torakris

Hiroyuki, How long can you keep it for ?

I just did a stupid kitchen blunder minutes ago. I had been saving the last bits of kimchi in the refrigerator to make a kimchi fried rice for lunch today, one of my favorite lunches. I did all the prep, got the vegetables ready, kimchi chopped, heated the oil in the pan, when all of a sudden I rembered I didn't have any rice.....

and then there is the kurohanpen: http://www6.airnet.ne.jp/persona/other/kur...pen/Samples.htm for those who are not familiar hanpen is made from fish paste and egg whites, this kurohanpen ("black" hanpen) is made with darker fleshed fish like sardines. regular hanpen looks like this: http://greggman.com/japan/oden/hanpen.jpg

Besides Kanagawa and Tokyo, this is where my family and I spend a lot of our time. Not only is the scenery (Mt. Fuji) gorgeous, but there are a lot of wonderful foods. We go there at least once a year to pick your own strawberry places and we also pick up bags of mikan (mandarin ornages) on the way home. Shizuoka is also famous for its tea and wasabi and I always pick up some type of both them and one of the hundreds of souvenir shops that line the roads....

SHIZUOKA PREFECTURE (region= Chubu) Shizuoka is often also referred to as part of the Tokai region. http://www.shizuoka-guide.com/english/travel/food.htm http://www.pref.shizuoka.jp/kikaku/ki-20/e...ods/tea_har.htm http://www1.tcue.ac.jp/home1/english/stude...24/a2/shizuoka/ to discuss your favorite foods go here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=53705

to learn about the foods from Shizuoka look here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...72entry740972

I haven't used an okonomiyaki mix for a long time and I can't for the life of me remember the major brand that is on all of the supermarket shelves, but I did look at the ingredients of a couple brands I found for sale on the net and the ingredient lists are similar. Basically they were a mix of flour and corn flour with powdered yamaimo (mountain yam), powdered katsuo, salt, sugars, msg, etc, one had baking powder and an other had spices like paprika and tumeric.... My recipe is similar to your friends except I use regular flour and add grated nagaimo/yamaimo and I don't add the cheese.

I think we have exhausted aji... 10/18: 甘鯛　あまだい　　アマダイ amadai tilefish

A purchased version will look like this: http://www.rakuten.co.jp/chitaya/437472/458597/438961/ (scroll down jsut a bit for a picture, these are not aji though...)

word for 10/17: あじの骨せんべい aji no hone sembei You may be familiar with sembei the Japanese rice cracker snacks. You will often also see deep fried fish bones (hone) referred to as sembei. This snack is a great source of calcium and can be made at home or bought at a store. When cutting the fish into filets you are often left with a midle section comprised of all the bones, deep frying this makes the bones soft enough to eat. You may also see this on menus (name of fish) no hone karaage or just age (pronounced ah-gay). aj no hone sembei: http://www.jf-net.ne.jp/hggyoren/index/osa...sii/ajihone.jpg

actually $1.70 for 30 nuts is better than what you would pay in Japan for the same amount.... I love these, called ginnan in Japanese, and eating them hot out of the pan with just some salt is just heaven. My MIL told me that you shouldn't eat too many of them at once or you will become sick, have you ever heard this? know anything about it?

That Korean ramen is everywhere in Japan, every store even convenience stores carry it, and for a reason, it is wonderful!!

monoflittlefoodies, what did you think of the chocolate covered gummies? My kids got these a little while back and I thought they were so disgusting.....

I am a sumomo (sour plum) freak, my husband hinks I am one of the strangest foreigners he has ever met..... Many of these are still available in stores now, my kids love th ramune, bubble gum and the kushi-katsu.

I too love noodles with a bite to them, all of my noodles... My husband prefers them soft.... As to dried - vs- frozen noodles, I think it can also depend on the brand, so you might want to try a couple and find ones you like. I really like frozen noodles but you have to be careful of freezer burn and watch them like a hawk when cooking them them because they can go from perfect to mush in seconds. I tend to use more dried ones because of a lack of freezer space, though the dried ones give you a litle more leeway in cooking, for some reason the frozen have a better bite to them.

I got it on sale for 140 yen ($1.28) but the regular price on it was 189 yen ($1.72), so it is a little more expensive than a reular daifuku that I normally get in the 100 ~120 yen range ($.91 ~ $1.09).

Instead of hijacking the wagashi thread with all of my daifuku talk I decided to move all of the daifuku talk to its own thread! thus the new daifuku thread.... My latest daifuku kuri (chestnut) daifuku, a thousand times better than the one I found last year. The mochi is perfect and slightly flavored with kuri, inside is fresh cream, a soft paste of kuri and a whole candied kuri.... I WILL be going back for more...

words for 10/15 and 10/16: as we discussed with saba (mackeral) aji also has a couple of "brands" 関アジ seki aji these are caught by single hook fishing off the coast of Oita prefecture: http://www.city.oita.oita.jp/en/tourism/ka...aberu_seki.html 旬アジ　（ときあじ） toki-aji ごんあじ　　　ゴンアジ gon-aji These are both from Nagasaki prefecture and are both on the small side, gon-aji are caught along the coast while toki-aji are caught offshore. toki-aji: http://www.n-nourin.jp/oh/nfish/brand/tokiaji.html gon-aji http://www.newmasumi.com/contents/gonaji.htm

a couple of questions what kind of vinegar did you use? do you add the soy sauce after removing?

I actually have a couple of notebooks..... My main one is my menu planning one, I try to plan 3 to 7 days of meals at a time and in the back of it I keep running lists of the items I have in my freezer and vegetable drawers. I also make notations of pantry items that are near an expiration date and need immediate consuming. I also order food from a local co-op and I write down everythingthat was ordered for teh next week, so I can plan my menus accordingly. I am also so anal about this that I write everything out in script except for in paranthese I will write the name and page # of the cookbook the recipe comes from or in capital letters I will write the ingredients from that dish that I don't have on hand and need to purchase before making. My next notebook is a list of dishes/menus that I want to prepare for my cooking classes or for my cooking days with friends. The 3rd notebook is my recipes, these are recipes I have completely created or adapted enough to call my own. In the back of it is my ideas page where I jot down ideas for combinations as they come to me. I also write in all of my cookbooks, from simple yucks to wonderfuls to page and a half of how this recipe can be improved, changes I made, etc.

I am curious to the milk can method, why a powdered milk can? could any other can work?

marlene, good luck with your tonkatsu! I think I feel a tonkatsu mood coming on too.... It is really easy just as Soba described, any flavorless oil should be fine and no special spices needed. I had a Korean friend who would smear both sides of the pork with that bottled minced garlic before coating it and it was wonderful I didn't even need sauce with it.

I don't think it was coincidental as the Meiji company was founded in 1916, which is the 5th year of the Taisho period which followed the Meiji period.....

I am soooo jealous! that looked incredible....

thanks for that history, I am looking forward to hearing more...