torakris

word for 3/20: 中落ち nakaochi (nah-kah-oh-chee) This is a very tender part of the tuna, usually scraped (often with a spoon) from the middle bone. You will often see this as nakaochi-don, a donburi with a bunch of this piled on top served with wasabi and soy or it can be minced up into negi-toro. http://www.uomaru.co.jp/shop_item/52.jpg

There was some discussion of this further up on the thread, I just noticed all of the characters are mixed up though. I don't have time to fix it now, but I will try to fix it later and see if I can find any more info for you. I have never really seen recipes for shokupan, it isn't something the Japanese make at home, but I will see if I can dig anything up.

eeewwww! curry pan flavored soup????

word for 3/18: 卒園　　そつえん sotsuen (sew-tsu-en) graduation 卒園式　　そつせんしき sotsuenshiki (sew-tsu-en-she-key) graduation ceremony In Japan the new school year starts from April, thus graduation ceremonies are held around the middle of March. Graduation (as well as entrance) ceremonies are huge over here, most fathers take the day off as the festivities can go on for a long time. Even kindergartens and day care centers have ceremonies that would rival most high/college school graduations in the West. My daughter's kindergarten graduation ceremony took place yesterday lasting close to two hours, with singing of the national anthem, the school song and about 5 others including Auld Lang Syne (in Japanese of course) then speeches by the principal, the principal of the local elementary school, the head of the Parent's Association, etc. Then the 182 children received their diplomas one by one. They would walk up onto the the stage and when their name was called they responded with a very firm and clear "hai" (yes) and walked over to the principal, the two then bow to each other, the child takes one step forward and the principal hands out the diploma with two hands (it is a large rectangular sheet of paper) the child then reaches out their right hand and grasps the right side and then reaches out the left hand to grasp the left side. Once it is in both hands they take a step backwards, they child and principal both bow to each other again, then the child turns around to face the audience and everyone claps, they then leave the stage and the process begins over again with the next child. The ceremonies then continue into the indivual classrooms were there are lots of pictures, hugging and crying. After the ceremonies at the school the families go off to their favorite restaurants to celebrate further with lunch. My daughter Julia Her graduating kindergarten class (Julia is second row from the back, second from the right)

Thursday dinner: It was my daughters graduation from kindergarten so we had a big lunch out following the ceremonies, wasn't that hungry for dinner soo.... a large salad with chopped cucumbers, celery, tomatoes and toped with falafel patties cut into squares, then drizzled with a yogurt-tahini sauce and sprinkled with mint edamame on the side

Weds dinner: another dinner in a rush... grilled semi-dried hokke (sorry have no idea of an English name of this fish) atsuage (blocks of deep fried tofu), carrot and chrysanthemum leaf tamago-toji -- the tofu and vegetables are sauteed then seasoned with dashi-soy-mirin-sugar, then well stirred eggs are poured into the pan and left until softly set leftover kabocha from the day before takuan (daikon pickles) shibazuke (cucumber and eggplant pickles) Japanese rice

word for 3/18: 切り落とし or 切落し kiriotoshi (key-rhee-oh-toe-shee) The word actually means to cut down in straight motion and this is the name given to the odds and ends of the fish that can't be cut into sushi/sashimi slices. Packs of these are sold in the supermarkets at much cheaper prices than a block, it is great for negi-toro, or for salad style preparations and for topping with yamaimo/nagaimo (mountain yam). This parts can be quite sinewy and if you find yourself with a pack that seems to have one sinew too many it is a great time for negitoro. kiriotoshi: http://www.uomaru.co.jp/shop_item/53.jpg

a nice article and picture: http://www.jinjapan.org/nipponia/nipponia20/en/appetit/

from the unusual Americanized sushi thread http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=13210&st=0 I can help a little on the etymology. There are actually 3 different ways to write sushi 鮨and 寿司(my computer can't make the 3rd one) The first one and the one my computer can't make are rarely used nowadays and are taken directly from the Chinese. The second one 寿司 is the one used most commonly today. This is comprised of 2 characters the first meaning happiness (kotobuki) and the second meaning to manage, to look after, or to control (tsugasadoru). Putting it all together, it basically a way to control another's happiness. The reading of the characters as sushi is actually a play on words. Su meaning vinegar and shi meaning skill of the hand ( the characters used for these two words are completely different, thus a play on words) Does this make any sense?

Do you know anything about the etymology of the word 'tekka maki'? I'm just wondering why the 'ka' is the kanji for fire. I just KNEW someone was going to ask that question! tekka in Japanese means red-hot iron (though it can also mean gunfire and sometimes words and guns in general) this is from the characters tetsu meaning iron or steel and ka meaning fire. Testu is the same character used in the iron chef title, in Japanese it is called ryouri no testu jin 料理の鉄人, ryouri meaning food,cooking, cuisine; tetsu meaning iron and jin meaning person). Anyway back to the tekka maki, knowing that it meant red hot iron I assumed it was maybe an imagery name, doing some searching I discovered I was way off. Back in the pre-war days a lot of men worked in tekkaba (iron/steel making factories) and apparently since their hands were quite soiled when it came time to eat lunch they didn't want to eat regular onigiri as their hands were dirty. The vendors ho sold them their lunches came up with the idea of wrapping the onigiri fillings with nori and cutting them into bite size pieces. Originally these contained kampyo (gourd) and other such fillings but soon maguro became the most popular. They were then given the name tekka maki as tehy were born out of the tekkaba.

word for 3/17: 鉄火巻き　てっか巻き tekka maki This is probably the most popular roll of sushi. It is a thin roll that constists of one strip of tuna in the middle. picture and directions for making your own: http://www.icubed.com/~yasu/makitutorial.htm

Too busy to even think about food Tuesday night: unagi kabayaki (grilled eel)--purchased product tofu patties with 7 kinds of vegetables topped with ponzu--both purchased items avocado slices drizzled with soy sauce kabocha squash simmered with lemon (simmered it too long and it got a little mushy ) goma no ha miso (a paste of miso, sesame leaves and chiles that is meant to be eaten with ric)--purchased product Japanese rice

In Japanese supermarkets it seems that more than half of the rice on the shelves is Koshihikari or Akitakomachi (as the lables all proudly announce that) but if you look really closely at the smaller print you will see they are normally some type of blend or some type of distant relative....

Monday dinner: leftovers! the rest of the pot roast that my husband made on Sunday ( I went out with a friend ) that included potatoes, carrots, celery and onions with a mustard-white wine sauce-- the whole thing was made in the outdoor dutch oven on the grill.... I had 3 days worth of leftover cold Japanese rice so I turned it into something like a cross between a pilaf and fried rice with tomatoes, okra, corn, paprika and seasoned with a healthy dose of Tabasco

before we go any farther let's discuss two very important words (3/16) 寿司　　すし sushi (sue-she) 刺身　　さしみ sashimi (sah-she-me) sashimi-raw fish served with a dipping sauce sushi-raw fish served with vinegared rice in many forms, such as: nigiri-fish placed on an oblong shaped piece of rice, occasionally with additional garnishes or nori, scallions, etc chirashi- scattered rice, 1 or more type of fish scattered on top of rice sometimes with vegetables/eggs/nori/etc temaki-hand roll usually triangular in shape filled with anything the chef desires in a piece of nori maki-a simple nori roll of normally one or two ingredients, cut into bite size pieces futo-maki-"fat" roll consisting of many ingredients rolled in a piece of nori and cut into pieces discuss your favorite sushi and sashimi here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=19857

I have no idea what clodhoppers are, but they sound like they might be popular!

I think you have pretty much figured it out yourself! I would think the two best ideas are the wine and the maple syrup. Fruit wines are become very common here,t ehre is a wide variety in all of my local supermarkets. Most people here I think associate Canada with maple sryup and maple sryup is very popular here but also quite expensive so it would be a well appreciated gift. Both wine and the syrup tend to be in glass bottles so if you want to avoid the glass how about some thing else maple based? Like maple butter or maple sugar and a short list of suggestions on how to use them. Unless your co-workers are quite international I would avoid the wild rice, most Japanese I know are still Japanese white rice or nothing and ithere is a good chance they may never use it, the couple times I have prepared it it hasn't gone over really well I do know someone who would love a bag of wild rice though..........

word for 3/15: ネギトロ negitoro (nay-ghee-toe-rhoe) This is a popular of preparing the odds and ends of chuutoro that can't be made into pretty slices for sushi or sashimi. The tuna is finely minced (usually with two knives going double speed) and then mized with some mince negi (Japanese leek) and minced together a little bit more. This is most commonly eaten as a roll, a gunkan maki or donburi style drizzled with a little wasabi and soy sauce. negitoro: http://www.maguroyasan.com/set2.html

I had a hotok for the first time in my life yesterday and I have to admit that until about 12 hours ago I had never even heard of one before. I was with a Korean friend in what could be considered Tokyo's Korea town (bit for some reason it isn't... ) when we walked past a hotok cart and she HAD to have one. As she was buying them I noticed that they had three flavors, honey (which included brown sugar and peanuts), anko (red bean paste) and cheese. She bought two of the honey ones as they are her favorite and it was one of the most incredible things I have eaten, I am ready to go all the way back to Shinjuku just to get more! They look sort of like a thck pancake but don't taste like one. I am sure they are made out of some type of flour based batter but I am not sure how they got the filling inside.... here is a picture: http://sky.freespace.jp/cutiesakura/pantry...y2002/hotok.JPG Can anyone tell me more about these? any other favorite street foods?

Yesterday I took a trip to Okubo with a good Korean friend. Okubu is just a 10 minute walk from Shinjuku station, but once you get there you feel as if you have left the country! Everywhere you look the signs are all printed in Korean, the Korean language can be heard all around you and every restaurant you walk past serves some Korean speciality. Carts are parked on the street selling Korean mochi, hotok and and other popular street foods, the supermarkets stock all the food items an ex-pat Korean would want including an incredible variety of Kimchi. For dinner we went to one of my friend's favorite places a tiny hole in the wall with only 15 seats and run my two female cooks, this was really Korean home cooking at its best... For more info check out this article: http://metropolis.japantoday.com/tokyo/406...y/intdining.asp

tell that to millions of children in Japan! My kids love this stuff too and often order it when we are out as I refuse to make it at home!

More food theme parks Jiyugaoka Sweets Forest: http://metropolis.japantoday.com/tokyo/508/dining.asp and the Japanese site: http://www.jiyugaoka2.jp/~sweetsforest/

I have to admit to absolutely hating omuraisu It is immensely popular here, there are restaurants that make only omuraisu, it is a typical dish found on kids menus and some variation on it for adults at almost every family restaurant and it is a very popular food at home for both lunch and dinner.

word for 3/14: 中トロ chuutoro The chuutoro is cut from the upper belly and is fattier than the akami but not as fatty as the ootoro, thus it is called chuu which means middle. Chuutoro is suited to sashimi better than the ootoro, when served as sushi the rice helps cut the fattiness. chuutoro: http://aikij.com/tuna/fresh/image/setoro-280x.jpg

This article discusses some of the most popular Food theme parks in Japan. and another one any other favorites?