torakris

Off for my day on the town and got my camera with me! There will probably not be any reports until tomorrow morning, I plan on being out very late tonight!

Just finished lunch, a little more traditional than Helen's! We had kishimen noodles, these are similar to udon but they are flatter and wider and are a meibutsu (famous food) from Nagoya. Even though it is the end of December we had they hiyashi or cold with a tsukejiru (dipping sauce). When noodles are eaten hot in a soup style the broth is referred to as kakejiru. kake is from the verb kakeru which means to porr on top of tuke is from the verb tsukeru which means something like to add to jiru simple means broth or soup There are two popular ways of serving noodles in Japan (of course there are many others as well) and that is either tanuki or kitsune. These are both animals the tanuki is the Japanese racoon dog and kitsune is a fox, there is a meaning behind these names but i have forgotten it..... Tanuki is noodles topped with agedama (also called tenkasu) these are the deep fried little balls of batter that are remnants from tempura making. Kitsune is noodles topped with a seasoned slice of aburage (tofu pockets) Both can be served hot or cold and with most types opf noodles. I hate tanuki style and my husband hates kitsune so I always make both. I took the easy way out and used purchased agedama and pre-seasoned aburage (this is normally used for inari-zushi --sushi flavored rice stuffed into these seasoned pockets but it makes a great substitute!) We also had slivered Jaapnese leeks (negi ) and some natto for my husband. He tops his with wasabi, I use shichimi (seven spice powder) here is a picture of the ingredients here is my final dish (hiyashi kitsune kishimen)

Shumai really are wonderful, they can be made with most meats/seafood, my favorite is a combination of pork and shrimp. The reason Yokohama is famous for shumai is because we are home to Japan's largest Chinatown. Every area of Japan is famous for something, usually based on some local foods, but sometimes they are just ceated out of nowhere. We were in Odaiba, a new area of Tokyo built all on reclaimed land, and i I noticed the Odaiba "food" was bananas and they were selling a variety of banana products.... These meibutsu (famous/popular/local products) are traditional omiyage (souvenirs) bought by tourists from other parts of Japan. Unlike in the US souvenirs are rarely bought for oneself but rather for family members/neighbors/office workers or basically anyone who did not make the trip with you. Omiyage are a huge industry in Japan and you can not return from a trip (no matter how close to your home) without bags of gifts for everyone you know.

Is that right? Costco in Japan? Small world. Happy New Year! Looking forward to your blog. Yes we have 4 of them here Tokyo Chiba Kobe Fukuoka

Well breakfast is done and I am on my second tumbler of iced coffee. It is going to be a cold day here today the high only 11C (52F), the Winter here in the Yokohama/Tokyo area doesn't get that much colder and if we are lucky we may have one day of snowfall. A little information about Yokohama, it is the second largest city in Japan (Tokyo being the first) and only about 30 minute drive/train ride from center to center, though I can make it to Shibuya by car in 12 minutes if there is no one on the road and I am greatly exceeding the speed limit. here is some information on Yokohama, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, I wouldn't want to live aywhere else: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~KX5N-KGYM/yokohama/ in the left column there is a link for location and population with some nice maps and pictures of the city.

Saturday night: lasagne sugar snap pea salad with lemon zest and juice and EVOO

I use the Cook's Illustrated method which is the same at Julia Child's but they only sit off the heat for 10 minutes, I get perfect eggs with just hardened yolks every time.

Jackal10, Don't know to follow this one but here goes anyway http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=1&t=34074

I will start off by saying there is no way we are going to be eating nearly as well as Jackal10! Secondly this next week is not going to be a typical week for me, most Japanese workers started their week long holiday yesterday (my husband starts his today) and the kids are home for a close to 3 week break. This means I need to cook "real" meals 3 times a day, so you are going to see a lot more prepared foods than I normally use. This is also a busy week in that we have a lot of plans to go out, where we normally only eat out once to twice a month. Today I am off to Tokyo (only a 25 minute train ride from my house in Yokohama) for shopping, eating and dancing with 4 fellow American friends (we are all by the way married to Japanese men.....) Just some quick information about me, I am 33 years old, I was born and raised in Cleveland,Ohio in a family of 8 kids to a mother of Italian descent and a father of German. I married my Japanese husband almost 9 years ago and have been in Japan ever since. We have three children. Mia is 7, Julia is 6, and Hide is 3. I have no background in food I just love to eat! Here is the most recent picture of the family (taken by fellow member Texan during our dinner together while she was visiting Japan) By the way I am drinking a large tumbler of iced coffee as I type this and I am off now to prepare breakfast (it is 7:00am here in Japan) because my family is screaming for food! This morning for breakfast we will enjoy toasted onion bagels (from Costco) topped with fried eggs and ketchup for everyone but me, eeewww!)

word for 12/28: デコポン dekopon A decopon is a cross between a ponkan and a kiyomi mikan, this is one of the newer citrus fruits on the market here. It is called a dekopon because it has a ryuuki or deko (protrusion) and the pon is from the ponkan, you need to look at the picture to see what I mean about the protrusion. This is a speciality of Kumamoto ( http://www.japan-guide.com/list/e1002.html Kumamoto is #44) and is in season from December to April. the dekopon: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/images/ve...ure/dekopo1.jpg

Why can't you ask when they make the reservations something like how many adult will be in their party. If they reply that they have children/toddlers/babies you can respond that you prefer not to seat children under a certain age or that you only seat tables with children for lunch/before 6:00, etc. Wouldn't there be some way to do this when the reservation is being made. When making reservations in Japan we often say or are asked the number of adults and the number of children.

Friday dinner: chicken fajitas chicken seasoned with EVOO, lemon juice, galic, chili powder, salt and pepper and sauteed with pepper and onions wrapped in flour tortillas with salsa cheddar cheese black olives habanero hot sauce

Is that a tag? I don't mind taking it on, but please don't expect the food seen in this blog...... Next week is also not a very typical week in that is the oshogatsu (New Year) holidays and my husband and kids will be home for the entire week, which means I will have to actually cook 3 meals a day instead of foraging like I usually do. Of course it will be a good excuse to pull out the new digital camera....

Actually I wasn't done with the citrus fruit. When I mentioned there being a lot of mikan, I was thinking of all the mikan that are basically the name of the city in which they are grown followed by the word mikan. There is still a whole other class of citrus that I think of as different because they don't actually have the word mikan in their name. let start with the ponkan. word for 12/27: ポンカン ponkan (pohn-kahn) Like ankomochi said this is a wonderful fruit, much sweeter than the average mikan with almost no sour notes. The skin is also thicker and it does contain seeds, difficult to explain but it is softer (not in a bad way), sort of like it is looser in the skin, you can see what I mean by looking at the picture. They are in season from December to March with peaks in January and February. The name ponkan is a combination of two words, pon is from the Indian city of Poona (this is were it originated, then moved to China, then Taiwan and finally into Japan) and kan from kankitsu (which we learned about a week ago, describing anything in the citrus family). ponkan: http://www.nogyo.tosa.net-kochi.gr.jp/saib...kan/morita2.jpg

As the mother of 3 children under the age of 7, I feel that the parents know their children the best and should give consideration to the other customers. If have a 6 year old who can sit quiety and enjoy the meal then fine, but if your 3 year old has an attention span of 30 seconds and enjoys flinging things across rooms. Can a restaurant not refuse children? There are restaurants here in Japan, not even that fancy, that have signs saying they don't allow children...... Even one of the restaurants at the Tokyo American Club has that sign.... Personally I would not take my current 3 kids to a restaurant of a level higher than Denny's unless I had too, and I have been to some nicer restaurants with my in-laws and I spend the whole time fretting about keeping the kids occupied that I can't enjoy myself. The moment anyone of my children starts fussing, crying, throwing things (even in a Denny's) it means it is time to take that child outside for a little while.

That sounds dangerously like an invitation to be tagged... I don't know how anyone could follow this! I don't even have a dog and I killed my goldfish last year.........

I have struggled with being underweight my whole life and putting on weight has been very difficult. At the age of 20 I was unable to join the US Army (to get the GI Bill to pay for college) because I didn't hit the weight requirement of 109lbs, I am close to 5ft 8. I went on a fast food diet, drinking milk shakes with every meal and eating at one sitting, 2 Big Macs, a side of nuggets, large fries and a shake. 6 months later I was 122lbs and was able to join the army. After that my weight leveled off to about 112-115 and stayed like that, returning very quickly after all 3 pregnancies. About a year ago I got tired of being so thin and decided to work at gaining weight again. I went back to my fast food diet. Milkshakes whenever I drove past McDonalds and cinnamon rolls from Starbucks as often as possible, I also stopped working out (it is impossible to gain weight when I exercise) I am currently a very happy 125lbs and have slowly been bringing my workouts back, even though I am thin I am far from tone! It has been a struggle and I have tried every weight gain thing possible, just like how diets are different for different people, so is gaining weight, he needs to find what works for him. He definitely need to start with eating as many full meals as possible, supplemented with high calorie-power snacks.

Thanks for all of the picutures! I really felt (almost) like I was right there enjoying the meal with you. Like Helen mentioned before Christmas is really such a disappointment in Japan, it is really no different than any other day..... my husband worked, the kids played with friends, I watched a movie..... Of course being in Japan we have next week to look forward to, the biggest eating days of the year are coming up for us! Happy Holidays to all!

words for 12/26: 極早生　and 　早生 gokuwase (goh-koo-wah-say) and wase (wah-say) These can best be describes as extra early (gokuwase) and early (wase) mikan. These are still the unshu mikan, just the early season versions. They are anywhere from completely green in color to a mix a green and orange to just plain orange. Here is a list of the variations of the unshu mikan and the months they appear: house mikan April-September gokuwase September- October wase October- November "regular" mikan December- March There are actually varieties within these varieties but I won't bother (ok bore) you with the details. picture of the gokuwase mikan: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/images/ve...ure/gokuwa2.jpg

dinner for Thursday Just finished our Christmas dinner Homemade pizzas! plain cheese ham and pineapple (my favorite! ) anchovy, onions and black olives with parmasean 3 cheese- mozarella, parmasean and gorgonzola topped with arugula (tossed with EVOO and red wine vinegar) after being pulled from the oven In a little bit we will have the rest of the Christmas cookies.

found what I was looking for at the WHO site, the whole article is here: http://www.who.int/emc-documents/tse/docs/whoemczoo973.html CATEGORIES OF INFECTIVITY IN BOVINE TISSUES AND BODY FLUID (Based on relative scrapie infectivity of tissues and body fluids from naturally infected suffolk sheep and goats with clinical scrapie) CATEGORY I High infectivity Brain, spinal cord, (eye)* CATEGORY II Medium infectivity Spleen, tonsil, lymph nodes, ileum, proximal colon, cerebrospinal fluid, pituitary gland, adrenal gland, (dura mater, pineal gland, placenta, distal colon) CATEGORY III Low infectivity Peripheral nerves, nasal mucosa, thymus, bone marrow, liver, lung, pancreas CATEGORY IV No detectable infectivity Skeletal muscle, heart, mammary gland,milk, blood clot, serum, faeces, kidney, thyroid, salivary gland, saliva, ovary, uterus, testis, seminal testis, foetal tissue, (colostrum, bile, bone, cartilaginous tissue, connective tissue, hair, skin, urine). *Tissues in brackets were not titrated in the original studies (8,9) but relative infectivity is indicated by other data on spongiform encephalopathies.

Christmas Eve dinner: chicken wings (the fat drunstick looking piece) simmered with potatoes in coconut milk and tom yom goong (how ever it is spelled ) soup paste mix along with fresh lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and red chiles som tam (green papaya salad) Jasmine rice dessert: Christmas cookies made that afternoon. I didn't have as many Christmas cookie cuttters as I thought I did and my colors for the frosting didn't turn out quite right, so we had some pink dolphins, blue jack-o-lanterns and yellow mice men.....

In my 33 years on this earth I have bought green papayas twice! The first one was a couple month ago and the second was two days ago. As I was peeling the second one for my som tam last night, I realized it was quite a bit softer than the one I peeled a couple months ago that was close to rock hard and unlike the first one it had an incredible fragrance of a ripe papaya were I don't recall any smell from the first one. What do you look for when choosing a green papaya? Do you want it rock hard or softer more like an almost ripe avocado? What is the best way to shred it? I use a Japanese benriner, is there something easier/better? What else can you use it for? I can't really find any other recipes except for som tam.

I was just checking out the homepage of Yoshinoya (a gyuniku or beef bowl chain that uses 99% American beef, the other 1% is Australian) curious to see what they have to say about the import ban of American beef. They didn't have any mention of it on the main part of their homepage but in the general section where they discuss the products used at their restaurants, they make a mention of the saftey of their products, I ahve no idea when this was written however. But they mention that they only use beef belly (called short plate in Japanese, not sure what this cut is referred to in English) because this was rated as class IV as the WHO, meaning that is is BSE free even in an infected cow. I had never heard of theses "rankings", does anyone know more about these, obviously the worst part to eat are the brains/nervous system, but how is the rest of the meat ranked. The information from Yoshinoya (Japanese only) http://www.yoshinoya-dc.com/about/food/beef/safety.html

word for 12/25: メリークリスマス merii kurisumasu (may-rhee-koo-rhee-sue-mah-sue) Merry Christmas Okay the Japanese don't really say this to each other, but if they did this is how they would say it.... Christmas is not a national holiday in Japan and everybody has to go to work and depending on how the school season works out, some kids have to go to school. For more on Christmas in Japan check out this thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=32166