torakris

In the summer I also like to prepare cold miso and sort of a cold version of ochazuke (but with ice and water no ocha) hmmm... a cold ochazuke WITH ocha, haven't tried that yet, something to try though and of course: http://recipes.egullet.com/recipes/r335.html

wonderful article on miso: http://www.bento.com/taste/tc-miso.html

well it would have been a great weekend, if rain wasn't forecast the whole time! No point in driving over 3 hours to go to the beach when it is raining, so we decided to postpone the trip until July. Sooooo word for 6/28: 胡麻　　ごま goma (goh-mah) sesame seeds ごましお　　ごま塩　　胡麻塩 gomashio (and its many "spellings") the mixture of salt and sesame seeds that is a very popular food (particularlyr ice) topping besides the 黒ごまkurogoma or black sesame seeds you will also have a choice of いりごまirigome, whole seame seeds すりごま surigoma, semi-crushed sesame seeds I would recommend the irigoma, so you can toast them and then crush them yourself, the test is about a 100 times better.

Gus Thanks for posting back! I just did a (very) quick search for matcha mousse (on Yahoo Japan) and most of them seem to use milk and about 90% of them did use cream as well. Always added before the egg whites if that would make a difference. I also noticed the matcha tended to be dissolved in a very small amount of water (30- 50 ml) and the milk made up the rest of the liquid. Maybe I will give it a try too! here is the most stunning examples I came across: http://www.mikashiho.ac.jp/kasirecipe15.htm

and another one of my favorites: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=25&t=17727& oksusu-cha Korean corn tea

lissome already answered, but here is some more on Japanese leaf teas: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=19&t=20288&

just ran across this one, only for sale in Hokkaido (Northern Japan) but can be ordered on line: http://www.rakuten.co.jp/hokkaido-omiyage/.../435155/493215/ potato chips with melted cheese

more summer foods include: awabi (abalone) suzuki (sea bass) and of course the fruits: watermelons, sakuranbo, melons, biwa, and the hakuto (white peaches)

mayo made by a Japanese manufacturer the Kewpie brand available in any Asian store, it just sounded better then just plain old mayo!

sriracha? This is actually my current fried rice addiction. I use anything in the refrigerator, but always try to have eggs and scallions as well as salt, pepper, soy and some spicy sauce. current favorite is sriracha, but I also love kimchi fried rice especially with some type of pork product and lightly sweetened eggs, I occasionally also use kojuchang.

Thursday dinner: katsuo tataki , sear bonito until very very raw, plunge into ice water until very very cold then slice and cover with various toppings, last night I used scallions, shiso, and lots of ginger with a soy based sauce dashi maki tamago, Japanese thick sweetened egg omelette soy sauce flavored yuba (tofu skin) cucumber sticks with Japanese mayo zucchini and white onion miso soup (with hatcho miso) Japanese rice fortefied with amaranth, millet, Japanese millet, foxtail millet dessert: popsicles

7:00am , the sun is shining, an incredibly comfortable 25 C is forecasted for today............. I am enjoying an iced coffee!

I love lychees. They are quite difficult to find in stores in Japan, but they are a regular addition to salad bars here...? For some reason they was an import ban on a lot of "exotic fruits" and just this year for the first time I am seeing durian, rambutan and just last week one of the supermarkets was advertising their first selling of fresh mangosteen, specifically mentioning the lifting of the ban. Looks like I have lots of experimenting to do this summer with some new fruits. lychees in sweet and sour..... that sounds incredible, have got to give it a try!

for 6/27 6/28 and 6/29 we will cover 2 words (sorry, I will be gone this weekend, we are spending the weekend at the beach in Chiba prefecture) 塩 shio (shee-oh) salt こしょう koshou (koe-show) pepper

I forgot to mention that there was a container of freshly made goma shio on all of the tables!

I forgot to mention that there was a container of freshly made goma shio on all of the tables!

Today I went to Natural Harmony-Coa (on page 2 of the article) with 4 friends. It was wonderful They have 4 choices on their lunch menu a salad (quite big I am assuming by the price) a vegetarian course a fish course a chicken course The menu changes daily and are accompanied by two side dishes, miso soup, and a choice of whole grain bread or brown rice. I had the fish course, which were kamasu (sorry don't know the fish in English) sauteed, dressed with a balsamic sauce and topped with a daikon salad. The sides were a hiyayakko on a bed of finely minced okra with some ginger and topped with chopped tomatoes and a simple nimono of gobo, carrots and kombu. the miso soup contained satsumaimo, nameko. and daikon greens. We ordered the extra set consisting of coffee and a dessert, the dessert menu had about 10 choices. I had a walnut tart and ordered a kiwi sorbet for my son. The restaurant was excellent and we all plan to be back!

Today I went to Natural Harmony-Coa (on page 2 of the article) with 4 friends. It was wonderful They have 4 choices on their lunch menu a salad (quite big I am assuming by the price) a vegetarian course a fish course a chicken course The menu changes daily and are accompanied by two side dishes, miso soup, and a choice of whole grain bread or brown rice. I had the fish course, which were kamasu (sorry don't know the fish in English) sauteed, dressed with a balsamic sauce and topped with a daikon salad. The sides were a hiyayakko on a bed of finely minced okra with some ginger and topped with chopped tomatoes and a simple nimono of gobo, carrots and kombu. the miso soup contained satsumaimo, nameko. and daikon greens. We ordered the extra set consisting of coffee and a dessert, the dessert menu had about 10 choices. I had a walnut tart and ordered a kiwi sorbet for my son. The restaurant was excellent and we all plan to be back!

I jsut stepped out side to quiz 5 neighbors who are outside talking, here is what they said. It depends on the size of the niboshi, the bigger ones they always remove the heads and innards, but the smallers ones they keep intact and most of the women actually keep them in the soup and they are eaten along with the other things in the soup. I think it is time to start making my own dashi....

Smallworld, welcome to the dinner thread! I have yet to eat sakuranbo this year! I was waiting for my MIL to give us some. every year she goes to Yamagata prefecture to go sakuranbo "picking" and she always brings us back a case (yes, case!) of the cherries. She went last weekend and came home only with some sakuranbo flavored caramels for the kids!

water

This sounds great! There is a lovely tea/coffee shop in the Tokyo/Yokohama areas call Afternoon Tea that sells an Earl Grey/fresh orange juice drink that sounds just like this. I have never tried it myself but now I will! Pim, welcome to egullet!

I tis actually a pefectly comfortable 24 C in Yokohama at this moment! The windows are open a soft breeze is coming through........

I was talking to a group of Japanese friends yesterday and after much thinking and discussion came up with the following things: baikingu (vikings) consist usually of prepared foods in a high class setting, normally a nice hotel buffets can sometimes be the same as vikings but generally are in more middle rank restaurants tabehoudai are normally foods that are prepared at the table (yakiniku, shabu shabu, etc) and can usually middle rank or less type restaurants they all agreed tabehoudai gives the impression of slightly lower scale type of restaurant and that you would never see a tabehoudai in a hotel.

Weds dinner: cold poached chicken breast, shredded and placed on a bed of lettuce and tomato slices then topped with a sesame based sauce hijiki and cucumber salad yuba-tofu (a block of tofu with pieces of yuba inside) topped with scallions, soy and yuzu-koshou sakura-ebi tsukudani (sweet and salty little shrimp) red wine rakkyo Japanese rice dessert: popsicles