torakris

I spent all day Thursday wandering around Foodex and now know why it is a 4 day show, one day is not enough! Jason was kind enough to meet up with me and we spent the afternoon walking around, sampling various things even though I was already full by the time we met up. I learened that although it is a lot more fun walking around with someone it can also be much more dangerous. You think we would have learned our lesson after drinking cherry juice concentrate straight, before the woman had time to dilute it for us, but no not us. Not even 30 minutes later we were in the Philippines section downing straight (and very powerful) vinegar before the woman could pull the bottle of water out from under the table. Being my first visit to the show, I have nothing to compare it to but liek Jason mentioned above the Japanese section was very heavy on the macrobitoics slant. Many whole grains, mixed grains, bean products, soy products and various "healthy" juices. I was also surprised by the number of booths displaying salt, they were probably equal to the number of booths showing green tea. Here is a sampling of some of the salts I received. My favorites were probably the natto from the Kume Natto both, I sampled all three of the products they were showing and loved them all. The sakura natto was incredible with little pieces of chopped up sakura leaves. They also had a black bean natto that had black rice included as well a regular natto with a flavorful moromi-su dressing. All the products can be viewed here. Another favorite was the mentaiko konnyaku! Don't ever let anyone tell you konnyaku has no flavor! One product I found very interesting was the maguro nama hamu. This was a smoked tuna product that was similar to the Japanese "raw" ham products.　I couldn't find a homepage for the product I sampled but this is a similar product.

Maybe they will something on the website then..... They are really focusing on my cooking this time! (I did a similar show 5 years ago) They have already filmed a cooking class, tomorrow they are filming me making sausages and on 4/9 I am throwing a party for some of my husband's co-workers. If it is nice weather I think I am going to BBQ.

I am sorry to be ignoring this thread and the forum recently.... I have been really busy with the end of the school year as well as filming for a tv show on which I will be making an appearance. I still have about 5 to 7 days more of filming and will be available online as often as I usually am. For those who live in Japan, the new show is called 'Okusama wa gaikokujin' and it will be a documentary style show focusing on the lives of foreign wives. Currently my show is set to be aired on May 9th (Tues) from 8 to 9. More info on the show can be found here. I will be returning to this thread shortly!

How long should you be able to keep it in the pantry? I refirgerate mine, but it gets quite hard and becomes difficult to use....

Kristen, Cool! Yes, I believe that is it. I can't belive how fast you found it. I'll have to investigate, some of the websites call it "rape" or "rapeseed". I guess it must just be a different variety than I am used to. Thanks! -Erik ← I just happened to have some in my refrigerator for dinner tonight. I love this stuff! If you pick up some more or regular broccoli raab try this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/106236 It is really great! As I scrolled down to see the review I realized it was from me. I don't even remember doing that I never post to websites......

Did it look more like this? from what I could find, this seems to be the Asian variant. In Japan it is called nanohana. I had always assumed it was the same but I have never seen broccoli raab in the US and looking at pictures I found it does look a little different.

This was really pretty..... too bad it didn't taste very good.

full review here ← If I had to pick only one, my vote would be for this as well.

From about 2 years ago I noticed the start of a "Let's rediscover our Japanese roots" campaign at our local schools. It wasn't just food, it is is everything. My son's preschool even changed the way the kid's were written on their name tags. Up until then the names were written western style, horizontally left to right. They have now changed it to the traditional way of horizontal and right to left. The lunch menu has also changed to include more traditional Japanese foods, especially dried foods like dried daikon strips (kiriboshi daikon), freeze dried tofu (koya-dofu), etc. Around the same time the elementary school also started a similar campaign to serve more traditional foods in their lunch program as well. Many Japanese women my age and younger, especially those in urban areas, grew up at a time when western food was very fashionable and often prepared in the homes. I have met Japanese who have no idea how to prepare dishes like simmered hijiki (type of seaweed) and have no idea what to do with dried daizu (soybeans). I think this new program is great and I really applaud the schools for becoming so involved in teaching the kids about their culture and food.

For cooking the fresh edamame for this that Hiroyuki had posted in the Japan forum: The most important thing to remember is to boil them in a salt solution of about 4 percent. For example, to boil 250 gram of edamame, first use 10 g of salt for shio-momi (don't rinse off the salt), put 1 liter of water and 30 gram of salt in a pan, and boil edamame for 3 to 5 minutes. I learned this tip from the famous TV show, Tameshite Gatten http://www.nhk.or.jp/gatten/archive/2004q3/20040714.html (Japanese only) This show, Tameshite Gatten, is sort of the Japanese equivalent of Cook's Illustrated, they try various ways of preparing something until they find the best one. After boiling, drain them then immediately toss them again with more salt before the moisture evaporates or else the salt won't stick. Let them sit for a bit until they become room temperature.

Yes that is it! The only thing though is that in the ingredient list he has 1/3 cup butter (chilled), this is not in the recipe. It must be a typo because he makes no mention of butter in the steps section. I have also never seen a recipe for slaw made with butter. For the dressing, make sure you use the golden (brown) miso, I once tried to substitute white miso and it made it too sweet and had very little taste. I also don't have access to jicama in Japan and used daikon instead.

I am another person who doesn't wipe the kombu....

Do you mean something like a stir-fry dish? I had to think about this for a moment, but I would normally take a helping and place it in my torizara plate, keeping it away from the rice. Eat the stir-fry directly, then "chase" with the desired helping of rice. I do notice that some Japanese will eat their rice completely separately after ingesting the mains, which would be to enjoy the flavor of the rice itself. Generally, I would say most Japanese want to keep their rice separate from the mains, so there is not a lot of heaping stuff in the rice bowl (except for furikake, natto, ochazuke, etc.). ← Commenting further on sanrensho's comments, If you use the rice bowl to help you get the food to your mouth, you don't normally place the food on the rice. Instead you sort of use the bowl as a way to guide the food to your mouth and possibly catching any drips. Depending on the restaurant/home you may or may not have a torizara (small dish) and amy need to realy on your rice bowl. This is one of those things were there isn't really a correct way, everyone does it a little different. Just remember not to shovel and you should be fine.

As far I as know, traditionally Japan was the only country to consume gobo as a food though other countries have used it for medicinal pruposes. As Japanese food grows popular all around the world so does gobo....

You will have no problem with your lefthandedness in Japan, both my husband and daughter #2 are lefties. In Japan it is fine to pick up your bowl with one hand, however it is better to hold it at about chest level. At home though my husband has no problem with bringing it all te way to his mouth and actually shoveling the food in. Yes, stabbing food is bad manners. The Japanese usually serve foods so that any one with a decent chopstick ability should have no problem. You will most likely never be served a whole boiled egg or similar thing that is difficult to pick up with chopsticks. Most restaurants won't even blink if you ask them for a fork. We were at a Korean restaurant this past weekend and my two younger kids were having a hard time with the Korean metal chopsticks so we asked for waribashi (wooden dispoable ones) with no problems. As to leaving the rice from sushi on yor plate, I have never done this nor thought about it before but it probably isn't the most polite thing to do. The Jaapnese don't like to waste rice, my ex-boyfriends mother used to freak out when I left even one grain of rice in my bowl! Most sushi chefs also put as much work into the rice as they do the topping and it amy be considered an insult to leave it. I would instead order jsut a few dishes at a time insuring that you don't order too many.

No I am a nut too! I too haven't really gotten the hang of the proper way to shave.... They come out prety big and while it is fine for using is dashi, I finsd them too strong to use as a topping for other dishes.

this sounds great! Do you think if I leave out jalapenos kids will be able to eat it? or should I decrease the chile powder as well. My kids can all handle the heat of medium hot kimchi chige but only one can eat kimchi straight.

Yes, it is a national program for all public elementary schools, private schools usually require a bento lunch. They vary a bit by city to city, but they usually include a focus on local products. For example felloe eGullet member Hiroyuki lives in Niigata, a famous rice producing area, and his schools lunches offer rice almost daily while the schools in Yokohama only have rice 2 to 3 times a week. The meals are not free, we pay about $30 a month per child but they could be eating much worse food for even more money. I know a lot of parents in the US who often say "oh my kid would never eat such and such" but you know what? Maybe if they were given a chance to try it they might like it. The Japanese lunch is also an example of where peer pressure can be a good thing, if everyone else in your class in eating that eggplant and pepper dish you don't want to be the only one who didn't, do you? There are more pictures and more discussion in the Japanese lunch thread and for those that missed it, here is a photo essay I did on Japanese school lunches One of the most wonderful aspects about the Jaapnese school lunches is not the food but the fact that the children are responsible for it. There is no cafeteria here, the children take turns going down to the kitchen and bringing the food back to their rooms, they also serve it to each other and then clean up afterwards. Everyone in the school eats the same food even the teachers and principal.

MANAGER'S NOTE: I MERGED THE TWO ABURAGE THREADS I have often seen recipes for using aburage like that and I have never tried it, it just sounded weird. Maybe I will give it a try... I always have aburage at home, I buy whenever I see it really cheap and then freeze it.

I started seeing it about 2 weeks ago but on a shopping trip yesterday I couldn't find it.... Looking online though lists the time period for shin gobo at May-June??? I need to look into this more. Maybe they are coming from different places?

Aaaaaahh! I want some! I'm not scheduled for a Costco visit till next week, though, and then two days later, I'm off to the Philippines for 10 days! Crap! What are you going to do with them? ← Are you kidding?! I ate them that day!! I made a mix of flour and Old Bay seasoning and shallow fried them, they then accompanied a wonderful Ceasar salad. The kids loved them. that measn there weren't as many left for me. Philippines? You are doing a lot of traveling this year.....

You have a 2 month old? Congratulations!! I buy my rice at Costco, they sell a wonderful Chiba grown rice at 3,000 (it varies each time from 2,900 to 3,100) for 10kg. $25 for almost 25lbs The supermarket prices are much higher and often the rice isn't as good.

On my trip to Costco on Friday I found soft shell crabs! I have never seen these in Japan before and was very excited. They were already cleaned and ready to be cooked. 5 in a pack for 698yen. I almost want to back this week and pick them up again as I know they won't be there next month.

sk_ward, Welcome to eGullet and the Japan Forum! Elizabeth Andoh's new book is wonderful. I recently did an interview with her and will be writing it up in pieces for eGullet. There are many books but if you are looking for English language ones I suggest you buy them in the US , the price almost doubles in the bookstores over here. If you read Japanese then you won't have too much to worry about as there is an incredible selection available and Japanese cookbooks are normally very thin.

3/13: 生たらこ nama tarako "raw" tarako Most tarako that you see in stores is salted (preserved). In the winter you may also see packs of nama tarako, these are tarako that have had nothing done to them. They seem to be most commonly used in simmered dishes. nama tarako nama tarako nimono (simmered dish)