torakris

Yesterday at the Costco here in Tokyo I saw the Cuisinart Cuisinart ICE-30BC for just over 6000yen (US$50). My Delonghi died on me two years ago and I have just recently thought about getting a new one. I love the the idea of a two quart model As my old one was less than a quart and too small for my family of 5. I have read this whole thread and didn't find any references to it. It has some great reviews at Amazon but I trust the opinions I might find here a little more.... My current concerns: I prefer gelato style (softer) than regular ice cream (harder) I want to avoid using recipes with large an mounts of cream (at US$4 for 200ml-3/4cup of cream it is actually cheaper for me to go out and buy Haagen Dazs) Anyone have this model? comments?

I figured freezing it in ice cube trays was my best bet, I did this with baby food for many, many years. Would you say 1 T is equal to about one pepper? I love the idea of mixing it with a quava paste, I might have to wait until a trip back to the US to find it though. How easy is it to find?

According to there website it doesn't stay good for very long, 15 days after it is wrapped or about 10 days from when you receive it. It continues to ripen after purchasing and they suggest eating it at your desired ripeness. They also say that is the blue or yellow mold that sometimes grows on it bothers you, just scrape it off.

Happy Birthday Beth! Wish I could have been there for the party as well as the meal! How often does the menu change? Do you think that bacon ice cream will still be there in July?

I have never made a gratin with anything put a bechamel. Cream is extremely expensive here and I never buy it, I only use a 1% low fat milk as it is the cheapest dairy product on the shelves. If everthing has enough seasoning you will never miss the cream.

I would go with taste it and see as well. I have a similar question, how long do they keep after being opened and what it the best way to store them. This is one product that is almost impossible to use the entire can of in one dish. I have had half a can in a tupperware case in the refrigerator for over 6 months now and since it hasn't molded yet I am assuming it is ok. How does everyone store this after opening?

Another great use for the rice cooker! I had never thought of that. Do you then just transfer it to the refrigerator in the pot?

Make sure you read the package carefully before you add salt to your salmon belly, many of the products in Japan are already salted. I found this out the hard way..

The other day some friends and I had lunch at Ecru a macrobiotic/organic/natural restaurant near my house. It was my first time there and though it wasn't bad, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of selection. We were there for lunch and we only had a choice of 4 options with prices from 1180 to 1380 yen. They had a daily special plate, a brown rice quiche plate, a vegetable plate (seems to change daily) and a curry rice plate. The daily special didn't look very filling as it was just a pilaf like dish with walnuts and umeboshi with a small green salad and an even smaller carrot salad. The vegetable plate had the same two salads with the addition of one more yogurt based salad and a deep fried soy product. I decided to go for the curry rice, it was nice and spicy and filled with lentils and kidney beans though they were pretty skimpy on the vegetables. It was served with brown rice. While I enjoyed it, I didn't feel it was worth the 1280 yen I paid since I could have made the same thing at home and fed all 5 of us for less than that. It did include a coffee as well, though they charged an extra 50 yen for iced coffee.... Sorry for the cell phone picture.

Liver is one of my favorite types of yakitori. As to the prep, I have never soaked the livers in milk for use in Japanese dishes though I do it for some western style dishes. I also prefer liver a touch on the rare side but I would only do this if I was sure of the quality. The only thing I would do differently is serve it with plain white rice. In Japan there is no part of the chicken that isn't used in yakitori. A favorite of mine are the gizzards, I just trim them and usually separate the lobes (what do you call those?), grill the same as for the livers. You can also grill just the skin though I find this is better with out the soy based sauce, rather just sprinkle it with salt.

I sort of described it above. They are actually rolls and are sold in those big bags with 25 or so. They are usually on the racks with the other rolls the variety of which seems to vary by the day. They actually contain very little cornmeal and have kernels of corn inside. It isn't what I think of when soemone says cornbread but they are good in their own right. They go bad very quickly! You will see mold after 2 days, so I suggest freezing those that you will not eat immediately.

It was really good! I agree with not having enough filling but I also have to admit that at home I have tried to stuff them before and they actually end up falling apart...

I love Afternoon Tea, here is the homepage with a menu. I haven't been there in a while but I would always order an iced tea (I am pretty sure it was Earl Grey) mixed with orange juice. I have tried to duplicate this at home but just can't get it right. I mean how hard can this be?? Costco's cornbread is really good. It is quite different from the normal American corn bread that Hiroyuki worked so hard on making. They are rolls made mostly with white flour, though there may be some cornmeal in there, they are dusted with a very fine cornmeal and have corn kernels inside.

This is how I do them as well. Since we don't have broilers in Japan I use my fish grill. If I am not using them in a salad I don't grill them to quite as crisp and serve them with a splash of some citrus, usually lime or sudachi.

Norio, Thanks for the report! I am really sad to hear it will be closing, I had no idea. I guess I have to actually get there now. They served Pepsi!?! I should protest their closing on that fact alone. It is next to possible to find Pepsi in food establishments here and I don't understand how anyone can touch Coke.... but that is a whole different thread.

John, It is the same site. Kakaku just lists which stores sell them for the cheapest and the store you ordered from is the cheapest listed there. I can't wait to hear how you like it.

At the Tokyo Costco on good days they have odd shaped cardboard boxes, other days they have absolutely nothing. They seem to save the good boxes for the customers who want to have their purchase shipped to their house... In my car I keep a huge blue bag that I got at Ikea and take it in to Costco with me and ask them to put most things in there. Edited to add they usually ask before they start to ring you up if you want your stuff in the boxes.

John, I was curious about this oven so I popped it into Kakaku.com and one store is selling it for 20,622 yen. I just scanned it quickly but it looks like if you make a purchase over 10,000 yen the shipping is free, though there is a 300yen handling charge. You can also pay by most credit cards.

I am pretty sure I saw that oven at the Costco in Tokyo (actually Minami Osawa), I think it was even cheap closer to 20,000yen. My next trip to Costco is 3/6 if you haven't gotten it by then I can confirm the price.

I am pretty sure this is the first time I have ever seen this Sweetie juice (100% juice) I really liked it as it was a little sweeter than grapefruit juice. It was quite expensive so it won't be on my shelves very often. I think it was only 330ml at cost like 168yen (compared to most 500ml bottles than cost 150 yen).

More tomo-choco this year. My daughters both had a couple friends they wanted to give it to and we didn't have much time sooo... marshmallow treats made with strawberry flavored cereal (and a little pink dye added for color) drizzled with melted milk chocolate. My son (age 6) came home from kindergarten very excited today because he received his first chocolates from a girl! Pokemon chocolates

I picked this up at a 7-11 yesterday for lunch. Pasta (spaghetti) salad with grilled chicken and a Japanese dressing. I actually enjoyed it more than I thought it would and it was also more filling than I thought it would be.

My daughter and I picked these up at 7-11 after a friend of hers told her they were really good. Even 10 year old girls discuss where to get the best food around here! They were really good and I would definitely get them again. They are meant to be warmed up before eating. Gyu-meshi (beef rice) with soy simmered egg

Without being more specific I can't think of too many words to describe texture. I covered katai and yawarakai in the Daily Nihongo thread. You can scroll up for more food related terminology. Some others (crunchy, chewy, etc can be found in the onomatopoeia thread.

and all this time I had been telling my husband he was weird for preferring the flats... I don't use the flats in any of my cooking drumettes only! It always worked out perfectly though when we would eat buffalo wings in restaurants because I would but a good fight with anyone who tried take my drumettes.