torakris

Jin have you ever tried to buy poblanos, white onions (they have about a 3 week season here), and double smoked bacon in Japan? Maybe I will give something similar a try, it has to be good with bacon! what do you shave the things with?

Vikram very informative post! that dish sounds great, I am going to give it a try. What is red pumpkin? can something like kabocha (Japanese hard squash) be substituted?

Friday night: flounder with egg sacs oven grilled with soy sauce boiled shrimp and vegetable gyoza with a soy-vinegar dressing and dots of sriracha for the adults squid sashimi style with a "dressing made from avocado, wasabi and soy Thai style salad with bibb lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, bean sprouts, harusame (Japanese cellophane noodles), mint, cilantro, peanuts and dressed with a nampla-lime sauce Japanese rice dessert: Costco apple pie

I have just found myself with 2 1/2 heads of cabbage and I need to do something with them. My family all hate coleslaw so that is out of the question, normally I might try braising it but it is just too hot for that. We can have have some stirfries, but we will be eating them for a week before they are gone. Any ideas?

here are some recipes for menstuyu and ac ouple of noodle dishes to eat it with: http://www.bob-an.com/recipe/dailyjc/hints...ts/men/men.html

word for 6/21: 醤油　しょう油　しょうゆ shouyu (show-you) soy sauce, most people know this Japanese word for soy sauce, but it often is confusing because it is written in 3 different ways depending on where you are reading it. It is also pronounced jouyo when there is another word directly preceding it. Some examples: wasabi-joyu a sauce with wasabi and soy sauce karashi-joyu a sauce with karashi (hot mustard) and soy sauce ume-joyu a sauce with ume (pickled plum) and soy sauce

Like Margaret said, I don't think anyone in this country makes mayo, I have never run across a recipe for it. As to the taste, I would describe it as mild but with good acidity. Sort of like Miracle Whip, but better and with more acidity. It is nothing like Hellman's or homemade.

these particular ones are called cheese tsutsumi-age, tsutsumu means to wrap and age is to deep fry, so essentially they are deep fried wrapped things. The one shown are wraps of cheese (processed cheese), cheese and seaweed, and just daikon, they are wrapped with gyoza (pot sticker)wrappers. These kind of tsutsumi-age are very popular in Japan and the fillings can consist of pretty much anything.

Last nights program on TV Champion (the same show our very own BON won a couple weeks back) was cooking in 3 minutes. I was only able to see the first part of the show, but they preapred dishes in 3 minutes start to finish! The first 2 were a niku-jaga and a napoliatan (sp?) spaghetti dish, both made with bread (instead of potatoes and pasta) I really wish I could have tasted some of them...... Here are some pictures: http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/tvchamp/result/result.htm#1 You will see a bunch of faces and under them there should be a blue circle that says click, click on it to see the dishes that were made. I think there were 3 rounds (maybe 4)

The mayo kitchen restaurant lists 3 desserts: mayo cake mayo gelato mayo-banana gratin all eewws in my book!

Okay Margaret now I will really gross you out, my husband sometimes mixes his rice with a raw egg, a blob of butter, mayo and some soy sauce, I can't even be in the same room when he eats it!

Kris, where did you get your pita recipe? I've been wanting to make them at home. The recipe was form Flatbreads and Flavors by Duguid and Alford (of Hot Sour Sweet Salty fame), it really a wonderful book ann the recipe was so simple and tasted great.

Oh, your killin' me!! What's kabocha? I've heard about it but don't know any details about preparation. Please enlighten me. it is a hard Japanese squash, dark green on the outside and orange on the inside. this is how I cook it: http://recipes.egullet.com/recipes/r339.html

thursday dinner: mahi mahi with a very heavy on the ginger teriyaki sauce zucchini sauteed with sesame and soy simmered kabocha cucumber and celery sticks with a miso-mayo dip and just plain miso (for me) Japanese rice Dessert: Costco apple pie

word for 6/20: 酢　す su vinegar this is seen quite often, especially in salad type dishes but it also shows up in main dishes such as su-buta (vinegar-pork) which is the Japanese variation of sweet and sour pork. It also has its own category of foods 酢の物　すのもの sunomono (vinegared foods), discussed on this thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=19&t=19462&

the Japanese mix mayo with anything, the often use it at a meal the way Americans would use ketchup, it is on the table to be squirted on everything. It is a common way to serve certain vegetables, especially cucumbers and broccoli, just sqirt some mayo on them. Just last night I followed the advice of a Japanese friend and served cucumber sticks with a dipping "sauce" of miso and mayo mixed together. My family loved it, I have a hard time eating mayo outside of a tuna sandwich and didn't really care for it. I can't eat okonmiyaki with out it though!

When I started reading this thread, I thought no way, how disgusting, but sure enough a quick search has led me to their homepage. The have two restaurants in the Kanto area, here is their menu: http://www.mayokichi.com/menu001.html it is all in Japanese but they have some nice pictures, according the site the #1 dish is the ishiyaki buta-kimu-mayo-don, translates as a donburi of pork, kimchi, and mayo served in a Korean dolsot (stone bowl)

more on natto and the kotatsu: http://www.pref.ibaraki.jp/koryu/ibaraki/eibara6.htm

I was told that it used to be quite popular to "ferment" the natto under the kotatsu. a kotatsu is a low table that has a heating element either inside or underneath and is covered with a kind of quilt, it is used through out the winter to keep warm by placing the lower half of your body under the quilt.

Growing up in Miami, if we caught a Skipjack it either got thrown back or turned into chum. I don't know anyone that actually ate it. So it surprised me when I saw that it was served to you - and at of all places CT. Think of all the good meals I missed out on! How was it? Tell me what dumb bunnies we were for throwing it back! Cat in Chicago Oh think of all the money you could have made by selling it to the Japanese.......... skipjack, or katsuo in Japanese, is VERY popular in Japan.

once again kristin is drinking iced coffee well actually you could just call it cold coffee, since the is no ice in my house! My husband used it all yesterday and then neglected to make more

Weds dinner: Spent the day hanging out in Tokyo with a friend so had a very simple dinner saba (mackeral) nanbanzuke (escabeche) --made the day before, always tastes better that way simmered kabocha edamame Japanese rice red wine rakkyo

word for 6/19: あえ ae (ah-eh) these are thick type dressings often made from tofu, miso, sesame seeds, or egg yolks. some common types are: 白あえ shira-ae, tofu dressing 白酢あえ shirazu-ae, tofu-vinegar dressing ごまあえ goma-ae, sesame dressing からしあえ karashi-ae, hot mustard dressing we had a discussion of ae-mono (dressed things) here; http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=19&t=19502&

Well, I went, saw, and was disappointed. The store/restaurant is tiny, you can barely move around it. We decided to sit in the restaurant, since there is no other place to sit, and we were handed a lunch menu with 6 choices, everything was 1200yen (about $10) which wasn't bad for an entree, salad, and drink. But the portions were tiny! even compared to Japan standards and quite disappointing in flavor. We were still hungry so we ordered more coffee (which was quite good) and chocolate-espresso cakes (which were excellent). We ended up paying $20 a piece for our lunches, which is on the pricey side, even for Tokyo. Then I went to browse the itty bitty store, the breads looked good but there wasn't much variety and the prices were outrageous, the deli had about 7, maybe 8 selections and looked decent but not worth the price, the gravlax wass elling for 900yen ($8) per 100 grams (less than a quarter of a pound) and the cheese case was about 2 feet square and the few cheeses they had were about twice the price as I could get at an International supermarket. Finally the dry goods, I picked up a jar of marinara pasta sauce, saw a price of 1800yen (($15.50) and almost dropped it! Later I checked on the Dean and Deluca website and the same pasta sauce was selling 3 jars for $24, this is almost double the price! needless to say I came home empty handed....

about mentsuyu: there are many different kinds and often sold in different strengths ストレート　　straight type --used straight from the bottle, no need for diluting 二倍　 nibai , or twice the strength of staight 三倍 sanbai, or three times the strength of straight there may be more but theses are the ones I am most familiar with, normally I just add water to taste (I like it a lot stronger then normal!) My favorite (and probably the most popular in Japan ) is にんべんのつゆの素 (Ninben no tsuyu no moto) very noticable with its orange label, this is a 3 bai type.