torakris

Yes there were red flecks in it, for some reason they didn't show up in the picture. Kochujang is a Korean chile paste. Yes I did eat some of it as well and it was very good and very crunchy. I would buy it again. Kuki wakame I had never noticed being sold before this thread.... I went looking for it the other day and found a pack in the refrigerated section that was salted. Because it is quite a bit thicker than regular wakame I am assuming the soaking period will need to be longer and you wshould probably wash it in several changes of water.

Jason, what your enjoying is dengaku. In the US a "Japanese eggplant" refers to one that is slender, in Japan there are actually quite a few different eggplants to choose from on a daily basis. Here are some pictures of eggplants I can find in a supermarket on almost any given day. Though they look very similar in size some of them are quite small and some are quite large. The large globe eggplant popular in the US is also grown here but a bit smaller than the ones I see in the US, it is called a　米なすbeinasu or American eggplant (2nd from the bottom). There are also many regional varieties, this breaks down the regions and the eggplants that are popular there.

I just asked my daughters (3rd and 5th grade at a Japanese elementary school) if they knew sankaku tabe and neither of them had heard the word before.　My husband (Tokyo born and raised) commented that he didn't know the word either. When I explained it he said he knew the idea but had never heard that word before. Is there possibly another thing it could be called? My husband came up blank.

For anyone interested in learning more about surimi and other Japanese fish paste products should look at this thread. If you are ready to expand into cooking your own fish paste products here is a wonderful recipe for deep fried fish balls from hzrt8w over in the China forum. He also has a recipe for using the Thai style prepared fish cakes.

I found this Hi-chu flavor in Fukushima, it was a Tohoku (northern Japan) only flavor: Sakuranbo!

I didn't care for this one Umeshu Shokora (Ume liquer and chocolate)

I wouldn't exactly call this creative but I thought it was cute. A McDonalds in Fukushima prefecture (Iwaki City), Japan Anyone else have any interesting pictures?

I thought this was cute. A McDonalds we passed near Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture

While I was in the US, McDonald's came out with a new sandwich... Pita Mac Tandoori Chicken I saw it on their homepage last week and printed out the coupon but when I went to go look today there was nothing about it. The above link I found by going through their news release.... My coupon is good through 8/24 so I wonder what happened? They also have a new Fruit-Curry sauce flavor for their chicken nugget and a shake with acerola.

I wasn't able to find this in supermarkets in Yokohama but I just came back from a 4 day trip to Fukushima and look what I found in a local supermarket up there! Chukka wakame The ingredient list (which I forgot to take a picture of) listed kuki wakame as the main iingredient and no other types of seweeds were listed. This specific product did not contain agar agar in any form. The main seasonings were soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, sesame seeds and kochujang! This particular product was made in Niigata, it was quite good and my husband, who normally doesn't care for wakame, devoured the pack. IIt was definitely cheaper here than in the US, that pack of 180g (6.3 oz) cost me 198 yen ($1.70).

Hiroyuki, I have never heard of these terms before..... I don't think I have ever given thought to this before and after some thinking I think I do both, it just depends on what I am eating. Your second post about foods not being as strongly flavored and thus kouchuu choumi isn't needed makes a lot of sense. I think I follow the kouchuu choumi style of eating when I am eating strongly flavored foods/pickles. I may even do sankaku tabe and kouchuu choumi in the same meal, is that even possible?? For example with last night's meal I ate the kabocha corroke in the kouchuu choumi style but the rest of the meal (tomato slices and steamed broccoli with a horseradish sauce) was eaten sankaku tabe style..

By surimi are we talking about the actual sticks that look like fake crab legs? In Japanese the term surimi is generally a generic term to refer to fish paste and usually before it has taken any form. Once it has been formed and most likely steamed it then is often referred to as kamaboko, in my area of Japan those "sticks" are usually called kani (crab) kamaboko. Sorry, but sometimes the Japanese words when used outside of Japan get confusing...

Laurie, It was great meeting you too! I am sure you would have had a great time in Ann Arbor with us. So Clevelanders are we ready to do this next year?

kristin -- that looks just like it but it is hard to see since it is a small picture. are there different kinds of wakame? i tried to make it with naruto wakame [cause that's what i found] and it did not fare the same way as the original. the texture was all wrong although the taste was perfect. if u get the chance to sample it, try it. it's actually very tasty leading to being addictive, IMO. ← The regular leaf part of the wakame plant won't work, it will be to soft. You need a part that has more bite to it like the stems, called kuki wakame. They are sold in various thickness, dried and fresh. Looks like this.

Is this how it's usually done? If so, why is the niban-dashi, according to torakris "stronger flavored"? I'm thinking of making a risotto with dashi, should I use ichiban or niban dashi? I'm leaning towards the ichiban. ← Yes, this is how it is usually done. The stronger flavor comes fom the additional katsuo flakes. Niban dashi can also be made with the strained kombu and katsuo used in the making of the ichiban dashi and then simmered for a longer period to create a stronger broth. The longer it is simmered the stronger it is. Ichiban dashi is normally reserved for clear soups where you want the taste of the other ingredients to stand out. It is best used immediately after making before it looses its fragrance. The subleties of this broth could be lost in a risotto and I think I would prefer a stronger tasting niban dashi. Of course I am not one who normally takes a light hand in cooking...

I think I have solved the mystery! I decided to start searching Japnese pages instead of sticking with the English ones, and I found this (scroll to the middle of the page). 中華ワカメサラダ Chuka Wakame Salad The picture looks the same or a least very similar, I there is a good chance they would just translate wakame to seaweed as i am sure there are many people outside of Japan not familiar with the name. This one doesn't mention agar agar, but it doesn't really list any ingredients, I have a feeling the agar agar is added to bulk it up.

....and u didn't try it??!! ← It seemed expensive....

I have never seen this seaweed salad atop gunkan maki (battleship sushi), but there is a lot I haven't seen. I popped seaweed gunkan maki into google pictures and look what came up! It looks like the same stuff to me. Another interesting thing I found was at this site, 4th from the bottom just above the chuka salad gunkan there is a chuka ika. This looks like a prepared squid salad and looking it up on google shows that is is commonly sold in bulk and from the same places that do the chuka seaweed. So I guess the "chuka" isn't really the name of a type of seaweed.... Just to add a little more confusion

Oh dear! Edsel, I hope that wasn't that one that had gotten away from me...

Sorry, I didn't mean to confuse anyone. Agar agar is definitely seaweed, agar from wikipedia.

Just what I was thinking! now I am wishing I had tasted it....

My first morning back in Japan.... I am missing everyone already and the gathering seems so long ago. I had left my camera back at the hotel so it is nice to see more pictures going up. I really hope we can get the event happening in Cleveland next year! Maybe we can even get Bob (NancyH's husband) to prepare some of his award winning chili for us. The dinner was fabulous, everything was. My favorite was probably Judy's soup and I also loved the chile and cherry sauce (and not just because I pitted most of the cherries and minced most of the peppers...)

now I can see what was on the left of the bottle, it contains guarana. This is a South American seed that has ben popping up in quite a few drinks here, and according to this website I have linked to all over.

If the potatoes are cooked right they shouldn't break up, you should get nicely softened edges though with a bit of meltinginto the sauce. Though it is a simmered dish it isn'tsimmered for a long time at all. I guess if the Japanese didn't want the potatoes to break up they would have used daikon.

I am just back from a month long trip to the US and I finally know what everyone is referring to! I saw this stuff everywhere, in every Asian market and even in all the local supermarkets in the deli sections near the sushi. It was all the exact same stuff, I even saw a huge bag of it ( a couple pounds) in one of the Asian markets. I have never seen the exact same stuff in Japan. I wonder if it is really just an agar agar product dyed green, I've never seen that brightness of green in a seaweed either. EDIT the bags of the stuff I looked at all came from China.