smallworld

I know what you mean! I have a huge pile of cooking magazines that I've been trying to convert into recipe cards. I've been working on it for months but the pile is endless! I keep seeing recipes I like on TV and then running out to buy whatever magazine features it. Right now I'm watching a chicken wing and chesnut dish being simmered and am very tempted to go by Esse magazine to get the full recipe. It's endless! Yes! Takikomi-gohan is the best. I did a mushroom version last week, and did it in my earthen-ware nabe for the fist time ever. Amazing! Had three bowls. Which is why I won't be making it again for a very long time- making takikomi-gohan is an absolute guarantee that I'll overeat!

Thanks FoodZealot! Sounds interesting. Good even! Next time I go home to Canada I'll have to pop into a sushi shop and try a soft shell crab roll. Hopefully the mayo flavour won't be too dominant. I've always found it odd that Japanese tend to seek out Japanese restaurants when they travel overseas. Now I can see how it might be interesting to compare 'real' Japanese food with its more innovative forms abroad. I can imagine! I love futo-maki but never order it because it's so embarassing to eat infront of others. There just seems to be no way to eat it whole, yet the nori wrapping takes forever to chew through and then it's impossible to get a perfect half in without the leftover half completely falling apart. Futo-maki is something best bought as take-out and eaten at home, alone, where nobody can see the mess you're making.

Am I really that predictable? I think autumn is absolutely the best season for food in Japan. Not only are there so many great tasting foods, but food itself plays a much more important role during the fall. A lot of the foods require lots of preparation, like chesnuts that need to be shelled and peeled, or whole fish that need to be cleaned and gutted. So there is so much more contact with food. And because it's getting cooler, food seems so warming and comforting. Also, have you noticed that most fall foods have really strong odours? Some nice, like matsutake and gobo, some not so nice like gingko nuts or the way the kitchen smells for hours (or days!) after grilling a fatty fish like sanma or saba. The Japanese say 'shokuyoku no aki', which means something like 'autumn is the season for appetites'. Not so fitting in my case, since I ALWAYS have a big appetite, but it's obvious I'm not the only one who thinks fall is a great food season.

Used to hate: steak, fresh pork (as opposed to bacon), sausages/wieners/hot dogs, tongue, eggs, cake, cabbage, spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, olives, blue cheese. Almost all of these were things I learned to love in Japan, and I think that maybe I still only like the Japanese versions of some of them. Japanese beef and pork are delish- both the meat itself and the preparations. So I'm sure if I ate one of the tough and chewy steaks or porkchops that were so common when I was a kid I'd still have trouble with it. Have always hated and still do: watermelons, mayonnaise, Twinkies and other chemically enhanced packaged snacks. As for everything else I love now, I've either loved it from the beginning (fish and most seafood, Mexican food, beer), or not tried it until I was a bit older and had a mature enough palate to love it instantly (smoked salmon, feta cheese, most 'ethnic' food).

Yes, that makes sense. I don't like ten-musubi either, and it's not very common, is it? But I guess the same people who like ten-musubi like tempura sushi. I'd like to try the N. American version of tempura sushi, maybe one of the handrolls. Seems like all sorts of stuff is crammed in there, maybe lettuce and some kind of sauce etc. Might make it a little less dry and a little more tasty. What exactly is in the overseas versions of tempura sushi anyway?

Last night: Cucumbers and dried prawns stir-fried in a chilli-garlic sauce. Pickled bamboo shoots (called 'menma' in Japan- anyone know the English name?). Stir-fry of shiitake, cloud-ear fungus, pork, fluffy scrambled eggs, and chunks of Japanese green onion. Simply flavoured with soy sauce, sake, and pepper. 'Hong Tang Dan Dan Mian' (or at least that's what the cookbook calls it). Thin egg noodles in a small amount of a hot and spicy stock, topped with spicy, garlicy ground pork and thinly sliced green onions. I can't get enough of these noodles!

Sanma!

Torakris is right, soft-shell crabs aren't really eaten here. So those spider rolls are definately an overseas invention. Tempura used in sushi seems to be a recent thing. For a few years I've been seeing tempura used in maki-zushi at take-out places, or as nigiri-zushi at kaiten-zushi shops. It never seems to be a hot seller. I've tried nigiri-zushi with shrimp tempura and didn't like it- it was dry, hard to eat, the flavour and texture of the topping didn't really go well with the rice. Maybe others agree and that's why it's not so popular here?

Hard to describe where the place is, and I don't remember what its name is. Not like the place had a pile of business cards beside the cash register. Didn't even have a cash register- just a tupperware tub full of money! Anyway, I'll try to describe as best I can how to get there, but we looked around for a while first and might have gotten mixed up. If I made a mistake and you can't find the right place, don't worry- I think they're all good! Exit Yurakucho station (from the Yamanote line) and head towards Tokyo station. I think the best exits for this are A5 and A7. Either side of the tracks is fine- both sides are lined with little restaurants, not just yakitori but yakiniku and Chinese too. The shops lining are street tend to be newer and trendier, but there are a few alleys cutting under the tracks that retain that retro Showa yakitori-ya feeling. I think the shop we went to was in the alley called ŠÛŽO‰¡’š (Maru-san Yokocho?). It's near the middle of the alley, on the north side (nearest to Tokyo station). The place is packed with almost identical little shops, so you may have@to ask around or just visit a few 'till you get lucky. There is a description and pictures of the area, in Japanese, at the bottom of this page: http://members.at.infoseek.co.jp/kuroyama/sakaba5.html Amy

Priscilla, sanma is a great fish. This was the first sanma of the season, an event so sacred it even has a name- 'hatsu-sanma'! Last night's dinner was taken straight from a cooking show I saw the other night (NHK's 'Kyou no Ryouri'): Kinpira of burdock root, lotus root, carrot and eringi mushrooms, braised with extra liquid. This made everything softer than usual and allowed the burdock root, now entering its peak season, to permeate the whole dish with its earthy flavour. It was topped with sesame seeds rather than shichimi and was the best kinpira I've made yet. Tofu simmered with pork. A simple dish, like yudofu but with a bit more flavour and the addition of thinly sliced pork. Foil-poached salmon. With shimeji mushrooms and sliced tomato and onion, flaoured with dashi, light soy sauce and sake. This was great and it seemed like such a waste to throw away the delicious soupy liquid that was left over. Will double the liquid next time then find a way to use it (maybe a short-cut risotto?).

My parents really loved yakitori when they came here this month, so I decided to take them to Yurakucho in Tokyo. Under the Yamanote line train tracks between Yurakucho and Tokyo stations there are dozens of little yakitori shops, some of them tiny with only a bar and a few seats, some of them spilling out into the streets with more of a yatai atmosphere. The area is loved by middle-aged salarymen while everyone else shuns the place as seedy and 'jiji-kusai', thus I had never been and had no idea which were the good shops. So I picked a tiny shop and random and in we went. We might have been the first foreigners to ever pass through the door (my Mom and I might have even been the first women, except for the ancient lady behind the grill)! The two shopkeepers, mother and son perhaps, seemed a bit nervous and unsure about how to handle us and gave us a bit of a cold reception. This in turn made me nervous, and it got worse when I saw the menu on the wall. It listed beer, whiskey, sake and yakitori. That's it, just yakitori, no varieties mentioned. A bit scary, considering my limited Japanese and even more limited experience in seedy 'jiji-kusai' drinking establishments. I ordered a beer and was asked if we wanted our yakitori with salt or sauce. Sauce. Didn't ask what we wanted. So five skewers of something got dipped in sauce and placed on the grill, presumably for us. The beer came- a great big bottle of Kirin's Autumn beer. The guy had a really cool way of opening the bottle that looked like a magic trick. The beer was very cold and very good. The yakitori arrives- shishitougarashi and liver. I hate liver. My parents loved it though and made me try some. Edible, not as bad as a I thought. Kind of good actually, especially with lots of shichimi. The table had a plate of shichimi to dip the yakitori in or sprinkle over pickles. Not a cute little shaker as is the norm, but an open plate. Nice touch. Gathering my courage, I asked for some negima (chicken with negi). They didn't have it. How about tsukune (minced chicken meatballs)? Nope. The two salarymen at the counter snickered a bit, then one informed me that we had stumbled into a shop that specializes in organ meats. The didn't carry the regular stuff. If he spoke English it might have gone something like this: 'You won't find any of your fancy designer uptown white-meat chicken here, lady. They serve guts here. Good old-fashioned guts.'. He recommended the heart and the hakusai pickles. Which we ordered. Good stuff, especially the pickles. Japanese people seem to feel that all foreigners hate pickles, and the people in this shop were no exception. The shopguy said we wouldn't like them and insisted we get just a small dish, which we finished in no time and ordered a second. He was shocked and thrilled at the same time, and grew bold. Told us the tongue was good. I asked what kind of tongue it was but he was already at the bar telling his mom to throw a few skewers on tongue on the grill. No sauce, of course- didn't even need to ask. Even us foreigners know that tongue calls for salt. It WAS good. Juicy and soft enough to bit but with the right amount of toungey chewiness. Pretty sure it was pork. After three giant bottles of beer and countless skewers it was time to go. We had only meant to have a few sticks before walking by the Imperial Palace and seeing Ginza, but we had stayed much too long and the sun had long gone down. Oh well, if my parents want to see the Imperial Palace they'll just have to come back to Japan (we'll just have to make sure to get our sightseeing done BEFORE we eat yakitori!). A memorable experience for us, and perhaps for the shopkeepers (and other customers?) too. Imagine- foreigners who eat guts! And pickles too no less!

Last night, a simple and typical early-autumn Japanese meal: Braised shishitougarashi (sweet peppers) with shichimi and bonito flakes. Salt-grilled sanma (pacific saury). Red miso soup with tofu and okra, topped with mitsuba (trefoil). Kinoko no takikomi gohan (rice cooked with mushrooms). With shimeji and shiitake mushrooms and abura-age (fried tofu strips), cooked in an earthen-ware pot. A few leftover cans of Japanese beer that my Dad somehow failed to drink during his visit (Ebisu and Koedo Brewery's Premium Pilsner). Sanma is rich with fat this season and goes beautifully with beer!

Goyatofu, Sorry you didn't like Ebisu so much. But hey, that leaves more for me! Ebisu is not really that popular in Japan, in fact it can be hard to find. But it has a small and dedicated cult following. The regular one is what most people love, but the black is nice too. Ebisu does have a fuller, more European flavour, so if you prefer lighter beers you probably won't like it much. My parents went home yesterday from a two-week visit to Japan, and my Dad just couldn't get enough of Japanese beer! He liked most of the regular draught beer by the big makers, and he really liked all the micro-beers and lesser-known beers we were lucky enough to find. The only beer he didn't like was one he bought at random- Kirin Green Label, which is a low sugar (or low something) beer. It was so bad he had to pour it down the drain, which he's only done a few times in his life! He learned to stay away from any kind of beer that was supposed to be healthy- leave that crap to dieting OLs looking for a cheap buzz. Yuck. We even did a brewery tour, at the Suntory brewery in Fuchu (western Tokyo), which he said was the best, most sophisticated tour he's done. And he's done a LOT of brewery tours, so that's high praise! We tried three kinds of beer during the tasting, all of which he liked: Magnum Dry, Malt's, and especially Premium Malt's: http://www.suntory.co.jp/beer/premium/index.html We took home one of their new ones that wasn't on tap, Akairono Houjun Table Beer, which he loved: http://www.suntory.co.jp/beer/tablebeer/index.html Other favourites: Kinga Kogen Beer: http://www.gingakogenbeer.com/index.html The autumn beers: http://www.suntory.co.jp/beer/akinama/index2.html http://www.kirin.co.jp/brands/akiaji/flash.html And a whole bunch more that we'll never be able to remember. I told him to keep the bottles/cans of stuff that was especially good, but I think the maids just kept throwing them out. Oh well. Hope some of you in/ coming to Japan can try some of these!

I asked for the Jambalaya Burger last week but they didn't have it yet. Despite the fact that the place was plastered with posters for it. A few days later I ventured into a McDonalds for the first time in months just to get the yomogi-anko maki, which was displayed on a sign outside the shop. It wasn't on the menu yet. WHY do they do that???

What on earth is citrus canker??

I agree that simple is better when it comes to chirashi-zushi. I really like lotus root, shiitake, ikura, and abura-age. Shredded omelette and seafood like cooked shrimp or unagi are nice touches too; anything else is just there. Somehow I don't care for sashimi or pickles. The very best chirashi-zushi I've ever had didn't come from a store, it was made by the woman who runs the English school where I teach. Now that I think about it, it's made me kind of picky about chirashi-zushi. I guess that's why I almost never order/buy it- it's never as good as the one my boss makes.

But there's nothing wrong with the idea itself of a 'correct' way to eat sushi. This is a traditional dish that has been developed and refined over centuries. It is (or it should be) lovingly and painstakingly prepared, using top quality ingredients. It only makes sense that you'd want to eat it in a way that best enhances its flavour. You're dealing, after all, with raw fish (mostly). This is stuff that has subtle, delicate flavours and an incredible variety of textures. Adding wasabi to something that doesn't go well with it, or adding too much wasabi to something that goes with just a little, can completely mask those flavours. And adding enough to numb your tonge will prevent you from enjoying the texture. The chef knows which toppings go with wasabi, and he knows just how much to add. If, after experimenting, you genuinely like lots of wasabi with everything, then go ahead and mix it into your soy sauce. Go nuts. You're paying for it, after all. But if you are only adding wasabi to your soy sauce because everybody else seems to, or because that's how you were taught ages ago and it's become a habit, then you should try skipping the wasabi at least once. You might discover that you actually like being able to taste your sushi.

Sounds like 'himono'. Just grill it, and if it's fatty serve it with a little mound of grated daikon on the side (and or grated ginger). Both the fish and the daikon can be sprinkled with soy sauce if needed.

I don't stuff abura-age with anything, except mochi for oden. But I've been inspired to try! Usually it gets sliced into strips and added to miso soup, or simmered with spinach, komatsuna or green beans. I love the texture! Now I have a HUGE craving for inari-zushi...

A simple Japanese meal last night, after a few weeks of heavy stuff: Salad of spinach, 'mizuna' greens and tomatoes Grilled eggplants topped with katsuo-bushi (bonito flakes) and grated ginger 'Chikuwa' fishcake sauteed with negi and mentaiko (spicy cod roe) Natto with raw quail's egg Miso soup with green beens, okra and myoga Rice for my husband (none for me- don't need all those carbs at 10pm!)

Courses often follow this basic pattern: zensai (appetizers) suimono (clear soup) tsukuri (sashimi) yakimono (grilled dish) mushimono (steamed dish) nimono (simmered dish) agemono (deep-fried dish) aemono (dressed dish) or sunomono (vinegared dish) shokuji ('meal', usually rice, pickles and soup- this is where you can have your miso soup if you want it) Many restaurants don't bother to follow this exactly, and you don't have to either. But you can keep the basic progression. The zensai course can include more than one appetizer, and it's OK if it's sashimi or a grilled dish, even if you're including the tsukuri and yakimono courses later. Just try to have as many styles of cooking as possible, try not to repeat them more than twice (no more than two grilled dishes) and also try not to repeat the ingredients too much. Here are two sample menus (If you need specific recipes, I'm sure we can help!): hiya-yakko edamame suimono with myouga and shrimp katsuo-tataki gyuniku hoba-yaki sake-steamed abalone or other shellfish simmered eggplants deep-fried chicken stuffed with shiso and ume sunomono of wakame, cucumber and octopus chilled somen noodles strawberries on snow aemono of edamame (out of pods), cucumber, myoga, green pepper and wakame una-maki- thick omelet rolled with unagi suimono with seabass or other fish, harusame noodles garnished with yuzu peel seasonal sashimi gyu-tataki grilled eggplants agedashi-tofu green beans dressed with sesame rice, pickles and white miso soup with green beans and myoga fresh seasonal fruit or yuzu sherbet You can mix and match some courses and take out or add others. Some dishes I've missed include: grilled seasonal fish like ayu (sweetfish) or aji (horse mackerel), unagi (grilled eel), and anything using kabocha (pumpkin), shishito, tomatoes and okra. By the way, I've never made such a big fancy meal myself, so all these ideas do NOT come from experience. Just me dreaming. Please feel free to ignore this advice and just cook whatever you want! I'm sure it will be excellent.

That's a much better suggestion than hoba-yaki, more summery. Anyway, the hoba leaves might be hard to find. But wait! Would gyu-tataki be considered sashimi or yakimono???

That's a much better suggestion than hoba-yaki, more summery. Anyway, the hoba leaves might be hard to find.

Jackal, sounds like fun! I agree with Torakris- forget the nabe, serve edamame, and try to include a few seasonal items. Not fruit (stick with the 'strawberries in snow' for dessert- sounds nice) (Actually, what is it?)- think summer vegetables and seasonings, think cool and light. Be sure to check out the summer Japanese food thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=19&t=23071& Hiya-yakko is a good idea, but if your guests can't stomach raw cold tofu then deep-fry it as agedashi-dofu (even tofu haters like this!) and try other summer dishes like grilled eggplants, katsuo tataki, unagi, cold noodles etc. You'll also want to skip the gyoza if you're going for traditional Japanese. Gyoza are eaten out as Chinese, if at home they are often the main dish or are part of a really simple casual meal. And if you really want to impress try a clear suimono instead of miso soup. As for the beef, hoba-yaki would be a nice choice. It's cubes of beef in a miso sauce, placed on a 'hoba' leaf and grilled.

A good portion of my kitchen stuff came from the 100yen shop (like a dollar store, only better). With a few exceptions (knives!) 100yen shop stuff works great. The best buys: Wooden cutting boards. I have a few thin wooden cutting boards to suppliment my big sturdy one (not from the 100yen shop but cheap anyway) and they work fine. Dishes. Japanese (and Chinese) food needs a lot of little dishes! It would have cost me a fortune to buy all my dishes at a regular store, so they were all (except for gifts) from the 100yen shop. Most of the dishes there are tacky, so when cool ones come in I buy lots because they sell out fast. The ones I can't use make great souvenirs. Chopsticks. Box graters. Mine has a nifty suction cup on the bottom so it won't wiggle around so much while being used. Sponges and kitchen towels. Not from the 100yen shop, but my bamboo steamers are awesome. They're trimmed with decorative metal so they were a bit more than the usual cheapo steamers. But still cheap. The metal not only looks very cool but serves to reinforce the thin bamboo. Should last me years.