torakris

iced coffee and raisins they don't really go that well together........

this sounds incredible! just basalmic? no salt or pepper? are they eaten just like that or are they used more as a garnish? are they dressed at all after being cooked?

In Odawara there is a kamaboko museum, we drive past it every time we travel to the Izu penninsula and I always think someday we will actually pull off the road and give it a look. They have hands on classes where you can actually make your own kamaboko, but really a whole museum dedicated to it? their webpage (Japanese only): http://www.kamaboko.com/ to view the museum click on the 4th image down on the left, it says kamaboko hakubutsukan ‚©‚Ü‚Ú‚±”Ž•¨ŠÙ

You will be traveling with the baby at the best age, make the most of it In a couple of months you may never be able to leave the house with the baby in tow again! At that age I would breastfeed while reading the menu, then slip the sleeping baby into the car seat/carrier under the table. With a 7, 5 and a 2 year old I dream about those days now.........

I just saw on a Japanese show that if you place small dishes of sliced onions around a room it will make children fall asleep! They showed an experiment of it in a day care center and the entire room of 20 some kids was asleep in less then 5 minutes compared to a different day when about 10 of them never went to sleep. Now if that isn't a miracle food then I don't know what is!

For some reason I can't post pictures anymore and i don't have the time right now to figure out how to do it last couple meals Sun dinner: meatballs, potatoes, green beans simmered in a tomato sauce with lots of fresh herbs corn and black bean salad Mon dinner: fresh corn on the cob pasta with pancetta, onions, lots of black pepper and tomatoes Tues dinner: shogayaki- pork stirfried with onions and carrots in a ginger sauce matsumaezuke- a purchased product of seaweed (konbu), squid, herring roe (kazunoko) and carrots seared salmon with finely shredded daikon and mustard and broccoli sprouts with a ponzu sauce tomatoes Weds dinner: corokke (croquettes) with ground meat and potatoes sanma no shioyaki-- salt grilled saury pike tomato and spinach salad all of the meal (except the pasta) were served with Japanese rice

Onions, Food from the gods! The only time I actually panic is when I realize I am out of onions. I am going to try Fifi's lime juice on onion slices it sounds soooo wonderful, it seems similar to an onion "relish" I make whenever I cook Indian, sprinkling thinly sliced onions with lemon juice, salt and a mix of paprika and cayenne. Actually I could probably make a meal just out of that!

Some people don't recognize art when it's right in front of them. I am still not getting it

I love chicken skin! Crispiness is a must though, I can never leave a yakitori place with at least 2 skewers I once had a craving for it and picked up some pre-cooked and sauced skewers at a supermarket and took them home and microwaved them nasty, just nasty

kamaboko is one of those products that I have never grown to love. I eat it and actually enjoy it when served to me, but I rarely purchase it and serve it myself. My favorite has to be pretty much any of the kamaboko type products in oden, the gobo maki being my favorite. Sometimes a couple slices of a really good kamaboko dipped in a wasabi-soy sauce really hits the spot.

I couldn't imagine making kimchi with out shiokara in it. The Japanese also like to use it in dressed salads and to toss it in stirfries. Here is a recipe (in Japanese) of one of the most popular shiokara, ika (squid), great picture too! http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~nz3y-mr/fishc_siokara.htm

word for 9/4: カリフラワー karifurawa (kah-ree-foo-rah-waah) cauliflower Still relatively new to Japan, it hasn't gone completely mainstream yet and its use is pretty much limited here to dressed salads and milk/cream simmered dishes, occasionally popping up in gratins or stews.

here are a couple older threads you might want to check out: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...t=25020&hl=maui http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...t=23093&hl=maui http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...&t=5415&hl=maui http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...&t=5617&hl=maui

kimchi fried rice and water

I just had the best kama of my life this past Saturday, it was an ahi kama and it had no sauce and it was the most tender thing I have eaten, it almost melted in my life. Too bad nothing else at this new Hawaiian restaurant I went to had anything else that came even close to that good. I may go back just for that ahi though!

collars are so wonderful they have even had their own thread! http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=19&t=16971&

You should probably be ok, I make these kind of marinades quite often and find for the thinner cuts of meat 24 hours is about the max they can sit. They don't really get mushy, but they just don't taste as good, with your thicker cut you should be fine.

iced coffee too busy with the computer to actually make a breakfast........

mayoraas more on mayo in Japan: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=19&t=22965&

I still remember the first benriner I bought, I was a 20 year old college student on my first trip to Japan. I was walking through Takashimaya department store and there was a man demonstrating one of these things, think live infomercial. I was fascinated, I watched this man for close to 30 minutes and thought "if only I had one of these, I could cook too!" and I begged my boyfriend to buy me one. I took it back to the US with me and I have been cooking ever since! Now that my knife skills have gotten better I pull it out less and less, but I did use it last night to make these wonderful fine shreds of daikon (picture should be on the dinner thread later today) that I never could have done with a knife! They only cost about $10 to $15 in Japan!

word for 8/3: かぼちゃ kabocha (kah-boe-cha) Most people are familiar with this word that describes a hard squash that is very popular in Japan. Though occasionally you might see it written in kanji 南瓜meaning southern squash, it is most often seen with the hiragana only and the name kabocha was given to it in the 16th century when it came into Japan with the Portuguese from Central America via Cambodia, the name is a shorten version of the Japanese pronunciation of Cambodia. There are a couple popular varieties in Japan and the skin can vary from black to orange and the insides can vary from a pale yellow to a deep orange, the size can vary from palm-size to the size of a head. As it is not easily grown all year round, imports of kabocha are very common, mostly from Mexico and New Zealand. It is used in simmered dishes, soups, stews, deep-fried foods and grilled. Kabocha in Japan are normally sold cut, either in halves or quarters.

I pulled this out of the sushi/sashimi thread and am curious, what is your favorite kind? do you eat it plain? embellish it a little? cook with it?

So Jim is there any sushi/sashimi that you don't like? We had a good ankimo thread going a while ago , look here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=8626 as for shiokara, my FIL makes the squid one quite regulary, I have never tried since it isn't one of my favorite food. We purchased a katsuo-shiokara a little while ago and I remember one of the main ingredients was sake kasu (sake lees).

Crystal, you aren't my sister are you? You just desribed my mother's kitchen except for the jelly jars that were used as glasses my entire childhood. My mother does like to cook and does do it quite well. Growing up with 7 siblings we weren't allowed in the kitchen too much and except for making salads or cookies at holidays I never "cooked" with my mother. Now that I live on the other side of the world, when I get to visit it is usually for 4 to 6 weeks at a time so we have a lot of time in the kitchen together. Now that all but 2 of the kids are gone she really experiments a lot more and we have fun planning meals together, she has no problems if I tell her there is a better way to do things and is very open to new foods. Every now and then I get an e-mail from her asking how I made that salmon dish, potato dish, etc. I am really looking forward to out time in the kitchen together next summer.

Just minutes ago I was flipping through tv channels and there was a show about how to lower the calorie contents of food to help you lose weight, essentially diet food, this is a Japanese show by the way. They were making macaroni gratin and instead of a bechamel sauce they made a sauce of pureed tofu mixed with powdered formula (yes the stuff for babies) and powdered cheese, the dish was then baked with a little more of the powdered cheese sprinkled on top. The entire dish had 500 less calories then the original, but I have to wonder what it tastes like.................