torakris

I think I have found uses for all of my cans!

thank you for all the suggestions, I am slowly checking them all out!

Spent the day with a friend and our 5 kids trick or treating at a nearby mall and arrived home at the same time as my husband, nothing was prepared so I decided to throw together okonomiyaki, no eggs in the house, so back to the cupboard: bakmi goreng (a boxed noodle and spice mix) to which I added cabbage, carrots and sakura ebi (a type of small flat dried shrinp) seki-han a sticky rice dish with adzuki beans (this had been given to us by a neighbor)

Are all of MOS burger's descriptions done in Haiku? The burger sizzles lone Weber on the porch juicy and salty like umeboshi I actually had to go back to look at the homepage, no they are not, but that one sure sounds like it! It would be neat if they did that though.

word for 10/26: “~‰Z@‚Æ‚¤‚ª‚ñ tougan (toe-gahn) This gourd, Chinese in origin, is quite large about a foot or more in length and about 6 to 9 inches in diameter. Medium to dark green in color it has a white flesh that is over 90% water, it is used mostly in Chinese style dishes like soups and simmered dishes. The characters it its name can be confusing as they mean winter gourd, and this is a summer vegetable, at peak in July. Warning! do not do what my fellow American friend here in Japan did, she mistook it for an American watermelon (Japanese watermelons are round) and brought it to a 4th of July BBQ a large group of us were having. I pointed it out before it got cut up and then she gave it to me to take home, since she had no idea what to do with it. tougan: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/images/ve...ure/tougan4.jpg

That spicy mos burger is really good! It is sort of like a chili topped burger with extra jalapeno for kick. Definitely recommend it! Now I am dreaming about MOS burger too............... Smallworld that Jambalaya burger was REALLY good!!

I know the double brewing is usually done with kukicha, sencha and genmaicha, though I am not sure about bancha or hojicha (I have never seen it done for these two). Usually the first "brew" last 30 to 60 seconds, is drained out and then new water added for a very short time about 10 seconds in the case of kukicha and for genmai cha it is recommended to pour into the cup as soon as you have finished adding the water. For those that are unfamiliar with it, kukicha is known as "twig tea" as it is made from the twigs taken from the prunings of the tea plant, these are roasted to bring out their flavor and then added to a small amount of greeen tea leaves.

Wow is my face red! I am one of the moderators here and I posted in the wrong forum! Don't know why I was thinking Hawaii was in the Elsewhere in Asia Forum.............. I will see if I can get it moved.

I guess that second rice mention was a little redundant! Friday night: sauteed sole with a brown butter and basalmic sauce mashed potatoes salad of iceberg, arugula, parmesean and gaeta olives Dessert: cookies (a gift)

You seem to be eating a lot more! That pineapple bun sounds great, I have to look for one of those!

more on the ever evolving convenience store in Japan, including some new food products: http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=feature&id=532

oh and I forgot the cabbage!

the newest Mos burger, this one sounds like overkill to me: the rasisu baagaa hayashi (rice burger hayashi) two rice patties filled with hayashi (a Japanese version of hashed beef similar to a stroganoff, normally with red wine and a demi glace sauce) on top of breaded cutlet which in turn is of top of what looks to be scrambled eggs with some red bell pepper tossed in: http://www.mos.co.jp/spotlight/031010/hayashi.html

It seems to be fried egg month in Japan right now! The tsukimi burger (hamburger with a fried agg and bacon) has finally made an appearance this year, along with a sweet potato pie. The newest breakfast addition is the fried egg on a bagel check them all out here: EDITED for the same reason as above...

word for 10/25: ‚‚܂ÝØ@@‚Â‚Ü‚Ý‚È tsumamina (tsu-mah-me-nah) If you have been following the thread religiously you maybe able to figure out this word for yourself! na is the character for greens and tsumami (the same as otsumami or snacks eaten with drinks) from the verb tsumamu which means to grasp or pick up with your fingers. So these are greens that are picked up with the fingers? something like that, they are the young seedling of various plants such as daikon, turnip, komatsuna, hakusai, etc, imagine mesclun (baby lettuce leaves) at a 1/3 to a 1/4 of the size. Very fragile they should be used the day they are purchased and are most popular in hitashi and dressed salads and are a great addition to miso soup. Couldn't find a great picture, but here you go: http://www.tokyo.info.maff.go.jp/tokyo/siz...a/tsumamina.htm

Like it has been mentioned before "true" Kobe beef must be born and raised in Kobe, Japan and thus is quite difficult to obtain overseas. Though i have never tried them I have heard some good things about the Kobe style beef produced in the US and Australia. Kobe beef is just one of the black haired wagyu cows here, some beef in Japan swear that Matsuzaka beef is even more tender, then there are the others like Omi, Yonezawa, Maezawa, etc that are giving them bot a run for their money. I have had the real stuff and think it is great, but personally don't find it worth the price and find myself quite happy with most of the no-name wagyus here.

Smallworld, Great article! Actually 3 of the restaurants were places my husband and I were considering going to for our anniversary earlier this year. Kozue, Daidaiya, and Mikuni's sushi train. We ended up checking out the very new at the time Roppongi Hills (major disappointment) and a going to a decent, but nothing special, kaiten sushi place.

another site with great pictures: http://www.erikramberg.com/picpages/tokyom...02/frameset.htm by egullet member eramberg, some othe picturs were previously posted on the Tsukiji market thread

This sounds like my husband and I! We normally peruse the menu for about 10 minutes then announce what we would like to order, about 90% of the time it is te same thing! then we both (at the same time) say oh then I will get the ....., which will of course be two completely different dishes and then we need to figure out a way to get that original dish we both wanted back into the picture......... As to the original question, I usually tend to go for the foods I have never eaten before (if I have visited the restaurant before) , if it is a new restaurant I go for the one that would be the most difficult to prepare at home. I hate to waste money on something I can prepare at home for a lot less money.

Though I only spent one year of my life on Maui, a lot of what I remember is the food and for a long time I have been looking for a good Hawaiian cookbook. I have two, one from Roy Yamaguchi (which I don't really consider "Hawaiian" rather difficult to do at home fusion, though I have had great success from it) and one that is a local publication of Japanese cooking Hawaiian style, which it ok but doesn't cover much else. I really want a book that covers the popular local foods, loco moco and the like as well as more traditional Hawaiian foods as well as the Hawaiian variations on other (mostly Asian countries) foods. In the cookbook thread I noticed a reference to a book called Food of Paradise which seemed to cover mostly what I am looking for and just seconds ago I purchased it through Amazon Japan. What else is out there? Any favorites?

Thursday was a a very busy day and I had no time to go shopping: Japanese curry rice topped with a corroke (croquette) served with all the appropriate pickles Japanese rice

word for 10/24: ƒTƒ“ƒ`ƒ… or @‚‚‚ÝØ@i‚‚‚݂Èj sanchu (sahn-choo) or tsutsumina (tsu-tsu-me-nah) This is a type of leaf lettuce that is almost always sold with all of the leaves separated into individual leaves of the same size. This type of leaf is most commonly used in Korean BBQ restaurants as a wrapping for grilled meats and has been showing up in supermarkets recently as it is quite "fashionable" to have yakiniku parties at home. I am sure it could be used in a salad though I have yet to see it used that way. sanchu: http://www.sanchu.jp/

Just last week I was asking a Korean friend about the word chijimi, since I have come to realize it is only Jaapn that uses this word to describe the Korean "pancake". She told me chijimi is North Korean in origin and chijimi (which means "nothing at all") was brought into Japan early last century and though the name has changed, specifically in South Korea, to 'jon or cheon (or however it is written in English) the name has remained the same in Japan sice those Koreans who originally came never returned to their homeland.

article about the boom of Korean foods in Japan: http://metropolis.japantoday.com/biginjapa...ginjapaninc.htm

I just want to help clarify one thing in case anyone gets confused. When Helen is referring to ground chicken she is not meaning the minced up type ( it took me a couple minutes to understand and thought I had had it wrong all these years! ) the characters for jidori ’nŒ{@are made up from the characters for niwatori (chicken) Œ{ and the character ji ’n@which is used to describe earth, ground, soil, land and even place or region. I have no idea of the history of the name, but nowadays the name jidori seems to be used to to make a chicken stand out above their neighbors. Giving it a name, sort of like a brand, makes it seem more special. Most of the jidori I have seen use the place name of their origin, similar to the examples given like Iwate-jidori.