torakris

I like it with teas, mostly chai type drinks, as to the color of the balls, I like the color of the black ones in the chai.

My husband and I lived on Maui for almost a year before moving to Japan and we had very little money so didn't dine out much and when we did it was usually some place like Tony Roma's (my husband loves ribs). Anyway we did eat out quite a bit when his parent's came to visit, we spent a lot of meals at Roy Yamaguchi's avrious restaurants, I think my in lwas had an affinity for him because they share the same surname, no relation though. I enjoy Roy's and have frequented his Tokyo retsaurants often. My absolute favorite restaurant was Sarrentos on the Beach, the incredible food combined with impeccable service and views to die for is a combination you normally only dream about. A bit on the pricey side, Ferrara's (Ferraro's?) at the Four Seasons Hotel has some of the most incredible seafood. Most of our favorite places were just these little local joints where the tourists never ventured and unfortunately seem to be slowly disappearing.

Sunday dinner: Had one of the best BBQ's ever, all from The Barbecue Bible by Steven Raichlen pg 172 Romy's Ribs with Filipino seasonings, they were first marinated with orange, lemon, lime. lemongrass, giner and garlic then just before cooking they were rubbed with a spice rub or paprika,sichuan peppercorns, coriander, cumin, mustard, fennel, cayenne, brown sugar and salt. Unbelievably good! pg 446 Mango Achar, sort of Malaysian style "coleslaw" with mango and cabbage in a dressing of coconut milk, white vinegar, sugar, nampla, ginger, garlic, and hot chiles, this combination of ingredients was just incredible and it may become my new "coleslaw" pg 65 Grilled eggs with Vietnamese seasonings, raw egg were grilled for about 10 minutes, the quartered wrapped in a leaf of lettuce with some mint and then dipped into a nampla-lime sauce cucumber and celery sticks with a miso-mayo dip yaki onigiri (grilled rice balls) dessert: I had made tiramisu, but the kids all fell asleep so I am saving it for tonight.

we need a good smirk icon!

word for 6/23: 酒　さけ sake (sah-kay) this is probably one of the most mispronounced Japanese words, people have been pronouncing it sah-key for so long long I have even seen cookbooks where it is spelled saki! This is a very important ingredient in Japanese cooking, and just as you wouldn't use "cooking wine" for cooking, neither should you use a "cooking sake", use a sake that is worth drinking, your food will thank you.

When we talk about cheese in Japan, it is 95% of the time processed cheese, think American cheese but even blander. The next 4% is camembert, which is very popular here, but mostly made by Japanese companies and also quite bland. The last 1% are import cheeses mostly for sale in International markets I have made these figures up by myself from what I see in the supermarkets, but i am pretty sure I am not too far off

When I think of summer foods in Japan the first things that come to mind are noodles anything cold zaru soba zaru udon somen hiyamugi hiyashi chuuka then of course there is eel, the stamina food of Japanese summers

Soba, Thanks for the Elizabeth Andoh article! I just discovered a new restaurant to try, the place called Natural Harmony-Coa at Eda station is just two stations away from me on the Denentoshi line, less then a 10 minute drive! I'll be going there this week.

Summer has finally hit Japan. What are some of your favorite summer foods?

Saturday dinner: roated chicken and bread salad from the Zuni Cafe cookbook, this was really good! cucmber and avocado soup dessert: Costco Apple Pie (Jin, does it sound better here? )

iced coffee and thinking about what to make for breakfast

oh yes the budae chigae, one of newest discoveries: http://www.yorizori.com/trans/recipes_sub08.html for some reason the ingredient list don't include nearly as much stuff as is shown in the picture.

word for 6/22: we will move slightly off topic today as I teach you a wonderful word that coincides with today's date: 夏　なつ natsu summer Today is the first day of summer in Japan.

goyatofu, If you are female I have no problem with you buying SMAP cookbooks, heck I would problem buy them just so I could look at Kimu-taku all day long. I have watched their show a couple times and they actually cook some decent stuff. If you are male.................... I think I will give the recipe a try.

hate to be redundant, but that was such a great post, I am packing my bags now..........

more info please.

So how much have you learned from the Japan Forum? take the following quiz and find out: http://library.thinkquest.org/20013/frame.htm click on appetizer 2

guide to dashi ingredients and dashi making (good pictures): http://www.ajinomoto.com/tasty/dashi/index.html

more information on rice, including proper cooking techniques: http://www.ajinomoto.com/tasty/gohan/index.html

I ate the double berry kitkats today, man are they good! chocolate and berries are really a match made in heaven. much, much better then the past kitkat tries (banana, orange, and pineapple)

the second part of their Enjoy New campaign started a couple days ago, 3 new sandwiches and 1 new dessert: I had their tofu burger today, unbelievably bland, the ginger sauce was quite good but could have used a lot more. EDITED to remove link since the bugers are no longer available and the link is gone.

I just ran across an interesting recipe for matcha mayo add 1gram of powdered matcha to 100grams of mayo enjoy!

The "new" mayo on the market now is the same old stiuff but sold in a special kind of tube with a very narrow tip and used for decorating, sort of like what a restaurant would use.

ooh let's see how about shiitake and string cheese with goma-ae iridofu (scarmbled tofu) made with the addition of cottage cheese deep fried gyoza with cheese and natto aburage pockets filled with cheese and natoo, then grilled atsu-age "pizzas" tofu steaks topped with cheese and sauteed with butter and soy sauce an my absolute favorite bruschetta topped with bacon, kimchi, cheese and heated under the broiler

amazon's current list of top selling Jaapnese cookbooks: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/new-f...0122163-5417550