torakris

I never thought it would actually happen but I did become sick of oysters! my husband finished them up all by himself....

I think that the way fusion works in general is that you take the cooking techniques or styles of another culture and incorporate it into your own using local foods. The word fusion isn't really big here in Japan, I have seen it a couple times but it is more popular with foreign chefs here rather than Japanese, but that isn't to say there isn't a heck of a lot of fusion going on here. Take a trip into almost any Italian restaurant and you will see loads of pasta dishes that no Italian would recognize. I have had wonderful "Italian dishes" made with mentaiko (spicy cod roe), gobo (burdock root), nozawa-na (a green), etc. The Japanese chefs are taking the Italian idea of pasta and using the ingredients that are more readily available. I think a different type of fusion happens when a large group of people move into a culture different from their own (Hawaii is a perfect example of this) and then are using their own cooking techniques with the foods now available to them in their new location. I am sort of mixed on fusion, I can't say I love it but it isn't all bad, there are some things that really work.

It tasted like chicken.

for your first question the o is sometimes honorific, normally only when it preceded a word that can stand on its own. For example tea is actually just "cha" so adding the o makes it honorific, but you rarely hear anyone saying just cha, ocha is the mainstream usage. Then you can take the word tegami which means letter and add an o to it to make otegami and it makes it more formal, tegami (with out the o) is the everyday usage. Then you have a word like onara, which is fart (the noun) and I am sure this is not honorific in anyway, though I could be wrong! The word omakase is from the verb makaseru which means to leave something up to some one or something else, when you are using it in a restuarant it can mean the chef's choice (especially if it is written on a menu), but you could also use it when asking someone to pick out something for you, whether it is food or not. I know that no matter how simple a word I teach today, everyone is going to leave this thread remembering only onara, so I will make that the word for today 2/23!

Well I went to my first Iron chef restaurant the other day! I went to Vietnam Alice (French chef Ishinabe), I went with two friends and the one from Thailand really enjoys the place so I figure it must be good. We went for lunch and decided to order the 1500 yen ( US $13) lunch set that including a spring roll plate, a choice of chicken pho or Thai curry and a dessert. I was quite surprised by the size of the spring roll plate, there were 4 kinds: a fresh spring roll filled with noodles and vegetables a steamed roll filled with pork and mushrooms and topped with deep fried shallots a deep fried roll with unknown filling but was very good a crab claw with a pork/shrimp patty formed around it and deep fried (My son ate this whole one so I didn't get to try it. The platter also had mounds or daikon and carrot "pickle" and a lot of cucumber slices and was served with 3 dipping sauces a sriracha type sauce, a nampla-lime sauce and a miso based sauce (this went wonderfully with the cucumber pieces). I was almost full by the time I finished this it was really big and then the pho came, it was definitely the best pho I have had in Japan (but that doesn't say much... ) the soup was incredible and there were quite a few large slices of chicken in addition to raw onion slices, scallions, deep fried shallots and bean sprouts. The dessert was some kind of fruit jello-y type thing, but I didn't get a taste as my son ate it all. It was a really great meal and I will definitely be going back!

word for 2/22: デラウエア derauea (day-rah-ooh-eh-ah) Delaware grape, this is probably rivaling the kyohou for popularity and is definitely the hands down winner with kids. Named after its supposed place of origin Delaware County, Ohio, it is used mostly for wine making except in Japan where it is regarded as a delicious table grape. The Japanese remove the skin before eating, just pinch the grape in your fingers (these are really tiny grapes) and te skin slides right off, or you can do it like the kids and myself, pop the whole grape into your mouth and then spit out the skin. the following is a little bit about the grape from http://www.delawaregrape.com/ What was the origin of the Delaware Grape? No one knows for sure. There was a story that it had been sent from France at the turn of the 19th century. Other placed the origins in Italy, however it has been found to be devoid of the characteristics of all foreign grapes and is said to be purely native American in habit of growth and adaptability to our soil and climate. It is commonly supposed that it is a chance seedling, perhaps a new variety of native grape. Perhaps we will never know the origins. The Delaware vines produce grapes that are small and delicately formed. The berries are pale rose to bright red and have good "keeping quality" (It is said that the grapes can last up to 16 weeks after harvest. The pulp is quite juicy, almost gelatinous in consistency, with a distinct fruity flavor, sometimes called "foxy". The Delaware Grape is said to be an excellent table grape and delightful to taste. The Delaware Grape, widely grown by vintners today, has stood the test of time. It has remained constant and is still recommended today as an excellent native grape to grow. It is widely praised for its' disease resistance and hardiness and is currently grown throughout the Northeastern US, especially New York, and in Ohio, along Lake Erie. It is often used in some premium champagne blends , to produce a dessert wine and to make a light fruity semi-dry drinking wine. It is decidedly grapy-tasting. It is a favorite table grape in Japan, the second leading grape grown and also very well known in areas of Europe the delaware grape: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/veg-fru/i...are/delawa2.jpg

That tray of uni only cost me $3, that was cheap by Japanese prices and I was actually surprised at just how good it was.

I would never waste fresh tuna on mac and cheese.

Friday dinner: My husband was out again last night so I whipped up some Springfield (generic) Mac and Cheese with tuna fish and green peas. I ahve never seen my kids so happy, the three of them were lined up in the kitchen with bowls and forks in hand from the time I set the water to boil....... dessert: wasanbon roll cake from my friend's pastry shop

Ｗｅｌｌ　ｍｙ　ｆｒｉｅｎｄ has decided to start selling the roll cakes at her bakery and I bought one for dessert last night. I can't help but think that I may be responsible for a new wasanbon trend in Japan....

word for 2/21: 巨峰　きょほう kyohou (kyo-hoe) These grapes account for over 30% of all the grapes grown in Japan and though they peak in September, you can often find them available from April thru December. In my opinion these are the best grapes in the world. They need to be peeled before eating as the skins have a very unpleasant taste, but they are worth the time. These grapes can be quite large and I was once served one the size of a ping pong ball, they are incredibly sweet and can be incredibly expensive. the kyohou: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/veg-fru/i...oho/kyoho.2.jpg

hhhmmmm... There was no sauce for dipping with the kind I had, and I saw no mention of a sauce in any of the recipes I looked up. Maybe he was drinking too much beer and was dipping it into something else.....

Now I see why you suddenly have an interest in Genghis Kahn BBQ......

well I have a sore wrist this morning.... In Japan it is almost impossible to find oysters in the shell, I have only seen the twice this year and only at upscale markets. They are normally sold water packed on trays and are labeled either for cooking use or as ok for eating raw. Thus I never seen an oyster knife in this country, Today I am going to an outlet mall with friends they have a store called The Compleat Kitchen and also the French store Carrefour which often has unusual gadgets, I will be on the look for an oyster knife...

That recipe does call for sugar, after the beans are pureed in the food processor.... I guess my 5 years as a reference librarian has paid off for something, I love research things! when I first left my job and moved to Japan I used to call up my friends and beg them to ask me questions so I could look up the answers and then call them back. It is nice to have a "job" where I am finally useful again. Keep asking!

I found two more recipes (on Japanese sites) the first one calls for the following to be pureed in a blender then heated in a pan and cooled before using: ginger garlic onion apple sugar ketchup worchestire sauce soy red wine the next one calls for the non-liquid ingredients to be grated and everything heated in a pot and then cooled before using: apple onion garlic red wine soy dashi sugar chile pepper sesame seeds So in conclusion, I guess you can add whatever you want!

that ground ginger sounds off too, ground ginger is not used in Japanese cooking....

are you looking for something like this? http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/65/S...eans52879.shtml

I think I would be happy if I never talked about another nashi again! Let's move on... word for 2/20: ぶどう budou (boo-doe) grapes Japan has some really incredible grapes and we will cover some of them in the next couple days.

oh and by the way way it seems as far as vegetables almost anything goes peppers bean sprouts cabbage onions carrots potatoes kabocha chrysanthemum leaves etc etc

I have only eaten this once, it isn't very popular in Yokohama.... Basically it is just a variety of vegetables and marinated lamb cooked on a domed griddle type pan. I tried searching for recipes and didn't have much luck, I did find this that has nice step by step pictures of placing the vegetables nad lamb on the griddle: http://www.2989.net/genghiskhan/yakikata.html but it has no recipe. Most recipes I came across called for pre-marinated lamb (that you would probably pick up in the grocery store) or a bottled marinade sauce...... I only found one recipe that gave a marinade ingredients list and it said to place all of the following into a blender and puree and then let sit for a day before adding the meat: soy sauce mirin sake sugar carrots garlic ginger celery tomato puree oyster sauce apple chile powder I have absolutely no idea how authentic this recipe is, as I don't really remember the flavor of the Genghis Kahn BBQ I had, I wasn't impressed by it and thus ahve never searched it out again. of course it could very well have been the place that I ate it at.

In the middle to end of the pan-ya thread there is info on making an-pan: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=21459

The long one is a rib sandwich and the one with a dark sauce is the teriyaki burger. We are still waiting for you to make it here Chris!

Actually Lotteria in Japan has nothing like that, they don't have any rice burgers on their menu. It sounds really good though! I just started a thread on Lotteria in the Japan forum with links to their homepage's menus: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=37556

Lotteria is another Japanese fast food hamburger chain, there aren't any in my neighborhood and the last time I was in one was about 6 years ago, a mention of them on a different thread reminded me of them. here is their hamburger menu: http://www.lotteria.co.jp/menu/burger.html