torakris

Since I never grew up as a Japanese bento toting child , I often wonder about these fancy bentos and what they end up looking like by the time the child actually gets to eat them. I am sure the nori (seaweed laver) gets quite soft and a lot of the pieces start to move around, especially if the bento belongs to a 4 year old boy. My son and I walk about 4 minutes to his preschool in that time the bento that he carries in a small backpack gets turned upside down as he bends over to look at rocks and dead bugs, it gets shaken ( to put it mildly) as he races his best friend the length of the sweet potato field. I can't even imagine what happens as he struggles to get it out of his backpack..... As to food for children in Japan... ...anything deep fried.

Wow thanks. For pictures it is best that you use ImageGullet this way the pictures will remain on the site forever. Pictures that have been hosted elsewhere tend to get lost in cyberspace after a while.... EDIT oops forgot to give the link that tells how to do it.... step by step ImageGullet!

I made a carrot and hijiki takikomi the other day, the same one pictured two photos above. This is slowly becoming a staple as it is very easy, good for any season and all three kids love it! My MIL came over when I was making it and we started talking about takikomi gohan. I told her that one I wanted to try making was mukago gohan. Mukago are the nuts? seeds? that grow off of yamaimo (mountain yam) leaves and look like this. However I used the wrong word and instead of saying mukago gohan I called it mukade gohan! for those that don't know, this is a mukade... I think for a moment she actually thought I was serious...

I am not sure how easy it will be to find my Chiba rice as I have only eveer seen it at Costco. The Kirara 397 is also a good (and also cheap) rice I used it for many years, until I started experimeting with other rices and discovered the Chiba one. Another favorite is Akita Komachi: http://akitakomachi.net/akitakomachi/

It all looks so good but I am getting confused too... When I finally get to Malaysia I am going to want to order rojak and all I am going to remember is haam sap lo. The sauces seem almost savory with prawn paste, prawn crackers, etc but it is served with fruit are these dessert type snacks? or aren't they really classified like that?

It is not "no wash" rice, I haven't run across one of those that I like yet....

onigiriFB welcome to eGullet!! Great blog! you should try posting some of your onigiri pictures here.

I just found a wonderful tsukemono, kaki daikon (persimmon daikon pickle). and cut up and ready to serve

I had in my freezer a product called aburi toro salmon (flame seared fatty salmon sashimi), I defrosted it and made a sort of salad with sugar snap peas (blanched) and red onions. The dressing consisted of soy sauce, mirin, vinegar and yuzu-koshou.

konnyaku dengaku this was a purchased product already cubed and skewered and it even came with the miso sauce My soon to be 5 year old son ate almost half of that plate by himself and then when he woke up this morning he asked if I had any leftovers...

This is my favorite and I have been buying this particular rice for over a year now. Akitakomachi from Chiba I pay 3,000 yen for 10kg at Costco This is a wonderful (and cheap) rice that has also become a favorite of my neighbors and on our monthly trips to Costco we often pick up 6 to 8 bags....

Sounds like teriyaki! In Japan the sake and mirin would be used for the vermouth... Teriyaki thread

I like to use the leftover poaching liquid to sweeten tea. MelissaH ← This sounds great! It seems like such a waste to throw it away and I can drink a little bit of it but it is sugar water after all..

1:4 wow that dosn't seem like much. How long are they cooked and then how long are they left to sit? I just ate some pears I made with the 1:2 ratio and a vanilla bean, this was really good. There is a lot of poaching liquid leftover though.... I just brought it to a boil again (after removing the pears) and added some persimmons and let them simmer a little longer than I wouuld have preferred and they became a bit syrupy. I will try them after they have cooled a bit. --reminder to self not to read eGullet while cooking....

I have recently discovered the simple joy of poached fruits. I had a friend's version with equal amounts of sugar and water and last week made the Cook's Illustrated version with 1:3 (sugar to water) ration. I found this one lacking a bit in sweeteness while my friend's version was too sweet. So today I am making a Mark Bittman recipe that calls for 1:2 ratio. What is your favorite ratio and do you vary it depending on the fruit? As to the technique, all of the recipes I looked at call for the water and sugar (and option flavorings) to be brought to a boil then the fruit added. My friend made it by heating just the sugar until it was starting to brown then add the water and then fruit. This of course resulted in quite a thick sryupy dish. Should the technique vary by fruits as well?

I am glad this thread came back up, I love empanadas and have been thinking about them a lot lately. In the book The Art of South American Cooking (Felipe Rojas-Lombardi) he has a whole chapter on them. He includes 15 savory recipes and 2 sweet and I think every one has a different recipe for the pastry.... They are made with flour, ground corn, fresh corn , yuca, potato and plantain. Are the ingredients in the dough specific to certain areas? or more specific to the type of filling?

On Saturday I made Katie's Turkey, Chorizo and Black bean chili. I actually found frozen ground turkey at an international market so I was quite happy. Unfortunately I couldn't get black beans so I had to substitute canned kidney beans, I added these later in the cooking so I had to change the recipe a bit... I couldn't find the kind of chorizo that can be crumbled, so instead I added slices of sausage link like chorizo. The family loved it! I tried to take a picture but my batteries were dead, of course the picture wouldn't have been worthy of this thread anyway.

TP, You are making me so hungry.... Can you give us approximate prices on what these might cost? I have already told my husband that in 2007 we are going to Malaysia!!

definitely daifuku!!

I have always used tonbanjian for mapodofu and anything else that calls for Chinese chile paste. I have tried a couple different brands Lee Kum Kee one that is marketed for Japan, it is a little different than the American one... Thank you Ah Leung! this is one of my favorites!! One place in the US where I used to eat it weekly included salted black beans in the sauce, is this some kind of regional variation?

In January I think some of the best food is to be found in Hokkaido... not really all that accessible by shinkansen though. After reading about everyones trips here I really want to make a trip to Takayama. The Hakone area is nice and in January might be able to get some gorgeous views of Mt.Fuji. EDITED TO ADD there are lots of nice things in Yokohama!

Like Jason said it really depends on what kind of yuba you have. Is it fresh? dried in sheets? dried in shapes? The previous yuba thread

Except for the quiet unspoilt countryside part you have just described my little corner of suburban Yokohama to a T. How long will you be in Ogawa?

I have a question on the tofu dish. Is the tofu deep-fried, plated and then topped with the garlic-salt-pepper-scallion mixture? or is a stirfried a bit together and then plated?

Cheers. On Indian food, I have to mention the Indian section on eGullet forums: some really excellent information in there on well, everything. There's a particularly good thread, with photos, on someone's travails making pork vindaloo, with some guidance from another poster on how to make it authentic. Looked so interesting I had to try it, and damn me, he was right - far and away the best Indian food I've ever made. If anyone's looking for it in vain, let me know and I'll dig up a link. With apologies for the digression away from matters Japanese... ← as the host digresses even further... I would love to see that thread, if you could dig it up I would be very happy.