torakris

Annou is the closest I have gotten, but it doesn't have the depth of flavor. Scrolling down that link a bit the ninjin-imo looks similar to the American one we are dreaming about. I have never seen that one before. this is what an American sweet potato looks like

2/27: たら茶漬 tara chazuke This is a product I had never heard of but recently ran across while researching tara. tara chazuke ochazuke thread

I got really excited when I saw this thread title, but it turns out it is an old thread and I have already voted!! My vote wouldn't change though, yook-hwe (yu-ke) is still my favorite.

Rona, This is one food I have been searching for for almost 11 years... There are some orange fleshed sweet potatoes on the markets in recent years and I buy them as soon as I see them but none have been the same yet. I remember buying a can many years ago and being disappointed. Now I just get my fix on trips back to the US.

Now would I be a good Japan forum host if I didn't have a tataki thread?? ta-da!

2/25: 鱈の昆布締め 鱈の昆布〆 tara no kobujime Kobujime is a way of seasing raw fish (and sometimes meats), the fish is lightly salted then wrapped in sheets of kelp (kobu, kombu, konbu). It is often pressed with weights and left for anywhere from hours to days. tara no kobujime the kobujime thread

I was looking at the Helsio, it says it is 26L but it was really tiny. It is all height and no width, you would never be able to fit even a small chicken in there. I am also not that concerned about cutting all the fat (and flavor ) out of my food.

We spent all last year making a calendar of foods eaten in Japan and just this month Nipponia did something similar. It isn't all food, but if there are special foods to be eaten that mont they are covered.

according to msnbc, Oslo pushed Tokyo out of first place in 2005. Tokyo ranks second, Paris comes in 5th.

2/24: いもぼう　　いも棒 imobou This dish, a speciality of Kyoto, is made with boudara and a kind of satoimo (taro). Apparently this dish can be traced back to the man who created it and his family still runs the restaurant that made it famous. Information about the restaurant Imobou Hiranoyahonke in English The Japanese homepage

sorry, this was a picture of the sakura noodles. I will report back about the ume ones after we try them.

Sakura shigure

I should have taken more than one picture, many apologies for my lack of photographic talent.... This is tamago-toji. Basically anything you feel like is simmered in a gently seasoned broth (dashi, soy sauce and mirin) then a couple beaten eggs are added and it is cooked until just set. This is the same way a dish like oyako-don (Japanese chicken and egg topped rice dish) is cooked. Last night I used satsumage, a fish paste product, with gobo (burdock root) and mitsuba (trefoil). The mitsuba was added after the eggs.

This Hitachi? I was looking at it too, but I couldn't find it any of the 3 electronic shops I went to. I did care for any of the Hitachis that I looked at. They all had that really high rack that will only hold a tiny bit of food and I will never find a place to store. For some reason also the Hitachis also jsut seemed more flimsy to me. I know flimsy is a weird way to describe an oven but that is the only word I can think of. The roast pork was fabulous! Better than the one I made last week in my old oven. Sorry I was really busy and didn't get any pictures taken. I did discover something else I do like and another thing I don't like... When you are baking and you pull the pan out to check it, when you close the door the oven stays on, just the timer stops. My old oven would stop and I often worried about how much heat it was losing. The bad thing is if I have the timer set for 15 minutes and I pull it out at 13 and then feel it needs 5 more I couldn't figure how to add 5 more minutes to the timer. I had to wait for it to finish out the last 2 minutes and then start it over again for the last 3. This problem may be solved by actually reading the inscructions though. I will keep you all posted. I may have sold two women in my cooking class today on the oven....

I LOVE MY OVEN! I haven't had a chance to do everything with it yet, but it microwaves and defrosts beautifully. No more hot spots on the outside and frozen middles of my frozen bagels. My favorite part is the huge window and very strong light inside, I can see the food as it is cooking without having to open the door. This is waht it looks like It is also distributes the heat quite well, I left these biscuits in without rotating the pan (which I always do just because you should) and although the back ones were a bit darker, the rest were quite evenly colored. Rotating the tray will result in perfect biscuits. Two things I don't like: The light doesn't come on when you open the door the "warm-up rice" button require two pushes, my oven oven was just one push, it has been a couple days now and I have since gotten used to it but it was a little annoying at first. I am roasting a pork today so I will report back how that goes, I also have plans to use the steam feature later. My friend and I are going to try naan.... The oven also goes up to 300 C which is great for things like naan, pzza, etc

How has your life changed since that fire? Getting up earlier in the morning?... What else? ← Not much really... I still get up at 5:30 because that is what time I make a bento for my husband. I do spend a little more time in the kitchen to make the girls' bentos but really not that much more, I would say 10 to 15 minutes more. I do plan the bentos and I think that saves quite a bit of time. I make up a weekly bento menu at the same time I make up my weekly dinner menu and I plan the bentos around ingredints I am using the night before. I also plan dishes that keep well, like the sweet potatoes a with lemon or various kinpira. This way I can use them in the same week but not on consecutive days.

Those noodles were gorgeous! 300g isn't enough for the 5 of us, so I also cooked up a back of black bean udon, this tasted no different from any other udon....

Sakura shigure, these were wonderful! Iw as only able to eat 2 as my son snuck the remaining four when I wasn't looking.

I was running various errands yesterday and this tonkatsu bento caught my eye at the supermarket. I reallyliked the addition of grainy mustard instead of the more typical karashi.

Today's bentos for all 3 kids, my husband had a more "adult" bento. Teriyaki meatballs, omelette with a slice of nori, sweet potatoes simmered with lemon, and broccoli goma-ae (sesame sauce). All made from scratch, not all today though. The meatballs were made last week and frozen and the sweet potatoes were from dinner two nights ago. My daughters have no rice because they will get that at school along with milk and a dessert.

Yes they do! I loved my 12 years at Catholic school because I was spared the daily decision of what clothes to wear. My children have no choice what so ever in their lunches, they eat the same food that ever child in the city of Yokohama eats. Here is a typical meal salad of bean sprouts and cucumber with a peanut dressing, mabo-nasu (eggplant cooked in the style of mabodofu) with the addition of green peppers and bamboo shoots, sprouted rice with sesame-salt topping and milk I can't rave enough about the lunch system in Japan, the children really enjoy it. My oldest was a very pickier eater and refused to try things. In her first year of elementary school she would come home and say, "Today I tried ~~, andI liked it". Now at the age of 10 she pretty much eats anything. I do think that new system with the buzzer going off, would be quite embarrassing. I don't think I could ban my children from eating foods, hell I get cravings for brownies too! I wish some of these parents would remember that education should always begin at home though..

2/23: 棒鱈 boudara Dried cod, the innards are removed and they are often dried outside whole. You might also find this product as hoshidara or hidara (干し鱈　干鱈) and sometimes even as shiodara (塩鱈) though this last one is more often used to refer to the "salt cod" used in other cuisines. This tara is dried rock hard and it takes almost a week, with daily water changes, to rehydrate it. a picture of boudara hanging out to dry A short (English) article on how to prepare boudara

and we thought the Japanese did strange things with mayo, check out this strawberry flavored mayo from Korea.

T-shirts for mayo lovers

I just ran across this group that others Japanese cooking classes in Kyoto, the price is quite reasonable.