torakris

Jim, I have never had problems getting the flavored versions, though I am referring to the undilted ones that we mix with water at home. I can find them at any grocery store/drug store/liquor shop. My favorite are the grape (purple) and orange, though I have seen muscat, melon, etc.

before I get ehe kaki though I must finish up all te nashi that we were given! the oya-san (owner) of our apartment building also has nashi orchards (the hama nashi variety) and he gives his tenants bags full of the ones that aren't good enough to sell.

kaki, love these! In just a bit we should be getting full basket from the neighbors, I don't think I have ever bought kaki before.....

all of those good pictures are on the internet now! just check some of the link is the pizza in Japan thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=19219&st=0

When I was in college, my (Japanese)ex-boyfriend's mother would send monthly care packages and there was always a package of pickled watermelon rinds. Store bought not homemade and I think I only tried them once and didn't care for them, I really think I should give them another try as there were a lot of foods I wouldn't touch back then (including ikura, uni and shiso!)

Japan uses lots of tubers and most of them can be identified by the use of "imo" as an ending. satoimo is the taro the Japanese prefer, thesea re small and round and about the size of a golf ball or a little bigger. satsumaimo the sweet potato found in Japan is very pale fleshed and has a reddish-purplish skin, teh name comes from the Satsuma reguion of southern Jaapn through which they were introduced beniimo is the purple fleshed sweet potato that comes from Okinawa konnyaku imo is the tuber that konnyaku and shirataki are made from

word for 9/18: 運動会　うんどうかい undoukai (uhn-doe-kah-ee) This is the sports day event that is held in schools and neighborhoods all over Japan. Children (and adults) break into either white or red teams and compete against each other in a variety of events. The school undokai's are attended by the whole family often the grandparents as well and are marked mid way by the eating of the bento lunch that the mother slaved over for hours! biggrin.gif This is what I should be working on now, so I will cut this short and be back later (maybe even with pictures!) biggrin.gif

That Portuguese dessert and Puerto Rican custard look fantastic! and they should probably leave me with enough whites for an angel food cake....

The red one on the left is salmon, the blue one on the right is hon-katsuo (bonito) Enjoy! and let us know what you think!

most of the recipes I looked at called for them just to be marinated in the juice and the other flavors added later. I usually make ceviche with tuna and much stronger flavors like herbs and chiles. The myoga (ginger buds) I am using are pickled and i am worried that will ditract from the taste of the sudachi, maybe I can add the shiso. I didn't even think about salt and pepper...

A friend is coming over for lunch and I decided to make a Japanese style ceviche with scallops (also avocado, myoga and shiso). I want to "marinade" the scallops with sudachi, a Japanese citrus sort of like lime. I looked at two recipes I have and one says to put the scallops (in lime juice) for only 10 minutes where the other recipe says 3 hours.... A quick look on the web gives me times anywhere from 10 minutes to up to 4 hours. What is a good time for scallops? and should I slice them or cube them?

moving on to another fish in the same family.... アジ　あじ aji Though aji is often translated as horse mackeral, there are many types of aji in Japan and we will spend a couple days looking at them.

wish I could afford decent matsutake..... The only time I ever bought them, I grilled them and served them with a squeeze of sudachi.

I made a chocolate cake (not a very good recipe, unfortunately...) and I hard boiled 20 of them to make pickles but my daughters had a bunch of friends in the house at te time and I lost 10 of them to an afternoon snack... Then we ended up going out last night to eat yakiniku. Helen, I have a sports day tomorrow as well! you can be sure a Japanese omelette will be part of the bento! I need to go boil more because i really want to try these pickles!

I think this kind of dashi would be very easy to make, the only reason I bought it was to see what it tastes like since I had never had it before. It was quite good but I am sure homemade is even better! Hiroyuki, I will be getting to Niigata as soon as I finish with Kanto!

Wow! do you have 76 eggs too!?

wow! thanks! I can't believe I didn't think of some of this myself...... I am going to boil up at least 20 of them this afternoon, a fritatta later tonight, a souffle tomorrow and various desserts thrown in between! I have wanting to make this meringue cake-y thing for a while now but always thought it was a "waste" of eggs..... How would you pickle eggs western style? I have done the soy sauce ones before, but never a vinegar style.

Helen, Both the pumpkin (which was actually pumpkin and not kabocha like I assumed it would be) bread and the maple sryup were new ones for me. they sound sort of seasonal though don't they? The maple sryup one was incredible, it was sort of like a cinnamon roll but with some type of maple sryup glaze instead of the butter-sugar-cinnamon, a very good and strong real maple flavor...

There were 80, but I used two yesterday and two this morning.... I had bought 20 LL eggs at Costco this week and then last night my MIL comes over with a monster pack of 60 M size eggs and asks me to make some cookies.... I can only eat so many fritattas... help! what else can I make that uses large quantities of eggs.

The pan-ya-san truck came around the other day and I pick a couple snacks: a baguette, doraemon bread (filled with chocolate), pumpkin bread with a wonderfuly spiced pumpkin mix in the middle, and a maple sryup bread that was great!

I picked up a prepared package of what in Yamagata is known as dashi, this is a combination of chopped vegetables, etc. This particular package contained: cucumber, eggplant,konbu (kelp), scallions, myouga and shiso the package looked like this and I served it on some hiyayakko (cold tofu)

9/16: hiramasa and kanpachi are eaten pretty much the same as buri, in simmered dishes, fried, grilled and of course sashimi! http://www.zukan-bouz.com/aji/kanpati.image/kanpatie.jpg

word for 9/15: カンパチ kanpachi/kampachi This is another relative of the buri and looks very similar but has a flatter body. It's shun (season) is in the summer and winter just like buri and many people prefer the taste of the kanpachi over buri. kanpachi: http://www.zukan-bouz.com/aji/kanpati.image/kanpati.jpg EDIT: I forgot to mention that this is usually referred to as greater amberjack in English....

you have me very intrigued..... I am going to look for these omija berries in Japan but how does it taste when made with the stuff in the jar? http://www.rakuten.co.jp/hiroba/429858/429882/474953/ Is is worth searching out the berries?

I have had them a couple of times too, just sliced up thinly and drizzled with soy sauce, they are often served as a snack to go with drinks. I think they are pretty popular in most Asian countries.