torakris

My brother just left Japan after visiting us for almost 2 weeks and he couldn't get enough of the 100 yen shops. We were at a different one almost everyday! The best thing he found were some Crate & Barrel dishes (made in Japan), we looked them up online and the dinner plates go for $18.95 in the US! He bought 8 of each of the dinner plates, salad plates, shallow bowls, bowls and mugs, a $600 value for just 4000 yen ($37.50) The dishes look like this. We could only find them at the chain of 100yen shops called Lemon, they have about 40 shops around Japan. I am really going to start paying more attention to the dishes!!

The best I was able to do was add the list of events (with the nice links you provided) to Alex's very first post in this thread. So all anyone needs to do is check post #1 and all the information is there. I am more than happy to help out in any prep, I'm not sure that I want the responsibility of a dish though... and I absolutely put my foot down on deep frying for 90 people! I also really want to come for Tom's bread class but this will mean a midnight bus ride from Cleveland arriving at 5:15am. Is there anything open that early around Union Station that I could pop into for a couple hours until the class starts?

Depending on the brand/type it might dissolve better in hot water but I usually don't bother. If I am making a dish that will be simmered I just sprinkle it into the pan after adding the water. If the dish isn't going to be cooked I either use warm water or mix it really well...

I guess I like my cornbread really sweet. I am a fan of the sweet cakey (almost dessert like) cornbreads. If you are really at a lost for what to do with those bags you can always save them until your next trip up to Tokyo.

A Japanese cup is 200ml. Try freezing it if you won't be using it within a day or two, though I probably wouldn't even bother if it was instant. What are you making? You can always cut your measurements down, I normally add just enough of the granules needed to make the liquid amount called for in the recipe.

That is a lot of dashi, I use 80ml (1/3 cup) with 5 medium eggs and it works perfectly. It would be really hard to make this in 2 minutes, it takes me about 5 in a small round fry pan.

I really like Hai Nan Chi Fan, I have only been to their Shiodome location though. They have a pretty decent menu with quite a bit of variety, here is their homepage. I really wish they would open a location closer to me! I remember hearing about Sacas a couple months back but as I don't find most of those shopping areas (like Omotesando Hills/Roppongi Hills) very interesting I promptly forgot about it. Good food may get me out there though.

Really? I'd have asked, but I didn't think anyone would be interested in joining me on a Friday night (y'all have families, after all). ← Just let me know. My husband works from home 75% of the time now so it is easier for me to get out when I want to. Some nights are better than others but it just depends.

RONA!! I'd would have gone with you! How much did the meal at Ryugin cost? There are so many restaurant report threads going on right now I really feel like I should get out more.... My last 3 meals out were at McDonald's and Skylark and Saizeriya (the last 2 are cheap family restaurants).

Another quick question. Randi passed onto to me some great information for cheap transportation on Megabus. It leaves Cleveland's Tower City (much closer to me than Hopkins) and goes to Chicago's Union Station. The return bus I am looking at leaves Union Station at almost midnight on Sunday. Is this an area I want to be standing by myself at that time of night? Anyone from Cleveland taking this bus? Or anyone going through Cleveland on it? The fares are different depending on the time, and my trip will cost between $20 and $50 depending on the time of the bus, much better than $180 and all the hassles of the airport.

It does sound like recycling! Fine Cooking is probably my favorite cooking magazine and the only one I pay to have shipped to Japan for me. The caramelized chicken thigh recipe is one of my favorites and I have been making it fairly regularly since I received that issue. I am going to need to pull out my magazines so I can contribute to this thread!

Thanks for the report. Where is this place? Only 54 more days....

Count me in for the Friday dinner! Just me... I'll take the seat next to Lucas. Quick question Is this restaurant anywhere near the Saturday venue or is it closer to the airport area? I will be flying in Friday and may aim to go straight to the restaurant if that is more feasible. Related question... How far away from O'Hare is the Saturday venue/hotel area?

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I make some variation of this quite frequently. It is so light as here is no oil and the pork slices are just barely boiled. Try it with yuzu-koshou instead of the wasabi for a wonderful twist. I also vary the vegetables depending on what I have in the house, any kind of lettuce or mizuna works, as well as bean sprouts and avocado. Sometimes I leave out the wasabi all together and add something like kaiware (daikon sprouts) for a different kind of kick. Often in the summer, this will be the entire meal (with rice, of course!).

I wish I had any idea, it is all just bamboo to me. I really enjoyed the restaurant and I would love to go back in a different season to try other things. It was just one of those really nice family run places that just served really good food at a price that I felt was almost too cheap. I really wanted to try the sansai tempura but I have a really hard time digesting deep fried foods and it was only the first day of our trip...

We just came back from a couple days in the Yoro-keikoku 養老渓谷 area of Chiba, and though we spent most of it camping we had a wonderful lunch at a restaurant called Kiyoe 清恵. Their specialties of the season were sansai (mountain vegetables) and takenoko (bamboo shoots), I chose their 1,100 yen ($11) takenoko meal. It was wonderful, I wish I could eat like that everyday and the price can not be beat. There was so much food I had to force myself to finish it. I didn't have my camera but they have a picture on their website right here. the first one

We spent the Golden Week holidays in Chiba and stopped at Umihotaru, the parking/ service area in the middle of the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line. The Aqua-Line is the worldest longest underwater car tunnel and runs from Kawasaki to Chiba. One of specialities that they sell are asari yaki, asari are a short neck clam that are found in Tokyo bay. The asari yaki look just like takoyaki but have the clams inside. Here is a picture, scroll down to the middle of the page.

Was this the May one? I glanced through it but I can't recall this recipe. I haven't bought cooking magazines for close to 6 months now but 3 days ago I picked up Orange Page (5/17 issue). I actually chose this because of a section "Okonomiyaki on the hot plate", I will have to give some a try and let everyone know.

Now this is cool! Canoe made from disposable chopsticks

With two recommendations , the magazine in the house and all the ingredients in the refrigerator I had to make this. It was really wonderful! The whole family loved it. It was a little a more time consuming than I like since I had to double the recipe to feed my family (3 batches to cook the chicken) but it was worth it and I will be making it again. I can't wait to try the Nigella chicken and sausage back but since I have neither in the house it is going to have to wait a bit. I have been in a serious cooking rut for almost 2 months and this thread has brought me out of it! Thanks everybody!

I have seen these in the stores and often wondered the same thing. A quick search came up with this list of 50 different soy sauces just for tamago kake gohan. Many of them are even divided into Kansai (western Japan) and Kanto (Eastern Japan) versions. I took a look at the first brand listed and it lists the ingredients for both versions as soy sauce, mirin and katsuo bushi. It also mentions that the Kansai version is a little sweeter. I am not a huge tamago kake fan but my husband eats it only once in a while and he is happy with soy sauce so I don't see a reason for another jar...

I love Okinawa Soba, especially the soki soba. Soki being incredible tasting marinated pork rib. Here is a nice picture with some information about it at wikipedia. I wish it was more readily available...

Cornbread mix??? I didn't see any cornbread mix! Was it around the brownie-mix and flour area? We went during peak shopping hours and I was trying to get out of there as soon as I could, so we didn't browse very much. I didn't notice that the prices were any lower than usual, but a lot of the stuff we bought was stuff I don't usually buy (i.e. they weren't things I normally know the prices of). Here are some examples of the prices for the imported goods we bought: Best Foods Mayonnaise Y588 Kirkland Toilet paper Y2438 Kettle chips Y668 Kirkland Albacore Tuna Y1398 They're about the same as before, aren't they? ← The cornbread mix at my store has been on the corner of the aisle with the flours other mixes, etc for a couple months now. It really is good and I never buy mixes, give me a bottle of honey and I can devour the pan in one sitting. I don't ever recall the mayonnaise being over 500 yen and though I never buy it I thought the tuna was a little cheaper as well. The chips sound about right.

Ah, so that also explains why a couple of weeks ago I had such a hard time finding butter. Even Daiei was completely sold out, and the other grocery stores only had the Y400/200g blocks (and up). I'll stock up next time I find some. ← This also explains why I haven't been able to find it on sale recently. At least once a month one of the supermarkets in my area would have it on sale for 198 yen ($2 for the 200g block), now I can rarely find it under 350 yen a block! Has anyone else noticed the price of bread has jumped up too? Back to Costco though, my new favorite product is their cornbread mix. It is a large box of 5 packs of mix and the brand is Penguin. I have been making it almost once a week it is so good. Rona, did you notice any lower prices now that the dollar has dropped so low? I won't be able to make it out there until the 2nd or 3rd week of April and I really hope the prices have come down some.

I am the only one who doesn't like the butter-soy combination? It is probably because I don't like the taste of butter... I have tried a couple of recipes, mostly fish and vegetables, and while my family enjoys it I just can't. While I was leafing through a cooking magazine at the Dentist's office on Saturday I saw a recipe for tuna steaks with a butter-soy sauce but made with the addition of vinegar. It called for 1 tablespoon of butter (in which some veggies were cooked before searing the tuna) then a sauce was made by adding 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Anyone ever try adding vinegar to this combo?