torakris

Danielle, about the curry the specific package I used did contain fish products, it is called Tokeru Curry and made by S&B, but like Hiroyuki said other boxes don't list it so I would look for a different brand. Hiroyuki, 5 kinds of curry? wow!

well typhoon #22, the Japanese number their typhoons rather than naming them, it going to start descending on the Tokyo area tonight and it looks like it may batter us until Monday..... Sports day is supposed to be Saturday, if it rains they will move it to Sunday and if it rains Sunday it will be moved to Monday. This wrecks havoc on mothers who are trying to do major bento planning....

looks like you will be touching down right into the middle of typhoon #22...... sorry but I have no restaurant suggestions...

It is 7:15 am and Hide, Julia and myself are munching on the green tea chiffon cake for breakfast, Mia had a bowl of oatmeal. I also have a large tumbler of iced coffee.....

the kurozatou/kokuto thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=53115

I have always enjoyed the kurozato/kokuto products you can find in Japan, mostly candies/cakes/etc. My recent addiction are some caramels I picked up (right side) This wonderful product has sent me on a quest to learn more about this stuff. I have always seen bags of kurozato in the markets but am unsure of how to cook with it, especially that which is in the lump form. I just recently picked up a bag and I also picked up a bag of granulated can sugar that looked interesting. the cane suagr (sato kibi) is on te left and kurozato is on the right close ups so do you cook with kurozato? what are some of your favorite products? I should also mention that kurozato is not only sold in this lump form, it is also sold in regular powdered form.

Sorry about that, a lot of the most of the stores in my area have point cards and you get points every time you make a purchase. My favorite store that I do a lot of shopping at, the drug store I bought milk at earlier, gives you either a 400 yen ($4) store certificate at 30 points or 1,000 yen ($10) at 60 points. Rice and a couple other items could get me 20+ points in just one day, so I save my big purchases for the triple point days which fall on the 10th, 20th and 30th of every month.

He make look angelic in that picture, but this is the real Hide eating with a friend... avocados are being quite popular here recently, I can find them at any grocery store hear my house, however when I talk to me neighbors they always say they never buy them because they don't know what to do with them, but obviously someone is buying them!

I think I mentioned it in the umeboshi thread, but I was once given a snack upon arrival at an onsen (hot spring) of umeboshi that had been rolled in brown sugar. It was really good and I have done that at home home a couple of times now.

my MIL came over as we were sitting down to dinner and brought a container of ika no shiokara (squid fermented in its own guts) that my FIL had just made and a matcha (green tea) chiffon cake from Costco, well, 3/4 of it. I will save the squid for tomorrow since we had no rice tonight and I am munching on the cake as I type along with more juice, I also just ate a vitamin C candy that Mia gave me because she is worried about my cold. the cake and the juice I really like this juice, it is from South Africa and contains mango, papaya, guava, pineapple, apple, grape, nashi and passionfruit.

Well I have an official cold and now I have lost my voice, it is a good thing I don't need to talk for this blog..... So while cooking dinner I was drinking about two cups of a mix fruit juice, oh yeah, dinner...... I had some chicken thighs so I sauteed them and then added the leftover sauce from the chicken we made at lunch. I also roasted potatoes and carrots, I LOVE roasted carrots and could probably eat them everyday, I also sliced up an avocado and sprinkled it with salt and lime juice. I am trying not to use too much rice because I am almost out and the store I want to buy it at is have triple points on Sunday. I can get 12 points just from the bag of rice, it is better than no points at all.....

With the undokai (sports day) coming up 3 year old Hide has been practicing a lot for the big day. Around 5pm he seemed tired so I put him in the bath and when he came out he asked for a piece of bread because he was hungry, I knew he wouldn't make it to dinner, he actually fell asleep still clutching part of the bread in his hand. In the picture you can also see the bald spot above his ear from when I taped some gauze to his head to cover up a cut....oops.....

sounds good, unfortunately I would need a dictionary to figure that word out as well.....

are they dry? or are they more like regular umeboshi? I will look for them at the store tomorrow.....

I didn't think there would be fish in it, but there is is the one I used yesterday. There is something called たん白加 水分解物 and in parantheses lists katsuo (bonito) as well as iwashi (sardines). I have no ideas what those characters mean though and am unable to find an English translation in any online sources.... Hiroyuki? Helen? anyone? As to the thermos style bento, it can be used for either hot or cold, it is really convenient.

IT IS ALMOST 5PM AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO MAKE FOR DINNER!!!! This always happens after my cooking classes, I have spent all day cooking and don't feel like going back in the kitchen...... It doesn't help that I haven't planned my weekly menu yet....

I taught a cooking class today, I had 6 students which is about average, I won't take more than 8 as I do this in my house. We cook the food and eat it for lunch, today we made a tomato and mozarella tart chicken thigh baked with 20 cloves of garlic, lemon and white wine dessert was oranges in a caramel sauce, you may have seen me practicing this a couple of days ago.... I also just had a snack of Club crackers topped with mascarpone cheese and an espresso sauce. This was made by oneof the women in my apartment and she brought it out as a snack for all of the mothers to share. Us mothers hang out all day long and just chat away! the mascarpone cheese is a Japanese brand that is actually pretty good and it is sold with this little packet of espresso flavored sauce. I didn't really care for the combination with a Club cracker....

I actually ended up buying it at the 100 yen shop!! I am sort of picky about my Japanese curry and will only put potatoes, onions and carrots in. I like the shredded lettuce for serving, it eliminates the need for a salad.

sake bath?

the bowl is actually a set of 4 that my mom sent me about 8 or 9 years ago when i was complaining that the Japanese all use "real" bowls/dishes for kids food and I was ahving a hard time finding plastic kids stuff...

I have eaten breakfast! I made myself a bowl of Quaker instant oatmeal (plain) with some dried cranberries tossed in for flavor. yeah, I pulled out my fancy china for you guys....

In another thread Hiroyuki said: By definition, agari is the cup of tea served at a sushi shop after you have finished eating sushi. The cup of tea served before the sushi is called debana (出花), but agari has come to mean any cup of tea served at a sushi shop. Also note that agari used to be a jargon term just like shari (vinegared rice), gari (vinegared ginger), murasaki (soy sauce), and so on. Personally, I don't want to use these terms at a sushi shop (that would sound like snobbery to me), but there are many others who like to use them (in an attempt to pretend to be a connoisseur (tuu 通 in Japanese). I have to admit I never use these words when in a sushi shop and for the same reasons Hiroyuki mentioned. Do you use them? can you think of any others?

English writing is everywhere in Japan, like it has been said it is mostly decorational. engrish.com is a great site and every time I look at it I wonder why these companies don't get someone to check some of this stuff before they print it out on millions of boxes....

I usually make mine with a mixture of regular rice and mochi-gome (glutinous rice) in 2:1 proportions

I guess it is a drafting triangle, actually protractor was the word I was searching for, but now when I looked at pictures on the net I realized that is that half circle thing-a-ma-jig. oh well I was never very good at math anyway...