torakris

I ran across an interesting tofu in the store the other day, I can't remember it's name now that I threw the package away , but it was something like "three flavors" tofu. It is a normal sized block of tofu, but the top 1/4 and the bottom 1/4 are momen (cotton) and the middle is kinu-goshi (silken), it was interesting but I think I would prefer just one ofr the other..... the textural difference doesn't show up well in the picture, but it was quite noticable.

word for 6/17: 潮汁 ushio-jiru (ooh-she-oh jee-rhue) ushio-jiru is a very simple salt based soup normally made with seafood/fish, it is not uncommon to see a tai no ushio-jiru made with the head of a tai. The head can also be simmered in the kabuto-ni style as we discussed with maguro sometime back. tai no shio-jiru: http://www.jf-net.ne.jp/jf-net/syun/cook/t...cipe_ushio.html

I just found this: http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/soun...shiyakiimo.html for those who have never been to Japan, now you can hear what the yaki-imo truck's song sounds like!

hhhmmm.... This could be a difficult task, I have eaten at least 10 different kinds of daifuku in this past year (I too am a daifuku freak) and I am sure you would be able to find over 50 different kinds form all over Japan. The same goes for dango, the varieties could vary form place to place. are we talking about mochi made from the mochi-gome (mochi rice) or about things that have mochi in their title? don't forget about the "other" mochi, warabi-mochi, kuzu-mochi, etc.

Here is a picture of a chahan I made it a little while back, it had eggs, onions, carrots and was topped with scallions and sriracha

My fried rice is quite similar to Hiroyuki's. I normally start if off with a combination of sesame oil and regular oil, but I am going to try adding the sesame oil at the end next time. Sometimes I make the eggs first like scrambled eggs (with large curds) then remove them and continue with the rice, adding them back in at the very end. I particularly like this with kimchi chahan, and in this case I slightly sweeten the eggs and it provides a great contrast to the spicy kimchi. Kimchi chahan is probaly my favorite kind of fried rice and in addition to the soy I add a little mirin as well and normally make it with just kimchi and eggs and scallions if I have them. I also like a simple chahan with eggs, onions, any other vegetables that are in the house and maybe some cashew nuts and then I drizzle it (heavily ) with sriracha. I like my food spicy!

Question 1: I don't know if anybody was a sake drinker.....? I don't drink at all and my husband doesn't really care for sake. I think we were also spending so long figuring out the regular menu that we didn't have time to think about the drinks, another factor may have been the price, witht he amount of money we were already spending I probably wouldn't have let my husband order sake! Question 2: Seared foie gras was actually one of the items on the menu and Jim's wife ordered a full serving of it, but they came back and said the a la carte portion had already been sold out, but they could susbsitute the "yakitori" one for the liver yakitori for those who wanted it and we all jumped at it. In my opinion the absolute best item on the menu and the best foie gras I have ever tasted. Question 3: Well it took us a good while to get assembled and order, about 1 hour but I am thinking that 3 to 4 hours was a typical time period for that course we ordered. The dishes were brought out one by one (except for the final rice and small dishes) and were very well explained. I felt the time and pace was similar to most kaiseki meals I have had.

what kind of vegetables were in it? If you ate it at someone's house it may have been a specialtiy of that house rather than a well known dish....

Us Tokyo based egulleteers just had a dinner at Imaiya another restaurant by the Megu founder Koji Imai. pictures of the food: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=45036 I was just under the assumption that Imai-san was something of an older man, he is only 36 years old and owns about 25 restaurants..... Koji Imai: http://www.foodscope.co.jp/founder/ click on restaurants to see picturs of all the rest of his places

word for 6/16: 鯛めし　鯛飯 taimeshi (tie-may-she) This is a dish of rice cooked with a whole tai on top of it. I have eaten it with both the tai grilled beforehand and then placed on the rice as well as the raw tai cooked along with the rice and I prefer the flavor of the grilled version. Simple versions of the recipe for everyday eating can call for tai fillets to be cooked in the rice cooker. taimeshi: http://www.pref.kagawa.jp/eizo/vol003/en/a...setouchi/02.htm

From their website here are pictures and descriptions in English of the the "7 miracle dishes" served with the rice (Koshihikari): http://www.imaiya.co.jp/english/menu/miracle.html The only one that was different was the silky egg, instead we were served a type of squid shio-kara, that was REALLY good. I loved the tsukune on the skewer with the egg yolk, their eggs were really good, I forget were she said they came from (but they did have the sticker to prove it! ) but they weren't from the hinai chicken... That last savory dish was a tataki of chicken thigh (seared on the outside and raw in the middle) was incredible, I also really liked the grilled checken breasts, unlike the rest of the dishes they were actually cooked! It was served with a salt and pepper condiment for eating. I can't believe I forgot about those gingko nuts, that was also one of the best dishes. Probably my least favorite, though it was still quite good, was the grilled chicken wings. don't really care for chicken wings anyway as I find them mostly skin and fat...

Alex, Thank you for the rest of the pictures! You are right it doesn't look like much but man was I full, even my husband turned down a third bowl of rice and he never gets full! I can't believe you walked home!!!! My husband and I were talking about you on the way back and were hoping you be able to find a taxi, I didn't tihnk the walk would be that long! Maybe next time we could do lunch....

I too am interested in this combination as both takana pickles and soba miso are quite strong tasting. Maybe they just mixed some boiled mustard greens with soba miso? rather than using the pickled versions? That actually sounds pretty good.

now for some dishes using tai word for 6/15: 鯛の塩焼き　 or 　鯛塩焼 tai no shio-yaki or tai shio-yaki This is salted grilled tai, normally it is served whole but sometimes it will be in pieces. this is a popular dish on special occasions: http://image.www.rakuten.co.jp/yu-ya/img1007653233.gif

pickled takana (mustard) leaves can probably be found at some larger Japanese/Asian grocers, an online source is here: http://www.katagiri.com/ctlg/ek.htm scroll down to pickles and look at items K1161 and K1181 These are just the pickled takana though and will probably not taste the same as the restaurant one that were mixed with soba miso.

I have never seen it mixed with takana (I was going under the assumption of pickled takana) and searches of yahoo Japan give no results of takana and soba miso. The way I am used to seeing it is like this as a "dip" with vegetables, this picture is from our recent egullet Tokyo get together and may or may not be soba miso, I don't remember the waitress saying, but it looks similar to this.

Most of the experience I have had with soba miso is as a "dip" with vegetables most often with cucumbers or very young ginger. According to this website I found (Japanese): http://www.mi-so.com/sobamiso-setumei.htm there are two types, one for a "dip" and another for miso soup. It is basically made with miso, sugar, and buckwheat, the extra ingredients depend on who is making it. The one at the site above has sesame seeds, mirin and chiles, though I have seen recipes calling for other things such as yuzu, scallions, katsuo-bushi,etc.

Alex, thanks for getting the pictures up! I can't wait to see the rest of them , I am getting hungry again. A couple more notes: -the 4th sauce with brains was miso with something I think yuzu -with the sashimi platter the recommended sauces were, soy-garlic or sesame oil (from Kyoto) for the liver, soy sauce (with wasabi or umboshi paste or the hana hojiso) with the tenderloin or breast and for teh gizzard she said anything would work but she recommended just plain salt. The liver with the sesame oil was my favorite. -I really wish they hadn't included corn in that salad..... -for some reason I was the only one whose trays of sauces didn't get taken and that sesame oil was delicious on the asparagus, my husband who is a wasabi freak had also grated off a small pile and placed it on the side of his dish before she took it away. -the yakitori was really great, I felt the sauce didn't need anything else and I love the combination of the skin and gobo and I was very happy to see them using yuzu-koshou, my condiment of choice for everything.

mjs, welcome to both egullet and the Japan board! Just let us know when you will be here, I am happy for a get together anytime!!

Query: so the chicken gizzards are that dark red beet-like color of a blob? Looks good. All of it. yes that is the gizzard (tsunagimo). A couple of other things in the picture that I didn't mention: next to the chicken tenerloin (upper left) is some umeboshi paste、the purple-ish flowers are hana hojiso- the flowers of the shiso bud- and are edible and taste just like shiso, the yellow lump in the middle we thought might be chrysanthemum flowers. In the back of the picture is a stick of wasabi with a grater, we used up almost the whole stick! It was great tasting stuff.

looking forward to this!

word for 6/14: 腐っても鯛 kusattemo tai (koo-sah-ttay-moe tie) Tai, a symbol of wealth and prosperity, also signifies high quality; it is the elite fish of the well-known proverb, Kusattemo tai, or "No matter how spoiled it may be, it's still tai"—the implication being that no matter how reduced in circumstances, someone of quality is still respected. The reality behind this proverb lies in the great quantity of inosinic acid contained in sea bream, a substance that helps the flesh resist spoiling. Thus even when tai is no longer completely fresh, its flavor lasts longer than that of most fish—a fitting and enduring symbolism for the fish that has come to epitomize the very finest in Japanese cuisine. excerpted from here: http://www.kikkoman.com/forum/009/ff009.html since they explain it better than I could.....

At the Imaiya restaurant (site of Tokyo egullet first ever get together) part of our final course included natto, it was actually a mix of two different kinds of natto, one from the Kanda area of Tokyo and the other from Yamagata. The Yamagata natto was called shio (salt) natto and it was flavored as well as having the additions of konbu and kouji. My husband fell in love with this stuff and our wonderful waitress kindly answered all of our questions and even went back to the kitchen to bring us the package to show us what the bag looked like. The first thing my husband did when he got home was look it up on the internet and we found it: http://www.rakuten.co.jp/toichiya/434914/434975/

Yesterday as my family was having lunch at Yoshinoya (my first time there in almost 14 years!), the man a couple chairs away (the restuarant is set up as one big sort of s shaped counter) stood and announced "gochisousama" as the way of letting the waiter know he was ready to pay his check. I have never really noticed anyone ever do that before in this kind of restaurant, of course I also don't normally frequent those kind of restaurants.... I didn't notice any of the other customers do it either though and I would probably never use it in that kind of situation, so it really just depends on the person.

so the scallop sauce doesn't actually have scallops?