torakris

well that is no fun! You are supposed to quess what it is... I should be using all of it during this blog.

I fogot to mention I had a large glass of water with the chestnuts. Except for my iced coffee in the morning and an occasional coffee or tea in the afternoon, you can assume I am drinking water... not very exciting I know... Except for weekends, Weds, and the days I go out, I make very simple lunches at home for myself. Usually leftovers. My three kids all eat at school (except on Weds Hide only has a half day and we eat at home together) and I make a lunch for my husband every day. Tuesday lunch: ramen The Japanese may have created instant ramen but in my opinion the Koreans have perfected it. I eat mostly Korean instant ramens. I add to it whatever is in the house, today I sliced up some cabbage and some garlic chives, I also added a raw egg. The final dish:

Tuesday morning I receive a delivery from my co-op. I place the order one week before from a weekly catalogue. This week's delivery The frozen stuff started to defrost as I was running around looking for batteries for the camera, the camera doesn't seem to like any of them...

a mid morning snack chestnuts! This were a gift from my father-in-law who just returned from a trip to Beijing.

I have been following these two foodlblogs as well and the photography is stunning, I will warn everyone now: YOU WILL NOT SEE BEAUTIFUL FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY IN THIS BLOG (at least for Kristin's part...) You will however, become fluent in "Kristin Language" which is a special language we speak in our house, though it sounds like English the meanings are a little different. For example, if I refer to 'plating' something, it means to actually use a plate/dish/bowl instead of the more common papertowels or in the case of fancier occasions a paper plates.

Jason, I have never seen black sesame seeds in corroke before, it sounds (and looks) great! Is it mixed with just potatoes? anything else in there? (besides the salt of course)

here's one from last night, I call this 'Blackened Turds on a Plate' it really was deep fried lotus root topped with seasoned fish paste and a sheet of nori (laver seaweed) and it was really good.

Edsel, You forgot to show the picture of my first attempt let's hope the second attempt goes MUCH better......

Breakfast for Tuesday morning consisted of a large glass of iced coffee (Toddy method cold brew) and a slice of walnut raisin bread. as you can tell from the photo, the loaf is from the bread machine, a wonderful piece of kitchen equipment I am not ashamed to admit to using. This is currently one of my favorite breads and the best thing about it is that all 3 kids like it as well. It is very difficult to run across foods that all 3 like... a not very good close-up

last night I made an agemono of renkon (lotus root) topped with fish paste (mixed with garlic chives, sooy sauce, sake and ginger) topped with a piece of nori (laver seaweed). It isn't very pretty but it sure was good!

another very simple itame-mono nira (garlic chives) and moyashi (bean sprouts), sauteed in sesame oil with just sesame seeds and salt for seasoning, this was devoured by my daughters...

pizza (from Domino's Japan) ikura, smoked salmon, cream cheese and fresh basil surprisingly good!

Sunday's paper had a flyer for the newest fall flavor from Domino's: smoked salmon, ikura (salmon roe), cream cheese and fresh basil It was just too interesting to pass up. We ordered the Fall half and half special with the salmon on one side and Domino's deluxe on the other. a close-up This was actually really good, both my husband and I were really surprised at how good ikura are on pizza...

Fresh gobo is quite firm, it is usually 1 to 2 feet in length and if you hold it by the bottom it should not flop over rather it should stay straight. The color and thickness can vary by variety and season.

Well it is Tuesday morning in Japan. I went to go take pictures of my breakfast and my digital camera battereies died. I pulled some out of the remote control for the dvd and that should last us for a little bit. It is good to be blogging again. Just a bit of background for those who have no idea who I am. I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, one of 8 kids of a first generation Italian mother and a father of German descent. My mother is a very good cook (as is her entire family) and I grew up on up a mix of modern American and traditional Italian with a spattering of German dishes mixed in. 10 years ago I married my my Japanese husband and moved to Yokohama, Japan. This was not the first international marriage in our family and I am definitely not the last. I have an uncle from Mexico, and aunt from Martinique, last year my sister married her French boyfriend and my little brother's (very serious) girlfriend is from Portugal. This all makes for very delicious family get togethers. Here in Japan, I keep busy with my 3 children: Mia age 9, Julia, age 7 an Hide age 4. I also work part-time teaching English and holding cooking classes in my home. Now to see if the pictures actually came out...

Jason, do you do this often? I am not a huge fan of ochazuke because I don't like how soft the rice gets if it takes more than 5 seconds to eat it. I have often thought about a yaki onigiri but I am scared if I do it once and my kids like it then I will have to do it every time... and I like ochazuke because it is quick. Maybe I will give this a try for a lunch for myself.

chigiri (verb chigiru) means something like to tear into pieces, usually with your hands. I have never seen yuzu like that before but it looks delicious!

Sorry for being away from this thread for so long... I have been working on doing some major cleaning of the Japan forum, you will notice many threads have been merged and cleaned up (dead links etc) to make for easier reading. Also starting tomorrow I will be part of the tag team blog with snowangel and the Daily Nihongo will be on hold until that is over. Then we will continue with masu. The blog starts here.

Is ketchup a commonly used condiment in the Indian kitchen? Yesterday I attended a wonderful Indian festival here in Tokyo and on my first trip around the food booths, I picked up samosas, pakoras and shish kebabs. These were ordered from 3 different booths and they were all served with a side of ketchup, for the shish kebeb it was actually squirted down the whole length of the kebab. A later purchases of more pakoras at yet another booth was not served with it though. Are these foods normally served with ketchup? I have never been served them this way in a restaurant.

They are only about 30 minutes apart by train. Hyperdia.com is great for figuring out the trains.

They have green tea ones?? I just discovered McVitie's last week at my local drug store.... I had the regular milk chocolate and the bitter ones (with a chocolate cookie) and wow were they good, I hid them from the kids.. I have to look for the matcha ones, they weren't at the store last week or I would definitely gotten them.

I always thought that the difference was carbonation. Sours are mixed with non-carbonated juices/liquids, while chuu-hai's are mixed with carbonated beverages. I could be off on this as I don't drink either.... Chuu-hai is a shortened form of shoCHU HIGHball.

Last year I was going to go with an eGullet press pass and do a write up about it...

I know we have discussed Freshness Burger around here somewhere... For a while I really liked this place, but they have introduced any new burgers in a while and it has gotten boring. They do have some really nice drinks now, actually their drink menu is much bigger than their burger menu. Freshness Burger

It has probably been about 8 years since I have been to a Lotteria but a recent check of their home page shows an interesting sukiyaki burger with a half cooked egg..