torakris

Anna, it looks great! I can't say I have ever seen or eaten anything like that here though. I haven't been everywhere though! It looks like a chunky version of niku-jyaga that I taught in my first eGCI class (first recipe)

please write more!! and lots of pictures please.

Just to make things more confusing, are you refering to Japanese cups (200 ml) or Western cups (250 ml)? Anna, I don't think your question is silly at all. I say "to taste" because there probably isn't a home cook anywhere in Japan who actually measures the granules for their dashi. But it also means that everybody makes their dashi slightly differently and to different strengths, again based on personal preference. It isn't unusual for members of a household to disagree on how miso soup should taste. It happens at our house all the time. ← When I say cup I am referring the the American 250ml... it gets so confusing doesn't it? especially when you add in that a "cup" of rice in Japan is only 180ml....

These are quite popular in Japan as well but mostly for western foods like steaks and hamburger patties. I never really thought about where they came from.

What is the white sheet underneath the mandu? Is it a sheet of cloth? Looks like steam can permeate through it. Is it customary in Korean steaming to have a sheet of cloth underneath? (It's so interesting because I have not seen it done this way in Chinese dumpling cooking.) ← Actually it is a sheet of wax paper... I have never used this before but I ate mandu at my Korean friend's house last week and this was how she steamed them. It was really easy you then just pick up the sheet and move the whole thing to a plate. I didn't notice any differences in the taste or texture from the way I usually steam so I think I may use this method from now on. I have no idea if this is how all Koreans do it though...

Thank you! I knew that kalbi meant ribs but I always assumed it was just beef since those were the ones I was more familiar with. I didn't know that dak meant chicken but that helps a lot with my menu reading now! So can kalbi refer to any kind of bone?

I have really been on a Korean kick recently... two days ago I made mandu (dumplings), the filling is ground pork, kimchi, tofu, green onions and a little sesame oil and sesame seeds as well as black pepper. My husband and two oldest kids helped make them, this picture is of the best ones...

If anyone is unfamiliar with the kochujang in stores here is a picture of the one I have

Anna, I just measured my Japanese soup bowl and it holds about 3/4 cup of liquid so I would use about a teaspoon per 3 cups of water. In miso soup you really don't taste the dashi, actually if you DO taste the dashi there is way too much. You can also make very decent miso soups without the dashi especially if you are using seafood or meats and in most of these cases I wouldn't recommend dashi as the flavors would be "complicated" and most of Japanese food is about the simpleness of flavors. Don't forget to post your pictures/comments after you make it!

Torakris: I've never tried them, but "The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger includes 4 recipes for rice porridge/jook using the porridge/okayu cycle. She says it works extremely well in the rice cooker -- so you should give it a try. It would be faster than a Crockpot too. The rice porridge recipes in the book are: "Plain Rice Porridge"; "Thanksgiving Jook" using the leftover bird; "Savory Rice Porridge with Shiitake and Preserved Egg"; and "Rice and Sweet Potato Porridge." PM me if you want any of the recipes. ← Thanks! I actually own the book, so I might give this recipe a try. That salted pork looks really good.

another wonderful looking dsih! Do you think I would do it in a rice cooker? I don't have a crock pot... My rice cooker hs an okayu setting, okayu is very similar to congee, could this maybe work?

Probably my absolute favorite is bibimbap but this wonderful dish already has a cook-off as well as several threads: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...301&hl=bibimbap http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=53508 http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=41245

A while ago a Korean friend of mine taught me a wonderful dish call dakgalbi. This very simple dish of chicken (are other meats used?) and vegetables has quickly become a staple in my house. It couldn't be any easier to prepare, kochujang marinated chicken is layered in a pan with various vegetables. The heat is turned on and a lid placed on top, the dish is stir a couple of times during the 20 or so minutes of cooking. The most recent version I made had chicken thighs, cabbage, onions, Japanese sweet potato and green beans with bean sprouts and green onions added at the end. before cooking ready to eat not the prettiest dish to look at in my pictures but it sure tastes good!

I just ordered it through my co-op catalogue, I paid 2900 yen for it (about $25). Theya ren't all that easy to come by. Some place in Kappabashi should have them, you might also try looking in cooking utensil sections of department stores or other large ('we sell everything') shops. ← That's all you paid for it!? I'm jealous! What about the price of the katsuo? ← I picked up the block in my local supermarket for somewhere between 1000 to 1200 yen ($10 to $12).

My newest find Kurozato hachimitsu ume ("black" sugar-honey pickled plums) They are a nice mild flavor but I was disappointed by the lack of kurozato flavor...

I just couldn't put it off any longer! I made bibimbap last night... ..with the cheapest vegetables I could find in the supermarket. So it included mizuna (raw, seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, vinegar, chile flakes and garlic), king oyster mushrroms (sauteed with seame oil and sesame seeds with a splash of sauce at the end), carrots (sauteed with sesame oil and sesame seeds) and ground beef with the marinade I posted above. It is topped with a fried egg (yolk still raw) and kochujang (mixed with a bit of sesame oil, soy sauce and mirin and water to make it easier to mix into the rice). The rice is brown rice. This was one of the best version I have ever made! after mixing

I too hate to waste so here my suggestion for the sukiyaki: Place about a on person serving of it in a small frying pan with some of the sauce, add a bit of water to thin it out. (try to aim for 1/4 cup of liquid). Let it simmer for a bit to heat it up, taste the broth and make sure it isn't too salty, you want it too be a little on the strong side but not too strong. Once the food has heated up and the liquid evaporated just a bit, beat one egg in a cup and then swirl over the top of the sukiyaki in the pan. Do not mix. Keep it at a strong simmer and put a lid on it. Cook until the egg is to your liking, a little bit on the runny side is my favorite. Then have a large bowl of plain steamed rice ready and then slide the food from the pan to on top of the rice. If you have any mitsuba or scallions, slice them and place on top of the egg before placing the lid on, this adds sort of a "new" flavor to leftovers. If you are familiar with oyako-don (chicken and egg on rice dish) this is a similar idea. You want a little bit of liquid left to seep into the rice but not too much, it might be hard to judge on the first try but you will understand it better by the second one. If you are making it for more than one person, you should make each portion separately.

Do you want suggestions for all of the food or just the sukiyaki? Sugar in the tempura?? Sukiyaki normally does have some sugar in the broth but if you could really taste it then it was way too much.

About 20-25 years ago in Japan, these kind of western foods had an elevated status as well. Many of these products have become more mainstream now but you can still expect to pay about $6 for a can of Spam here.

I just ordered it through my co-op catalogue, I paid 2900 yen for it (about $25). Theya ren't all that easy to come by. Some place in Kappabashi should have them, you might also try looking in cooking utensil sections of department stores or other large ('we sell everything') shops.

That sounds INSANELY good. Any particular proportions, or is it like mashed potatoes in the US where everyone's mom makes it their own way and never writes down a recipe? ^__^ ( ← You got it! I received a recipe from a friend the first time I ate them at her house and since then just add the ingredients to taste... A search of yahoo Japan gives quite different variations as well, including things like milk, condensed milk, rum, orange juice, honey, etc Here are a couple that look similar to the one I make: http://www6.plala.or.jp/lasaison/sub38.html http://cookpad.com/xxmarixx/index.cfm?Page...72658&Mode=full http://www.sukoyakanet.or.jp/recipe-db/recipe?ID=349

greenpointmary, welcome to eGullet and the Japan forum! I have never dried the buds so I am not sure how to do that, but Kiem Hwa has had pretty good luck growing shiso in Hawaii so I don't see why you shouldn't be able to grow it.

chibirisu, welcome to eGullet and the Japan Forum! I really like your profile name. Other than the ideas listed upthread some other things I can think of would be: satsumaimo takikomi gohan (with goma-shio sprinkled on top) pork and satsumaimo miso soup (one of my favorite versions!) imoyoukan (made with satumaimo instead of anko) satsumaimo no mushi pan (just a plain mushi pan recipe made with little cubes of satsumaimo, I like it with brown sugar instead of white) and a sweet that I am not sure of the name... This is a very popular snack for kids-- whole satsumaimo are roasted then cut in half lengthwise, the insides are then scooped out leaving the skin intact. The insides are mixed with cream, butter, sugar and an egg yolk (cinnamon and vanilla are also sometimes added). It is usually pushed through a sieve to make it smooth and then it is placed bake in the skins and baked, it is often brushed with an egg yolk before cooking. Most people I know just call this snack 'sweet potato' but I am not sure if it has a real name of not. It is wonderful though.

More information on eating in Hong Kong can be found in these threads: Shanghai and Hong Kong Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong

#12 Stirfried Snowpeas with Oyster Sauce