torakris

Besides the the average knife/grater cuts I have been pretty good in the kitchen lately, until this morning. My son asked for nutella on bread for breakfast and the container had just enough that if scraped the container really well it would cover one slice of bread. It was quite stiff though and I was having a hard time spreading it so I thought I would pop it in the microwave for a couple seconds to soften it. It took only 3 seconds for the sparks to start flying, by 5 seconds it looked like the 4th of July in my microwave. Apparently there was still a bit of foil around the rim...

Can someone explain what the category of comfort means?

It's a seasonal thing for me. I never think of takikomi gohan until Fall/Winter season when a greater variety of mushrooms are abundant. ← Yep, it is seasonal. Bamboo shoots in the spring and mushrooms in the fall. And, I can't deny that takikomi gohan has some inexplicable appeal to the Japanese people. It looks so rich to the Japanese eye. ← I like takikomigohan because as a busy mother it gets a lot of different foods on the table with very little effort. While I wouldn't count it among my favorite dishes, I do get occasional craving for it especially kuri gohan. My Japanese husband, on the other hand, doesn't care for any type of takikomigohan and would probably make a (very sweetly of course) comment to that fact if I made it more than twice in a month.

Just a minute or so, until most of the liquid evaporated. My MIL called me a week after I served this to ask for the recipe...

Even Mos Burger is jumping on the bandwagon this year. Merry X'Mos their words, not mine.

Oops! I missed this question. In general this is called soboro, you will often see it made with chicken and pork (I think this one was chicken) as well as with fish. Here is a recipe in English It is a great food (keeps for a while) to have on hand for bentos, especially sanshoku (3 color) bentos. This is one has sakura denbu for pink as a third color I usually make mine with something green, like this

Those are some beautiful pizzas! This Napoli style is the current 'boom' for pizza. There are tons of places doing in my neighborhood, one delivery place only does Napoli style. Now I am getting a craving...

I can't tell. They don't say anything on the site and looking through all the magazine write-ups (on the main homepage) leaves me even more confused. The picture from the magazine BOAO has what looks like hand cut fries but the other pictures are quite different. It might depend on the burger or time of day? The BOAO picture shows the 1500 yen burger while the other ones are showing an 800 yen one. The lunch set sounds like a good deal, burger (or sandwich or hot dog) + soup of the day + drink for 1000yen.

I stopped going to National Azabu many, many years ago.... Homeworks sounds interesting, while I was looking for a homepage for it (which I couldn't find) I stumbled across another burger shop that sounds promising (and cheaper!) Has anyone ever been to The Hamburger Inn in Roppongi?

I have tried a couple products over the years here and have not yet found what I am looking for. Around this time of year there are bottles labeled apple cider but these are the Japanese version of 'cider' thus a carbonated product, usually a sparkling apple juice. Many. many years ago I bought one of those expensive bottles in a department store basement and while it did taste like freshly squeezed apple juice, it wasn't the thick almost fermented like taste I was looking for. Of course it has been so long since I have tasted true apple cider I wonder if I am even remembering the taste right??

Please don't throw away Thanksgiving (especially turkey) leftovers! I would kill for a leftover turkey sandwich right now. Thanksgiving is the holiday I miss the most in Japan and we have only had it twice in 13 years. As a child I grew up with 7 siblings and leftovers were pretty much unheard of. Any turkey that made it home from my aunt's house was fought over viciously and being the scrawny one I usually lost.

Never. I seem to get cravings for it about this time of year as well..

In 17 years of eating in Japan I can't ever recall a mound of wasabi being served on a platter of sushi. Sashimi is a different matter, sashimi (the sliced fish without the rice) is always served with a mound of wasabi. Whether you want to mix it into your soy sauce or not is personal preference. I prefer to add a dab to each slice as I eat because I like to vary the amount depending on the fish, some of the oiler fishes are even better with grated ginger instead. Just to show the difference in wasabi vs no wasabi sushi platter in the US and Japan, I. googled images of sushi at google.com and then at Google Japan. Almost all of the sushi platters from American restaurants have a mound of sauce while the platters from Japan do not.

Wow! You guys remember my food better than I do! I rarely make the same thing twice, so I often forget the things I may have even posted. I don't think I made that salad again...

I actually prefer menchi katsu to other kinds, I rarely make them as they are really cheap to buy in the supermarkets here. Here is some more information and a recipe. The recipe (with step by step photos) is on the second page. My favorite version of menchi katsu is actually half ground pork and half shredded cabbage, it is really wonderful.

This was wonderful! I made this last weekend when my MIL was over for dinner, she actually called me a couple days later to get the recipe. It is very simple just mix the sliced tuna (maguro) with soy sauce, wasabi, crumbled seaweed (nori), thin scallions and cooking oil (I used canola). The oil is the secret ingredient that gives it a nice smooth mouthfeel. This is a great place to use that cheap akami. Those are kaiware (daikon sprouts) on the side.

Rob, that is pretty bad. What exactly is the turd like stuff on that half-fork (which in itself is weird)? This isn't by far one of the worst pictures I have taken but it is far from looking appetizing... Konnyaku with daikon greens and a miso sauce. If you must know more about konnyaku, check out this Wikipedia entry or the Konnyaku thread in the Japan forum.

Konnyaku and miso really seem to go together quite well. A couple nights ago I sauteed some konnyaku with daikon greens and added a miso sauce made with brown miso, sake, soy sauce and sugar).

It is hard to make konnyaku look pretty but it sure was tasty! A block of konnyaku sauteed with daikon greens (from a neighbor's garden) and seasoned with a miso sauce (miso, soy sauce, sake and a bit of sugar).

He was a good (and cheap bento) from a couple days ago. The was purchased of course. 398 yen (about $3.50)

It is getting a little cold to be making hiyayakko but I really love this stuff. I probably should of thought this one out better, it ended up be a little too salty. A combination of pickled nozawana and shirasu (baby sardines) and then topped with soy sauce. I just squeezed the liquid out of the nozawana maybe for this I should have rinsed it. The family did enjoy it though.

Another popular Chinese dish in Japan is Ban Ban Ji (sometimes called Ban Ban or Bang Bang Chicken in English). I did a quick version a couple nights ago, unfortunately I didn't realize until after I started making it that I had only 1 tablespoon of sesame paste left so I ended up using peanut butter. It was more like a Gado Gado salad but good nonetheless.

I have those days!!

Since my husband doesn't like miso soup I really don't make it a lot. A couple nights ago I just needed one more simple dish so I pulled some satoimo (taro) from the freezer and used the tops of the scallions I was using for another part of the meal.

This has been out for a couple weeks but I just picked it up. Chestnut Kit Kat. Why do they insist on ruining good ideas with bad white chocolate???