torakris

Wow! Thanks, I am going to have to print out this thread.

Wow! It is great to see all of the Clevelanders going!! (Edsel I am counting you as a Clevelander) Alex, I haven't seen you around for a while I hope life it treating you well.

All of this onion ring talk made you go to Outback Steakhouse for lunch yesterday to eat their "Bloomin Onion"! I hadn't been in there in about 5 years, it is so overpriced and the food meiocre at best....but it did satisfy my onion ring craving.

I will be there!! I am currently planning to be there Friday to Sunday, though I will have to leave earlish on Sunday as I have a family reunion at noon in Cleveland. I am really looking froward to it!

the tabletop braziers are usually heated with sterno. I guess I have never been to a good traditional nabemono restaurant because I have only eaten from nabes that have been cooked with table burners,like this.

Like Rona said there isn't really much wrong with sitting down and eating in public, it is really the walking while eating. The main exception I see mostly is ice cream cones. Many times you can't help but stand and eat, many outdoor food carts don't have any place to sit. A lot of the foods that the Japanese would eat outdoors aren't really easy to eat while walking or good just be downright dangerous. Ther Japanese eat a lot of skewered foods (dangerous) and few things are eaten with fingers so you need to use chopsticks (difficult).

That second one is really interesting, gyoza bibimbap don. I have never seen that before.. How was it? I love the plastic food and don't think I will ever become tired of seeing it. It is definitely most common on the restaurant floors of shopping areas, it is nice to be a able to walk around and take a look at what the different places have to offer before making a decision of what restaurant to chose. It is also amazing how similar the food actual looks to its plastic models.....

I agree with Hiroyuki, migicha would be the best for an additional drink. The Japanese eat plenty of tofu, it just isn't something they put into bentos, I am assuming because of the water content. A typical bento addition (and vegetarian to boot) would be kinpira, lots of pictures and varieties in the kinpira thread. Another good vegetable suggestion is some kind of green vegetable with goma-ae, sesame dressing, step by step pictures can be found in the eGCI class I did on Japanese Cuisine. Don't forget eggs!, almost every Japanese bento has eggs of some sort. Lots of egg dish ideas in the tamago thread.

Most Japanese eat hot rice with meals in their home. The food in the bentos isn't actually cold it is room temperature, cold rice does not taste very good but room temperature is fine. I don't think I have seen children using the "hot bentos", I make one for my husband everyday but it really limits the foods I can put in it, no salads, fruits etc and you have to be careful about certain foods that don't keep well for long periods at semi-hot temps. Vegetarian bento, can't say I have ever seen one but it should be easy to make, just put in some extra vegetable dishes.　You know, I don't ever recall seeing tofu in a bento....

We discussed the Sasebo burger in a different thread somewhere. Sasebo has a large US military base and the burgers were created over 50 years ago for US soliders. They are recently experiencing a comeback though. I need to find myself a shop except they all seem to be on the opposite side of Tokyo.

4/30: 洗い arai Arai is from the verb arau which means to wash, hot water is poured over the skin side and the the fish is immediately moved to an ice water bath where it is swished around (washed). This helps to remove some of the strong taste from the flesh. This is a popular way of serving bora. bora no arai

They even have a restaurant!! and the prices look great. restaurant/food stand page My husband just suggested we go there today after looking at the homepage I'd love to but I am not a fool! the first weekend after it opened!?! you have got to be kidding, I can wait a little longer....

Your right! The food part of their homepage (in English) Cool!

that was great!

Is there an A&W in Japan? I had them for the first time ever in Bali, their onion rings were quite good. I really wish I had a Kua'Aina close by.....

Can you share the recipe? I was going to make some kochujang flavored pork belly for a BBQ party we are having next weekend. The recipe I used last time was ok but I am looking for something better.

These recent pictures by Jason have made me really hungry for kalbi! So I picked some up and we will be BBQ'ing them for lunch today along with some freshly made keilbasa.... pictures to come!

Laurie, This is a major pet peeve of mine as well, I have started only giving out recipes to people who I know will do them right. I passed on a wonderful white cake recipe to a friend a couple years back, she came back a week later and told me it was awful. She had tried to make it "healthier" by substituting margarine for butter, whole wheat flour for white, "healthy"brown sugar for the white and used only egg whites..... I mean come on, if you want to eat healthy food than stay away from cake! There is also a woman who regularly attends my cooking classes and has a tendency to make make substitutions or leave things out. She reported back to me that her banana bread didn't come out right and was it possibly because she left out the bananas? Her husband doesn't like bananas.... She also substitutes 1/2 cup of dried basil for 1/2 of fresh basil in my eggplant croquettes, I can't even imagine what those tasted like.

I thought about it but am thinking of waiting until the Kanagawa one opens this fall, that one will be quite close to me. It will be good timing as I will have just come back from a summer in the States and will be ready re-do my whole house. Helen let us know how it is. Do they actually sell Swedish food there?!?

Their fries are really bad but I guess I liket he onion rings because they are the only ones I can get!! Why don't more places do onion rings here?? I was at MOS a couple weeks ago and personally was quite disappointed, they seem to be going downhill. About a month ago I had a great burger (Classic Burger) at Freshness Burger and will currently always choose them over MOS. MOS seems to really be reaching, this new burger sounds quite gross and it is interesting that they put out a shrimp katsu just as the shrimp burger seems to be doing so well at McDonalds... By teh way the new ebi-fileo with sweet chile sauce at Mac is quite good you should give it a try if you haven't yet. If you look at their website they have coupons for 100yen off the set.

and another new one: Harusame Chukka Ebi Katsu Burger

Another interesting drink I just noticed on the shelves: Shochu with black sesame seeds

4/29: ボラ bora Lots of names in English including striped mullet, blak mullet, sea mullet, etc, etc Bora

Sure you can! In the original (?) Osaka version the thinner green scallions are piled on to a very thin "pancake" Like this picture (scroll past the pictures of the golf course.....) The version I ate (and showed the picture of) is the thicker Tokyo version made with the the thick white negi scallions, they scallions are more popular in the Kanto-Tokyo area than Osaka. I am not sure about the Osaka version but the one I ate was just brushed with soy sauce instead of okonomiyaki sauce and a squeeze of lemon instead of mayo.

Believe it or not I don't think this is out of focus.... It just goes to show some foods don't photograph well, but all us here on this thread already knew that. didn't we? It was a cold pork salad with a tofu dressing and mitsuba (trefoil) seasoned with yuzu koshou (yuzu and chile seasoning), it actually sounds more appetizing with a Japanese name.....