torakris

the hanami forecasts are out! this link will give you some of the best places in Japan to view the cherry blossoms as well (at the bottom) the most likely dates for the booming in different parts of Japan

3/11: ハモ丼 hamodon the don is from donburi, the dish of rice with something on top in this case hamo... this a great use for the yaki hamo discussed above hamodon

3/10: 焼きはも yaki hamo grilled hamo, similar to unagi kabayaki yaki hamo

It isn't the best picture but in upper left corner that is a bowl of annindofu, creamy style. I prefer the creamy and this one was particularly good... by the way, both of my daughters have the anzu (apricot) character 杏　in their names. Mia 未衣杏 Julia 珠理杏

The food court at Costco is always packed, we have a hard time finding a table... The price is just too good to pass up! 250 yen ($2.40) for an American sized hotdog and a drink (with free refills) you can't get that anywhere here...... I was talking with a Japanese friend about Carrefour, we couldn't believe it is really going to be leaving. Does anyone know when? I will check out their sale, if there is one....

I had never heard of haskap, I don't think I have ever seen them in this area.... this site lists a wide variety of products and pictures

last night's tofu-mizuna-myouga salad was dressed with my kabosu ponzu...wonderful!

I just found this great tofu! A friend recommended it so I thought I would try it, it was some tof the best supermarket tofu I have had and the price can't be beat at 158yen for 500g. It is called dondoko tofu どんどこ豆腐 I turned it into a salad with mizuna and myoga, dressed with a kabosu ponzu

3 kinds of pickled garlic spicy vinegar pickled, soy sauce pickled and ume-katsuobushi pickled I only tried the soy ones so far and found them so gross I had to spit it out! my husband loved it.... I also picked up this 3 year takuan, yes it is actually pickled for 3 years. it was ok, I didn't really care for the taste but my two daughters loed it and finished it off between them.....

I just found this nanohana (broccoli rabe) konnyaku I t was really quite good, I just sliced it sashimi style and served it with a karashi-joyu (karashi and soy sauce)

I thought I would start this thread to help people who may be traveling to Japan, especially those who are interested in the best foods adventure they can get. My biggest tip for eating well yet frugally is to eat your big meals at lunch. Lunch prices at many places are close to half the price of dinner and often of similar quality. In some places dinners are exactly the same just more expensive..... In the case of kaiseki this is often a very good option with a couple other bonuses: 1 weekday lunches can be less crowded 2 the scenery can actually be seen, many kaiseki places have incredible scenery and though they are lit up by lights at night, I think it looks much better in the day Save the cheap meals that you want to try like ramen, okonomiyaki, etc for dinner this is when these kinds of places get hopping and the prices don't change. Another tip is to pay attention to when you want to come to Japan. Most Japanese workers have 3 major holidays every year: Golden Week from about April 29 to May 5 Obon around the second week of August Oshogatsu from about December 29 to January 4 during these periods tourist areas will be very crowded and prices are raised considerably, the roads and trains are unbelievably crowded. Also during the first couple days of January many stores and restaurants will be closed. My favorite months here are May and October, the weather is very comfortable and it is just great to be outside. Rainy season runs from June into early July and some years are much worse than others. any other tips?

I just dug this up, verjuice's account of a meal at Hyotei: I knew that I wanted to experience kaiseki-ryori (classic Japanese haute cuisine evolved from tea ceremony) while in Kyoto, along with yudofu and ramen. I had my kaiseki meal at Hyotei, which is where Jeffrey Steingarten had the kaiseki meal he wrote about in Kyoto Cuisine (The Man Who Ate Everything). Steingarten ate there at the same time of the year over a decade ago, and I was surprised to find that my meal varied only slightly from the one he describes. Since only fresh, seasonal ingredients are used in a kaiseki meal, I suppose that this explains most of the similarities and/or parallels. It was raining lightly when I arrived and I was led through the garden to a four hundred year old tearoom lined with tatami mats. I thought that the dampness brought out more of that “hamster cage” odor from the mats, which I actually appreciate. I was served seven courses, with the order of the meal following the traditional sequence of courses defined by cooking technique; beginning with zensai (appetizers), suimono (clear soup), and sashimi and moving into yakimono (grilled) and/or mushimonto (steamed) and nimono (simmered) and then on to agemono (fried) and rice and sunomono (pickled) and cooked vegetables (aemono), traditionally ended with tea and dessert. Everything about the meal was thoughtfully considered, beautifully orchestrated, and flawlessly executed. The presentation was exquisite, but best of all it was lots of fun. I was started off with a cup of sencha and a warm towel, and then ordered daiginjo when I was offered a choice between sake and beer. The first course, presented on a bright lapis-colored plate shaped like a flower, was tai (bream) sashimi; three overlapping slices on an edible leaf, with the delicious pine bark patterned skin attached. A tangle of green pea shoots, a baby cucumber still with its brilliant, edible yellow flower and a delicate, pale lavender shoot of myoga (Japanese wild ginger) were perched alongside. Next came a light dashi in which floated a silky rectangle of yomogi (mugwort) tofu studded with black sesame and a pea-sized dab of wasabi. The broth was brimming with junsai (water shield), which are gelatinous little pods that burst in the mouth and taste pleasantly of pond scum. Their texture is one of the most interesting I have ever experienced, with a mouthfeel that compelled me to emit a few childish giggles as they burst and popped. Next came more fish, rolled this time and filled with uni and abalone, and poached in a sweet white miso broth which contained a few strips of yuzu zest and three decorative rings of unidentifiable green vegetable that looked like olives and tasted of nothing. This was followed by a tai chimaki, which is a sort of Japanese tamale of non-glutinous rice rolled, along with the raw fish, into a cone and wrapped in a bamboo leaf. Each of the four corners of the tray that held the chimaki carried its own treasure; three bright, tempura-fried fava beans, a sweet. tender morsel of the much-loved and highly coveted hamo (pike conger), a halved boiled egg with a creamy, liquescent yolk, and a translucent slice of yuzu sandwiched by two thin slices of Japanese mackerel. The next course was a bowl of grass-green matcha congee in which rested a tangle of fresh yuba and about a teaspoonful of a coral-hued and mild-mannered ama ebi (sweet shrimp) paste. What made this dish extraordinary was the undeniably potent whiff of yuzu that hits as soon as the lid is lifted from the bowl but doesn’t seem to interfere with the subtle flavors of the other ingredients. This was followed by panfried suzuki (sea bass) with a few springs of something that reminded me vaguely of dill. After this, I was poured a cup of hojibancha (a Kyoto specialty) and served a dark miso soup with five short celery sticks and a single fern-like vegetable hiding in its depths (gotta love dark miso soup for that reason alone), warmly spicy myoga-infused rice and two kinds of pickle; one of shiso and cucumber and the other of enoki and tiny silver fish. Dessert followed; some sort of broken jelly in which two ambrosial slices of strawberry and two of grapefruit were suspended. This was garnished with a single candied black bean, and followed by usa-cha (thin whipped green tea) and a lavender-tipped mochi sweet filled with smooth white bean paste. from this thread

neither of these questions is easy... The first one would just depend on who you ask.... I personally find food in Kyoto to be a bit on the bland side and prefer the kaiseki meals I have had in Tokyo. Some people say Kyoto has the best foods as they have superior water that makes evverything taste better.... Kaiseki is sort of like a branch of kyo-kaiseki, which in itself evolved from cha-kaiseki (the meals served with the tradtional tea ceremony). I think part of the difference now is the ingedients used for kyo-kaiseki are traditional Kyoto foods like fu (wheat gluten) and yuba (soy milk skins), etc, though you may find these in regular kaiseki as well....

One of the most famous kaiseki places in Kyoto is Hyotei. some info in English Japanese homepage The reason I ask the time of year is that the scenery is sometimes the best part of the meal. During the summer in Kyoto some restaurnants open up platforms over rivers and Kyoto is also very famous for its autumn scenery. Early mid April you might still be able to see the sakura (cherry blossoms) by later in the month they will be gone.

what time of year? and is price an object?

3/9: My next door neighbor, recently transplanted from Osaka, says her favorite way to eat hamo is as tempura... ハモ天ぷら hamo tempura

my first meal after two days in bed with food poisoning , I still wasn't up to preparing anything and just wanted something light.... a seaweed and vegetable salad (with shiso dressing--no oil added type), there is a bunch aof julienned daikon under the seaweed masu sushi onigiri

tororo with okra, miso, soy sauce and myouga (the red pieces), sorry really bad picture...

3/8: ハモちり hamo chiri ハモちり鍋 hamo chiri nabe ハモ鍋 hamo nabe This is similar to yubiki/otoshi, though it is usually cooked in a dashi broth rather than water, though I have seen a couple recipes for hamo chiri that are cooke with just water and served very similar to yubiki/otoshi. When the word nabe is tacked onto it you can be pretty sure it will be a a full out nabe complete with a variety of vegetables. These words can mean different things to different people and sometimes mean nothing to those who live outside Kansai (Osaka area) as hamo is hard to come by in other areas, I almost never see it in supermarkets in my area. hamo nabe EDIT: hamo nabe is most likely served with a ponzu sauce

NOOOOOO!!!! I had been going there forever.....

I did a similar trip last summer, my sister lives in Boston and I spent a week with her. I spent the days by myself wandering around and we would get together at night for dinner. Boston is a great place and so easy to move around even for a first timer. One day I spent the whole morning in Filene's basement and then walked over to Chinatown and picked up a $2 banh mi (mix bakery), wonderful by the way, then walked a bit around China town, actually I kept walking out of it.... I also spent a great day at the Fine Arts Museum, the price was a bit steep but it was definitely worth it, I then walked down the street the Bon au pain and had a nice lunch on the terrace watching the crowds and traffic go by. Boston was great and I am sure you will find lots to do, I am looking forward to my second trip there this summer.

The kids show my children were watching this morning had a commercial for a new salad dressing that is it a tube and is jellied.... I don't know which is weirder this product or the fact that they played the commercial 3 times in a row!! Ebara's jellied dressings Japanese style flavor, basil and lemon, and black vinegar and ginger click on any of the products for more information, these are all non-oil (no oil used) products

I just discovered the hamburger blog! it is in Japanese but has lots of great pictures, Japan has more choices than I realized....

the preparation is the same, it is mostly a regional name difference

The store at Mayfield and Richmond is Sunland Asia Foods the one i mentioned above, in my opinion this is the best Asian store on the East side, of course there aren't too many to begin with. I think the Asian store you are thinking of by Lakshmi is the old Sunland location, unless something opened up since August when I was last there. I visited Heather's store last summer (twice ) and loved it, lots of great spices and a selection of sauces that would blow your mind. I worked my way around the store eating all of the samples...about 3 times It was probably the only store in Legacy Village that is worth the trip (and I live less than 10 minutes away...). Of course the gelato at La Gelateria is good, but I prefer the location at Cedar-Fairmount. Also a great place to stop for both food and some shopping is Amir's on Mayfield at Green Rd. Great Lebanese food and lots of middle eastern ingredients. Amir's