torakris

Kateigaho International Edition's most current issue has a pull out section on "must try" restaurants in Tokyo. There homepage has a glipse of it, but you need to buy te magazine to find out about all of them. http://www.kateigaho.com/int/jan04/main.cfm#gourmet

It has been a really busy week for me Tuesday: cream (white) stew with chicken, potaoes, carrots, onins and cabbage with Japanese rice Weds: liver and cabbage stirfry pickled Chinese cabbage (made by my neighbor) corroke (pork and potato croquettes) Japanese rice Thursday: Costco pizza

word for 1/30: 千秋　　せんしゅう senshuu (sen-shoe) This is a great eating apple from Akita prefecture, with a nice balance of sweet and tart. It can be hard to find though. picture: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/veg-fru/i...pple/apple5.jpg NOTE* The same pronunciation of this (senshuu) but with different characters (先週) means last week. Just to confuse you a little bit more.....

word for 1/29: 王林　　おうりん ourin (oh-rheen) If you see a green apple in Japan it is probably this. The ourin has been in Japan for close to 50 years and despite its resemblance to the the Granny Smith apple it is not tart at all. ourin: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/veg-fru/i...ple/apple10.jpg

Those are what I used to use!!!! But for some reason they are no longer available in Japan, I still look in every store I go into but they are gone. I was using them for like 5 years and they were incredible. Taht is actually the reason I am asking the question because I no longer have access to those green bags.......

I know it is ideal to buy your produce and try to use it the same day or as quickly as possible, but now as it is in the dead of winter I hate going grocery shopping. With 3 little ones in the house I try to put it off to once or twice a week, but that meas we eat a lot of root vegetables, which isn't a bad thing but I would like more leafy things in our diet. So are there any hints/tips on how to store vegetabls to keep them fresher longer? A couple years ago I learned about wrapping calery in tin foil and it really does keep it fresh for a couple weeks.

I bought 4 packages of this stuff for making polenta, but it turns out that my family doesn't like polenta. The stuff is actually called "Corn Grits also known as Polenta" from Bob's Red Mill, I have never eaten grits in my life and am not sure how to prepare them or what to serve them with. Besides grits and polenta is there anything else to do with this stuff?

I don't know too much about Kyoto, Iw as there 14 years ago and wasn't too interested in the food at the time. You are coming at a great time though, you should be here for all of the cherry blossom viewing! One restaurant I would love to go to in Kyoto is Tousuiro, a very famous tofu restaurant. Here is their English homepage : http://www.tousuiro.com/en/index.html and a review from the Tokyo Food Page: http://www.bento.com/kyototofu.html

Sorry about yesterday, I was having problems with my cable hook up and I couldn't get online for most of the day. word for 1/28: ジョナゴールド jyonagoorudo (jyo-nah-goh-rhue-doe) Joni-Gold This apple, a cross between the golden delicious and the kougyoku, appeared on the markets in the early 70's. picture: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/veg-fru/i...pple/apple8.jpg

Sunday night: Paella Monday night Linguine with an Alfredo sauce and grean peas

We have discussed Japanese regional cookbooks on another thread and came to the conclusion there is nothing out there, in Japanese or English. Guidebooks might be able to point you in the direction of some good local food, it has been a long time since I bought a Japan guidebook though..... As to eating sushi, you will find some incerdible sushi in Fukui I am sure. The best place to eat anything is at its point of origin and you will probably find some great fish that you would never find in Tokyo and at better prices to boot! I have to admit most of the best sushi I have had was in towns bordering the oceans where the fishw as just hours off the boat, most likely caught by te shop owners son (or grandfather) and supplemented with fresh vegetables picked from the garden..... Can't get that in Tokyo....... well it is harder to find. I have slowly been compiling lists of regional meibutsu from all over Japan and you have persuaded me to get off my butt and finally get it organized.

You could try getting your hands on melokheya, it is a green but it is also the name of the national dish of Egypt. There are also a thousand ways to spell it...... I started a thread on it a little while back (with pictures! ) http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...=0entry446418 Since you love natto, I am sure you will love this (slimy, very slimy)and the kids might enjoy it.........probably not..

Here is a list (in English) of Fukui meibutsu (traditional/famous dishes): http://www.kippo.or.jp/Collection/Asp/EngC...ctionSearch.Asp As Fukui has a lot of coast, it tends to focus mostly on seafood, sea urchin, crabs, fugu and various "pickled" fishes as well. EDIT you need to scroll past all of the spas first.

Haagen Dazs makes a great green tea ice cream, they have an azuki (red bean) as well but I have never tried it. They may market these just in Japan though...... Haagen Dazs Japan http://www.haagen-dazs.co.jp/contents/product/index.html click on flavors

word for 1/26: 世界一　　せかいいち sekaiichi (say-kye-ee-chee) Sekai means world and ichi means one or first, so these apples are called "best in the world". Aomori-ken (prefecture) is famous for these apples that are a cross between delicious and golden delicious. On the market since the mid 70's these are some of teh biggest apples around, they average at about 400-600 grams (about 1 lb) but can be as big as 1 kg (over 2lbs)!

word for 1/25: 紅玉　こうぎょく kougyoku (koe-gyo-koo) One of the first apples in Japan, this came from New York and is excellent for eating out of hand as well as for cooking. kougyoku: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/veg-fru/i...pple/apple6.jpg

Saturday dinner: a platter of steamed and raw vegetables (cabbage, carrots, green beans, cucumbers) and satsmage (deep fried fish patties) were served with a peanut sauce and jasmine rice. I also had a soup made with onions. ginger, tteok (Korean mochi slices) and egg

and here are English instructions for soba making: http://www.jinjapan.org/nipponia/nipponia2.../appetit01.html

That price is for a set with med fries and med drink (which are actually similar to US size small). The current toys for the happy set (happy meal in the US): http://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/sales/happyset_h_f.html EDIT oops wrong link...

gas stoves can be dangerous too! last night I left my wooden spoon a little too close to a burner thatw as on high and went to look at some stuff on the computer. A couple minutes later walking past the kitchen on teh way to the bathroom I noticed flames shooting into the air, my spoon was on fire. Second stupid thing: Even after running the spoon under cold water for at least 10 seconds it is still extremely hot, so don't touch it just because it looks cool.......

I wonder if McDonald's Japan is struggling because of the American mad cow..... Recently I have been seeing tons of Mac commercials advertising that they are using 100% Australian beef and then from today they have slashed the prices on Big Macs so that now a Big Mac set is only 390yen ($3.65) that is close to $2 off it's normal price. http://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/sales/promotion_h_f.html I think I need to take advantage of this while it lasts!!

Friday night: chicken meatballs and tiny satoimo (taro) simmered in dashi-soy-sake-mirin hiyayakko (cold tofu) with a soy and yuzu-koshou (paste made of greeen chiles and yuzu) sauce gobo, carrot, and cucmber salad with a spicy mayo dressing (I just had this like two night ago but my kids love it!) Japanese rice mixed with a little black rice

word for 1/24: つがる tsugaru The tsugaru apple, a cross between the golden delicious and kougyoku apples, entered the markets in the mid 70's and is currently the #2 apple in the country. It is an early season apple appearing in late August and continuing through winter. This is my favorite. tsugaru apple http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/veg-fru/i...pple/apple4.jpg

This week's TV Champion was about ochazuke, they set out to find the best ochazuke maker (?) in Japan. They had to go through various stages were they were eliminated one by one, my favorite was the "mania" stage where they had to create ochazukes with cola, ketchup and wine, all separately of course! Here are some scenes from the show: http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/tvchamp/result/result.htm#3 just click wherever it says "click" to see pictures of teh food from that round.

I just found a great site for handmade (teuchi) udon in English: http://www.kintobi.co.jp/emake/index.html#top It also has a lot of great udon recipes but they seem only to be in Japanese....