smallworld

It was HOT Saturday! How do you use your oven without heating up the whole house? Do you use it all summer? Once August hits we usually eat out if we want something hot.

Fancy breakfasts are for special occasions only. Just now I had: Plums. Three of them them. Three different kinds of plums! (It's plum season now, why not go nuts?) Stong iced coffee with milk. Later, I might have a small bowl of brown rice flakes with raisins, sliced almonds and skim milk. And more plums.

We decided to start putting our tiny yard (actually it's pretty big by Tokyo standards, but tiny anywhere else) to use, after finally admitting defeat on the gardening front (over three years here and everything I plant dies!). We bought a cool bamboo bench and a cheapo hibachi, and last night our very first backyard meal was: Grilled veggies (bell peppers, eggplant, 'eringi' mushrooms) and tomatoes marinated in olive oil and dressed with basil, feta and black olives Jerk chicken Sekihan (store-bought), a Japanese rice dish made with beans. It was a nice substitution for Jamaican 'rice and peas'. I also had green beans ready for sauteeing and corn waiting to be shucked and boiled. But the romance of bbqing under the stars, plus several glasses of a nice German Riesling, rendered me lazy and useless...

Looks like I've got a project! Will make niboshi dashi twice, once complete with heads and guts, once without. Will taste, get husband to taste, and report back.

My first Dinner post! Last night: Steamed stuffed tofu, served on bok choy (the stuffing was a mixture of minced shrimp, green onions, shiitake etc- similar to shrimp dumplings) Spicy stir-fried shrimp and broccoli (yep, shrimp were on sale) 'Dan-dan men', thin egg noodles in a spicy broth topped with spicy minced pork Yebisu Beer Sakurambo cherries for dessert

They do the bamboo somen nagashi at summer festivals- it looks so fun! There are lots of small bamboo forests around where I live, so sometimes I'll see families setting up somen nagashi in their courtyards- one time I really wished I was friendlier with the neighbors! This won't happen for a month or so, right now the bamboo are being harvested for Tanabata. A useful plant, bamboo!

Mayonnaise Kitchen sounds horrible! But I think it's a great idea- maybe it will keep the 'mayora' out of the regular restaurants so the cooks won't surprise us normal people by slopping mayonnaise all over everything. I'll never forget a couple of years ago, when we ordered a whole grilled squid at an izakaya. It was a chain place with the standard picture menu, and neither the picture or the name of the dish gave any indication of what was to come- a beautifully grilled squid covered with mayonnaise! And not just a little dollop on the side, but that horrible criss-cross pattern, rendering it all inedible.

Here is a recipe for a simple and classic summer dish, somen. This tsuyu is my favourite for somen- it is richer and mellower than bottled mentsuyu and all-purpose mentsuyu recipes. Tsuyu: Place in a pan: 400mL (2 Japanese cups) water 15g (1/2 oz) bonito flakes 100mL (1/2 Jcup) mirin 100mL (1/2 Jcup) light soy sauce Dash salt Bring to boil on high heat, lower to medium and cook for a minute skimming off any scum. Turn off heat. Let stand until cool, chill in the refrigerator and strain. Serve cold in small bowls or cups, with extra in a small bottle or pitcher. Somen: Bring a large pot of water to boil, add somen and stir well so they don't stick together. As soon as the water comes to a boil (this happens very fast) drain the noodles in a colander and poor cold water (from the tap is fine) over the noodles, then transfer them to a bowl of cold water. Rub them well (the chilling and rubbing are important to make the texture firm and remove stickiness), drain. Serve in a large bowl with cracked ice. Toppings: Your choice of a few (or all!) of the following: Thinly sliced shiso, myoga, green onions, cucumbers; sesame seeds; shichimi (seven-spice mix); grated ginger; kaiware-na (daikon sprouts); katsuo-bushi; thinly sliced omelette; small slices of unagi; or pretty much anything that suits your fancy. Arrange them into small bowls. Eating: Add whatever toppings you like to your small bowl tsuyu, grab a chopstick full of somen from the big bowl and dip them into your tsuyu. Add more tsuyu and toppings to your bowl as needed.

Edamame, of course!! And also unagi, ayu, aji and katsuo. Eggplants, cucumbers, shishito, shiso, okra and myoga are now available year-round, but I still like them best in the summer. Ultimate summer menu: Fresh edamame A simple aemono of myoga, cucumber and wakame Grilled eggplants topped with lots of ginger and katsuo-bushi Hiya-yako (topped maybe with a mixture of shiso, mentaiko and sesame oil) Katsuo-tataki All washed down with with lots of ice-cold Ebisu beer or mugi-cha, and followed with: Ume-shiso gohan (or maybe Kristin's tomato-don!) Or (more likely- who has the energy to make all the above in the heat??) A giant icy glass bowl of somen

I pretty much agree, about the cream and cheese (though cheese- even the processed kind- is great in any of the deep-fried or pan-fried Japanese foods). I've never tried it, but I've seen a recipe for miso soup with milk. Ugh! One of my favourite nabes, Ishikari Nabe, is tame by comparison- a dashi-based miso broth with seafood (always salmon and sometimes other stuff like scallops, uni, ikura), tofu, and veggies. It is usually topped with a big dallop of butter. Butter and miso are a great combination!

An article from this Sunday's Japan Times about soy products in Japan: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getart...l20030622a1.htm

I'm not sure, but it could be 'kikurage', also called 'cloud ear fungus' in English. It is used in Chinese cooking especially, but also in Japan (and other Asian countries most likely). Is it black and kind of curly? Fresh sounds great- we usually buy it dried in Japan. I really love kikurage- not for it's taste (it's pretty much tasteless) but for it's crunchy texture.

Goyatofu, I'm not much of a baker so I've never heard of 'strongest flour' (saikyouryoku-ko?). It sounds you may be right in identifying it as high-gluten bread flour, but it seems like it may be mainly for professional use- anybody know? The 'strong flour' (‹­—Í•² kyouroyoku-ko) you mention is usually translated as 'hard flour' and the same (I think) as all-purpose flour. This is what most people use for bread and rolls at home. There is also 'soft flour' (”–—Í•² hakuriki-ko), which is cake flour. I think mizuame is just sugar syrup, and it probably is possible to make it. But you might want to try buying it at a Japanese market for your first few tries, just to get used to it and make sure the thickness is right.

Thanks Texan, Inventolux and Kristin for the tips! The whole idea of recycling kitchen stuff is really interesting to me. Might make a good thread (in the general food section?)!

Finally found it, and a very pretty magazine it is! I will use some of the recipes for sure, and the guide to 'ethnic' shops will be useful. Just a few gripes- as is typical with Japanese magazines, the line between editorial and advertisement is very very thin. There are several ads that look exactly like editorials- the same typeface, same beautiful layout, cut-out recipe cards, even credits given for photographers and stylists. But on close inspection they turn out to be paid ads. Also, the use of the English word 'ethnic', as in 'ethnic ryouri' is a huge pet peeve of mine! In Japan it means spicy food, especially spicy Asian food. I suppose it's slightly better than the term it seems to be replacing- 'Asian ryouri' (which is used to describe spicy South East Asian food, but is ridiculous considering Japan IS an Asain country). Still, something about the word just rubs me the wrong way- maybe because where I come from, Japanese food is every bit as 'ethnic' as Indian? I expected the magazine to be a little bit, I don't know, less Japanese? But other than a few minor complaints, it's a great magazine and I can't wait for the next one.

I've been checking the pickle aisles of all my local supermarkets (I usually do, since pickled garlic- the shoyu flavour only- are one the few pickles my husband will eat). But no luck- not a pink pickled garlic to be seen! I'm venturing out of the suburbs today so I'll have to pop into a good depachika- this shiso-garlic really has me intrigued!

My picky husband doesn't like umeboshi (or anything sour) so I rarely get to eat it. Usually I'll just stick one in my ocha-zuke. My very favourite thing to do with umeboshi is 'jako iri ume-shiso gohan'- thinly sliced shiso, chopped ume and chiremen-jako mixed with hot rice.

First, the differences between 'vaiking' and 'tabehoudai'. I think 'vaiking' (it seems 'smorgasbord' is too long and hard to pronounce) is always a self-serve buffet consisting of already prepared food. It usually has a big variety of food, not just one specific type. Often found at hotel restaurants, . 'Tabehoudai' food can be either self-served from a buffet or ordered and brought to your table, and is usually a specific type of food. Sometimes, like at a yakiniku tabehoudai, the food comes raw and you prepare it at your table. I think 'vaiking' is seen as an old-fashioned word, so a few years ago 'tabehoudai' started to replace it in many cases, regardless of the type of place. (These days 'buffet' has been a common way of describing what were formerly 'vaiking' restaurants. It is one of those newer foreign loan words that hasn't become 'standardized' yet, meaning there are several different procounciations: 'bu-fay', 'biew-fay' with a 'bu' that rhymes with 'view', 'ba-feeto' and 'bu-fayto with the 't' pronounced.) I used to eat tabehoudai all the time, but it's kind of lost its novelty. And most of the time the food is not that great either. It took a while to learn the obvious: that it's better to eat a modest amount of really good food than to eat lots of mediocre food. That said, there ARE some good tabehoudai out there. Places that are regular restaurants but serve tabehoudai at certain times or days are usually better than places that are tabehoudai only. Our favourite all-you-can-eat place is a kushi-age tabehoudai restaurant. You pick up your skewered food at the counter then dip them and deep fry them at your table. The skewers aren't fancy, but hey- anything deep-fried is good, right? And this place IS good!

I've always wondered why takuan is so common in N. American Japanese restaurants. Maybe because it keeps better than other pickles? It is usually awful! The natural nukazuke takuan is so much better, I won't even eat the bright yellow kind anymore. Pink garlic? I've never seen this- can you describe it more? I have to agree that sometimes food can be over coloured here. Beni-shouga is such a weird colour! But I have to admit, when sprinkled on yaki-soba, which is usually all brown, it looks really nice.

Not as fine dining. 'Family restaurants' tend to have a bit of everything, but most diners will simply order sets rather than a la carte. Few people go to family restaurants because the food is good, most often it is because of the variety of food. The menu has something for everyone, so all members of a group or family can find something they like. The name 'family restaurant' is a really fitting name (a rare example of spot-on Japanese English!). I think that is a very typical order. Start with sashimi or cooked (but cold) appetizers, on to more substantial dishes, then finishing with rice. It's interesting that you see the final course as being raw- I imagine Nobu doesn't see it that way at all- he must see it as a rice dish,@and thus a very fitting way to end a meal (and besides, sushi isn't really considered a raw food- the rice is cooked and so are many of the toppings). You probably don't need to worry so much about the sequence of your order. At family restaurants (the closest thing in Japan to N. American Japanese restaurants) almost everyone just orders in sets. Izakaya-style ordering (I guess izakaya are the second-closest things to the Japanese restaurants in the west) would be good- sashimi and lighter food first and then on to more main-dish type things. Sushi could be considered a main dish, if so there is no need to finish the meal with rice. Or you could save the sushi until the end. Both would be totally fine. Dessert is optional and the drinks should flow right on through until the end (usually alcohol is not consumed at the same time as rice, but sushi is an exception).

Sushi is normally eaten at sushi restaurants only, and won't show up during a course at, say, an eel restaurant. I've rarely been to 'real' sushi restaurants so I can't say for sure, but usually some sashimi and little appetizers (cooked seafood, dressed veggies etc.) are ordered before the sushi begins. The meal ends with tea. For normal middle-class folks sushi is mostly eaten at 'kaiten-zushi' (cheap conveyer belt sushi places), delivered, or bought as take-out, in which case it's just sushi and maybe a bowl of soup. Kristin's order is right on, but at least in my experience that kind of multi-course eating is for special occasions only. Izakaya-style eating (eating appetizer/snack type food while drinking alcohol) is more common, I think. We just order induvidual dishes a la carte, with no real order. Sashimi and lighter fare will often be ordered first, but it really depends on the diners. When we've had enough we usually order rice, often with soup and pickles, and switch from alcohol to tea. When drinking at a soba shop (many soba shops become izakaya at night) it's the same pattern, with soba ending the meal rather than rice, soup and pickles.

'Oshinko' is the Japanese word for pickles. The yellow one you mention is just one kind of oshinko, it's actual name (from the sound of it) is 'takuan'. Takuan is pickled daikon, the yellow colour comes from turmeric. Takuan is one of the most common Japanese pickles; it keeps for a long time and well-made examples have a great texture. It is more likely to be specificly called 'takuan' and not the more general 'oshinko', so I'm surprised you knew it as 'oshinko'. I think it's more usual for quick pickles, meant to be eaten within a few days, to be given the vague name of 'oshinko'. Quick-pickled cucumbers and 'kabu' turnips are common 'oshinko'. A confusing explanation! Hopefully Kristin will be along soon to set things straight.

I have a rule about the cheapo cooking mags- I won't buy one unless I have flipped through the whole thing (and I love how you're allowed to do that in Japan!) and found at least two recipes that actually look good. And it usually turns out that, even after going through the whole magazine again a few times at home, those were the only two good recipes. I learned how to cook Japanese with Kyo No Ryouri, and I really improved my Japanese reading (at least my food Japanese) by watching the TV show and reading the mag at the same time. So I still like it and always will, if only out of gratefulness.

Thanks Kristen, I'll check it out the next time I'm in the area (which most likely won't be for months!!). I went to National Azabu and Kinokuniya a few years ago. No perogies, everything was really expensive, and there really wasn't much that I couldn't get at my local import shops. So I assumed that Nissin was the same- guess I've been missing out! And MatthewB, Thanks alot! Now I'm craving pho too!!

8 issues and I've never even heard of it? I suppose I'll have to venture into an actual bookstore to find it- doubt it will be showing up at the magazine rack of my local supa!