torakris

I know very little about this green except that it is delicious! It jumped into the Japanese markets a couple of years ago a "wonder green" and has because a staple ever since. I avoided it for a long time because I didn't know what to do with it. According to Claudia roden it is an acquired taste and the leaves have a mucilaginous, glutinous quality. It is the main ingredient in the Egyptian dish of the same name, I made Claudia Roden's melokheya a little while backed and loved it, but she has no other recipes for the green in the book and I can't find anything in any of my other books. In what other ways is this green used? Any interesting variations on the dish of the same name?

Sunday dinner: Thai scallop salad (raw sashimi style scallops were tossed with lime juice, nampla, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, chiles, cilantro and mint) From Thai Food wide rice noodles stirfried with komatsu-na and garlic with oyster sauce tomatoes with salt and lime juice dessert: homemade chocolate cake

word for 12/1: さくらんぼ sakuranbo (sah-koo-rahn-bou) These are the Japanese cherries, light red to pink in color often with a yellowish tinge they are grown mostly in greenhouse type structures and make a short appearance into the markets around June. Yamagata prefecture is famous for its sakuranbo and produces 75% of Japan's crop. Sakuranbo do not come from the sakura tree famous for its cherry blossom that mark the arrival of spring into Japan, rather they come from a close relative called outou (桜桃）the characters of which mean cherry tree and peach. the sakuranbo: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/images/ve...ure/cherry1.jpg

word for 11/30: グレープフルーツ gureepufuruttsu (goo-rey-poo-foo-roo-tsu) grapefruit Both the regular and ruby grapefruits are popular in Japan and they rank second (behind) bananas in the number imported into Japan. The US controls most of the market here with a good 80% other countries include South Africa and Swaziland. The Japanese tend to cut them up and eat them like oranges and they are also added to salads and dressed foods.

Saturday dinner: chicken thigh and hard boiled eggs simmered with a red miso, kochujang, soy, sake, mirin and sugar sauce leftovers from yesterday kabocha salad kimchi dried daikon strips with kochujang sauce cucumber pickles Japanese rice dessert orange and fresh cranberry biscotti

I am more of a coffee drinker but I do enjoy both. It really depends on my mood and what else I am eating/snacking on. I can not drink coffee after about 3:00 in the afternoon or it makes me dizzy and nauseous. I drink a wide variety of types as well, yesterday I had some chai (with cardamom, cinnamon nad cloves), I started this morning with some genmai-cha and am about to go heat up the espresso machine.

Friday dinner: saba no miso-ni (mackeral simmered in a miso sauce) with Japanese leeks kiriboshi-daikon (dried daikon strips) with a kochujang, soy, sesame, chile, sugar, vinegar dressing kimchee kabocha salad, smashed with a little mayo, salt, sugar and a touch of cinnamon cucumber pickles Japanese rice dessert: the other half of yesterday's pumpkin pie

word for 11/29: きんかん　金柑 kinkan　(keen-kahn) Kumquat Originally form China, this small member of the citrus family can be eaten whole skin and all. Very high in vitamin C they are seen as a good treatment for colds and though they are sometimes eaten raw, it is more common to seee them preserved in either honey or a sryup. more on the kinkan: http://www.pref.miyazaki.jp/nousei/foods/fruit/e_03.html

I picked up the newest 'kyou no ryouri', a fairly good Japanese cooking magazine and they had some a ideas for a Christmas menu including a Christmas potato salad shaped like a wreath and topped with boiled cauliflower, boiled snow peas, cherry tomatoes and processed cheese shaped into stars. I could only find a partial picture of it on the internet: http://www.nhk-book.co.jp/ryouri/images/0312/head.jpg

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone! Since it isn't celebrated in Japan and my family doesn't care for most of the traditional dishes, I went for a Thanksgiving inspired meal: sauteed chicken breasts with a cranberry salsa (with cranberries, red onion, orange sections, cilantro and jalapeno) this was incredibly good! roasted potatoes with a chipolte mayo (homemade) cornbread with whole corn added pumpkin pie for dessert

I actually prefer the dried ones! I find the flavor more intense. I reconstitute them, drain them well and slice them, then add to the sauce mixture and stirfry them.

word for 11/28: キーウィ kiiui (key-whee) the u with a small i is pronounced like a w kiwi Introduced to Japan close to 40 years ago, they found a new home and the Japanese kiwi producers now control half the market, the rest are imports from New Zealand and a small percentage (about 6%) come from Chile. More recent years have seen the addition of the golden kiwi as well as a "baby" kiwi. A Japanese kiwi: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/images/ve...ure/kiwifr3.jpg

The address for the restaurant is Tsukiji, not very close to the Shibuya/Harajuku area.

I posted the below post in the Fugu in Seattle thread ( but feel that it has relevance here as well, the reply is to one person's question as to why I don't see fugu as a risky food. Fugu in Japan is treasured because it is a seasonal delicacy, no different than the way they feast on matsutake in the late summer/early fall. I have never heard the Japanese talk about the dangers of fugu or see eating it as a risk. If it is prepared properly there should be no risk. We have just entered fugu season in Japan and fugu can be found in any supermarket, fugu sliced up as sashimi, fugu to be deep fried, fugu for nabe, etc. Not all fugu are poisonous and those that are vary in their toxicity and where it is located. This is a reason it should be prepared by a professional. Here is a chart of some of the fugu varities and their toxic parts (in both English and Japanese): http://www.coara.or.jp/~sueyoshi/data03/fugu03.html Here is a chart of teh # of fugu related deaths in Japan for the years 1993 to 2001: http://www.kenkou.metro.tokyo.jp/shokuhin/hugu/sirouto.html (this is only in Japanese) scroll down just a little and you will see a chart with 4 columns, the first column which contains numbers are the years 5 is 1993 and it ends with 13 (2001), the next list is the # of incidents of fugu poisoning (nationwide for that year), the next is the # of people treated for the poisoning, and the last column is the # of deaths. scroll down a bit more and they will compare the number fugu poisonings (first line) with the number of poisonings from mushrooms. The result are from the same ten year period. Most of the fugu poisonings (same as for the mushrooms) are due to people trying to prepare the fugu themselves. As you say in the first chart there are close to 20 varieties and teh toxic levels are very different, eat the wrong part of the wrong fish and you could die. Leave it to the professionals and you will be fine. I find the fugu itself to be very bland and it is only with the addition of the various condiments(dipping sauces, etc) that is served with that make it a fugu meal a pleasurable experience. What I meant in my other post was I don't find it worth the money.

This past week's holiday, actually Japanese labor day, is on November 23, it was held on the 24th (Mon) this year because all holidays that fall on a Sunday are moved to Monday to give the Japanese workers an the day off they deserve. The 23rd is my son's birthday, so we just do the typical birthday stuff! This year on the 24th though I took egullet member Texan, who is visiting Japan, for a tour of Yokohama including the Minato Mirai area and China town. We spent most of the time looking for the next thing to eat!

Fugu in Japan is treasured because it is a seasonal delicacy, no different than the way they feast on matsutake in the late summer/early fall. I have never heard the Japanese talk about the dangers of fugu or see eating it as a risk. If it is prepared properly there should be no risk. We have just entered fugu season in Japan and fugu can be found in any supermarket, fugu sliced up as sashimi, fugu to be deep fried, fugu for nabe, etc. Not all fugu are poisonous and those that are vary in their toxicity and where it is located. This is a reason it should be prepared by a professional. Here is a chart of some of the fugu varities and their toxic parts (in both English and Japanese): http://www.coara.or.jp/~sueyoshi/data03/fugu03.html Here is a chart of teh # of fugu related deaths in Japan for the years 1993 to 2001: http://www.kenkou.metro.tokyo.jp/shokuhin/hugu/sirouto.html (this is only in Japanese) scroll down just a little and you will see a chart with 4 columns, the first column which contains numbers are the years 5 is 1993 and it ends with 13 (2001), the next list is the # of incidents of fugu poisoning (nationwide for that year), the next is the # of people treated for the poisoning, and the last column is the # of deaths. scroll down a bit more and they will compare the number fugu poisonings (first line) with the number of poisonings from mushrooms. The result are from the same ten year period. Most of the fugu poisonings (same as for the mushrooms) are due to people trying to prepare the fugu themselves. As you say in the first chart there are close to 20 varieties and teh toxic levels are very different, eat the wrong part of the wrong fish and you could die. Leave it to the professionals and you will be fine. I find the fugu itself to be very bland and it is only with the addition of the various condiments(dipping sauces, etc) that is served with that make it a fugu meal a pleasurable experience. What I meant in my other post was I don't find it worth the money.

Weds dinner: cooking for my family of 5 plus 2 more kids a big pot of cabbage soup with potatoes and onions and fortified with a healthy amount of bacon menchi-katsu - a Japanese creation of a hamburger patty that has been panko'd and deep fried, served with okonomiyaki sauce heated up corn (canned)-- my MIL gave my 3 cans of corn and I wanted to use them up cucumber pickles with ginger (a purchased product) Japanese rice

I don't see it as a risk.....

There is a recipe for a cranberry sauce with horseradish in the Joy of Cooking. I only know because I was looking through almost all of my cookbooks yesterday for something to do with my box of fresh cranberries. The recipes are all over the place with anywhere from 1 tablespoon of sugar to 2 cups for 1 lb of cranberries. Ginger, oranges, nuts and maple syrup seem to be the most common additions. They are baked on a stove, in the oven and sometimes not baked at all just whizzed in a food processor (usually with a whole orange chopped up). Since Thanksgiving isn't celebrated in Japan (duh!) I am doing sort of a Thanksgiving inspired meal tonight , the main being sauteed chicken breasts with a cranberry salsa. The salsa includes red onion, orange, jalapeno and cilantro.

This is something I might have done! That you for doing it first and telling us about it! oh and welcome to egullet!

for more information on the taste and how it is served, look at this former discussion: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...=0entry133180 Personally I find it bland and never order it myself, I only eat it if someone buys it for me!

word for 11/27: オレンジ orenji (oh-rhen-jee) orange Although there are some domestic growers, most of the oranges eaten in Japan are imported, mostly from California, South Africa and Australia, ensuring fresh fruit all year round. The two types mostly likely to be seen in the Japanese supermarkets are the navel and Valencia varieties. oranges: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/images/ve...ure/orange1.jpg

Sesame seeds, I need to try that one. The very few times I make them, I tend to do the typical oval shape, once I did a potato and ham cream style one that were one or two bite baton shaped pieces. I enjoy eating corokke but it is one food I rarely make because I see it as very time consuming, Cooking the poatatoes, mashing the potatoes, cooking the onions and meat, mixing with the potatoes, shape into a patty, dip in the flour , dip in the egg, dip in the panko, deep fry. Here in Japan you can get some really good ones that have been made by someone else and not for a bad price.

Christmas is still one of the biggest date nights of the year (next to Valentine's day), they tend to spend less money now because most people have less to spend. On the other hand, New Year's Eve is a time to spend with your family....... Christmas is completely commercial in Japan, there is nothing religious to it, I am curious to know how many Japanese even know the true meaning behind Christmas.

Yes this is what the Japanese eat on Christmas, or most likely Christmas Eve. For more information of Christmas in Japan look here: https://classes.yale.edu/anth254a/article_b.../WSJ_911217.htm Kentucky Fried Chicken is already with their Christmas menu, place your order now! http://www.kfc.co.jp/xmas2003/ and here is a selection of Christmas cakes available from the 7-11: http://main.sej.co.jp/03/2003_1102_xmas/index.html