torakris

some more examples of dagashi: http://www.rakuten.co.jp/hihohkan/407335/

Maybe Hiroyuki can help us out here, but I see the main difference in dagashi vs okashi is that the dagshi are the "original" okashi that started to become popular 40 years or so ago. They are often sold individually and at a very cheap price, often in the 10 to 50 yen range ($.10 ~ $.50). I was just talking to my husband about dagashi and he said his favorite was bin-ramune: http://www.rakuten.co.jp/hihohkan/413533/445405/ it is a cola bottle shaped monaka (wafer like thing) filled with a ramune flavored powder that you drink with the straw that is included, you then eat the monaka shell.

I may have mentioned them in passing... I made them with dried cranberries, walnuts and orange zest with the basic muffin recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, they were really good!

It wouldn't be uncommon to serve kuzumochi with green tea.

I didn't take too many pictures with my camera because we used the video camera mostly and they have a professional taking pictures and his always turn out better....

I picked up some drinks at the convenience store early grey tea, gatorade, Fanta white strawberry flavor, Calpis (calpico) peach and sour plum flavor The white strawberry was a first, and really good, but what the heck is a white strawberry???

some of the prep from Monday's lunch for the undokai Korean style futomaki ("fat" roll) the inari-zushi all together now! and ready to go

Ok, I asked a bunch of people about the finger thing and no one knows.... actually the really funny thing is that in Japan they say cheese too! butthey say it with the Japaneses pronunciation and so it comes out as " chee-zoo", go ahead say it, you end up with your lips making a circle.... Back form the undokai, pictures to come soon.

Sports day (undokai) will actually happen today! They are pushing it back an hour because it rained again last night and they want to give the grounds a chance to dry off a little, not gonna happen if the sun doesn't come out though.... I have finished making the bento, I beat my record for an undokai bento by getting it done in under an hour! Now I just have to arrange it neatly in the bento box, pictures to come later. I am drinking an iced coffee and the family and I have been nibbling on bento leftovers for breakfast....

Honestly I have no idea why they do this. I just asked my kids and my husband and they all gave me blank looks.... I will ask around today during the sports day festivities.

raw chicken is fabulous! Not only did us Tokyo egulleteers partake of regular raw chicken meat we also feasted on raw brains, liver, gizzards, and others. There aer some incredible pictures of this get together over here http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...t=30&p=679462

wow! I have never seen that one before!! I wouldn't really compare kuzumochi to cake, rather it is a mochi, a sticky rice cake made with kuzu starch, it is often topped with kuro-mitsu ("black" honey) and kinako (roasted soy bean powder).

take your time!

Sunday dinner After we have a large lunch at Sanno hotel no one has a very big appetite for dinner and I am usually in a lazy mood so it is the perfect night for a simple noodle night, often instant ramen... Tonight we had Nagasaki sara-udon. this is a dish with Chinese origins and is pretty similar to chop suey in the US, though te name is called udon, it does not use udon noodles rather thin deep fried Chinese style ones, sara simply means dish or plate and Nagasaki is a city in Southern Japan. I like this dish because it can be made with almost anything you have in the house, I use a package that includes the fried noodles and a powder pack that gets mixed with water to make a sauce. I pulled the following from my refrigerator The final dish It is often served with karashi (Japanese mustard) and a little rice vinegar, my husband adds okonomiyaki sauce as well.

In another thread Hiroyuki, when asked to start a thread on dagashi, said: I will, but I have to overcome some mental difficulty first before starting this thread. You will never understand... Dagashi meant so much to us, those Japanese who were born in 30s of Showa (1955 to 1965). I was born in 1960... Those glory days of dagashi... Hiroyuki try to overcome! I too, would love to learn more. Though I didn't grow up in Japan I also love dagashi! There is a wonderful store in the Odaiba area of Tokyo called Edo-ya and all they sell is dagashi: http://www.odaiba-decks.com/shop/shop04_03.html The whole floor, called Daiba Ichome, is all set up like the 30's of Showa Japan: http://www.odaiba-decks.com/ichome/

You see I purposely picked the one that had 3 berries on it! all the other pieces only had 2!! raspberries are VERY expensive in this country...

after lunch we decided to go to Kasai Rinkai Park it has one of the world's largest ferris wheels (117m) and a wall of water that the kids can't resist putting their hands in there is also a very nice aquarium there called Tokyo Sea Life Park and today was the anniversary of their opening and there was no entrance fee. that is the reason we went today....

Most of the brunch is typical brunch food, scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, egg benedict, one pasta dish, things like chicken with ham and cheesse, snapper with a creole sauce, leg of lamb, roast beef, baked ham and a couple of Japanese type things like yakisoba, sushi, white rice, teriyaki beef. oh and omelettes made to order As you can tell from my foodblog I am not a really big fan of breakfast foods... They do have a nice salad selection including a "top your own green salad" bar along with lots of breads and fruits. They also have a very nice dessert section with more than 10 kinds of cakes/pies to choose from as well as cookies, bars, blintzes, Belgian waffles and do it yourself sundae bar. I have been there so many times now I always go for my favorites as most of the buffet food has that buffet food bland taste, except those green beans with the bacon, man do I love those... More pictures, my husband Tora with Hide and Julia, using knives... Julia and Hide enjoying dessert Mia and Hide and the Japanese kid finger thing....

no... and I think that is why all three of my kids pulled off the nori...

the brunch is buffet style, I always start with the shrimp, smoked mussels and a bit of caviar.... then move on to some salads then the sushi course.... and some roast beef, beans and potatoes (the roast beef is usually much better, I got an end piece to boot! ) I went to the abthroom before eating dessert and when I came back someone had eaten two of my raspberries and taken a bite! I enjoyed some coffee with desseert and water for the rest of the meal.

We had lunch today at the New Sanno Hotel in Hiroo, Tokyo. On the way there my MIL gave the gives a sushi shaped sucker, it was shaped like an ikura (salmon) gunkan maki and had real nori wrapped around it...

The Japanese do love their junkfood! and in the urban areas especially, processed food consumption is definitely on the rise, this part of the food industry has skyrocketed in the 10 years I have been in Japan. You can buy anything in a retort pouch noways!

Good question, I was actually thinking about this last night becasue my meals I have been preparing I haven' t really used recipes. Normally I will do major shopping trip on Saturday or Sunday and then combined with my Tuesday food delivery I plan meals for the rest of the week and write everyting down in my food planning notebook. Normally about half of the dishes will be from recipes, mostly new (like last night's swordfish) or ones have used before (like last night's salad). Now I tend to use recipes more for ideas and sort of tweak it around to suit my taste and the ingredients I have in the house, sort of like I did with both recipes last night. Sunday (the only day my husband is usually off) is my big cooking day, we usually have a big late lunch and then I make a big dinner but earlier and we eat no lunch. This is my big baking day and I usually work on some dessert as well. This week through me off because I was quite busy and I couldn't plan too much without knowing when the sports day will be. I guess I am just sort of winging it more this week than I normally do and relying more on semi-prepared foods. Especially since this is a 3 day holiday weekend and I have the husband and three kids here for 3 meals a day for 3 straight days..... I am drinking my iced coffee and am about to go and make some toast and maybe some sausages for breakfast. We eat lightly on the days we go to the brunch at the hotel, even though it is called brunch we don't eat until close to 12, so the kids still need breakfast. I am looking forward to lunch all the shrimp cocktail I can eat finished off with key lime pie....

I haven't seen too many raw egg drinks in Japan, actually the only people I know who drink drinks with raw eggs is my sister's husband and a couple other guys back in the US who are big into weight training.....

phish, the fugu thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...st=0&p=443834