torakris

asari were on sale yesterday!

I just realized your mix has the brown rice already in it... I should read more carefully. Does your rice cooker have a brown rice setting? In either case you should soak it for at least 5 hours, then try it in the rice cooker, if that does work I guess you will need to do it at the stove.....

For some reason I can't see the picture in the link.... I use a grain mix that looks like this I soak this mix for about 6 hours and then I add it to rice that has soaked for about 30 minutes to 1 hour and I cook it in the rice cooker with no problem. I usually use 1/2 cup of the mixed grain to 3 cups of white rice. One cup being the rice cooker cup of 180cc...

I haven't been to Carrefour for a couple weeks and I usually avoid the cookware aisle because the Le Crueset stuff always tempts me... I wonder about the copper pans, I just might have to take a look! EDITED to add that I don't see any mention of it in this week's flyer

1/24: The best place to get unagi is of course an うなぎ屋　unagiya, or unagi restaurant. Thes eare often noticable by the sign out front of an elongate u う　which also resembles the shape of an eel. I couldn't find a good picture of this sign (it is really hard to search for!) but it looks something like this: unagi sign

not the best picture, but.... the pork belly marinating Corrine Trang's recipe calls for honey, hoisin, soy sauce, sugar, shaoxing wine and garlic. I had to leave out the fermented bean curd as it wasn't at either of the stores I went to this morning and she also calls for red food coloring but I don't find it necessary.

I have no parchment, so will be using wax paper, thanks to these hints I will try oiling it first. Stores open in 5 minutes I am off to by some pork belly, bao is on the menu for tonight!!

wow thanks for all the informative replies. I was a bit surprised when I opened the bottle of dalmation sage and found it "fluffy" sort of like the dust you find under your couch.... not really liekt eh other dried leaves I am used to, but the sausage turned out great. After I came home though and looked at the book I realized it called for ground sage. so I just crumbled it up in my hands. Could you use fresh sage in sausages? and like Fifi mentioned what is up with the word sauSAGE?

this was even more helpful! I was planning a space next to a wall that has sort of limited sunlight, back to the drawing board for my garden plans....

I just found out that yuzu koshou is also available made with red chiles instead of green: https://www.websuite.ne.jp/aquarius/ec/youk...ods/l110054.gif and they aslo sell it in a tube now! https://www.websuite.ne.jp/aquarius/ec/youk...ods/l111308.gif

gorgeous!!

This helps me a lot! I also bought shiso as seedlings and they quickly died no matter what I did, I am going to do them from seeds this year!

In another thread culinista asked: Can anyone recommend a good book on meibutsu? I can read Japanese but would have to mail order the book. any ideas?

I am going to move your question over to the cookbook thread as well in the same thread there was also some discussion that was similar starting with this post

I went to the store to buy some sage this morning for my first attempt at sausage making. I don't know too much about sage and, obviously since I had to make a trip to the store to buy it, I don't really cook with it. Staring at the shelves I realized I had no idea what I really was looking for. There were a couple different types, one was called Dalmation sage (whole crumbled leaves). Another said it was freeze-dried(again whole crumbled leaves), which confused me because I never given a thought to exactly how are dried herbs got that way. The freeze dried type was a much brighter green than the Dalmation one. There was also ground sage and it made me remember my mother having a bottle of something called rubbed sage... What do you do with all of these different types? Is one better than another for all purpose use? What exactly is Dalmation sage, just one specific variety? this is the one I bought, by the way.

Edsel, you are very right! Northeast Ohio is not the best place to find Asian products..... I was just digging through my cupboards and look what I found! It is probably a couple years old, I had to dust it off before taking the picture... Is it still good? It is the Pagoda brand and this is the one that you can find in most stores in Japan, is it any good? I must have bought it when I was going through a Chinese kick about 3 years ago.

just came back from the store and they had a different type of fermented bean curd than the one I am used to seeing. This was fermented with rice and actually had whole pieces of rice in it and it was a very light brown color. Is this a completely different product? I aslo picked up a new Japanese cooking magazine because as I was flipping through they have a special section all on bao! Maybe I will try one of the Japanese versions as well....

1/22: unagi is also very popular at the sushi bar, somethings you will find include the following: にぎり nigiri http://www.sushi-am-main.de/SAM%20Website....shi/11Unagi.gif 巻き maki roll http://www.origamirestaurant.com/sushi/images/maki_unagi.jpg うなきゅう　鰻きゅう　　鰻胡　(usually followed by maki 巻き） unakyu (unakyuu) maki roll with unagi and kyuuri (cucumber) http://www.flavorj.com/~skysea/sushi/unakyu.jpg

Mari at the blog 'watashi to Tokyo' has a recent entry on health foods of the moment in Japan with a lot of good link, look here I have to agree about black beans they just started popping up everywhere after a show touted their great health benefits, I am also currently drinking black bean tea and I really like it.

A bit about nigari from here Natural calcium sulfate (gypsum) and magnesium chloride (nigari) are the most common tofu coagulant used. They have been used for hundreds years in Japan and China. Nigari is composed mainly of magnesium chloride, but also contains other minerals found in sea water except most of the sodium chloride (sea salt). Gypsum is a naturally occurring calcium sulfate. more information can be found in the nigari thread

gorgeous pictures Wendy!! I guess I am off this morning to buy some fermented bean curd, yeah I love kimchi too so I don't know what I am afraid of... my recipe, from Corrine Trang, calls for shaoxing as well, how owuld sake work as a substitute? I am pretty sure I could get a bottle of decent shaoxing here if I looked. Are there any good brands to keep an eye out for? My bao recipe calls for BOTH yeast and baking powder.....

my recipe calls for the fermented bean curd as well, I know that I can get my hands on it easily, but do I really need it? Do people have a preference of with or without? I am not sure if it was ever included in any of the versions I have ever eaten before.... I guess I have a problem with foods that include the word fermented...... even though I love natto...

The kids and I stopped at the 3F convenience store by our house today. The got an onigiri set with various meats (Hide), a teriyaki-mayo burger (Julia) and a fish burger with tartar sauce (Mia) I got a Korean style takikomigohan after heating and drizzling with the pack of kochujang that had been included wasn't bad at all...

Found two new potato chips today The one on the left is called Tiger Shinjyao and is seasoned with karashi (Japanese mustard) and black sesame seeds on the right is Dragon Maaraa with sanshou (Japanese prickly ash ) and togarashi (chile peppers) I am eating the Tiger mustard ones now and all I can say is damn! these are good! They are put out by Yamayoshi and I bought them at 3F convenience store and the sign said they were only available at this convenience store chain.....

We recieved the results of the poll and number 1 was bibimbap! 2 was curry rice and 3 was a hamburger patty. I am pretty sure that 10 years ago most Japanese didn't even know what bibimbap was..... Mia said she voted for bibimbap while Julia voted for curry rice.