torakris

The latest flyer from Pizza Hut announces their new cheese fondue pizza! with a creamy cheese sauce instead of the more common tomato sauce, topping including are broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, whole mushrooms pearl onions and steamed chicken, they also have a seafood version. http://www.pizzahut.jp/menu/ and I can't find any mention of it at the website but my flyers also announce their new rice dishes, paella and taco rice....

purple satsumaimo chips! purchased product, devoured in seconds by 3 children....

I was at the store this morning to pick up some strawberries for my son's birthday cake, when the corroke caught my eye. There was a display of about 10 different kinds all for 105 yen a piece ($1) an average price. we got two beef and potato, one just potato and a shrimp and cream one for me. these were on the cold side having been made proably over an hour before but they were still incredibly crunchy and very good..

Occasionally on lazy mornings I take my kids to the convenience store to buy breakfast, this was one of those days and we got: Julia and Hide got the monster sized chocolate chip melonpan (top), Mia picked out the nikuman (steamed rolls) and I got the roll with ham. I also picked up some milk so I could have my coffee, this was actually my main reason for dragging the kids to the store at 6:00am.

word for 11/23: 勤労感謝の日 kinro kansha no hi Japanese Labor Thanksgiving Day Today is a national holiday, more about it can be found here: http://web-jpn.org/kidsweb/calendar/november/labor.html it is also my son's 4th birthday.

This is actually a Japanese product and has been here for a couple years now, though it is called Econa over here. It is quite pricey over here too about twice the price of canola, I just used it for the first time a couple weeks ago when I received it as a gift. I like it as a basic oil, it is too pricey to deep fry with so I have been usng it for sauteing mostly but it seems to start smoking faster than other oils on high heats. I find it too bland for dressings. Unless the price comes down I don't think it will find a place on my shelves....

I have been bee to a couple wholesale flower markets in my neck of the woods (Yokohama) and they tend to be just flowers all year round..... This summer I did find blackberry bushes and a fig tree though but no herbs. Seeds can be found almost anywhere, any home center should carry them and They are also at most supermarkets and drug stores in my area. The prices are quite high though often in the 300 ~ 400 yen range ($3-$4) for a small bag. I have started having my dad send seeds from the US.

I couldn't find a really good picture, this is the best one I could find but you might have to look really close. http://www.ktv.co.jp/recipe/nani/n-030903.html You can see the mugi mixed in with the rice, the mugi is about the same size as the rice but you can see a dark brown line down the middle of it. The mugi actually fliffs up a bit during cooking so it isn't as flat as it looks before cooking.

Here is a recipe in English posted by BON in an old thread that uses eggs instead of kansui: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...965entry18965

We have received a couple things over the years but have never sent anything.....

welcome to the Japan forum! I know what you are looking for and I have never been satisfied with any of my attempts to make it. In Japan it is often made with a cut of meat labeled yakibuta-you (for yakibuta) that is a semi-fatty shoulder cut already in a net. It looks like this: http://www.koedo.com/11ya/jpg/yakibuta.jpg And whenever I have seen them talking about this on tv, they simmer it for hours, none of this 40 minute stuff. so try one of the recipes above, using a semi-fatty cut of pork and tie it with twine to hold its shape if it isn't netted and simmer it for as long as you can be patient... and then you too can be enjoying: http://sennaritei.co.jp/gazou/yakibuta.jpg

I love barley rice. All you need is regular rice and oshimugi (pressed or rolled barley just like in the picture Hiroyuki posted). To make it just add the barley to the rice (I usually use about a 1 (barley): 4 (rice) proportion) before washing and wash them together, then let rest in a colander for 30 minutes or so and then cook as normal.

I have heard of Hoteichi but have never been... sounds a little out of my price range, I can't even really afford the stuff in the depachikas... They aren't exactly in the most convenient of places either. I'd love to hear from someone who has been. Actually now I am try to think of the last time I was in a hotel......

Thanks for the picture! I had never heard of this before, did you?

Kiem Hwa, welcome to the Japan Forum! Sounds like you got a good price on that fugu!

I recently posted this on the Ishikawa Prefecture thread (http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=55889) but thought is should be here also: Kanazawa is also the only place in Japan that sells the ovaries from the fugu or blowfish, these are one of the most poisonous parts of the fish but the method they use for pickling them renders them harmless: Today, the production of pickled fugu ovary begins with the selection of the ovary. Instead of throwing away ovaries left over when fugu flesh is pickled in nukamiso or mirin, these remaining ovaries are set aside. Next, the ovaries are placed in fresh water to remove any surface dirt, and the unwanted stringy tubes attached to the ovary’s chorion are removed along with other extraneous materials. The ovaries are then placed in a tub and a 30% mix of salt is added. The resulting mixture is set aside for between six months and a year. The ovaries are then removed and pickled in nukamiso that contains a small amount of rice koji and some salted sardine or mackerel broth. They remain there, fermenting beneath a stone weight, for over two years before finally being shipped out or pickled in sake lees for another month. The traditional explanation is that this approach removes the poison and indeed, the highly poisonous tetrodotoxin found in fugu before pickling has completely disappeared from the end product. Not only have there been no reported cases of death after eating this dish, it is nowadays sold as a regional delicacy at local souvenir stores in Kanazawa, as well as at pickle stores and specialty shops. much more info over here (page 2): http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:VyXXYK2...lang_en|lang_ja

word for 11/22: 飯すし izushi (ee-zoo-she) This is a type of fermented product with fish (often herring), vegetables, rice and koji (rice malt) most popular in Hokkaido and other Northern prefectures. A step by step description in making izushi: http://owlnet.sub.jp/izushi/izushi-syousai.htm I also ran across this information: Since the first episode of botulism in Hokkaido in 1951, a few outbreaks restrictedly in northern prefectures (Hokkaido and Aomori) have occurred almost annually, caused by eating home-prepared "izushi" or similar kinds of fermented fish products: these outbreaks implicated principally type E toxin. Such outbreaks, having recently decreased in number, still occur even at the present time in Japan. from here: http://idsc.nih.go.jp/iasr/21/241/tpc241.html

Wow! I think it is time to go back to college! Thanks for the report and the pictures!!

Kanazawa is also the only place in Japan that sells the ovaries from the fugu or blowfish, these are one of the most poisonous parts of the fish but the method they use for pickling them renders them harmless: Today, the production of pickled fugu ovary begins with the selection of the ovary. Instead of throwing away ovaries left over when fugu flesh is pickled in nukamiso or mirin, these remaining ovaries are set aside. Next, the ovaries are placed in fresh water to remove any surface dirt, and the unwanted stringy tubes attached to the ovary’s chorion are removed along with other extraneous materials. The ovaries are then placed in a tub and a 30% mix of salt is added. The resulting mixture is set aside for between six months and a year. The ovaries are then removed and pickled in nukamiso that contains a small amount of rice koji and some salted sardine or mackerel broth. They remain there, fermenting beneath a stone weight, for over two years before finally being shipped out or pickled in sake lees for another month. The traditional explanation is that this approach removes the poison and indeed, the highly poisonous tetrodotoxin found in fugu before pickling has completely disappeared from the end product. Not only have there been no reported cases of death after eating this dish, it is nowadays sold as a regional delicacy at local souvenir stores in Kanazawa, as well as at pickle stores and specialty shops. much more info over here (page 2): http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:VyXXYK2...lang_en|lang_ja

My question does not exactly fit your criteria (I am not outside Japan), so please forgive me. I would like to start an herb garden in containers, and I need some advice on where to buy very young plants here in Tokyo. My neighborhood nursery does not carry shiso, for example. Is there a wholesale market for plants here in Tokyo? Any direction you can send me will help. Thanks. ← I have been looking too! for ten years..... I would love to know of a place I could buy seedlings all year round. I have come to the conclusion though that since these are really seasonal products we might just have to wait until their season. I see the herbs start to make an appearance in the nurseries around mid to late April with an early peak around Golden week, for te sturdier ones. The rest (like shiso, basil, etc) seem to peak in June and by August you will have a hard time finding anything again. Some sturdier herbs can be found sporadicly at different times of the year, this morning at a home center near my house I saw curly leaf parsley and I have bought rosemary and mint in the dead of winter. You might have better luck with seeds, shiso doesn't take too long to grow. Oh, and welcome to the Japan Forum!

word for 11/21: ニシン漬け nishinzuke (nee-sheen-zoo-kay) Japanese stye pickled herrings a little more information, including a picture and a recipe in English: http://www.shejapan.com/jtyeholder/jtye/li...uke/tsuke1.html

Oh, I didn't know about the poisioning. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_...109/ai_83139785 ← Thanks for finding that!

I had run across that phrase just a little while ago but have never actually heard it spoken since I have my spent my 10 years here in Kanto... I found this: In the Osaka area, oden is sometimes called Kanto-daki, because oden originated in the Kanto (Edo/Tokyo) area, and to distinguish it from the far older dish, dengaku. In Tokyo, the ingredients turn yellowish brown, as they are simmered for some time in a broth with a strong soy-sauce flavor. In the Osaka area, they have a lighter color and a milder taste, since the broth is flavored with sake, salt, and a lighter soy sauce with a shorter fermentation period. from here: http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia11/bon.html it is a really good article and has a recipe for oden as well

this is actually quite a common way to serve natto in restaurants, look on the menu for maguro natto (tuna with natto) or ika natto (squid with natto) here is one version of maguro natto: http://www.ukemochi.com/menu/menu1/mag_n/mag_n.html and ika natto: http://www2.wbs.ne.jp/~hakusan/ikanatto.jpg I love natto!

another type is daikonzushi in which pieces of nishin (herring) are sandwiched between pieces of daikon: http://www.oishi-mise.com/daikon-susi.htm