torakris

This is fascinating! Those pictures of the shops are gorgeous, looks very similar to Japan (but much cheaper! ) especially with the trimming and individual wrapping of the fruit. Carrefour is my favorite store in Japan too! They have somethings you can buy from the barels but they seem to be getting less and less as the Japanese don't seem to be familiar with this concept....

My favorites are the cherry vanilla and cookie dough, neither of which is available in Japan... It looks like the flavors vary by country, the new products listed for Japan I can't find on the US page. They are from left to right: chai melon mango-coconut panna cotta-raspberry

I am not a drinker, but I have never heard of this in the US before. I love going into izakayas or other small mom n pop run places and looking at all of the bottles lining the walls. I am pretty sure they also do it in higher priced bars and hostess bar type places but I have never been into those....

we don't really talk enough about yakiniku. First off for those of us in Japan, Gyukaku is having a special this weekend with almost half off some of their most popular dishes, including the beer! Gyukaku We are going tomorrow, my favorite harami is on sale at 290 yen (about $2.50) from 515 yen (about $5.00). SO what are some of your favorite dishes at yakiniku places? What are some of your favorite places? Gyukaku is decent, definitely not the best, but I like their variety and the prices are good for our family of 5. I may be splurging a bit tomorrow.

Do those bananas taste any different from regular ones? This blog should prove interesting.....

The ones with candles are often used in restaurants for individual servings. something like this

In most Japanese homes the nabes are used on a conro that looks like this the casettes are inserted into the part on the right How big is your nabe?

yes it is quite common.

Halibut isn't common in Japan as it isn't found in local waters, it is shipped into the country but I don't recall ever seeing it. It is called ohyou (pronounced like oh-hyo, with a long o on the end) オヒョウ Here is a list of some halibut/flouders with the English and Japanese names (as well as French and the scientific names)

My new hot plate with a takoyaki grill came about 2 hours ago. I have only made takoyaki once in my life, though I have eaten it many times. Any favorite recipes? what about akashiyaki (aka tamagoyaki)? Akashiyaki are a specialty of Akashi City in Hyogo prefecture and there they are referred to as tamagoyaki. They are softer than takoyaki and are eaten dipped into dashi rather than covered in sauce. Like this.

found it! I love the pictures at this one.....

Kanazawa Maimon Sushi has a couple branches in various areas of Japan with the main (honten) being in Kanazawa. I am lucky that one of the branches in very close to my house and I enjoyed a lunch there yestersday with some friends. This is a kaiten sushi place but has an equal amount of seats at tables and a couple private rooms, as I was with a group of 10 we choose a table over the revolving sushi bar. The have special lunch sets in the 1200 yen to 2500yen ($11 to $24) and you can also order anything from the sushi bar. We all chose sets and I had the 1600 yen ($15) one. I found this to be an incredible deal as ordering separately could have set me back 5000 yen ($45) for lunch. The set included various nigiri plus a side of tempura (shrimp, squid, eggplant and shishito pepper) as well as a wonderful chawanmushi (steamed egg custard), miso soup (with wakame seaweed and half a crab) and a dessert of annindofu (almond jelly). Sorry for the bad picture my battery was dead and so I was unable to use the flash. everything but the soup a close up of the sushi I will definitely be back, I really want to try the sushi bar next time but I know it will set me back a lot more than lunch.....

Buckwheat makes a wonderful tea. Called soba-cha in Japanese it is really great either hot or cold, the most popular one in Japan is dattan soba-cha from China. Couldn't find too many non-Japan sources, here is one.

In a different thread I talked about these wonderful kurozato (raw "black" sugar) caramels (right) A couple days ago I found matcha flavored ones The matcha ones are quite good but I think I prefer the kurozato ones. I also found the passion fruit kit kats and they were actually quite good, I will definitely buy them again.

2/19: We already looked at the anago-don, but there are a couple other rice dishes using anago as well. anago meshi this is a popular dish for bentos, though it can be made at home and found in restaurants as well anago no chirashizushi this "scattered" rice dish is wonderful when made with anago anago chaahan anago fried rice

Sackville, welcome to eGullet and the Japan Forum! I am assuming you mean a donabe? If you have some time take a look at our 3 page nabemono thread. The donabe is also great for making oden, here is the oden thread. I also love to use my donabe for making fondue, but that isn't exactly Japanese food, is it.....? What kind of nabes did you have in Japan? Are you looking to recreate something?

The new thing I heard for the first time this year is tomo-choco, short for tomodachi (friend) chocolate. This seems to be most popular among school aged girls and it is chocolate, most commonly homemade, given to fellow female friends. My daughters both received a couple pieces of this tomo-choco this year.

Here is a nice article that gives some information about liquors in Japan. Also just some side notes if you happen to be drinking with others, in Japan you shouldn't pour your own drinks, doesn't matter if you are pouring from a can, a bottle or a little container of sake. You should let your drinking partners do the pouring and you do the pouring for them. If you want to say 'cheers' in Japanese, you say 'kampai', but I am sure your husband has learned that word!

I don't drink, so I am sure some others have more to offer here but in general the Japanese love to drink and in most places a drink before you even order is almost expected. Most common drinks here are beer, sake, shochu and wine. Cocktails have popping up in a lot of places that cater to women, but as for hard liquor I don't know too many Japanese who drink anything besides an occasional whiskey and often very watered down rather than on the rocks). In most Japanese style restaurants there maybe no choice outside of beer, sake and shochu, though some are offering wine and cocktails recently. In western restaurants you might have a bigger selection. Here is a menu from a Japanese style restaurant in Roppongi which shows fairly typical drink prices. scroll down just past the food. This site also offers menus for various restaurants in the Tokyo- Yokohama area, all in English, so you might want to browse it a bit to get a feel for how much they will set you back.

How much time do you have? I found this list of food related blogs in Japanese I looked at a couple and they have some with great pictures. I had run across this great food blog a little while ago, but I forgot to bookmark it...

I think those little containers of karashi powder (that you mix with water) are just straight ground mustard seed, but the tube stuff has quite a few additions. The nuri-karashi I pictured above even lists rice vinegar as one of the ingredients. and how could I forget kaku-ni?? thanks kazuo

I just ordered my hot plate minutes ago! I was ordering a book for my book discussion group but it was only 1200 yen, not enough to get the free shipping (needs to be over 1500yen) so I said what the heck and ordered the hot plate too! I will let you know what I think of it and post pictures of our first meal with it!

2/18: anago can also be used as a topping for noodle dishes anago nyuumen anago ramen anago soba even anago pasta

2/17: 穴子丼 anago-don Anago served donburi style (in a large bowl on top of rice) is quite popular especially in the Kansai (Osaka) area. anagodon

I do it both ways, though I think I slightly prefer the soy sauce/wasabi. For some reason when I make the miso version I like it with sliced up (raw) okra added as well. Okra and miso go wonderfully together.