torakris
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Posts posted by torakris
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When we go for bulgoki with my friend Aescha, she
never mentioned not eating rice with chopsticks; I'll
ask her next time I see her. Last time we went out,
she put rice in her tea. Anyone else ever see or here of this?
I haven't, but I have a fairly narrow realm of experience. I used the
metal chopsticks for the first time on my last visit. I need to work on my
dexterity!
I don't know about China, but it is quite common in Japan and Korea to add tea to your rice, this is quite a popular dish in Japan called ochazuke. We were just talking about it a little while back in the Japan forum.
I mentione this thread and article to my Korea born/American raised (of Korean parents) friend and she said she didn't know about eating rice with the spoon, she said it usually depending on what she was eating.
Picking up the rice bowl is the biggest no-no, it is a sign of very low class.
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I don't know if I could pick a favorite, but I might have to say either daikon or green onion, though I have made shiso and komatsu-na (a Japanese green similar to spinach) and they are up there as well.
I love the napa cabbage, but have not yet been able to make one as good as my local Korean restaurant!
I do have a quick version, ready to eat in a couple hours, that is probably my favorite version so far.
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The yakitori shop by our house that we occasionally frequent has this wonderful, beef and shiso pinwheel kind of thing that is so good. I don't know if it can really be called yakitori though since tori=chicken.
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Thursday night:
Walked in the door with 3 kids at 6:45 and knowing my husband would be home at any minute I rushed into the kitchen to start dinner, I had been planing to make bibimbap but now knew there would not be enough time. I was looking into the refrigerator when the fighting started. Mia (7) and Hide (2) started fighting over whether to watch Barney or Sailor Moon, Hide lost, got made and smashed Julia (5) on the head with Mia's new umbrella, the umbrella popped open and they both started pulling at it breaking it in the process, Mia got mad because she couldn't hear the TV over the racket and told Julia if she didn't stop crying she couldn't have dessert, Julia cried more. Hide decides screw it I am going to watch Barney anyway and starts to put the video in, Mia pushes him out of the way and Hide starts crying, I come running in the living at yell at Mia to turn the TV off, Mia starts crying....
10 minutes later my husband walks in the door to see the 3 angels all playing quietly with each other!
So what did I make for dinner?
I decided to make a twice cooked pork dish using one of those instant sauce mixes but out by Cook-Do (Japanese brand) but didn't have time (or feel like) boiling the pork first, so I guess you could call it once cooked pork!
Didn't have cabbage, so used Chinese cabbage instead, no green peppers, so used shishito (Japanese small pepper), no Japanese leek, so used a red onion. Not sure what you can call it any more!
Desperately needed something else, so pulled out a bag of frozen french fries and popped it in the oven.
When the potatoes were done I realized that the rice I had made that morning was cold and had no way to heat it up since my combo oven/microwave has to completely cool down before using the microwave function.
Dinner:
once cooked pork with medley of veggies
cold Japanese rice
french fries and ketchup
Dessert:
homemade tiramisu, eaten out of the bowl with 5 spoons!
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The huagu were dried. I reconstituted them together with kombu and used the soaking liquor in the soup, retained the stems and kombu for use in a Chinese stock. The huagu were about as big as my palm and I sliced each into about four or five pieces on the bias. I tossed them in my hoisin with chile seame oil and Chinese mushroom soy sauce. Very very dark and potent stuff. White pepper. They marinated in this for about seven hours. The sauce just naturally penetrated and glazed.
Jin, Thanks!
Those sound so wonderful! I am a dried mushroom fanatic and have access to some really great ones, would a regular soy sauce not work as well?
Weds. dinner:
Yakitori (purchased)
--thighs
--thighs with Japanese leeks
--tsukune (ground chicken)
--skin
--liver
--gizzards
shungiku (Chrysanthemum leaves) and ito-konnyaku (
) shira-ae--shira-ae is a "dressing" made of tofu, sesame paste, mirin, sugar and salt
yunnanese potatoes
--boiled potato chunks stirfried in peanut oil with dried chiles and thinly sliced scallions
--this is one of my favorite recipes from Hot Sour Salty Sweet
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Wow thanks everybody!
I think we are going to give it a try.
I even have a mallet , similar to the one in the picture, that we can toss back and forth.
Next question:
To sauce or not to sauce?
What kind of sauce?
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Why is it that street food seems never to taste the same when you make it home?
Is it way in that it is cooked, the skill of the person making it, or does the atmosphere play a part?
Have you perfected any street foods that you would be willing to give the secrets for?
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What is your favorite kind of yakitori?
Are you a sauce or salt kind of guy/gal?
I like mine with the tradional soy based sauce and prefer the organ meats, gizzards and liver particularly.
My husband only eats the salt ones, dabbing them with wasabi and queezing lemon on them, he likes the crunchy stuff, cartilage and the wings.
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A fellow American friend (who also lives in Japan) and I were discussing food that we would never be able to find in Japan and chicken fried steak came up. And now we have decided that we need to eat it soon!
Neither of us ahs ever made it before and we can't find any recipes in any of our cookbooks.
Our biggest problem is that we have no buttermilk, is it still possible to make this?
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Awbrig,
did you ever make those wings? How did they turn out?
My friend and I have decided to have a fondue/buffalo wing dinner this weekend and neither of us have ever found a recipe we were happy with.
Unfortunately the only hot ssauce we have access to is Tabasco, so we are limited here.
Suggestions?
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Well, they had money back during the bubble, the bubble burst and then I met my husband.
I love Jiyugaoka, great place!
I actually live on the Denentoshi line,but I am sure I have driven near your Grandmother's area.
Back to soy:
Found an interesting website (unfortunately it is only in Japnese):
http://www.fujitv.co.jp/jp/kurashi/tabe/j052.htm
Very quick translation:
This was written by the Fuji television product research division and is about the differnce between "regular" soy sauce and the Marudaizu kind.
Basically the marudaizu soy is made from the whole bean, while "regular" is made from processed beans from which the oils have already been extracting. It is in these oils that there is glycerine and this is what provides the "sweetness" or "mellowness". the taste of the soy will depend on the amount of glycerine present.
The last part says that they performed an informal taste test among 8 of the lab employees and 4 of them couldn't tell the difference between the "regular" and marudaizu types.
They also mention that the price of marudaizu soy is normally about 100yen higher per liter.
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texture and complete lack of taste for me.
I have tried using it in various ways (becasue it is really popular in Japan, especially with kids) but have always been disappointed.
My kids don't even like it.
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Jin,
could you elaborate on the huagu mushrooms?
dried or fresh?
what were they braised in?
What was in the glaze and how did you go about glazing them?
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Anyway back to soy,
Jason if you looking for something good, try asking for something aged, preferably older than two years.
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C'mon guys, hoshi-imo are everywhere!
My kids and I have been eating them all winter, I have yet to see a supermarket that doesn't have them.
Also the yaki-imo truck, he goes past my house regularly a couple times a week, just bought some last week.
*Sigh* Tora-san, you're making me home sick. I had better call my mom up in Edou and see if I can mooch a free set of airline tickets to fly home.... Cherry Blossom season is coming up (ok ok, I'm more interested in the food, but it will be a good excuse).
By the way, where in the Tokyo area do you live?
Wimpy,
Tora-san is actually my husband (Tora is his nickname), I am the Kris of torakris.
We are living in Yokohama, but just baout 20 minutes out of Shibuya. My husband was born in Denenchofu, Ota-ku.
You had better hurrry, the Cherrry blossoms will be here before you know it!
Let me know when you get here!
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After discovering roasting and griddle pan grilling of asparagus, I don't think I will ever boil it again!
Last night I griddle pan grilled it then tossed it with diced cherry tomatoes and a dressing made with soy-sesmae oil-garlic-chile pepper, sprinkled with scallions and sesame seeds,a wonderful salad!
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Just found a great site, with really great pictures, about oden, check it out:
http://www.greggman.com/japan/oden/oden.ht...%7Clang=english
A great picture of hanpen as well, though it gives you no idea of its taste!
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a popular way to eat hanpen is to slice a whole in the middle and place a piece or processed cheese inside, then fry it in a frypan sort of like a grilled cheese sandwich.
EEEWWWW!!
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Yes that was probably him.
Did he look like this:
http://woman.nifty.com/kentaro/
sorry his homepage is all in Japanese.
Yes his mother is a very accomplished chef, Kobayashi Katsuyo (I believe that is her first name), they have even written some books together and appeared on TV together.
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He eats it with either somen, udon, or soba, depending on what is in the house and in that preference.
We eat the okra raw, but everyone seems to think that is weird!
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I am a miso hound, I usually have about 4 kinds, shiro (white), mugi (barley), aka (red), and hatcho (really red!
)I rarely make miso soup because my (Japanese born and bred) husband doesn't like it.
So I usually use it in cooking, dressings, sauces, etc. I prefer the stronger tasting ones because as I mentioned on the soy sauce thread, I prefer "koi" strong flavors, probably even more than my Tokyo born husband!
I choose my miso depending on what I am cooking and how I feel that day!
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I like this book, I won't say love yet because I haven't used it enough.
I have made a duck currry that was very good and am going to try the laab next week.
Because of its authenticity I am having a really hard time finding a lot of the ingredients and almost every recipe I look at has at least one thing I am sure I will never find in Japan.
I like pounding too!
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I think it is time for laab again!
Snowangel,
I once tried it with regular tofu and was very disappointed.
For the tuna, I am assuming raw?
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Tuesday dinner:
mabodofu --tofu simmered in a chile based sauce with lots of ginger, garlic, and fermented black beans, topped with roasted and ground Sichuan peppercorns and lots of scallions
Japanese rice
salad of (griddle pan) grilled asparagus and cherry tomatoes (not grilled) in a soy-sesame oil-garlic-chile pepper dressing
napa cabbage and yuzu pickles (finally used them up!)
Dessert:
the last of the chocolate chip cookies.
I no longer like cookies!
Fresh Bamboo Shoots
in China: Cooking & Baking
Posted
Nothing is better than fresh bamboo just dug from the ground! Unfortunately the start to become bitter the moment they are removed from the earth and become increasingly bitter as time passes, so by the time they reach the stores they need some major work to become palatable.
In Japan, they are peeled (this outer peel can be very irritating to it is a good idea to wear gloves if you are especially sensitive) then are boiled (froma cold water start) in the left over rice washing liquid or if none is around through a couple tablespoons of rice into the pot along with a dried chile for about 1 1/2 hours then cooled in a cold water bath.
I live rigth next to a bamboo forest and and the land owner happens to also be the owner of my apartment and in early spring brings me fresh bamboo just minutes from the ground, it is hard to buy the grocery store ones after eating those!
I walk past this forest everyday taking my daughter to and from kindergarten andfrom about 3 weeks ago have been scanning the ground for shoots, nothing yet!