SusieQ

If the product weren't safe for food contact, I'm sure they'd say something. Boy, you're optimistic!

There is a woman sushi chef at Mashiko's in West Seattle. (Full restaurant name is Mashiko Japanese Restaurant and Fully Sustainable Sushi Bar.) Go to http://sushiwhore.com/home.html for their home page, where you can also read about how Mashiko's is one of the first sushi restaurants in the nation with exclusively all-sustainable seafood. The owner made a commitment to this two years ago and really followed through. Read all about it on his website. He also talks about the myth that women can't be sushi chefs. Something about women making all the sushi 200 years ago.

You are correct that "garnishee" is a real word, a verb, but it does NOT mean the same thing as when a union (or anybody else) deducts money from a wage -- in the U.S., at least. Here it means you have a DEBT, and someone or some entity has gone to court and gotten a legal order of "garnishment" (no 2nd "e") for your wages to repay that debt. For example, the IRS (federal taxing authority) can garnishee your wages for unpaid taxes. States can garnishee your wages for unpaid child support if the custodial parent is on state assistance. In any case, first there must be a debt. Union dues DO NOT COUNT as a debt. Union dues (just like anything else deducted from your paycheck) do not constitute a garnishment. Oh, and in the U.S., you can use either "garnish" or "garnishee" as a verb in this context. SusieQ -- copy editor P.S. Back to the tipping topic, all you really need to know is that if you come to this country and eat out, please tip. It's our custom! Thank you.

And if you have read this thread you will know the reason for this difference, and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with being a tightwad. Zip, nada, niks. The reason is that in Europe employers are required to pay a liveable wage so that the tip is REALLY only for service above the norm (= €5 on a €400 meal may simply reflect iffy food, service, etc. and be perfectly justifiable and transparent). In the USA employers in this industry are allowed by law to pay starvation wages. Is it the 'fault' of the European visitor for not knowing about this medieval practice? If so, let's go out onto the web and inform them to turn their watches back 120 years after crossing the Atlantic. Please do tell them. Foreign visitors to the United States never seem to believe us when we try to tell them. Maybe you will have better luck. Brilliant!

EXACTLY.

No idea, either, as to foodblogger but this is what I say to the photos: YUM! Very much looking forward to this. Thanks.

Then there are the cat people who are totally indifferent to cat hair in the kitchen. For example, I used to work (as a professional housecleaner) for a couple who liked to entertain a lot. They had dinner parties all the time. Also, there were two long-haired cats in the household who had free rein everywhere, including in the kitchen. On top of that, the couple cooked with a lot of grease -- deep-frying a lot, lots of butter. This was a small kitchen. Every single time I was there, I was wiping off cat hair from the stove top, the walls, the cupboard doors, the counters, in the burners, off the greasy hood, etc. etc. -- before I could even start to clean! God I'm so glad I don't have to do that anymore. I never understood how their dinner guests couldn't see the cat hair. I mean, it was stuck on everything!

Wow, Sivasushi, you have put into words my feeling of almost reference for the skills -- seemingly simple yet never mastered -- of a true sushi chef. And you articulate what I always imagined must be one of the starting points of that learning: the importance of the seasons and how it relates to Japanese culture. Anyway, I'm fascinated to hear more!

Hi SusieQ, You are right, I should have been more specific. We can also find lentils in grocery stores in San Diego. I was referring to the Puy lentils, which are green lentils from France. They are so delicious that they are the only ones I use. They keep their shape better after cooking and have a wonderful taste. My favorite thing to do with them is a warm lentil salad with a drizzle of red wine vinegar and some herbs, especially in winter. Sounds yummy! I'll have to look out for them. Thanks for answering.

Hi FrogPrincesse! I'm loving your blog already, but one thing you said makes me curious: you have a hard time finding lentils? Are you talking about some special kind of lentils? Because I can find lentils in every grocery store here in Seattle. Thanks for doing your blog and thanks to your husband for the wonderful photos!

Not to mention all those justifying the use of "meat glue" in another forum!

[beautiful photos deleted) Wow, you make it look easy (and beautiful!). What an inspiration -- thanks!

Wow, I was surprised to see them here but not surprised at the price. They were $5/lb. at one of the local Metropolitan Markets a few days ago. They looked nice but I thought, how can they taste any good at this time of year? I don't think I've ever seen heirloom tomatoes around here so early

Speaking as a former professional housecleaner here: For the most part, plain water works just fine. I will drip water on the cooktop wherever there's anything stuck on and then just let it soak -- usually 5-10 minutes is enough -- so that I can take a paper towel and wipe everything up. Very rarely does this not work. If I had a stove that hadn't been cleaned in awhile, I would put lots of water on the cooktop first thing, then after letting it soak for maybe half an hour, do the same thing: wipe it up with a paper towel. A bit of Bon Ami and water and a paper towel could shine it up. Even really greasy surfaces clean up really well with just water and soaking and then maybe a little Bon Ami. I'm not speaking of professional kitchens, mind you.

Best suggestion yet!

I'm with you on this one, eatenmess. I'm interested in the menu and prices and if photos, photos of the FOOD! SusieQ

Hi Hiroyuki, thanks for your reply. Do you think that maybe in 1969, when the book was published, it was possible, especially in coastal areas? I've never heard that the eggs in Japan smell of fish odor. I did find one related website: http://air.ap.teacup.com/satofarm/24.html dated Aug. 20, 2007. According to this site, trimethylamine is responsible for the fish odor of eggs, and this substance is contained in not only fish powder and fish oil but also canola oil cake. This particular farm, Sato Farm, says that they limit the use of fish powder so that the eggs won't be fishy. I don't know whether other farms do the same practice. Probably Westerners are more sensitive to fish odor than the Japanese, but I've never thought that eggs smell of fish odor.

from my cookbook Japanese Country Cookbook by Russ Rudzinski and Ryoichi Kokku, published in 1969 by Nitty Gritty Productions, San Franciso. "The Westerner who has eggs for the first time in Japan is sometimes a bit startled at the taste of eggs, especially around the seacoast areas. Chickens are often fish-fed rather than grain-fed, and their diet adds a distinctive fish odor to the eggs. If the Western visitor orders fried eggs for his breakfast, he may get quite a jolt if the cook in the inn in which he's staying or home he is visiting uses fish oil for frying the eggs." On the back cover it says "Prepared by the owners of San Francisco's world-famous MINGEI-YA COUNTRY STYLE RESTAURANT." The cookbook offers "a complete guide to the home-style foods of Japan ... Illustrated in the traditional style!" The illustrations are lovely, black pen and ink, and the type is red, of all things, on rough brown paper. The book is about 8" across but only probably 41/2" in length, so one of those specialty sizes that were popular back then, especially for cookbooks. I've cooked from it since I bought it, probably right around 1970. Back then information about Japanese cooking wasn't that easy to come by, and this book gives you the feeling that you really are in somebody's home kitchen out in the country somewhere, right down to the physical attributes of the book itself. Anyway, about those eggs in Japan: I've never heard anybody else say this (about eggs tasting like fish). Is that still true?

Thank you for this most excellent report! I'm hoping to have some fresh Chinook when the prices come down a bit (which they will, after the initial flurry). But all through the winter I buy frozen sockeye, and it's really good, too, as you point out. SusieQ

Wow, that is SO beautiful! Thanks for posting. SusieQ

I rarely shop at Whole Foods because it's so expensive, but this past week I did and forgot to bring my cloth bags in, so I ended up taking their paper bags for my groceries. Then on the way out I noticed a sign that said customers could not use any bags of any kind that weren't the Whole Foods bags -- either cloth or paper. Something to do with shoplifting. That really put me off. It's a good thing I didn't see any such sign at the cash register because I might have argued about it.

My friend from N. Ireland tells me that most celery here on the West Coast isn't "ripe" -- it's too green for him. Couldn't prove it by me -- I always thought celery was supposed to be green. In my family growing up we always cut the white portion off! SusieQ

That's how I usually get the fat, by letting it solidify in the fridge. I thought that was sufficient, but I see I was missing a step. Thank you! SusieQ

Thank you! Now one last question. How do you "cook off the moisture"? All I ever do is just suction up the fat and then put it in a container. Strained first through a paper towel if there's bits of stuff in it. SusieQ

Hi Chris, this is such an elementary question, but I don't know the answer and maybe you do! How do you save your chicken fat? I recently cleaned out my fridge and found about a dozen or more containers of old chicken fat. I threw them all out because I knew some of them were several years old (yes, I know, I should clean out my fridge more often ) and all of them were at least a month old. Right now I have a big glob of turkey fat in the fridge, which I have no idea what I'll do with but I assume it's the same as with chicken fat. Anyway, to my question: how do you save it and for how long? In the fridge? In the freezer? Thank you! SusieQ p.s. and do you think my turkey fat is already too old?