torakris

I am not sure of their availability outside of Japan, I couldn't seem to find any information, but I did find this interesting piece on them: http://www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~edjacob/japannotations.htm unfortunately they are in the middle of the page (under Genki Drinks) and you need to scroll through a lot of other stuff to read it, it also has some nice pictures.

Add 3 more for me, one in Japanese Buonissimo: Easy Modern Recipes for Traditional Italian Cooking The Cordon Bleu Complete Cook

I have major problems in my house with hair in my food. I always wear my hair up when I am cooking but like you said if often falls off your clothes. Luckily I don't cook for other people all that often, but my husband often says he finds at leat one hair per day in one of his meals (I make his breakfast and lunches and he eats them at work) Besides shaving our head I don't really know what we could do, maybe try pulling up our hair and then changing our shirts as well?

It was really wonderful and I have never seen it anywhere in the Kanto area.

Although it isn't what I would consider "traditional" Okinawan food, taco rice seems to have its origins in Okinawa. I had this for lunch on Saturday, it had actually been years since I have eaten it and I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. This seems to be popping up in more or more places, especially cafe style restaurants on the lunch menus and it is a great lunch. For those unfamiliar with it, it is basically taco toppings (seasoned ground beef, salsa, lettuce, cheese and hot sauce on the side) all served on top of rice. They even sell kits in the supermarkets for making it at home: http://takara.ne.jp/tacorice/ scroll down for a homemade version

word for 3/28: まぐろづくし maguro zukushi (mah-goo-rhoe-zoo-koo-shee) When you see this on a sushi menu it usually means a dish of the three main cuts of tuna, akami, chuutoro and ootoro, and looks like this: http://www.marine-prd.co.jp/sakanatei/menu...uro-zukushi.htm In other restaurants it could mean a multi-course/ multi-dish meal with everything containing tuna, sort of like this: http://www.sagami.co.jp/store/sagami/event...0412maguro.html

Okonomiyaki, the name actually means "cooked as you like it" and that is the best way to do it, find out what kind you like. Okonomiyaki can take a while to cook, especially the thick ones easily go at least 15 minutes. I prefer mine on the thinner side, about 1/2 inch thick, with the green cabbage (I have never actually seen it made with napa cabbage) shredded and mixed into the batter. I have more cabbage than batter for mine, but I do know people who prefer it more cakey. If using seafood I chop it and mix it into the batter as well. My favorite is strips of fatty pork laid across the top before flipping and then turn the heat up at the end of cooking to crisp it up a bit. I sauce mine off the heat with okonimiyaki sauce, mayo and sometimes mustard all sort of swirled together and then top it with bonito flakes and devour. They are very filling! the thick ones I can barely finish half of and the thickness I prefer I still find myself stuffing the last bites into my already full stomach.

shimeji are quite a confusing mushroom to me. They are probably one of the most popular mushroom in the Japanese stores and you will see loads of packages labeled as hon-shimeji selling for only 100 yen or sometimes less. According to online sources I have learned that most of the mushrooms that are labeled as shimeji are actually a type of hiratake....

yeah, are you looking for anyting specific? Produce could be a hard one.....

Thank you for the birthday wishes, I spent the day with my family and parents wandering all of the Minato Mirai area of Yokohama even takingteh brand new Minato Mirai subway line into China Town. Then my in-laws took us to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, I am not sure why though since my MIL knows that I hate Japanese-Chinese food...... well since you all asked, word for 3/27: 誕生日おめでとう tanjoubi omedetou (tahn-joe-bee oh-may-day-toe) Happy Birthday

I have never really "got " these, My Mother in law swears by these things and brings them over for my husband sometimes "because he needs to keep up his energy....". They are a huge business here and there are probably more varieties than there are of soda.

word for 3/26: まぐろの山かけ maguro no yamakake (mah-goo-rhoe-noh-yah-mah-kah-kay) This is a very popular dish of usually cubed pieces of maguro covered with grated mountain yam (nagaimo/yamaimo/etc) and often soy, wasabi, nori (laver) or other toppings. yamakake: http://www.iscb.net/mikio/200304/0424.htm

the rice prices this year are killing me we are on an extremely tight food budget until December (actually a tight budget on everything! ) and we are eating less and less rice every month. I am actually able now to buy jasmine rice and basmati rice for cheaper or equal to the Japanese rice and we are eating more of those along with a lot more pasta and bread. I think our rice consumption is down to about 15kgs a month for our family of 5. This is also the first year I have actually almost considered throwing out a bag of rice because it was the most awful I had tasted. It was a cheap blend and I ended up making large batches and refrigerating it to make fried rice for me and only me as I couldn't possibly feed this rice to my family.

There is a good chance it might. Imported foods are really big right now, there was another "boom" about 15 years ago around the height of the bubble and then it slowly dissapated. the past couple years have an increasing trend in foreign made food products and foreign stores/bakeris/restaurants/etc. Some of them do better than others but quite of few of them suddenly disappear. I think Dean and Deluca is a novelty right now and in a couple years they are going to have a hard time keeping customers with those prices.

Hiroyuki, welcome to egullet! now to your question, for myself it is the combination of ketchup and eggs,i am not a big ketchup fan and normally only eat it on hamburgers and really bad french firies. I can't stand napolitan spaghetti either, my Italian grandmother would probably disown me for eating it......

word for 3/25: マグロのカルパッチョ maguro no karupaccho (mah-goo-rhoe-noh-kah-rhue-pah-choh) Tuna carpaccio This is sort of the preparation style of the moment, different from the yuke style preparation, this is usually slices topped with a thin dressing and maybe some other vegetables. It can be either "western style" with olive oil and vinegar of juices or "japanese style" with more Japanese type flavorings. Mayonnaise is another common topping. one style of tuna carpaccio: http://www.fishing-v.co.jp/original/cooking/magukaru.html

Mistukoshi Department store has always been the cornerstone of Nihonbashi. Celebrating their 100th anniversary this year they are undergoing a complete renovation and will open their new doors in Ocober of this year. New to Nihonbashi is Coredo Nihonbashi which will open on 3/30/2004 of special note the Spanish Restaurant Sant Pau http://www.santpau.jp/ and the Paris bakery Maison Keyser

Dean & Deluca seems to be a success here in Japan. The 2nd store opened a couple months back in Shibuya and the 3rd one just opened this month in Shinagawa. http://www.deandeluca.com/cgi-bin/ncommerc...ews1.d2w/report

Shinagawa is being built up at an incredible speed and it is becoming one of the new places to be seen. http://www.atre.co.jp/shinagawa/ Atre Shinagawa opened on 3/3/2004 with some places worth taking a look at: Dean and Deluca's 3rd Tokyo store Grand Central Oyster Bar and Restaurant http://www.oysterbartokyo.com/

I can't seem to get tonkatsu out of my mind and when picking out lunch at the local convenience store today I just had to have the miso-katsu don. It was a little on the expensive side as far as bentos in a conbini go, about US$5, but it was actually quite good!

The kids and I made a trip to the local conbini (convenience store) to pick up lunch today. Daughter Julia picked out the omuraisu bento cost about US$2.50

the Japanese curry thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=15137

yes, but he has to boil his first.

wow, that is unlike any curry I have ever seen in Japan! Sounds more like Hawaiian-Japanese curry.... How was the kimchi and curry combination?

nope! It couldn't get any simpler.