torakris

I read through and translated it in less than 10 seconds. But 15 years ago it would have taken me an hour as well, keep up the good work!! You have translated the ingredient list fine, if you need any help with the rest of the recipe let us know. It does sound good.

I picked up an Epicurean last summer and wouldn't trade it for anything! I am far from knowledgable on knives but I actually think it dulls my knives less than my old wood one.

I didn't grow up with it as my mother couldn't stand things like tripe and liver, my first experiences were probably in Japan. I remember not liking liver at first but my MIL insisted on me eating it during my first pregnancy because "the baby needs it", I eventually grew to love it. Most of the other offal don't really have any taste, like you said it is all about texture. I prefer the crunchy/chewier textures of tsunagimo (gizzard), tongue, heart, nankotsu (cartilege) than the soft textures of things like shirako (cod sperm sacs) and ankimo (monkfish liver). I like it all now but the softer textures took much longer, heck I even hated maguro and uni the first couple times because of the soft texture... Even my kids enjoyed it, my oldest won't touch liver but the two younger ones love it, heart and tongue are probably the all around favorites. Intestines can be really chewy.

I'm curious, what answers did they give you? Except for gram measurements for baking, I always see "hon" used for rosemary. ← I was given 本　(hon), 枝 (eda),　穂　(ho), and 枚 (mai) I eventually went with eda and it just seemed closer to sprig and from searching on the internet it seemed to be more commonly used. I don't really think of rosemary as a ho (穂) as I have more of an image of an ear of wheat or rice, though hojiso (the flowering stalk of the shiso plant) does look similar to rosemary. Another woman suggested I pull of the leaves and then refer to them as mai (the counter for sheets of flat things). And of course if it is dried you will be referring to it in teaspoons or tablespoons instead....

Last night we joined another family for dinner at a local yakiniku place, this was a tiny place with only 5 tables and room for about 8 at the counter. Their speciality is horumon-yaki or various grilled offal. the plate in front has beef slices and the plate in the back is their special horumon plate which included intestines, stomach, heart and liver all for only 1050yen (about $9) the small plate is liver in a miso sauce and the plate in the back is a mixture of chicken thighs and pork cartilege one of my favorites, nankotsu or chicken cartilege the grill sorry for the blurred picture, this was gatsu sashimi (raw cow stomach). Gatsu, I have learned is from the English word guts...

Yes that would be a clove of garlic, or in this case two cloves.

3/5: たらこ tarako cod roe Most of the cod roe consumed in Japan is from the sukesoudara rather than the madara. The cod roe from the madara is quite large and doesn't look so pretty. (second picture, the ugly brown thing) This is the tarako most people are familiar with, this is the salted version of the roe from sukesoutara.

If that last post didn't completely turn you off learning Japanese then this one might! This is from the Daily Nihongo thread when were discussing katsuo (bonito): When buying katsuo in a store or reading recipes that call for it you will see a variety of ways to refer to it . Katsuo is most commonly seen in a triangular block form, this same shape that was called a burokku (block) when discussing tuna has a multitude of names when talking about katsuo. These are some of the "counters" I have seen for katsuo. 節　ふし　　fushi （一節）(hito-fushi= one block) 冊　　さつ　　satsu （一冊）(issatsu= one block) 本　　ほん　　hon （一本）(ippon= one block) サク　　 saku （１サク）(issaku= one block) See the Japanese can't always agree on what to call things. I once asked some friends how I should translate a sprig of rosemary and I was given 3 different answers.....

Over 2 years ago I covered counters in the Daily Nihongo thread, here is that post: So you want to learn how to count, do you?? I have been studying Japanese for 14 years and I still don't know all the counters and freuently mess them up. There are probably close to 50 different "counters" or words used to describe objects being counted. First you need to know the numbers: 1 ichi 2 ni 3 san 4 shi/yon 5 go 6 roku 7 shichi/nana 8 hachi 9 ku/kyu 10 ju It would be simple if you could just take those numbers and pop them in front of the counter words, but nooo, they need to make it more complicated than that. Look at the examples below and you will see what I mean. I will teach you some of the counters you will be likely to encounter in daily conversations, especially those related to food. 杯　hai (cupfuls, glassfuls, bowlfuls, spoonfuls) 1 ip-pai 2 ni-hai 3 san-bai 4 yon-hai 個　ko (general object counter, especially sperical or cube shaped, like apples) 1 ik-ko 2 ni-ko 3 san-ko 4 yon-ko 枚　mai (flat objects, paper, pizzas, etc) 1 ichi-mai 2 ni-mai 3 san-mai 4 yon-mai 箱 hako (boxes, boxfuls) 1 hito-hako 2 futa-hako 3 mi-hako/ san-pako 4 yon-hako 本　hon (long objects, like pencils, beer bottles) 1 ip-pon 2 ni-hon 3 san-bon 4 yon-hon 匹　hiki (for counting animals) 1 ip-piki 2 ni-hiki 3 san-biki 4 yon-hiki/shi-hiki UNLESS you are counting large animal like elephants then you use tou (頭) and birds and rabbits have their own counter wa (羽) 人 nin (people) 1 hito-ri 2 futa-ri 3 san-nin 4 yo-nin 皿 sara (helping or courses of food) 1 hito-sara 2 futa-sara 3 mi-sara 4 yon-sara/yo-sara 束 taba (bundles or bunches, like leafy vegetables in the supermarket) 1 hito-taba 2 futa-taba 3 mi-taba/san-taba 4 yon-taba 膳　zen (pairs of chopsticks or bowls of rice, though the counter hai is also used for bowls of rice) 1 ichi-zen 2 ni-zen 3 san-zen 4 yon-zen Have I confused you yet? Did you even make it this far? When in doubt you can almost always use the generic counter "tsu" 1 hito-tsu 2 futa-tsu 3 mit-tsu 4 yot-tsu 5 itsu-tsu 6 mut-tsu 7 nana-tsu 8 yat-tsu 9 kokono-tsu 10 tou 11 juu-ichi The counter "tsu" is not used for numbers past ten, and from 11 on, the "regular" words for numerals are used. So if you are in a store and see something you want, just point at it and say: hitotsu kudasai one please futatsu kudasai two please mittsu kudasai three please etc, etc.....

It can be pretty confusing when you first start reading things like recipes as there seems to be a different "counter" word for everything. 切　kire is sually used for fish and you don't often find fish in the US cut in the same way. This is what a kire should look like. 本　hon, this is used to describe long cylindrical items, you will see things like carrots and daikon using this counter. 個　ko, I sort of think of ko as the everything else category. I fit doesn't fit somewhere else I will use ko, these things tend to be round like onions, eggs, broccoli, etc. if it says 1個　then you need one thing, 　2個　is two things and 10個 would be ten things. 大さじ oosaji Tablespoon 15ml 小さじ kosaji teaspoon 5ml Just another word of warning, a Japanese cup is 200ml (a little more than 3/4 of an American cup).

My daughters both ate it but my son doesn't like it. I would say it is fairly typical American shortcake but a chocolate version. The anko looking thing on the bottom is another piece of shortcake. I would have prefered more strawberries but they were really expensive and I only bought one container.

3/4: Shirako can also be eaten as sushi, usually seen as gunkan style. shirako tempura yaki-shirako, quickly seared shirako sauteed in a western style

another simple bento

Grape flavored Kit Kat I just found this, it says it was a fall/winter seasonal product. It seems to only be available in the bags (with individual packages). I like it, it was like eating a Kit kat and drinking a grape Fanta at the same time.

I made a chirashizushi last night in honor of Hina Matsuri (Girl's Day) it included anago (conger eel), myoga (ginger buds), shiso, and kaiware (daikon sprouts)

Hina Matsuri 2006 chirashizushi made with myoga, shiso and kaiware (daikon sprouts) as well as anago hamaguri (clam) soup, I should have sprung for the more expensive clams as these ones weren't very good we had a couple other (non-traditional) dishes and for dessert I made (American style) strawberry shortcakes

This sounds great! I am looking forward to it.

3/3: 白子ポン酢 shirako ponzu This is probably the most common way you will find shirako served. It is served raw in a ponzu sauce often with grated daikon radish and some scallions. shirako ponzu

3/2: 白子 shirako Cod sperm sacs This winter delicacy is loved by the Japanese, but it often takes a while for us foreigners to learn to love it. It is one of my favorites now but it wasn't always.... Shirako can come from either the madara or the sukesoudara but the madara is considered higher quality and thus is much more expensive. Here is a picture of both of them, the shirako from the madara is 1000yen while that of the sukeoudara in only 350 yen. And for those of you that have never enjoyed this dish yet, here is a better close up.

I am off to the store soon to get the fixings for tonight's dinner. Pictures will be posted tomorrow. sakura mochi for your whole class? wow! very generous. I guess I would have just gone for the (much cheaper) hina arare rice crackers.

Yum! That place sounds great and it is east side to boot!

I will keep you posted on my travel plans this summer, but I must warn you that I can make it down to E 9th but after that I am hopelessly lost....

Just a quick and probably stupid question, but how do you rinse the curds/ Do you pour them into a colander , rinse them and then place them in a cheesecloth? Rinse with hot or cold water?

I really believe that if you try use tofu as a meat substitute (especially if you are not vegetarian) you will only be disappointed. Tofu is a wonderful product on its own and it is very easy to love. This is the eGCI class I did on soy, using Japanese soy products. This is the 4 page thread (with photos) on tofu from the Japan forum

Are you thinking of Rachel's Caribbean? It is on Cedar but farther down closer to Green Rd. My aunt really enjoyed it when it first opened but she had said it has gone down hill and almost all of the reviews I found of it last summer weren't very good. At Cedar Center I can't think of a caribbean place but there is is ZaZa'a (creole-cajun) that I really enjoyed. It was a lot more upscale than it looks from the outside with entrees in the $20+ range and appetizers around $8 to $12 but I will probably go back this summer as I really enjoyed all of the food. RagallachMC, Thanks for the Mexican place info, I may be spending more time over on the west side this year.....