torakris

I was just given a bunch of cucumbers yesterday and was thinking of making a soup, you have just decided it for me! Thank you

oh my gosh, did we actually take any pictures of people???!! Unfortunately I only got those 2 pictures, too busy eating and chatting ..... We picked this restaurant because none of us had eaten raw chicken and wanted to give it a try. It was really quite good and it was in some form everywhere, from under a pile kimchi in the pre-dinner appetizer to the salad, etc. For me the most interesting part of the evening was the raw chicken brains. and my absolute favorite dish was the foie gras, that one dish alone was worth the $100 the meal cost..... Palladion has all the notes and most of the pictures so I will leave the descriptions up to him.

In the US normally a biscuit refers to a type of bread leavened with baking powder or soda. I know the British refers to cookies as biscuits.....

We had our first ever Tokyo egullet get together last night (6/12) at Imaiya a yakitori restaurant. Here is there English homepage: http://www.imaiya.co.jp/english/welcome/welcome.html The food was really incredible and my husband and I had a great time. I will start off with two pictures. A "snack" to be nibbled at while enjoying our first drinks and deciding what to order, young ginger and cucumbers with a miso paste The chicken sashimi platter, top left is chicken tenderloin, moving clockwise there is chicken gizzards, down in the right hand corner is chicken breast and finally the chicken liver

To lazy at the moment to think about tai so, the word for 6/13: 美味しかった　　おいしかった oishikatta (oy-she-kah-ttah) It was delicious, or talking about something that was delicious (past tense), I chose this word to describe the wonderful meal that us Tokyo egulleteers had last night!

good question! Wish I had an answer.... There are a couple palces that sell American style pies but nothing is close to the ones my mom and grandmother make. Anna Miller's is famous for their American style pies here: http://shopping.biglobe.ne.jp/webshop_doc/...e/0203/001.html yes, you are reading that right, one pie costs over 4,000 yen ($40)!

I love photos....

Hiroyuki, Those look incredible! are those the same as the ones you often see sold water packed in the supermarket? I am sure they taste completely different fresh. Do you know how many types of bamboo shoots there are? anything else besides those long thin ones (hime-take) and the regular fat ones? I have been to Naeba twice for skiing (if you can actually call what I do skiing... ), I am going to have to go in the spring time next time....

Loco moco is really quite popular in recent years especially with the younger generation. It seemed to ride in with the surfer "boom" a couple years back and shops have popped up all over the place especially in areas popular with young people. There is a chain store here now called loco moco and that is all they serve. In most other places it is just one item on the menu often with other dishes like curry rice and taco rice....

Jim, I wasn't sure how much a won was worth anymore, so I just checked and 1000won is less than $1?! So is that bottle really only $2 to $3 ? What are those prices like compared to other types of alcohol in Korea?

6/12: let's look at a couple close relatives of the madai that you may run across. チダイ chidai crimson sea bream http://www.zukan-bouz.com/suzuki2/taika/titai.html キダイ　　or 　レンコダイ kidai or renkodai yellowback sea bream http://www.zukan-bouz.com/suzuki2/taika/kidai.html クロダイ kurodai black sea bream http://www.zukan-bouz.com/suzuki2/taika/kurodai.html キチヌ　　or 　キビレ kichinu or kibire yellow fin sea bream http://www.zukan-bouz.com/suzuki2/taika/kitinu.html へダイ hedai silver sea bream http://www.zukan-bouz.com/suzuki2/taika/hedai.html

Randi , there is a thread on other Japanese snacks in the Japan Forum: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=20372&st=0

hhhmmm..... I never thought about it before, it could be a big part of the reason....

Anna, look here: http://www.jbprince.com/index.asp?PageActi...TS&Category=243 and here: http://www.happycookers.com/wc.dll/product...lge/1-7451.html

Did you know that the teriyaki burger at McDonald's in Japan is made with 100% pork and not beef at all....?

and we though $100 for a melon was expensive.... Last night on the news they were showing some black skinned watermelons that were selling for 250,000yen (about $2,500) a piece! Unfortunately I just caught the end of the story so I am not sure what made them so special.....

Since this is expanded to include all Pocky like snacks, I will share oneof my other favorites. Koeda from Morinaga: http://www.morinaga.co.jp/chocolates/index.html you need to click on the first choice under menu (小枝), the varities shown include milkc chocolate, black cocoa, chestnut, and chai. Their newest flavor, cookies and cream can be found here: http://www.morinaga.co.jp/newprod/index.html

word for 6/11: 真鯛　　マダイ madai (mah-die) This is often called the "true" or "genuine" tai or red sea bream (or red snapper or red porgy) in English. We have now seen a couple times the word "ma" added to the beginning of a fish name, this "ma" 真　means truth, genuine, or real and is often used to distiguish the more common or popular fish from those of the same species. It's season (shun) runs from about December to April and it can be prepared in a myriad of ways, some of which we will discuss in the upcoming days. A beautiful picture of madai: http://www.pref.miyazaki.jp/nousei/foods/f...mainphoto01.jpg

Today, I had lunch with two Japanese friends at an Okinawa restaurant we just discovered by our house. It was a small restaurant with just two women working, we had a simple conversation with both of them (during and after the meal) and when we finished paying the bill we all said "gochisousamadeshita" to both of them.

word for 6/10: 鯛　タイ tai sea bream Tai: Japan's King of Fish: http://www.kikkoman.com/forum/009/ff009.html

ohagi, made by a friend

some more pictures various dango, with yuzu-miso, black sesame seeds and mitarashi dango with a sweet soy sauce. these, the young peach daifuku (above) and the shuu cream (from another thread) were all bought at Chateraise, a cake shop/wagashi store chain: http://www.chateraise.co.jp/ for pictures of their products click on the 4th image down (looks like a cake)

I have seen the ice cream ones in several supermarkets in the case with all the rest of the ice cream.

Well there is Le Cordon Bleu in Japan (3 locations): http://www.cordonbleu.co.jp/home.html and Tsuji Culinary Institute http://www.tsuji.ac.jp/hp/index/index.html

On my neverending quest for the perfect daifuku I have stumbled across this one: This is made with a young green peach as well as shiro-an and fresh cream, it was wonderful!!