torakris

Monday dinner: LAAB! scooped up with iceberg lettuce leaves (HSSS version) Kabocha, lemongrass and coconut milk soup (Deborah Madison) stirfried potatoes with nira (garlic chives) and chiles (also HSSS) Jasmine rice

I know it has only been about 9 hours, but do you actually eat meals?

word for 10/21: ƒZƒƒŠ serori (say-roh-ree) celery I am not sure how long celery has been in Japan, but it is pretty much a staple on supermarket produce shelves today. The Japanese use it in pickles both Western style and Japanese aswell as in stirfries, salads and braised dishes.

I shouldn't knock this till I have tried it........... but, Black Soybean Cocoa just doesn't sound appetizing. One of the newest drinks on the market: http://www.housefoods.co.jp/kuromame/lineup.html

I sometimes wonder how many Japanese make all of the osechi from scratch, I would estimate it to be pretty low especially in the cities. Near the end of the year the supermarkets fill the refrigerated sections with prepared traditonal osechi dishes so shoppers can pick and choose the ones they like in the amount they want them. Then there are the ones you can order, not only traditional Japanese ones, but those containing Chinese foods and Western foods have become quite popular in recent years. Then there are the major hotels and restaurants that entice you to buy "their" osechi. For those that are unfamiliar with osechi here are a couple pictures, scrolll down, there is a Chinese foods near the bottom: http://www.w-mama.com/ami/KISETU/osechi.html

look here: http://gojapan.about.com/library/weekly/aa010199.htm In usually avoid this site because of the ridiculous number of pop-ups, but they have a good explanation of both the New Years holiday and of osechi along with several recipes. I would go under the assumption that the Takashimaya in New York is a branch of the Japan one, but since I have never been to New York I can't say for sure.

I do love Korean food! probably more then (gasp!) Japanese food, though I know a lot less about it. Korean food is quite similar to Japanese (in the preparation styles and ingredients) that I often integrate Korean dishes into Japanese meals. My 5 year old already loves kimchi and can finally eat it straight, still have to wash it for the 7 year old! I know what you mean about Korean ingredients slowly disappearing from the supermarket shelves, it is happening in my area too. About 5 years ago they were everywhere probably because of the spicy foods/chile pepper diet that was the fad at the time. If you ever find yourself in the Kabukicho area go to Kankoku hiroba supermarket, the choices are incredible and the prices are great! The variety in kimchis is astounding and some of the best stuff I have every had. I make trips out there a couple times a year, but they also have a homepage and you can order from there: Kankoku Hiroba What are some of your favorite Korean foods in Japan?

because my in-laws live next door we spend New Years day at their house, where my MIL makes a Kanto style oozoni soup (broth rather then miso that is common in the Kansai area) and a takokomi gohan with beef and negi, this is not really a traditional New Years dish but it is one of the few things she makes well. The rest of the meal (this is all for breakfast by the way) consists of a 3 dan (or 3 tiered) osechi bought from Takashimaya department store. I am the only one who enjoys it! I love osechi ryouri but my husband only eats the kazunoko (herring roe) and my kids don't even eat that!

I decided to pull this out of the osechi for dogs thread, so it doesn't get lost and anyway it deserves a thread of its own! helenjp wrote: So what kind of osechi does everybody actually make every year? I guess our staples (apart from sekihan and nishime) are some kind of konbu rolls (since husband comes from Hokkaido), salmon cured in honey and a little salt (cheaper than smoked salmon so I can make enough for 4-5 boys and men!), and some kind of marinated or pickled vegetable dish. What about soup? We have a decade long battle over whether to have clear soup with chicken, komatuna, grilled mochi and yuzu, or white miso with round mochi, daikon, and buri decorated with a mountain of tororo konbu and katsuobushi.

Pizza Hut's newest: The cheese ring! "delicious all the way to the end of the crust" In their newest the people at Pizza Hut are now putting the mozzarella all the way to the end of the crust, so it gets a "kongari" or toasted taste. And if that wasn't enough, they are adding a ring of satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potato) paste at the point where the crust meets the toppings. http://www.pizzahut.jp/new/index.html

Sunday dinner: ice cream that's it, all 5 of us just had ice cream! We had a huge kaiten sushi lunch around 2 and no one was really hungry.

word for 10/20: ƒYƒbƒL[ƒj zukkiini (zoo-kkey-knee) zucchini, these are the same as the ones in the US, though they tend to be on the smaller size. The baby ones are about 3 inches long often with the flowers still attached (these are usually only found at speciality supermarkets), the others tend to average 5 to 7 inches. The prices can vary according to season, but in my area of Tokyo/Yokohama they tend to average about $2 for one, when I see them for less then $1 a piece I snap them up! The Japanese tend to use them as a garnish adding just a couple sauteed slices to a plate, they are also popular in tempura and stirfries.

saturday dinner: spent 3 hours on the phone (with a friend that lives less then 10 minutes away! ) and thus was too busy to do anything special, besides I was out of rice: pasta with a tomato (can) sauce with gaeta olives, basil and proscuitto green salad with EVOO and vinegar and sliced avocados dessert: an ice cream from New Zealand called Hokey Pokey with bits of hard caramel in it, this was really good!

word for 10/19: ‚¸‚¢‚« zuiki (zoo-ee-key) These are the stalks of the taro (satoimo) plant and occasionally are referred to as imogara. They have vary in color from red white or green and are also sold in a dried form called hoshizuiki. They can be eaten raw but they are more commonly boiled and then added simmered dishes, soups, or used as a sunomono or ohitashi. zuiki: http://www.pref.kagawa.jp/eizo/vol003/en/5...5ki/fuyu/01.htm

Actually udon is one of the most common noodles eaten in nabe, usually added at the end to finish the meal, but there are a couple nbae style dishes wher the udon is more of a focal point. Noodles I have never seen in nabe are soba, somen, hiyamugi and ramen, though the Koreans have a nabe that uses ramen noodles. Other noodles used in nabes include shirataki (made from konnyaku starch) and harusame (or other noodles made from potatos or green adzuki beans). Adding natto to it would make it a natto nabe! I have never seen that before in Japan, but I have heard of Korean nabes that add natto. The fun thing about nabe is that you can add anything you want to!

After reading through a couple recipes here is a general description. This would be best cooked in a donabe (clay pot) at the table but could be made in a wide saucepan on the stove. Figure about 100 to 200grams (about 1/4 to 1/2 lb) thinly sliced pork per person and a half a bunch of spinach per person. Fill the pan with 2 to 4 cups of water and add a piece of kombu (kelp), turn on the heat and bring just to a simmer, removing the kombu before it starts to boil, then add sake to equal the amount of water added, some recipes call for less sake. At this point you can also add ginger and or garlic (minced, sliced or whole your preference) and let this simmer for a little while to burn off some of the alcohol. It can either be eaten shabushabu style where diners dip the food into the pot themselves until desried doneness or it can be eaten regular nabe style where all the ingredients are cooked together and and diners pick out what they want. Other additions to the nabe can be shiitake, enoki, aburage, negi (long scallions) or thin noodles. It seems to be me most commonly eaten with either ponzu or goma sauce, but I did see soem recipes just calling for shichimi. Other recipes also added some soy sauce to the broth or used dashi instead of the konbu. Good luck!

Taught a cooking class yesterday and as usual didn't feel like cooking dinner, so I took the easy route: shio-yaki sanma (salt grilled saury pike) served with shikwasa (sp?) and Okinawan citrus fruit ton-jiru (from the eGCI Japanese class) a pork and vegetable based miso soup Japanese rice

I just had to clean all the drool out of my keyboard! I need to get down to Chinatown soon!!

I just ran across a new nabe that I was unfamiliar with, it is called jyoyanabe (sometimes called tokoyanabe) and is basically a pork and spinach nabe with a broth very heavy on the sake. It also seems to have a lot of ginger and/or garlic in the broth as well. Though pork and spinach are the mains, recipes vary widely on the other ingredients (if any). Similar to shabu shabu is is normally eaten with either a ponzu or goma sauce. This sounds like a quite economical nabe and can't wait to give it a try! picture and recipe (in Japanese): http://www.gekkeikan.co.jp/foodfood/cook/joyanabe.html

word for 10/18: c‚Æ‚èØ@@‚µ‚ñ‚Æ‚è‚È shintorina (sheen-toe-ree-nah) I am unsure of this greens English name if it even has one. Its Japanese name is a descriptive name rather then a place name (which we have had a lot of lately), the first character shin is composed of two part the top 3 lines which represent a grass crown and the bottom character which means heart, thus the character is referring to the core or heart of a plant. The second part of the word, tori, is from the verb toru ot to take and the last character is the one for greens, na, which we have seen many times before. So if you put it all together this is the green of which you take the core and this is how the Japanese eat it, the leaves are removed and usually just the heart is eaten. This fall to winter vegetable is a popular pickle, but will also be found in hitashi, stirfries, soups and simmereed style hitashi. shintorina: http://www.yaoya-tokyo.com/photo/shintori.html

specialteach welcome to egullet!

I hope you didn't catch what we had!

I was just sitting at the sandbox with a pastry chef friend of mine, though Japanese she studied in France and I thought she could give some insight. She said the softness is due to a number of factors namely soft (cake) flour, shortening or lard and lots of milk and eggs.

Thursday dinner: I had bought some fresh sanma (saury pike) and was going to grill them, but 5 minutes before my husband came home my MIL called and said my husband had to go to their house when they got home to have a discussion and he could eat there. So the sanma will be used tonite.... So the kids and I ate: simmered kabocha (had made it earlier) kimchi p'ajon (only Julia age 5 and I ate this) Japanese rice 2 tins of sanma kabayaki (the kids love this) dessert: chocolate cake or what was left of it. I had left it on the counter to cool and my kids and about 5 friends decided to test it by pulling of pieces with their fingers, a good 1/4 of the top was missing!

tan cl welcome to egullet! Most of the Asian breads I am familiar with usually use no butter rather lard or shortening. The Chinese bao (spongy buns) are usually steamed which results in their softness, they are also usually made with a cake flour and lard. As to the Jaapnese style breads these are usually baked but again tend to be made with cake (or other low protein) flour and lard or shortening. Here is a thread we had on Japanese style breads: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=19&t=21459& There is a link in there to a recipe for an-pan which should give you a good idea of a Jaapnese style soft bread.