torakris

Well it seems we have exhausted the names of the common vegetabls in Japan and now it is time to move onto fruits. We will start with one of my favorites, the character of which can be found in both of my daughters names. word for 11/20: 杏　あんず anzu This is the apricot. It arrived in Japan close to 2000 years ago from China and thus has a long history in Japan. An early summer fruit it is only in the stores for a month or two and then you have to resort to the canned variety (which are usually imports). Dried apricot (hoshianzu) is also a popular snack. the Japanese apricot: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/images/ve...ure/anzu.h2.jpg by the way, my daughters names are written like this Mia 未衣杏 Julia　珠理杏

word for 11/19: 蓮根　れんこん renkon This is the Japanese word for the lotus root. This tuberous underwater part of the lotus plant is very popular in Japan most likely due to the decorative look of the plant as well as its pleasing crunch. Normally sold fresh in Japan it is best to soak the slices in acidulated water to keep it a bright white. It is also sold pre-sliced (in various thicknesses) or chunked in waterpacked packages for ease in preparation. It is popular in dressed dishes, simmered foods, deep fried and stirfried. renkon, cut (and an English recipe): http://oishii-web.hp.infoseek.co.jp/recipe/renkone.htm renkon in the whole form: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/images/ve...ure/renkon2.jpg

I was very skeptical about olive oil in cakes until I tried it, and it really works! Here is one of my favorites (lemon-almond torta): http://www.eatingwell.com/articles_recipes...lenta_torta.htm The spring 2003 issue of Eating Well had a bunch of desserts made with olive oil and I have made almost all of them.

Tuesday night: homemade cheese "curry" with onions, tomatoes and spinach rice with various spices, potatoes and onions salad of bibb lettuce, cucumber, tomato, red onion dressed with paprika, cayenne, salt, pepper and lemon juice

Glad to see there are other meal planners around! With 3 kids the days can get hectic and it is nice to be able to go into the kitchen and know exactly what to prepare. I try to plan at least one week in advance but more often it is only 3 to 5 days depending on when i go shopping and what I have bought. I hope you son feels better soon! I am not looking forward to the upcoming cold/stomach bug season

Monday dinner: my gas stovetop suddenly died and I was left with just a microwave/oven so roasted potatoes and onions a "casserole" of spinach, tomatoes and sole seasoned with lots of garlic, salt and pepper and lemon juice upon serving Japanese rice

Ameyokocho, I haven't been there in years! It isn't a place to go with a stroller and two other kids! It is definitely on my lists of things to do once my son starts kindergarten next April!

Pan, that sounds like a great meal! The tofu at the beginning of the meal was probably gomadofu, it is creamier than regular tofu becuase of the addition of ground (and sometimes whole as well) sesame seeds. The leaf in the soup that you mistook for parsley or cilantro was most likely mitsuba, it has a taste all of its own and is really wonderful.

Thanks for taking on the blog! I have a son with a birthday next week too! He will be 3 on Nov. 23, he and his sisters are begging for a Blues Clues cake, I am still trying to figure out how I am going to do that one!

word for 11/17: •S‡ª@@‚ä‚èª@@‚ä‚è‚Ë yurine (you-rhee-nay) This is called lily bulb in English and that is exactly what the Japanese means as well, yuri is lily and the character for ne means root or bulb. At first glance they may look something like a head of garlic, but on closer inspection you will notice they are made of many petals, somewhere between the thickness of a rose and an artichoke. Having been in Japan since ancient times they are used in a variety of ways from simmered dishes, to deep fried, to chawanmushi and even yurine-manju, nowadays you can find them in such Western preparations such as pureed soups and pastas. yurine: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/images/ve...ure/yurine3.jpg

The 5th down in the 5th column (Maison Grace Ange) is actually owned by friends of mine, the store is just down the street from me!

oh yeah, forgot about some of those! I will defitely second bringing your own garlic press, microplane (if you use one), and meat thermometer (mine just busted and this is what I am currently searching for at the moment). Also like Helen mentioned, beans can be quite expensive and hard to find here, almost all of my beans come from trips to the US, I also have yet to find bulghur in this country, so bring a nice supply if you cook with frequently. Just a side a side comment as to my name (torakris) as it seems to confuse a lot of people, the biggest confusion is that most people think I am a man! Tora means tiger in Japanese and it is one of the signs of the Chinese zodiac, Helen mentioned being called inuhe (inu being the dog), actually the tora in my name comes from my husband, his name is Tora (actually a nickname but it is the name everyone calls him) we made our first e-mail account together with the name torakris and it is easy for everyone to remember. I hate to use different names for everything, so I use it in everything I do online. If Iw as going by zodiac names, I would be a dog (inu) too!

Saturday night: my husband called at the last moment and said his meeting was running late and he wouldn't need dinner after all, aargghh! SO the kids and I ate what had already been prepared: Japanese rice mixed with some black rice, so the whole thing turned a gorgeous purple a casserole of Chinese cabbage and pork belly dessert: we drove to the nearest convenience store and bought ice cream

I think you are referring to aburage or tofu pockets, I am going to have to try that one! My daughter's school lunch last Thursday was a dish the school kitchen called kawari-kinpira (kawari can be described as something different from the norm, a susbstitute or replacement) and it consisted of: pork, satsumage,carrot, gobo, peppers, potatoes and konnyaku seasoned with sugar, soy, sake, shichimi and sesame.

This is all I could find in reference to kan, the counter for sushi: http://www.intership.ne.jp/~gates/e-sushi-story.htm Except for the monster pieces of sushi that have appeared everywhere recently, most sushi I watch being eaten is in one piece.

Add one more for me! the Foods of Paradise finally arrived, this book is a fascinating read, more of a history of Hawaiian cuisine than a cookbook,

I too sometimes leave out the chile and sprinkle it with shichimi, mine is also a fancy blend with lots of yuzu.

Interesting! jouzou alcohol (醸造アルコール）is what I usually see on honmirin, I am going to to the store to buy some of this shouchuu stuff! I am also going to start paying more attention to the mirin at my next trip to the store.

word for 11/16: ƒ‹[ƒRƒ‰@@or @ƒƒPƒbƒg ruukora or roketto arugula This is one of the new greens that has been popping up all over Japan recently. Usually used raw in salads or in pastas and pizza it hasalso been used as ohitashi for a Japanese twist.

For baking, there is a wonderful shop here called Tomizawa. All of the stores are based in Tokyo/Kanagawa but you can order on line all Japanese: http://shop.tomizawa.co.jp/ I buy rye flour there at \280 for 1kg their selection of baking ingredients in incredible! How long are you going to be here?

Firstly coconut milk, I buy it for \100 a can! about \158 seems to be the more avergae price these days, the only time I have seen a \300 can is at a supermarket that catered to ex-pats. The best places to shop for "ethnic" ingredients (including American and European) at at liquor stores, the cheap discount ones. If you like Basmati rice definitely bring it with you! You can order it on line from Indian shops but is is something like twice the price of Japanese rice, I bought it once from FBC and it was the worst basmati I had ever eaten. You can get good Thai rice here at Costco or Carrefour, I buy the Golden Phoenix brand at 5kg for \1800, more expensive then in the US but cheaper than most Japanese rices. I have found now that most things I used to bring back from the US, couscous, semolina, cocoa, corn sryup, etc are now fairly available here and at better prices then just 2 years ago. Two things that I can not live with out that I have yet to find here? kosher salt and sriracha

Friday's planned dinner went out the window, when I arrived home at 6:30 and realized it needed to bake for 1 hour! So I tossed together the Bengali cauliflower and potato curry from Seductions of Rice (I tossed in some zucchini as well) served it with some Japanese rice and a cucumber salad on the side

word for 11/15: ƒ‰ƒfƒBƒbƒVƒ… radeisshu (rah-dee-shoe) radish These are the little round red radiches that we are more familiar with in the West. In Japan they are used mostly as a garnish, pickled or sliced into salads.

Outside of Japan and some major cities around the world, I think it can be hard to find top notch sushi. Areas that have a large population of ex-pat Japanese are going to have some of the best sushi because there is a demand for it. Thus when I refer to Japanese clientele, I mean the Japanese "businessmen" in the country for short periods who want to eat the foods from home. One of the biggest differences I have noticed when people talk about the best sushi in the US as compared to Japan. is that the inventiveness factor plays a lot bigger out of Japan. In Japan it is all about freshness, not fancy gimmicks. The best sushi shops are the ones where owner is done at the Tsukiji market place at 4:00am searching out the best catch and if it is not just perfect he will not buy it. A lot of restaurants don't have menus, it changes from day to day depending on what looked the best. He is a short excerpt from a Japanese magazine (in English) talking about some of the best sushi restaurants in Tokyo, notice all of the pictures are just plain old nigiri, nothing fancy, and every owner comments as to the "freshness" of his fish: http://www.kateigaho.com/int/apr03/sushi-r...estaurants.html

I am going to second what Sinbad just said, take your one day and head off to a depa-chika or two (I like Isetan in Shinjuku and Seibu in Ikebukuro) and enjoy yourself there.