torakris

12/6: we discussed all of the different types of ajitsuke kazunoko you can buy, but what if you want to make it yourself? here is one recipe, in English: http://www.nsknet.or.jp/~chrkaji/yasuko/recipe/100_e.html

what about suppon (snapping turtle)? I have never tried this though...

I would have to say unagi is probably my favorite as well, we are actually having it for dinner tonight! I also found a recipe a couple years back called something like buta no stamina-yaki (stamina grilled pork), it is just like a shouga-yaki but you use garlic instead of ginger.

I would love it!

in 1936 in Japan, garlic was found to contain a substance called "scordinine" which is effective for increasing stamina, for helping the body recover from fatigue, and for promoting metabolism. from here: http://www.iwantmyvitamins.com/articles/th...r-of-garlic.htm lots of other benefits as well...

In bagel shops it is normally sandwich toppings or cream cheese. This is one shop I frequent occasionally: http://www.dreamcorp.co.jp/ click on menu to see their variety and scroll down a bit to see the sandwiches, I really like the smoked salmon on the spinach bagel for lunch or the cranberry with cream cheese for a snack. I am not sure if they still have it or not, but for a while McDonald's had a fried egg and bagel sandwich on their breakfast menu.

No you are right, good bagels should be chewy and moist, but everyone has their preferences. Properly cooked bagels should be boiled, but I don't think there is any rule/law that says you must boil it to call it a bagel. My favorite bagel shop doesn't really sweeten them either , though they tend to have a lot of naturally sweet fruit ones, blueberry are also one of my favorites.

I am guilty as well, Costco bagels are no different than US supermarket bagels but at 50 yen ($.50) a piece compared to about 150 ($1.50) yen a piece for a Japanese bagel, I don't have much choice....

actually bagels in Japan can be quite good, it just depends on where you buy them. Bagel shops/cafes are quite popular in my area and there are a couple around, when my kids were smaller we used to go quite often. Here is one type of place: http://www.ka4.koalanet.ne.jp/~g-berry/BagelShop2.html scroll for lots of pictures, they look good don't they? The ones in the supermarkets are pretty abd though, but I would say the same thing for the US...

I buy my bagels at Costco....

I just ran across this article from Savuer magazine: http://www.saveur.com/article.jsp?ID=15581&typeID=350 It discusses the different parts of a kaiseki meal, there are a couple interesting side articles as well. We haven't had a kaiseki thread before, though there was some discussion in the order of a Japanese meal thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=22315 discuss.....

That is a difficult one, something like "easy to swallow" just doesn't describe it...

great buys! We have a couple Daiso stores in our area and for some reason the other ones seem to have fruit names, orenji (orange) and remon (lemon)..... I picked up almost all of the my kid's stocking stuffers at the 100 yen shop!

then there are some that describe the actual act of eating もぐもぐ mogu mogu sort of the munch munch sound from eating ぱくぱく　　ばくばく paku paku baku baku eating quickly (I am not really sure of the difference between these two...) ばりばり bari bari the crunch sound from biting into crunchy foods

ざらざら zara zara sandy, gritty not normally a good thing!

word for 12/4: 松前漬 matsumaezuke (mah-tsu-my-zoo-kay) This is dish that is very popular around the new year and normally with consist of finely sliced konbu (kelp), finely sliced dried squid, kazunoko and carrots and seasoned with a sake-soy dressing. here is a version I made a little while ago: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=541163

it looks and tastes great! The black rice is a bit more like mochi rice, so it has a slight stickness/chewiness to it and the mung beans give a little bite. I can easily make a meal out of that rice and some pickles. I will post a picture of the finished dish next time I make it.

I love this mixed grain rice and use it often, the one I buy looks like this and you mix it into your regular white rice, but it needs to be soaked for a couple hours before.

. Also, do you know if the produce they sell is grown in Japan or imported? Seeing the prices, it is probably imported, but I thought it was quite difficult to get the Japanese govenment to allow import of many types of produce. ← The produce is a mixture, I almost always buy the celery (American) and zometimes the bags of cut lettuce (American) but the heads of iceberg are always Japanese. The carrots and potatoes I picked up two days ago were both from Hokkaido while strawberries and pomegranates were Californian and the kabocha from Mexico....

another one that most people are familiar with is shabu shabu = sort of like swish swish, or the sound the meat makes as you are swirling it through the stock/water

I don't really like youkan either...

I have been in Japan for close to 15 years now and I still have problems with onomatopoeias, no not just spelling that word (which I actually had to cut and paste--twice ) but what the sounds are actually describing. Onomatopoeias (cut and pasted again ) are words used to descibe a sounds and there are an incredible amount used in the Japanese language, especially when describing food. what are some of your favorites? I like karikari = crispy but there is also garigari = crunchy

If you live near an Asian market try looking for these this is what many Japanese people use to brew their tea, you spoon the tea in the open top and then fold it over itself, sort of like a sandwich bag. I actually use these for herbs, when steeping them or is soups/stews/etc as I don't drink much tea... This contains 60 bags and cost be about $2 (could be more expensive outside of Japan though).

ozouni actually has its own thread! http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...st=0&p=449582

I use tiparos as well, actually I use it because snowangel recommended it way back when... I prefer its flavor to all the other I have tried. You can sort of compare it to soy sauce in Japan, almost every person in Jaapn will have a bottle of Kikkoman in their house. Though there are various brands this is by far the one preferred and it is quite cheap. There are artisanal brands but they aren't really what I would consider expensive and few people would use them as their everyday soy sauce. I see cheap as a good thing, especially if it tastes great.