torakris

In Japan dried fish have hundreds of uses. They are eaten whole as a snack they are stirfried into appetizers or furikake for topping rice they are put into soups (though removed before eating) these soft ones from the soup as well as certain hard ones are grilled and then eaten Little ones are deep fried and then used as toppings for tofu or salads

As a child sweet and sour used to be one of my favorite dishes and although I rarely order it I occasionally get these intense cravings for it (usually when I am pregnant!) Living out of the country only seems to make these cravings worse. The Japanese have a dish called subuta (sour-pork), which is similar to S&S though I have no idea of the origins. It normally consists of deep fried pork, green peppers, shiitake, carrots and pineapple chunks in a ketchup-vinegar-sugar sauce, this is a homestyle dish I have never seen in a restaurant. I don't think I have ever eaten S&S in a real Chinese restaurant in Japan, I'll have to look for one on my next visit to Chinatown. But there is a Japanese chain Chinese restaurant called Bamiyan that serves a S&S pork made with balsamic vinegar (other ingredients are frozen bamboo shoots and dried shiitake) that is one of the best I have ever eaten.

Monday dinner: roasted cornish hens with an orange-spice (cumin coriander) glaze from Fine Cooking 1/2002 spicy couscous (with cumin, coriander, fennel, bay, chile) from Jamie Oliver's 1st book tomato, broccoli and red onion aslad with orange vinagrette dessert last of the valentine chocolates

I also, when trying to make well known dish, will collect as many recipes as possible and compare them, often trying two or three to see which one I like best. I have started now making the recipes simulatenously so it is easier to compare. I aslo tweak recipes a couple times to a find the perfect balance of flavors only to never prepare it again!

Mister Donut in Japan (maybe a year or 2 ago) introduced a tofu donut that sounds similar to the one you sampled. I actually paid $1 to buy one, and threw it away after the first bite. They disappeared from the menu never to be seen again!

I was talking with some friends a couple days ago about using recipes. Neither of these friends enjoy cooking and said they may try a recipe once a month or so, but most of the time they just make the same couple of things that they know how to. When I mentioned that I cook with new recipes up to 10 times a week ( and sometimes more) they were shocked. I don't like to eat the same food over and rarely have the same food more than twice in one year. For me part of the fun of cooking is looking through books and magazines for something new to eat. However I use the recipes differently now then when I started cooking. At the age of 20 I moved in with my boyfriend and started cooking for the first time in my life. I loved it but had to use recipes for everything, I couldn't even scramble eggs with out looking at a book. Now 12 years later (and married to a different guy! ) I can cook with out cookbooks (for most things) but still prefer to use them. Now I use them more for inspiration and tweak them to my liking. I also use them to learn how to cook things I am not familiar with, tonight I am cooking cornish hens and would not be able to do so with out a recipe. I would estimate that I use about 5 to 10 NEW recipes per week and maybe 1 to 3 that I have used previously. How often do you use recipes?

Last night despite the rain my husband decided to do some dutch oven cooking outside. In the dutch oven: beef chunks new potatoes carrots cabbage wedges eryngii mushrooms lots of salt and pepper I meant to serve this with a horseradish sauce, but when dinner time rolled around I discovered we were out of horseradish! garlic toast simple salad choclates leftover from valentines day for dessert (including the choclate-chestnut truffles I made)

I seemed to have caught some bug that my oldest one had so last night : The kids had fried rice with eggs, green peas, and corn I had a bowl of cereal went to bed as soon as my husband walked in the door and let him fend for himself (he is quite good at that!) After 12 hours of sleep am feeling much better

I am partial to maguro (tuna) collars. I have to admit i was unfamiliar with this term collar as I have only heard called by its Japanese name "kama" or kamayaki referring to the grilled style in which it is usually prepared. For those unfamiliar with it, here is a nice picture of buri kamayaki (yellowtail): http://www.betterhome.jp/shunippin/12buri/buri.html My husband and I end up ordering two serving becasue I like it with the sauce and he likes the salt version. I make them at home quite a bit too, but with the sauce!

Is this book in English or Japanese? English with dish titles also given in Japanese. Ingredients are listed by weight in both ounces and grams. I just ordered and received the Shunju book. The pictures are absolutely gorgeous and I love the book however I don't know if I would recommend it (for cooking) to someone who doesn't have access to a VERY well stocked Japanese grocer. I had never heard of some of the ingredients used before and asking my Japanese friends gets equally confused faces. The first 5 recipes call for freshly dug bamboo shoots, which is no problem for me since I practically live in a bamboo forest, but don't know too many sources in the US. The next recipe calls for 6 wild mountain plants only 2 of which I have ever seen in a supermarket (in Japan) before as well as young green tea leaves which I have never seen for sale before. There are a lot of recipes I will make though, including a green bean soymilk yuba, grilled soramame (fava beans), kani sembei, grilled smoked autumn salmon belly,, seared bonito sashimi with apple mustard dressing and chinese cabbage with cashew nut sauce. This is no way your typical Japanese food, but if you are up to a challenge it is defitely worth a look!

Gohan is the Japanese word for both a meal and for the bowl of cooked rice. for example: asa-gohan breakfast hiru-gohan lunch ban-gohan (or yoru-gohan or yu-gohan) dinner but when you are referring to the rice in the raw state (before cooking) it is called kome. Then if you are refering to the new crop of rice it is called shinmei i could confuse you more but will stop there!

Just finished Thursday night dinner (yeah I know most of you haven't even started Thursday yet!) Came in again about 6:30, this time not expecting to be so late so had nothing prepared, threw together: linguine with Italian sausages, zucchini and onions salad with bibb lettuce, arugula, baby leaf mix, with red onions, red peppers ad balsamic vinagrette dessert soon to be eaten: chocolate coconut cookies

Looks like everyone was eating well last night! The kids and I didn't get home until 6:30 last night, but since I knew I would be late I ahd set the rice cooker to be ready at 6:00 and had pulled the fish out of the freezer to defrost. The rest of the dinner came together in 15 minutes while the fish cooked: kinme (no idea of English name) mariated in white miso and grilled steamed broccoli served with lemon for me and mayo for everyone else (eewwww!) soy simmered yama-kurage (this translates literally as mountain-jellyfish, they are about 1 1/2 feet in length and look like flat green beans, bought dried they swell up to about 5 times their size. Most Jaapnse have probably never eaten these as they are one of those things that are only eaten by the people who live in the area where they grow wiild. I bought them from an old woman selling them at a food stand in a tiny mountain village and prepared them the way she told me to. They almost no taste of their own, but have a nice bite.) nagaimo (long potato? similar to yamaimo or the mountain yam) ground in the suribachi mixed with some soy sauce and wasabi and poured over the rice.

I haven't seen Tampopo in years, hilarious movie. Definitely time to see it again!

When I was a kid, I used to eat this for breakfast every weekend (I don't know what the official name is; my family called it "tama-tama gohan" or "otamachan-gohan"). As I got older, I started finding the slimy, mushy egg-rice mixture really gross, not to mention I developed a paranoia about the raw egg (because it doesn't quite "cook" as it would in a carbonara). But now you've got me feeling all nostalgic - I must eat it this weekend. My husband eats this occasionally however he quirts some mayo on top of it all! EEEWWWWWW I wouldn't let him serve it to the kids for the first couple of years because I don7t like the idea of small kids eating raw eggs, but no they are old enough to say no thank you themselves. I never care for this and definitely prefer natto gohan for breakfast.

Tuesday dinner needed something simple and fast after returning home from a 3 hour karaoke spree with the family. onions stuffed with Italian sausage zucchini, tomato and basil risotto garlic bread Costco apple pie for dessert

I love fritattas and find them a great way to use up the last of the veggies. My kids will eat anything if it is inside a fritatta, especially spinach and swiss chard which they don't eat normally. My favorites are probably potato (just potato, onion, and lots of EVOO) and zucchini ones. Like Snowangel I used to make them to get rid of leftovers, but I actually plan for them and make a different almost everytime. My mother has never made them, but they were always on my grandmother's table during family get togethers, usually made with something she picked wild from the yard like amaranth, milkweed, or dandelion. We never called them fritattas though, my (born in Italy) grandmother also refered to them as quiches!?

Although I own probably about a hundred cookbooks, I often turn to Epicurious when I am wanting to use a specific ingredient. It is so much easier to type it in and read through the results then page through cookbooks one by one. I never knew they had a forum, if it is anything like their reviews (which can be good and usually help me decide whether or not to make the recipe) that can become nasty and are full of people who do things like omit the 2 MAIN ingredients and then complain about how bad it was! Argh! EDIT I have to admit I have all the sites bookmarked, and they have been for quite a while (except the chilipepper one, but it is now!) but since discovering e-gullet I found I have very little need for them!

I have only cooked with the very small Japanese turnips, and they do have a thick skin and usually there is a faint green line running through (second skin) just under the skin. I peel so all of that green is removed.

I love the hachimitsu (honey) umeboshi. Sorry I don't know of any sources out of Japane though. Have you ever eaten the seed inside the seed of the umeboshi? These are especially good with the larger honey umeboshi, you crack open the seed with a nut cracker and remove and eat the soft seed inside. Think amaretto, absolutely wonderful!

Just pulled out my furikake stockpile, we have: gomashio kongari shoyuaji okaka (grilled soy flavored kastuo or bonito flakes) karashi mentai (hot mustard and spicy cod roe) ajidouraku (this is one of the popular mixes with sesame, katsuo flakes, eggs and seaweed) shiso wakame (shiso, wakame and umeboshi) tarako (cod roe) sake wakame ( salmon flakes and wakame) noritamago (my kid's favorite-- egg and seaweed) Anyone else out there learn the "proper" way to shake the furikake onto your rice? My husband taught this to my children, you hold the furikake packet (or jar) in one hand over the rice and gently tap the wrist with your other hand.

I saw an informal tasting of this type on Japanese television way back in '90 or '91. They were stopping people on the street and asking them to taste the difference between the American made rice and the Japanese one. Everyone went into the tasting 100% sure they would know the difference immediately, 1/2 of them were proved wrong. This was over 10 years ago and the rice that is imported from the US is still only used in sake making (and of course the cheap sake at that). I must be married to one of the few Japanese that admits there is no taste difference, but then again he prefers Jasmine rice to Japanese ?

Browsing through the internet I cam across this interesting site put together by some school students in Niigata, Japan. It is actually a poll on your favorite way to eat rice and it got me thinking about the way people outside of Japan eat Japanese rice. Take a look (and feel free to vote in their poll as well!): http://www.niigata-inet.or.jp/ohno-e/class...fmr/fmr3p_e.htm So what is your favorite?

Here are some pictures of the popular products (available in the US) of both ochazuke and furikake. You need to scroll down to the bottom of the page: http://www.maruwa.com/onlineshop/pros_seas...oning_wafu.html I just asked my husband what those packets of ochazuke seasoning are called, he tossed around a couple ideas then disagreed with everything and said they are just called ochazuke,nothing else.

Monday night dinner: I was babysitting my friend's 2 daughters (ages 2 and 6) so the 5 kids ate: Japanese style curry rice topped with a hamburger patty (this curry was actually made Sunday by my husband, while I was out at dinner with friends, it was quite good even though he mistook a can coconut cream for coconut milk, definitely not your diet curry! ) My husband and I ate: Spicy eggplant and basil fritters (adapted from Jack Bishop's Italian Vegetarian)---I REALLY love these!! simple salad of baby spinach and bibb lettuce 1/2 rack of BBQ ribs from Costco (a gift from my inlaws) dessert for all: Costco apple pie