torakris

Forgot to mention that this lunch is not free, we pay every month for it. It costs 220yen a day (about $1.85) which for a well balanced hot lunch is a good deal.

food allergies are quite prevalent here, the most common being egg, but others such as soba (buckwheat) or peanuts are occasionally seen. The "Chinese" soup thatw as served yesterday had egg in it, so as we toured the kitchen we saw the special pot and seperate bowls set out for those those kids who can not eat egg products. Most allergies are treated this way, by not adding the offending product, so the soup was the exact same except the egg. Other times something special may need to be prepared, such in the case of if an omelette is served. I do know one person whose daughter has severe food allergies and she is allowed to prepare a bento lunch for her daughter to take to school.

word for 7/2: 柚子　ゆず yuzu (you-zoo) A Japanese citrus fruit about the size of a tangerine, quite often with bumpy yellow skin, though Ｉ have seen smoother ones and there is also a green variety call ao-yuzu which is a little bit smaller. It has a very unique taste quite different from lemons or limes and is used mostly for for it skin (peel) as a garnish/flavoring. Occasionally the juice is added to pickles and they even have a yuzu juice that is absolutely incredible (but very expensive, since there tend to be more seeds then juice). Yuzu is an unmistakable part of Japanese winter cooking and the newest way of enjoying it all year round is in yuzu-koshou 柚子こしょう a speciality form the Kyushu region of Japan that has been enjoying a "boom" recently and can be found in supermarkets everywhere. Though the word koshou refers to black pepper, in Kyushu it is also used to refer to green chiles, thus this paste is a mix of yuzu rind, green chile and salt. yuzu koshou while searching the web for a picture I ran across 100's of sites citing yuzu as a beauty product, shampoos, etc, I have never seen it used this way in Japan............

School vacation in Japan runs from July 20 to August 31.

I was off at the elementary school today for the once a year kyushoku (school lunch tasting) and like I said in the first post they really impress me with this stuff. Before we ate there was a (long) talk about the history of kyushoku, how the menus are decided (season, calories, fat, etc), special dishes for children with allergies, how the kitchen operates, etc. I missed most of the talk because I was chasing my 2 year old down the hallways, but I was able to join up again at teh tour of the kitchen to see how the lunches are made. Then it was off to the classrooms to feast. Today's menu was meatballs in a amasu-ankake (sweet-sour sauce) with white rice, a dish of cucumbers and various seaweeds in a sesame dressing and "Chinese" soup with pork, tofu, carrots, onion and egg. My son ended up eating 10 meatballs and drinking two cartons of milk, I enjoyed the lunch as well and will probably be asking for the recipe of the cucumber salad, the dressing was great.

except for the corn salad that sounds incredibly like the dinner I have half prepared at the moment. Is the tomato tart by chance from the Italian Vegetarian by Jack Bishop? I have that dough chilling at this very moment. My potato salad has an arugula mayo instead of basil...... creepy

this is one of my favorite whole fishes to grill (though it can be oven roasted) stuff it with herbs, sprinkle with salt, pepper and EVOO then serve with lemon wedges.

Thai iced tea has added coloring to give it the tint of red. The tea itself is probably regular black tea, likely of Broken Orange Pekoe or even Fanning grade. The traditional way of making it calls for condensed milk as sweetener (read: cheap), not milk or cream (read: expensive). The tea snob side of me told me to turn my nose at it, but Thai iced tea has sort of a forbidden fruit allure for me. Thai iced tea in Thailand is found only at street vendors--which means it is served with ice of questionable origin. I was hence never allowed to have it as a child, so now that I am an adult and can gorge myself with just about any food item I damn well please, I could hardly resist it. Vietnamese Iced Coffee is a culinary inheritance the French Colonialists left for the Vietnamese. The coffee is made with the old style french stove top espresso maker, the condensed milk and ice are definitely the Vietnames addition the classic. There is a Thai restaurant by my house that makes an incredible Thai iced tea but with coconut milk instead of the condensed milk. Don't know how traditional it is but it sure is good!

toasted mouse.......... will never get that image out of my head. My husband had a meeting last night so the kids and I made cheddar cheese quesadillas with pico de gallo and guacamole. popsicles for dessert

sorry to hear about your disaster! oops meant I have done the same thing, but since I don't have tiles mine was on a baking sheet and the water leached out onto the pan giving me a very soggy crust. Since then a friend and I have experimented, draining it for different periods with different size slices, adding it at different points during baking, etc and have come to the conclusion that a good non water packed mozarella just works better. Though if we really want to use it , we slice it very thinly, drain it for about an hour and then add it for the last minute of baking.

word for 7/1: しょうが shouga (show-gah) ginger Ginger is used extensively in Japanese cooking, very often in fish cookery because it helps rid the fish of its "fishy-ness". It is also used in pickles, either alone (the gari or pickled slices served with sushi or beni-shouga, the bright pink shreds that top dishes like okonomiyaki and takoyaki) or as an accent. In the spring search out the young ginger, which is pale in color with pink tips, its crisp and refreshing flavor is worth the search. And don't forget about shouga-yaki, the wonderful pork and ginger stir fry dish!

this is sort of the opposite of what we were talking about, but while make okonomiyaki last night I pulled out my microplane to grate the nagaimo instead of pulling out the suribachi. It worked better then I could image, perfectly grated nagaimo.

Anna, I am no where near being a professional chef, so I hope someone else pops in but I have made meringues and I have even made hazelnut ones. The one thing that struck me odd was the 350 degree oven. I have never cooked meringues at over 250 and often even lower. My hazelnut meringue recipe calls for 4 eggs and 3/4 cup whole hazelnuts (which are then roasted and crushed), the chewiness could have come from the large amount of ground hazelnuts.

were out all day, had a late lunch and came home to a refrigerator of cabbage, mountain yam (nagaimo) and celery, so we made: okonomiyaki lots of cabbage, nagaimo, pork, eggs and baby star ramen (a crispy ramen flavored snack) all topped with okonomiyaki sauce, mayo and katsuo bushi didn't use the celery....

word for 6/30: にんにく­ ninniku (neen-nee-koo) garlic garlic isn't used in Japanse cuisine as much as in other Asian cuisines, but it still is a staple in most homes. Also very popular are the garlic stems or にんにくの茎 （ninniku no kuki).

wasn't supposed to be here this weekend and didn't feel like dragging the 3 kids shopping so: slowly simmered block of pork with sake, ginger and peppercorns, left to cool then thinly sliced and served in lettuce leaves with either hoisin sauce (for the kids) or a kojuchang sauce soy-sake-sugar simmered hijiki, chikuwa (hollow tube of fish paste), and edamame stirfried somen noodles with onions and chikuwa flavored with umeboshi and konbu-cha Japanese rice dessert: popsicles

word for 6/29: わさび wasabi (wah-sah-bee) the Japanese horseradish that is green in color, sold fresh, in tubes, or in powder form. The Japanese eat the stems and leaves from the plant as well, often pickled or as garnishes. In case you missed the wasabi thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...19&t=21853&st=0

LOTS of wasabi recipes: http://www.freshwasabi.com/recipes.html

just ran a across a site with a great sushi glossary: http://sushiref.com/glossary/

I found another good glossary, sarts out as mostly sushi but covers a lot more: http://sushiref.com/glossary/

some of the fancier ones seen in restaurants: http://www.lookpage.co.jp/topics/no020807/

One of the joys of the Japanese summer! have any favorite flavors or unusual combinations?

the newest "thing" at Mos Burger...........the naan taco! http://www.mos.co.jp/menu/calory/h_29.html and the rest of the menu: http://www.mos.co.jp/menu/index.html including the new chorizo naan as well.

The newest Pizza Hut Japan creation: http://www.pizzahut.jp/new/img/030507ph.jpg for those who couldn't decide between the new sausage crust or the old cheese crust, now you can have both in the same pizza!

I thought we were going to go away for the weekend (the rain forced us to postpone our beach plans ) so I was using up what was in the refrigerator. Friday dinner: Ikura donburi with dashi maki tamago and cucumbers aburage (tofu "pockets") spread with a miso-scallion paste and broiled gobo and cucumbers in a spicy mayo dressing ground beef and zucchini stir-fry with bulgoki style seasonings seasoned nori dessert: popsicles