupon leashed cormorants are released into the water. To ensure that the cormorants don't swallow the fish, the birds are fitted with neck rings. You can also dine and view the whole spectacle aboard a small wooden boat. from here so check your calendar to see when the full moon is going to appear and hope it doesn't rain!

I am planning on making tomakatsu tonight! I have to admit I have never given a thought to making my own sauce.... I want to try now I don't have dried apples though, I wonder if regular apples would work...

a similar article, also from Asahi, about a month ago actually talks about how the Japanese are wasting less.... The lunchtime crowd is determined to get its money's worth, hardly leaving a scrap untouched on dishes, a survey shows. Armed with scales and a sharp eye for detail, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries staff visited 100 restaurants nationwide-not to sample cuisine, but to glean valuable data. Their conclusion: The amount of uneaten food tucked under lettuce, hidden behind parsley or otherwise wasted after meals was 0.3 percent less than the year before.

yeah, I would say most of it is pretty true I do have a couple problems with statements like: Four years ago, when Shinohara was director-general of the Policy Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, he said he was stunned by what he saw at a supermarket in Kagoshima Prefecture at the southern end of Kyushu. Among the vegetables sold was lettuce grown in the highlands of Honshu. ``I thought it was such a waste to bring lettuce from so far away when it can easily be grown nearby,'' Shinohara said. But that's how things are in Japan. Many vegetables that have never been associated with one particular locale are now displayed at supermarkets with ads boasting their place of growth, often a prefecture hundreds of kilometers away. Japan is not a large country but it is long and some areas offer better growing conditions at different times of the year. I wouldn't be surprised to lettuce in Kagoshima in the dead of summer that had been grown in the highlands of Honshu. In the stores now a lot of the spring vegetables are showing up, things like bamboo shoots, butterbur, etc It is still too cold in the Kanto (Tokyo) area for these and almost all of them are from Kagoshima where it is already warmer. I don't like how the article says that they BOAST about where the food comes from, that information is there to INFORM the consumers. The Japanese are crazy about brand name foods though, actually they are crazy about brand name anything..... There have been numerous incidents of false labeling foods as a specific brand when they actually weren't.

and sometimes simple is the best..... hamo sashimi hamo sushi

I have added the 2005 Exposition to the eGullet calendar. We would love to hear more about your trip when it is over.

I think I am going to shallow fry, talk to me about the oil! I do not have access to bacon grease and the only bottle of peanut oil I have ever found here was completely flavorless.... I do have a container of crisco and I always have canola oil, what is your favorite oil for shallow frying fried chicken? and on a related note how much do you use? I noticed Brooks recipe called for 1 inch

Kris and others: it's easy to create a substitute "buttermilk" by placing one tablespoon of lemon juice or distilled white vinegar in a measuring cup and adding enough whole milk to make one cup. Let it stand for 10 minutes in the fridge before using. Not tasty enough to drink, but plenty good enough for fried chicken marinade. I prefer the lemon juice version. I'm so curious...why no buttermilk in Japan? ← proabably because the Japanese traditonally were not big consumers of dairy and it never played a part in their traditonal diet, even today they don't really bake or make the kind of things that buttermilk is used in.... I don't think I have yet met a Japanese person who has even heard of buttermilk, and of course it isn't exactly something that can be easily imported. So I make do without, I do the milk and lemon juice thing and find it works for most baked goods but you just can't use it for salad dressings, soups, etc

more gorgeous food pictures

I admit most of this is not food, but it is still some of the best pictures I have seen

well open them up and let us know!! I have had some really good Hokkaido camembert here in the Tokyo area. The Japanese don't make much decent cheese, but they do love their camembert and they do it well.