torakris

I just devoured an apple (a very delicious apple) while sitting on the couch watching Desperate Housewives. They just started airing it last week and I missed the first one but I taped the second episode last night, that is a pretty funny show.

I have heard of lotus paste but only in connection with Chinese style sweets. I don't recall ever seeing it in Japan, though I am sure there are many things I have never seen.. Is it actually made with lotus root?

Yes iced coffee for me 365 days a year! first thing in the morning. I drink it with both milk and sugar, when I do drink hot coffee I only add milk.

here is my wonderful recipe for a marinade that is great for bibimbap, pulled out of one of those bibimbap threads: I would love to share my recipe. Bulggogi and bukalbi marinade makes enough for 2lbs of meat 1/2 cup soy sauce (preferably Japanese, NOT the American Kikkoman) 3 Tablespoons sugar (white granulated) 3 Tablespoons apple or nashi, grated preferably on a daikon or ginger grater 2 scallions, thinly sliced 2 cloves of garlic, grated (same way as the apple) 4 Tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted 4 Tablespoons dark sesame oil 1 Tablespoon black pepper Mix everyhting together and add to meat, use right away or marinate a couple of hours. I use this on any type of beef. For ground beef use it in bibimbap, or try wrapping it in lettuce leaves with either rice or julienned veggies such as cucmber or daikon, don't forget to add a dollop of kojuchang to the leaf as well. If you can buy strips of meat already cut that is fine (the last time I was in the US I noticed a stirfry cut in the meat department), you can also cut your own. If you have access to an Asian market that sells meat, look for the thinly (paper thin) cut slices. This is what I usually use. It is also great on steaks, but my favorite is with short ribs or the ribs (I don't know what they are called in English) that are about 6 inches long, 1/2 an inch thick and have 3 half circle shaped bones. I always had a hard time finding them in Cleveland, but every store in Hawaii sells them.

I have some parsley in my garden, if you want to swing by.. I am a list maker, without my lists I would not remember to do anything. I keep a board on my fridge so I can jot down things I am almost out of, I have a list by the computer of things that I must buy now and a list in my menu planning notebook of the current contents of my refrigerator. I to do lists, lists of things the kids need to take to school this week, etc, etc I used to keep all my lists together in this one little notebook that I could keep in my purse but one day I lost that notebook. I suffered from my first panic attack.... since then I keep my lists all over the house that way I can't lose them all at the same time. My worst list story (besides the above one) is that one day I was making a cake and I needed flour. I only needed the one thing but I made a list (with just flour) on it to take to the store because I knew I might forget it. I got to the store and realized I forgot my list, I could not remember what I was at the store to buy. I wandered around thinking maybe it would pop out at me, it didn't. I bought some things, not on my list, and went home. Looked at the list, kicked myself and went back out.... to a different store... with my list in hand... the cake was finally made....

Wait! Aren't eggs sold by the dozen in Japan? How fascinating! ← nope, sold in packages of 10. I have Japanese friends who have spent time in the US and they always ask why Americans have this fascination with 12....

You really want to know? Those 1 liter containers of milk cost me 118 yen each (a little over a dollar), so a gallon at theat price would be abot $4. However that is the cheapest price I have ever seen for milk in this country, it usually costs about 200 yen a liter, so more like $7 a gallon. Eggs shot up in price about a year ago and are slowly coming back down, an average current price would be about 150 yen ($1.25) for 10 medium sized and over 200 yen ($1.90) for 10 large ones. I can occasionally find butter on sale for 198 yen ($1.75)) for 200 grams, less than 1/2 lb, the price averages about 300 yen for 200g, so about $7 a pound and this is just for supermarket butter....

Good morning! Dreary day #3 over here in Japan.... I am never going to get laundry done.... I am drinking my iced coffee and I snuck a bite of the coconut bagel that I had been hiding since my co-op delivery. Major disappoinment, bland with almost no coconut flavor.. This will be best with jam, but alas I have none in the house, so i tossed it into the freezer to await my next trip to the grocery store. Instead I am eating the last of the walnut raisin bread with the kids.

Cool! I have never had mooncakes before! I had no idea what the filling was, it was a yellowish-brownish color not much different than the outside color. Could that be lotus paste? Hide loved these, Mia hated them. Hide woke up this morning and was very disappointed to learn his father had finished off the box.

Very cool! I've only used bonito flakes for making dashi. Is it commonplace to toast them and add them for crunch? ← I have to admit I am not really sure what the toasting does... It does not make them crunchy, maybe it just adds more of a smokey flavor? I have only seen it called for in simmered dishes like those bamboo shoots where it is added at the very end for flavoring.

9:30pm, it is already past my bedtime and I was up in the middle of the night last night rinsing out clothes after Julia had a bloody nose.... Why do these kind of things happen at 3:00am? Handing it over to you Susan!!

smallworld, Thanks for that link I am definitely going to check it out!

I have never tried nashi in a dessert, I always assumed it wouldn't be a proper substitute, the texture is quite different as is the taste.... Why don't you experiment for us?

we eat dessert a couple nights a week, sometimes as simple as fruit or ice cream other times I actually prepare something tonight we ate the last of the gifts from my FIL's trip to Beijing, I have no idea what this was...

I took some frozen bamboo shoots and made a simple simmered dish called tosa-ni. Ni is from the verb niru and means to to simmer, you will often see the word ni in the title of simmered dishes. Tosa is the old name for the modern day Kochi Prefecture in the southern part of Japan. The area is very famous for its katsuo (bonito, a type of fish) and thus many dishes that in include katsuo bushi (bonito flakes) have the name Tosa in the title. Most Jaapnese buy pre-shaved flakes of bonito is plastic bags, but at one time everyone had to grate them by themselves at home from rock hard blocks of dried bonito. This is the bonito block and the box used to grate them the grated bonito the finished dish the bamboo roots were simmered with dashi, soy sauce, sake, mirin and sugar then the bonito flakes (which had been lightly toasted in a frypan) were added. The meal was rounded out with bowls of rice, tonight I did a mix of Japanese short grain with Korean black rice, Hide calls this purple rice and it is his favorite.

The fish is cooked in a fish grill that is built into the stove. Most Japanese homes do not have oven range combos, rather it is just the stove top range and msot often with a slide out fish grill. It looks something like this (sorry blurry picture) The finished fish There wereactually 3 fish but I took the picture before I piled the 3rd one on the dish because it just looked neater. The fish is eaten by placing the dish in the middle of the table and everyone just pulls off pieces with their chopsticks. the pickles, sliced and ready to eat. Actually the kids were picking at them before I could take a picture.

Weds dinner: Dinner on the run I teach an English class until 6:30 on Weds and my husband comes home about the same time, I like to have dinner on the table by 7:00 so these days are always a rush. The easiest meals for me to get on the table fast are Japanese. I always have some kind of fish in the freezer, Japanese simmered dish taste wonderful at room temperature and pickles can always be prepared a couple hours in advance. This week's co-op had some of my favorite pickles so I purchased them instead of making my own. The fish and pickles for tonight's dinner Chinese cabbage pickle with yuzu (a Japanese citrus), and gobo (burdock root) pickle, the fish is saba (mackeral) that has been seasoned with mirin and sesame seeds.

Sorry about that! I forget not everyone reads Japanese... The two cartons are low fat milk and the yellow box is butter, I buy milk and butter at my local drug store because it is quite a bit cheaper than at the supermarket. Pictures of the daughters will be coming!!

Here is their current Japan line up. I have only seen the ones that I purchased today, the rest look really good though! EDITED to add their line-up consists only of the two top rows...

These McVities biscuits I think are pretty new to Japan, I ahd never seen them before last week. The dark chocolate ones are definitely my favorite the kids preferred the milk chocolate. Over in the Japan Forum prasantrin mentioned that she found them in a matcha (green tea) flavor. I looked for this but couldn't find it. Do they have a green tea flavor in the UK? This packaging is very typical Japanese packing, inside there are 4 separate packs of 3 cookies each. I have no idea what hobnobs or Jaffa cakes are...

I had to run to the drug store today to pick up some batteries, a couple other things made their way into my basket... Hide really wanted those digestive biscuits. We had one box for our 3 o'clock snack today.

They should. Usually there with be a sticker on the back with nutritional information, ingredients and directions. If you ever find something you want to try but it seems to be be missing English directions just ask over at the Japan Forum we are more than happy to help out!

I was actually a Japanese language minor in college, so I had four years of college level studies under my belt before moving here. The emphasis at school was on reading and writing so it took a couple years before I really felt comfortable speaking. I wouldn't call myself fluent but I have no problem doing things and haven't asked my husband for help in a couple years. I handle all the daily household problems, school things, doctor visits, etc. I am really glad I know how to read though, I couldn't imagine living here if I couldn't read...

Susan, I had forgot to ask, did you have any rice with that?

Yes, it is sort of like a generic. There are actually quite a few "national" co-op' s in Japan, I belong to one called Seikyo Co-op and more specifically the Kanagawa (for Kanagawa Prefecture) Group. The Co-op's produce now many of their own foods very similar to the store generic brands in the US.