margaret

Spam musubi. Blech. When I was working at a Hawaiian-style restaurant in Tokyo, it was the most popular item on the menu. Rice ball, seaweed, spam. Why?

Is that kinoko no yama? So addictive! They also make another one in baby bamboo shape, takenoko no sato. Who comes up with these things?

This is interesting. Can you explain a little bit more about how you use them, Jinmyo?

Inspired by the cleaning mushrooms thread in another forum... What are your favorite types of Japanese mushrooms? What do you do with them? Any you can't stand? Shiitake, enoki, nameko, matsutake, shimeji... I probably use enoki the most - in miso shiru, sauteed with butter-shoyu, in japanese-style pasta dishes, grilled. Matsutake are a luxury, so expensive here in the States.

re: korean nori, I've tried to approximate it at home with Japanese nori (since I usually have large sheets of it sitting around at home, as opposed to Korean-style which tends to disappear quickly) but it never comes out well. Has anyone had any success roasting and flavoring their own? That tomato donburi sounds wonderful. Only a few more months until they're in season...

Recently I've been eating a lot of tororo-kombu (soft shaved vinegared kombu) just set on top of a bowl of steaming white rice to soften and melt, or dropped into a bowl of light soup. And the Korean yaki-nori with sesame oil and salt is forever a favorite.

The recent spring weather caused me to neglect my wintertime favorite, yu-dofu. A simple dish of tofu simmered in kombu broth and dipped in ponzu. The quality of the bean curd is the most important. Oh, and also ganmodoki in oden, or on its own with grated daikon and soy sauce. Perhaps this is too japan-oriented for the chinese forum? I'm too new to really know?

Ah, tofu, how do I love thee. Just now eating a tofu croquette, panko coated deep fried curry flavored soy goodness. Other vegetables are minced and added to provide texture and flavor, but the tofu is the deal breaker. Good, clean, fresh tofu, though, should be enjoyed for what it is. Chilled with some scallions and ginger and shoyu (although I prefer ponzu) to really taste the flavor of the bean curd. So many dishes try to disguse bean curd, turn it into meat. Why, I will never understand.

This sounds interesting. Can you tell me more about it? What kind of pickle did you use?

I agree. Food is a constant topic of conversation - what restaurants you've eaten at recently, what's for dinner, who cooked what, etc. If someone goes on a trip, it's pretty much a given that they're going to bring back food to share. Here in my office, there is always food around - someone is always bringing in cake or senbei or wagashi or something - and people just kind of pick all day. I hear you on the weight loss, though - thinking back, why?? I pretty much ate constantly. I guess portion sizes are different? Now that I think about it, one thing that's different about meals in Japan is the tendency for them to drag on. I think in the U.S., often times people go out to eat and then go out drinking afterwards - maybe wine with dinner or something, but the meal itself is pretty structured. In Japan drinking and eating pretty much take place simultaneously, and people often spend hours in the same izakaya or restaurant just ordering small otsumami (small shared tapas-style dishes) and drinking without ever eating what you could call a main dish. One izakaya here in my neighborhood in New York is actually called Snacky, if that tells you anything.

I'm not sure if this is what you're asking, but... Although I don't currently live in Japan, I spent time there and I work at a Japanese company now, and from my experiences, I would say that just like the U.S., it really depends on the family. It does, however, seem to be pretty common practice for men to stay out after work drinking and eating with co-workers at izakaya or grab a bite at a ramen shop or something while women eat at home with children. In a lot of families I know, the wife will leave rice in the rice cooker and leftovers from that evening's meal for the husband to eat when he gets home. This isn't every night, of course, but work in Japan tends to run late in general, or at least from what I've seen, and social life is very centered around the office. Where I work, for example, probably about 80% of the people order takeout for dinner and stay on doing work until well past nine, ten at night. Breakfast and lunch are also probably comparable to the U.S. - there are people who eat regularly at certain times and others who don't. Families with children probably tend to eat breakfast together more often, before everyone leaves for school/work. I'm not sure exactly how to answer the question about snacking, but the snack industry in general, as torakris said, is huge in Japan. Lots of seasonal and regional flavors (which helps to power the omiyage or souvenir industry) and gimmicky products (toys inside boxes of chocolates, candies shaped like hamburgers, character-driven items etc) Chips, chocolate, cakes, gummies, etc, are all very big, as are more traditional Japanese snacks like senbei. I'd say many people tend to graze like Americans do, all day long, on whatever is around. Seriously, though, the flavors that come out in Japan are incredible, almost similar to British crisps in a way - beef curry flavored chips, yakisoba flavored crackers, etc. I get sucked in by the novelty way too often.

A light dinner Saturday: stir fried choy sum red cooked daikon with japanese leeks chilled plain tofu with yuzu-kosho and ponzu leftover miso soup with potato and wakame japanese rice asian pear and apricot tea with honey for dessert Sunday: pasta with chickpeas, kalamata olives, lots of garlic, sage artichoke antipasto green beans tossed with fresh chopped tomato and some lemon

I know what you mean about the Japanese labels. I always wondered why they can't get someone to translate them in full - although maybe you're right, perhaps certain ingredients are being left out for import reasons. Very frustrating to me, though, since I don't eat meat and they always stick the English labels over the Japanese ingredient list - and niku ekisu seems to show up in everything from salad dressing to yakisoba sauce. Now I just don't buy the prepackaged stuff. On a totally unrelated note, though, apparently it's now illegal to import Japanese beef products into the U.S. (mad cow reasons) and they've taken all the meat derivatives out of the curry roux and other mixes. Or so they claim.

I've never had Poi, so I'm probably not the best person to answer this, but I'm pretty sure they're different varieties of the same root, just prepared differently. Poi is the name of the dish; "kalo" is the Hawaiian word for taro.

I haven't ever had it out in a restaurant here in new york - usually just make it myself - but I would recommend checking out places that do more homestyle cooking, or else some izakaya (pub like environments). Perhaps someplace like Village Yokocho or Typhoon might have it, or else some of the smaller, less sushi-oriented places in midtown (i.e. Ise). Or maybe Natori on E. 7th? Sorry I can't be more helpful. If you find it done well somewhere, please let me know. One consideration, though: Taro is referred to as satoimo in Japanese.

Here's a link to an article about the town, about two hours outside of Tokyo: http://abcnews.go.com/onair/2020/PRIMETIME...02_feature.html

Is there really so much bad stuff in furikake? Maybe it depends on the brand, but the two I have at home right now (noritama and some random yasai) don't have much outside of the main ingredients. noritama- sesame seed, yolk, sugar, salt, shaved bonito, seaweed yasai - sesame seed, carrot, spinach, pumpkin, celery, japanese mustard plant, sugar, salt, seaweed kind of surprised not to find the ubiquitous aji no moto. I eat a lot of this stuff, and this talk about junk in there concerns me. Furikake on tofu - interesting idea. I'd imagine the contrast between smooth and crunchy, mild and salty, to be interesting. Do you add soy sauce, scallions, etc?

I like it both ways, but lately I've become pathetically addicted to sweet taro bubble tea. I also like it in Japanese nimono - so sticky. Taro also suppposedly has incredible nutritional value. There's a village in Japan where the traditional diet is based around starches like taro instead of rice, and the people living there tend to live incredibly long, healthy lives and show delayed signs of aging. All attributed to the kind of carbohydrate in taro and other similar roots.

I mostly use shinshu miso for everyday miso shiru, although I like shiro (white) as well, especially in the winter. For cooking, I like to use mugi miso (miso made with barley) - the flavor is more mild and subtle, and the strong taste that some miso varities have is not so pronounced. My Osaka-bred SO prefers aka dashi, but I don't particularly enjoy it. (oh, and he eats rice with everything too - okonomiyaki, yakisoba, ramen, everything - I don't know how he does it!)

Q-chan! During the deepest stages of the obsession, I used to chop them up and roll them with rice into onigiri. I think I overdid it a bit, though - they don't hold the same appeal they once had. The eternal favorite, though, is probably takana (mustard leaf). Takana fried rice. A little bit of nori, some sesame oil. Getting hungry just thinking about it. On lazier days, just a big heap of takana and a big bowl of cold rice, a bite of each. Lately I've also been eating a lot of yamagobo (don't know what it's called in English), but they're kind of pricey here, unfortunately. I'd like to learn more about Indian pickles, but don't even know where to start.

Mochi in oden is great! I've only had it as mochi kinchaku, wrapped in fried tofu skin. You have to eat it fast, though, before the broth has time to cool, or else it gets kind of hard. It's a killer on the teeth.

I think I saw that Iron Chef as well - they were rolling the gobo up inside a kind of wrapper made from mochi? If it's the same one, the dish didn't go over so well with the judges, if I remember correctly. Gobo kimpira is great, and I also like it in a goma ae (sesame-based sauce). It's also a defining flavor in tonjiru (miso-based pork soup) and in kakiage, a type of tempura. Something about the earthiness of gobo just makes it really distinctive, and I'd like to use it more often in my cooking. Any ideas for more non-conventional uses for it? Any way that it could be incorporated into non Japanese flavored dishes?

Although I do like it, I understand how the big solid blocks of konnyaku can be difficult to take. The noodles, though (ito-kon or shirataki) are wonderful in nabe, diet or no diet. I like konnyaku in most forms, though, with my favorite being sashimi-style, served cold and thinly sliced with karashi. Not too many seem to share my enthusiasm, though.

I have nothing but bad feelings for winter and cold weather in general, but a good pot of oden and a steaming atsukan once in a while are enough to get me through. Unfortunately, there are very few places in New York that serve it, and only one authentic-feeling yatai-style place that I know of. Bah.

Thanks for the welcome! The saran wrap thing never really works for me either, but I keep doing it again and again. Psychological I think. The vinegar, though, does seem to work. If you don't want to soak the imo before dealing with it, try rubbing some vinegar on your hand afterward. Not making any promises, but it might make it a bit easier. Another favorite way of eating yama-imo: sliced into thick rounds, sauteed in butter and sprinkled with salt. The taste is quite different from raw, but I think it works pretty well. It is, after all, a potato? I've never tried deep frying it - do you batter it with anything, or just throw it straight in the hot oil? I would imagine something like corn starch would be necessary to cut the slime factor...?