torakris

What happened??? I think I told this story somewhere else on this site, but here it goes again. It was awful just awful.... I love buri daikon, but had never attempted to make it until the winter of '97, I some great buri, a wonderful daikon and the time was right. I followed the recipe to the T and it tasted great, I HAD to taste some before I gave it to the rest of the family. It was perfect. I placed it into my favorite Japanese style serving bowl (one of the few pieces that I had bought with my own money, the rest of my stuff is hand me downs from MIL) and I proceeded to carry it to the table. Our "dining room" is actually our wa-jitsu covered with flooring carpet and thus I have to walk through our living room to get to it. Well, I tripped, on absolutely nothing but my own two feet. The bowl of buri daikon went flying into the air the buri and daikon part landing all over our thick (non-washable. 8-jo size) and the bowl hitting the wooden frame of the shoji doors leading to the "dining room". The bowl was broken, the carpet ruined and the words "buri daikon" are forbidden from being spoken in our house......

My (born in Italy) grandmother used to make this soup all the time when I was little. I had never heard of it anywhere else until just now.... She made it with meatballs and spinach, but that is all I can remember....

Oh dear! I wonder what is going to happen to the restaurants here in Japan that only serve 100% American Beef, like the huge yakiniku chain Gyukaku......

I swear my fingers must have ordered this while I was sleeping It's All American Food by David Rosengarten regardless, I am really enjoying it!

Monday dinner: Husband had a BBQ at work so the kids and I had frozen (cooked them first) chicken patties with mayo and lettuce on hamburger buns with a side of tater tots.... Tuesday dinner: Vietnamese fresh spring rolls with pork, bean sprouts, carrots, cilantro and mint and bibb lettuce leaves dipped in one of two sauces, a bottles sweet chile sauce or a nampla-lime-sugar-ginger-chile sauce dessert was ice cream

Sorry I missed a day, never made it to my computer yesterday. word for 12/23 天皇誕生日　てんのうたんじょうび tennou tanjyoubi The Emperor’s Birthday (Tenno meaning emperor and Tanjoubi meaning birthday) is a national holiday in Japan and is celebrated on the birthday of the reigning emperor. Emperor Akihito inherited the throne when his father Emperor Hirohito died in 1989, so since 1990 Emperor Akihito’s birthday, December 23rd, has been a national holiday. Emperor Akihito is the 125th descendant of Japan’s first emperor, Jimmu, who acceded to the throne in 660 B.C

I am a nabe person too! Let's not forget about our nabe thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=17115&hl=nabe I also love the vegetables that are associated with nabes, chinese cabbages, daikon, negi (Japanese leeks) and my favorite shungiku (chrysanthemum). I love buri in almost any form, though I haven't made buri daikon since my big disaster a couple years back, it is a psychological thing and I just can't bring myself to make it again.....

It is perfect nabe season..... what are you making?

FOODS FROM BRAZIL Here is a very comprehensive site, click on the prefecture you are looking for then click on shokuhin to see alist of shops http://www.brazil.ne.jp/address/index.html

INDONESIAN FOODS (see also under General Asian) a list of shops that sell Indonesian foods in locations all over Japan, most are not online http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/warintok/makan/makan2.html

What are some of your favorite "winter" Japanese foods?

Well took the family to kua' aina (Odaiba branch) yesterday and was very impressed the burger were great. The only disappointment was that they don't have a child size burger, it was a lot of money to spend for kid (and I have 3 of them!) for $50 we had 1/2lb avocado burger (husband) 1/3lb avocado burger (me, I order first and if I had known he was going to get the same thing I would have ordered the pineapple one! ) 2 hamburger A sets with fries and drinks (iced tea and guave juice)- only 2 drinks for the 5 of us.... popcorn shrimp large order of onion rings (these were very good, another thing hard to find here) I am definitely going to go again but not with the kids......

In a couple months risu kouen may become the "word of the moment"...... keep using it! this is how language evolves

gorgeous pictures!! I think something I miss more than squirrels (ok a lot more than squirrels!) is ham. I have never seen ham like this is Japan and am now am having very bad cravings......

Well we had a great day yesterday at Odaiba, we hit most of the major spots before Hide fell asleep and had to be carried back to the car. We were able to get to 2 places we never ventured into before because they weren't stroller friendly, Little Hong Kong and Odaiba i-chome shoutengai. Little Hong Kong is just like what it sounds set up like a mini indoor version of Hong Kong, it was basically just a bunch of stores selling overpriced trinkets and a lot of restaurants including a kaiten yamucha (various dumplings and other Chines foods served conveyer belt style)http://www.kaitenyamucha.com/main.html Odaiba i-chome shoutengai was a lot of fun, this was setting up like a shopping area from 1955 Japan, they had toys, snacks, food stalls and games. This place was packed and it was hard to move around but we all really enjoyed ourselves and bought quite a few snack foods (at 2003 prices!) The rest of Odaiba is not much different than any other shopping area, lots of stores and more restaurants than we could count. We had lunch at Kua' aina which was great and we had a snack at Abbots frozen custard before leaving, the kids had some great frozen custard sundaes with choclate and strawberries while my husband and I had some hot chai which tasted old dishwater that had been watered down The worst chai I had ever tasted, it was completely flavorless. I managed to snap one picture before the batteries on my camers died (note to self: recharge batteries, recharge batteries). Here you go a picture from the back deck of Aqua city, that is the famous rainbow bridge and oh, yeah, the statue of liberty:blink:

word for 12/22: ハウスみかん hausumikan (how-sue-mee-kahn) Hausu is the Japanese pronunciation of the English word house, in this case referring to mikan that are grown in a greenhouse. By growing them in a greenhouse mikan can be available all year round, though the Japanese do prefer to eat them "in season". Hausumikan are grown from April to September with a peak in July and August. hausumikan: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/images/ve...ure/house_1.jpg

Spent the day out and was too tired to cook so on the way home we stopped at a supermarket and picked up some prepared nigiri sushi for my husband and I and the kids ate the rest of the beef stew from the night before.

I never thought I would say this, but I think I actually miss squirrels! In my part of Japan the only way to see squirrels is to go to a a squirrel park (risu kouen) sort of like a mini zoo but with just squirrels....

I am going to love this blog! keep up with the pictures

word for 12/21: みかん mikan (me-kahn) Often called mandarin orange or Japanese mandarin orange and occasionally (wrongly) a tangerine. The mikan is the most popular citrus fruit in Japan and during the winter in Japan you can enter any house and their will be a bowl of mikan sitting on the table. Originally from China, the most commonly eaten mikan is actually named after a region in China, the unshuu (温州）mikan. The unshuu mikan is usually what is referred to when someone just says mikan. the mikan: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/images/ve...ure/unshu_5.jpg

Ducasse's restaurant SPOON was at Ikspiari, the new shopping/eating area built into the Disney Resort area, not to far away from Odaiba. I say was because as I was looking for the homepage to link to, I discovered it no longer works, I checked both Ducasse's homepage as well as that of Ikspiari and could find no mention of it. I wonder what happened...... I am off to Odaiba for the day with the family I told the girls we were taking them to see the Disney Princess show and playland at Aqua City but I am really going to get a burger at the newly opened branch of Kua' aina

by the way here is their menu: http://www.rf-one.com/menu_top.html

RF1 is a great shop! It has quickly become on of the staple stores of the depachikas (department store basements) and their food is really great and constantly changing. It can get pricey when you are shopping for 5, so I usually just pick up something there when I am on my own for lunch. As to souzai it simply means everyday dishes, the typical foods eaten everyday like the nimono (simmered foods), aemono (dressed foods), yakimono (grilled foods), etc.

VEGETARIAN PRODUCTS Karuna (lots of soy products) (online) http://www.karuna.co.jp/

here are some homepage links for some of the three major shopping areas of Odaiba Aqua City (information available in English as well as Japanese) http://www.aquacity.co.jp/ Decks (information in English as well as Japanese) http://www.odaiba-decks.com/ Palette Town (Japanese only) http://www.palette-town.com/