torakris

Saturday dinner I picked up a head of romaine lettuce for just 98 yen (about $.90) so I just had to make a Caesar salad which is the favorite of Mia. I added an avocado since it is Julia's favorite food and made a bunch of croutons with some slices of the ends of bread that I got free from a local bread store and froze for an occasion like this. Then I wanted to do something with the swordfish I picked up really cheap because it was the odds and ends from when they cut up the filets. I also wanted to use orange juice, because I zested all the skin off my orange today for the muffins. I found a recipe at epicurious called swordfish with orange honey and soy (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/1545 ) so I made the sauce (with real garlic and ginger instead of the dried called for) and marinated the fish and then decided to saute it with some yellow peppers and onions. So I sauteed the vegetables first over a very high heat, put them in a dish, then added the drained swordfish and seared it. I then added the peppers and onions back to the pan with some of the sauce and sauteed it for a couple minutes. This was really good! everyone loved and I am definitely going to make it again. It would work well as a stirfry with meats like chicken and pork and more vegetable like broccoli, this just screams out for rice! My Caesar salad recipe is from the book Roy's Feasts From Hawaii by Roy Yamaguchi (no relation!) My in-laws love his restaurants and we used to go to them a lot here in Tokyo as well as all of the ones in Hawaii. I fell in love with his Caesar salad and bought the book just for it. I've gotten good use out of the book and there are a couple recipes I go to a lot.

The raw eggs add a lot of flavor and texture to sukiyaki. I was just talking to my neighbor the other day about how our kids don't like raw eggs and we can't understand how they can eat sukiyaki without it, the taste just isn't the same. As for raw eggs with rice for breakfast, I am not a huge fan of it, but will eat it if there is nothing else, but it is a very popular dish here. As well as adding raw eggs (usually yolks only) to various dishes. We eat a lot of raw or just barely cooked eggs in our house....

I guess it depends on the foods... I can't put anything salady on a dish that has had something saucey, I will either wash the dish or wipe it with tissue. Some dishes are meant to be eaten with rice and some sauces just call out for bread dipping or mixing with other.

well I am curerntly chewing on my last kokuto (black sugar) caramel, I just pulled the last pan of mini cranberry-orange-walnut muffins out of the oven and the wind is blowing so hard now the rain looks like it is coming in horizontally from the west..... The muffins are for the undokai on Monday.... thanks for the picture tips!

Ended up going out to the store today to buy my rice, since we are going to be gone most of the day on Sunday I figured I should just get it out of the way. My husband was also out of shochu, so we went to cheap liquor store chain called Yamaya that has good prices on things. I also stocked up on 100 yen ($1) bags of 500g of pasta, 100 yen cans of coconut milk and 100yen snacks for the kids to take when they go to their friend's houses. On the way home we decided to stop in at a cake shop owned by a friend of ours, we only go here about twice a year because cakes can be very expensive in Japan. Mia got teh cookies, Julia got the roll cake, my husband got the chocolate cake, Hide the cream puff and I had the fig tart (it had a pistachio mousse under the figs) the stores homepage: http://www.ange-japon.com/

for lunch today I took the leftovers from last night's chige, added the leftover rice, cracked open two eggs and stirred them into the pot and ended up with a zosui (rice porridge like dish). This is a common way to finish up hotpots, by adding things like cooked rice or cooked noodles (usually udon) and eggs or other ingredients. Many people do this at the end of the meal, but I like to save it for the next day, so it makes two meals! the kids ate the leftover ton-jiru, I made extra last night just for this purpose.

North Americans are just paranoid. just kidding! I have never really heard about salmonella problems here, occasionally I see something about the elderly or very young should not eat raw eggs, but I have friends whose kids have been eating them almost daily since about the age of 3. The Japanese use both raw quail eggs and raw chicken eggs. We dipped our nabe into raw eggs last night and they will go into the Ceasar salad dressing I will make for dinner tonight.

An average price on a 500ml can of happoushu is about $2,. while "real" beer is about $3, so unless you aer a very casual drinker it can start to add up. You can get it cheaper when you buy by the case of 24 cans, my MIL buys the real stuff for about $40 for 24 cans and my husband buy the cheap stuff for about $20.

oh and I did eat that banana I was contemplating

The phone message from the pre-school has made its rounds ad the undokai has been postponed to Monday the 11th, they are worried that the grounds will be too wet tomorrow.... I guess I won't be making the trip to Kappabashi with the other Tokyo egulleteers.... Since Sunday has opened up, my in-laws have invited us to go eat brunch at the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo, this is an American military hotel and they have a quite good Sunday Champagne buffet brunch, we go with my in-laws almost once a month. My FIL who has absolutely no connection to the US military/government has somehow managed (through good connections I guess) to receive a VIP pass that allows him entrance. So we go as his guests.... The hotel and its restaurants is for military and their families only.

Sorry, yes it is happoushu he drinks, I'd never let him drink the real stuff! We refer to to all as beer...

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getart...v20040910a1.htm just ran across this article talking aout avoiding the tourist traps in Kyoto, it was very interesting.

all the fancy things the Jaapnese do to hot dogs: http://www.sub.nipponham.co.jp/winny/kazari/

This is the typical size of sausages in Japan. The flavor can vary depending on the brand, I prefer the arabiki style. Arabiki simply means coarsely ground (and can also refer to things like coffee grounds or black pepper), these are a little "chunkier" in the filling than the smooth American style hot dogs. they also contain more fat and it may sound strange but the skin is tighter. So when you bite into it, the skin actually snaps and fatty juices flow into your mouth, and dribble down your chin. In the US, my Japanese friends always used to buy cocktail sausages...

Saturday breakfast: I cooked up some sausages for the kids (I also had one) and they had rice with furikake (rice sprinkles), my son insisted in buying a variety pack that has the deka-ranger (like Power rangers) show characters on it. I think there were 5 different flavors. sorry blurry pictures again... My husband, who took the day off because of the undokai, had a 2 large bowls of rice each mixed with a raw egg and some soy sauce and then topped with the leftover squid in its guts. I am enjoying my iced coffee and am contemplating a banana...

Yes the squid and te guts are all raw, the only other thing added to this particular one is salt. I am not sure on a fermenting period, everyone may do theirs differently. My FIL's version is eaten after a couple of hours, though my husabnd is eating it now 48 hours later and he says it tastes the same... we had a thread on various uses for fish guts (mostly shio-kara talk) here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=34446

I don't, I should say can't, drink alcohol. Though I cook with it, I don't really care for the flavor of it straight and it will send me to the toilet vomiting in a couple of hours anyway.... I drink only water with my meals, though if I am out I may have an unsweetened iced tea, I find other drinks "interfere" with the flavors. I am also one of those people who doesn't like my food to touch..... My husband will have a drink with most meals, occasionally beer, but mostly wine or shochu mixed with something like a juice. He isn't a sake drinker either.

Yep, that's it!! I highly recommend it!

I don't normally use a broth for kimchi nabe, but this time I tossed in some instant Korean beef stock with some sake, soy sauce and kojuchang.

We too have a lot of rain, but not too much wind. It should hit our area about 3:00pm, about 8 hours from now. IOt looks like it will pass over pretty quickly and Sunday is forecast as sunny! with a high of 30 C (about 85 F), it always gets really hot after a typhoon, I prefer it a little cooler for the undokai, but shoganai. (shoganai = it can't be helped) I hope you can get out mushroom picking later this weekend, I'd love to see pictures of what you find.

When served as part of a course, they are served with the rice and sometimes miso type soup, as the last course before dessert. In non-course style setting they are aslo offered as a tsumami (snack) to go along with alcohol. In every day family eating they are set on the table at the same time as the other food.

how could I have forgotten karintou!!! I love this stuff, thanks for those links I had never thought about making it at home.

I don't really use recipes for any of my hotpots, but the best place to get some ideas would be from the nabe thread linked above. I think there are some recipes over there.... I am sure any cuisines hotpot would work, it makes it more fun that way!

anyone intrigued by the kimchi chige and wants to learn more about hotpots or try their hand at one, should join us Nov. 7th for the egullet hotpot day! more information is here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=52771

I will drink instant coffee if it the only thing available. I keep an instant espresso on hand for baking and prefer this over any other instant coffee I have ever had. I use both pre-ground and whole bean (I have a mill), but have been using pre-ground almost exclusively since I started using the Toddy method cold brew.