torakris

camping is also for people who can't afford hotels!

interesting article on the history and medicinal properties of umeboshi: http://metropolis.japantoday.com/BigInJapa...ginjapaninc.htm I also just ran across a recipe for a cold noodle dish to be garnished with umeboshi tempura, next time I make tempura I might just give that a try.

here is a picture of the dish: http://www.ntv.co.jp/mogumogu/20030816/images/r04.jpg and the website of the program mogumogu gombo http://www.ntv.co.jp/mogumogu/index.html

ran across a good one the other night and Jin I immediately thought of you! There is this this kids cooking show on Saturday evenings where elementary school aged kids prepare food either alone or with siblings for either their parents, the hosts of the show or special guests. Each show has a theme that is usually tied into the local in which they are filming. This week they were focusing on kurobuta, the famed Japanese black pig. There are normally 3 groups of kids/kids and they prepare 2 to 3 dishes, the one group started off well they took some of the pork and stirfried it kimchi then in a different pan they made a quick vegetable curry with potatoes, carrots and green beans THEN the mixed the two together! AND THEN then stuffed the mixture in aburage (tofu pockets) that they had simmered in a soy-mirin mixture AND THEN covered it with a slice of cheese and a tomato slice AND THEN popped it into the toaster oven That poor father tried so hard to smile while he was eating it...................

someday we will actually have a trip where we have both good scenery and good food!

Well we are back from our second (and last!) vacation of the summer. This was sort of the opposite of the first trip, this time the food was good (of course, I planned and cooked it myself ) but the scenery was bad, very very bad. It would have been gorgeous if we could actually see anything throught the rain and fog! We took a cable car up to the top of a mountain where we should have been able to see Mount Fuji and the gorgeous lakes below but we couldn't even see our hands in front of our faces the fog was so thick! It rained for 3 1/2 of the 4 days we went camping (again on the Izu penninsula, this time the ocean on the other side), the campsite we hand orginally planned to go to was inaccessible because of a road closed due to a landslide and to get to it we would have to take a 2 hour detour. Luckily I had my camp guide book with me and we found another that was close by but it was 4 times the price (depleting all the funds I had brought) and unbelievably crowded, I felt like I was living in a gypsy camp. The rain got so bad on our last night there that our tent couldn't hold it anymore, puddles were forming on the floor and the sleeping bags were soaked through. At 4:00am we packed up everything in the car and drove home, we haven't been able to dry/air anything out because it is still raining! The kids had a good time though! The best part about the camp site was that we set up under a chestnut tree and thus had roasted chestnuts every night! For the half a day it stopped raining we went to nearby "Monkey Island" (note the monkeys in the background)

after 4 days of camping (in the pouring rain! ) and 2 days of being glued to my computer trying to rid it of the blaster/lovsan worm I am back to cooking! Sunday night: salmon in crisp rice paper with sweet and spicy sake essence (from Fine Cooking May 2003), this was incredible! roasted baby kabocha (rubbed with EVOO and then sprinkled with Maldon sea salt after cooking) tomato and kaiware (daikon sprouts) salad with EVOO and Maldon sea salt Japanese rice dessert: espresso-chocolate-hazelnut biscotti (from the Dessert Bible)

back to the daily nihongo! word for 8/18: 大根 daikon Most people are quite familiar with this root vegetable from Japan, the flavor can range from sweet to down right spicy. They should be very firm when bought, limpness means that it is past its prime, it you can find them with the leaves attached that is even better. The tops are edible as well are are used in stirfries, pickles, etc. Daikon is common in soups, simmered dishes, stirfries, deep frying and raw in salads and grated as a topping for other dishes. One trick to dealing with daikon is to make sure you peel it quite thickly, you will actually see a slight color change as you peel it correctly. picture: http://webm.jp/site/page/suwastore/okaidok...ku/416/seika01/

I picked up some wasabi soba and ashitaba soba on our recent camping trip to the Izu penninsula and had the ashitaba for lunch today with some homemade tsuyu and grated daikon. It was quite good.

I have a cupboard full of somen! This summer has been so cold I haven't even wanted it. Yesterday at noon it was 19 C (59 F) at noon in Tokyo in August!

this doesn't really answer your question but it is an interesting article about the history of nori: http://www.sushiandtofu.com/sushi_and_tofu...healthNori2.htm

an interesting website with a virtual sushi counter and a speaking pronunciation guide: http://www.seifu.ac.jp/denki/itking/second...dojo/index.html

word for 8/11: きゅうり kyuri (kyu-ree) cucumber Japanese cucumbers are a little bit shorter then the American cucumber and close to a quarter of its width. The seeds are barely noticeable and they pack much more flavor than the American counterpart. They are used raw in salads (salted first if for a dressed salad or sunomono) and pickled and occasionally they make an appearance in stirfries. picture: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/images/ve...ure/kyuri.3.jpg

had a bbq with friends last night and they left at 7:30 this morning! These are my Kobe beef friends and they didn't fail us this time either, incredible beef that needed nothing more then a light sprinkling of salt. It was so tender we didn't need a knife to cut we just pulled it apart with chopsticks. I smoked some Kansas City style baby back ribs (over sakura- cherry blossom chips) grilled corn and portabella mushrooms chips with guacamole roasted chickpeas with cumin and salt olives various bruschetta -tomato and basil -grilled pepper-anchovy-parsley -marinated dried tomatoes and black olive spread dessert: white cake filled with a black cherry "jam" and a whip cream frosting

just finished breakfast made by my husband, fried rice with okonomiyaki sauce, eggs and onions topped with a dollop of mayo it wasn't bad actually

Sat. night: one of those do it aheads and forget about it dinners, so I could concentrate on preparing food for today's BBQ including my husband's birthday cake chicken adobo (recipe from the NY Times food section a couple months back, probably Bittman) Asian slaw with cabbage, red onions and peanuts (from New Way to Cook) --this was great and would ahve been better if I had used a variety of vegetables Japanese rice and brown rice mix dessert: instant pudding

I made the Asian slaw from it last night and it was great! Only 3/4 teaspoon of oil for a 4 person serving is great for a coleslaw! The dressing had lemongrass, ginger, lime, nampla, etc and was great.

There has been only plastic in Japan for as long as I have been here (about 13 years), though they do have small paper bags to wrap your "private" purchases in before you but them into the plastic. The Japanese find purchases of items like tampons and condoms to be very private and the cashiers will wrap them in paper for you. Some higher scale supermarkets will also use small paper bags to wrap anything that is glass. I use the bags for dirty diapers (hope to be out of this soon!) and for the raw garbage in the sink, there are no disposals in Japan instead there is a little bucket in the drain that catches all of the food and it needs to be cleaned daily.

word for 8/10: レタス lettuce Just like in the US the most popular form of this is iceberg, though I find the ones here to be darker green and slightly more flavorful. What else can you say about lettuce?

Actually most nori (in Japan at least) is sold unroasted allowing the person to roast it themselves be waving it over a gas flame. Pre-roasted nori can be spotted by the words yaki nori on the package. It is preferable to roast nori before using it with sushi so some packets of yakinori may also be labeled as sushi nori. There is no need to toast the yaki nori types. There is also flavored nori called ajitsuke nori that comes in various flavors most commonly soy, but 3 of my favorites are ume, wasbi and shiso (these may be hard to find out of Japan) Another thing to remember about nori is that there are 2 kinds asakusa nori which is harvested from bays iwanori which is harvested from the shore both are dried into flat sheets and look the same but asakusa is higher quality and preferable for sushi.

In general I really like this book, even if I never cooked from it I would like it to read through. there are a lot of applications there that can be used to lower the fat content of your everyday cooking. Sometimes, though, I find the ingredients list and techiques too long or time consuming to be worth the couple grams of fat they would save. Since I don't really need to watch my weight some recipes just don't seem worth the effort. But on the other hand if I could eat something that tastes as good as its full fat cousin with half the fat I would probably go for the lower fat. The book is also great as a jumping board for ideas as some recipes are written more as suggestions then actual recipes.

It seems that in Japanto get good pizza you have to go out for it: http://metropolis.japantoday.com/tokyofood...oddrinksinc.htm

ran across this interesting product: http://www.hiroshima-cdas.or.jp/home/tmfr/...ota/omotabe.htm curry flavored yogurt didn't seemed to last very long.....................

I prefer fresh croutons with mine, I like the bite they give and lots of garlic please!

Friday dinner: aji no hiraki (sun dried horse mackeral) kabocha grilled and drizzled with ponzu oishina ("delicious" green) sauteed with bacon hiyayakko (cold tofu) served atop minced okra (with ginger and soy) and topped with tomato Japanese rice