torakris

then there are people who find farting ... well................... erotic. These are videos from Japan: http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/ha/dins/onarafet...ish3english.htm

Baked sweet potatoes are wonderful! skin and all!

My 7 year old who won't even look at the kitchen has recently been making onigiri (rice balls) for herself and her siblings every morning for breakfast. My 2 year old who seems to have the biggest passion for cooking, decided to take matters into his own hands today. For the past two days he has been screaming for ice cream and this morning again the first thing he does when he wakes up is go to the refrigerator and ask for ice cream. An hour or so later, my eldest, Mia, comes over to me and says "Mommy, what is Hide (2 year old) eating?" I rush into the living room and see Hide about to put a spponful of some white substance into his mouth! Closely inspection reveals that my little darling had filled up his bowl with an entire tube of Desitin (diaper rash cream)! I think I will go shopping later and get some ice cream!

I hate baked potatoes! Never order them never make them

This is a very popular dish in Japan (at Chinese restaurants) and I have tried to make it at home but it is quite time consuming. I had a very difficult time eating this when i first came here. I pick the strip of meat out and leave all of the fat sitting on my dish! I enjoy it know but I still search out the pieces witht he biggest piece of meat. My other favorite way of eating pork belly, is too cut it into very thin slices and then grill it over a fire until most of the fat has dripped out and it is almost crunchy, this can also be done to a similar effect in a very hot fry pan. Delicious!

Tuesday night: chicken thighs braised with dried porcini mushrooms, garlic, rosemary and tomatoes served over orzo small antipasto platter of olives and vegetables slices with a cream cheese based herb dip

There was no smell at all and it did taste normal but the part that bothered me was that this particular cheese normally has a creamy white rind and this time it was covered with a green moss type of thing. Is that OK? I had 3 kids under the age of 7 who were going to eat it (they LOVE blue cheese! ), so I decided to play it safe.

word for 4/30 辛い　 karai (kah-rah-ee) spicy, spicy hot, salty-spicy If you see this kanji (Chinese character)　辛　on a Japanese food package or menu you know the food will be spicy. The Japanese also use this to mean salty-spicy pronounced shio-kara (塩辛 ), shio meaning salt. There are a group of foods that are collectively referred to as shiokara, the most popular being ika no shiokara (salty-spicy squid with its entrails pickled in salt) So they next time you have a piece of sushi that has a litttle too much wasabi on it, feel free to announce to your table mates, "Karai!"

Another great use for miso is to smear it on the outside or an onigiri (rice ball) and then grill it. We did this at our BBQ last weekend and it was great on the grill! though it also works in a frypan.

My husband drinks it straight from the fry pan!

mugicha is my staple through out the summer, though I am not a big green tea drinker (I have none in my house) I love getting a cup at someone's house or some place of business. Last week I took my car in for inspection (need to be done every other year) and I was sitting in this old run down auto shop office, the smell of grease everywhere, when a cup of steaming green tea was set in front of me. Only in Japan!

It is! OK back to Japanese foods!

Yeah my FIL was just telling us about it this weekend. Natto the new wonder food! I doubt it will catch on in too many places though

there was some discussion here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=25&t=17727&

What are your favorite Japanese teas? For more information the types of "tea leaf" teas look here: http://www.big.or.jp/~teapot/member/hamada...i/shurui-e.html

I bought some blue cheese at costco a while ago, there were 8 (?) individually wrapped pieces, I had used 4 of them a while ago but when I opened up one today, it was A LOT greener then I remember the other ones being. and it was more green then blue and gray. I tasted it and it tasted Ok, but I was still worried about using it so I trashed it. The expiration date was 9/03. So how do you tell when blue cheese goes bad?

Smallworld, If it is spicy I will eat it, the spicier the better, name the place i will go with you. A combination of ramen, okinawan food and South East Asian? hhmmmmm.................. I prefer the taste of freshly pounded herbs, they taste more "lively"

Right under the space for introduction, there should be a line that says something like "have a list of ingredients? Try adding ingredients with the "Ingredient Wizard." All you should have to do is click on the words (button) "Ingredient Wizard." Maybe your browser doesn't support this? Vengroff, any ideas? I had this problem too and after discussing it with vengroff we found out it was the browser (nestcape) that I was using. If I access it through Internet explorer I have no problem.

here is another twist on a traditional sunomono: Japanese spinach salad (sorry, I am not very creative with names) Boil until tender 1 bunch of spinach rinse under cold water, drain sqeezing out excess water, and season with a sprinkling of mirin, soy sauce, and dashi (if you don't have the mirin or dashi don't worry about it.) remove the seeds (and skin if you like), then dice 1 tomato grate enough daikon to equal 1 cup (about 1/3 to 1/2 a daikon) this should be a very fine grating, similar to grated ginger drain off the excess liquid, I place it into a cheesecloth and wring it out gently. In a bowl stir together 3 Tablespoons rice vinegar 1 Tablespoon sugar stir until dissolved, then add the chopped tomato and grated daikon and mix gently. Place the spinach into a shallow bowl or a dish with sloping sides and place the daikon, tomato mixture on top. Serve. now to figure out how to get that in the archive with out retyping everything...............

One of my favorite places in the depachika is the fresh fruit/juice bars. I am a honeydew melon juice addict!

I too love foil-yaki (I wonder why they call it yaki when it is actually steaming?) I do it with mushrooms and/or fish and/or onion/leeks almost always with sake sometimes with a little butter sometimes with a little ponzu sometimes with a little kochujang sauce, etc etc

with?

YUKE (however you spell it) all the way!!

Besides just eating it, what do you all like to do with your kimchi? Yesterday I made kimchi fried rice which I think is my favorite fried rice.

Oh? What are they? hot dogs and hamburgers of course! and occasionally I get a craving for it on a ham sandwich