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smallworld

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Everything posted by smallworld

  1. Furikake on popcorn! Genius. I'd never heard of that, so thanks for sharing. Jason, just wondering though: how do you get the furikake to stick to the popcorn? At what stage of popping do you add it? Sesame oil is another great idea. Popcorn just takes a few minutes to pop-- do you really think the flavour would disappear in such a short time? Totally off-topic, but here is our nifty popcorn maker in action. Bought in Japan from an online outdoor goods shop (I can't imagine lugging this contraption along for a camping trip though).
  2. Akita? Then you'll probably be eating kiritampo nabe- lucky you! Check the Akita thread for info about local specialties. I'd never heard of Ukai Chikutei, but it looks nice. You're right, it does serve kaiseki and seems a little fancier than Ukai Toriyama. Ekiben festivals are quite common at department stores. Ekiben are fun but expensive, and I've found myself disappointed in them a few times. I think ekiben are far better eaten on a train! Keep us updated on your plans, Cookaburra.
  3. Great topic! I use bottled mentsuyu and ponzu in all kinds of sauces, marinades and dressings. Ponzu and olive oil go really well together and make a great dressing for salads or cooked vegetables, especially potatoes and broccoli. Shiso is nice in fresh spring rolls, and mitsuba and mizuna are great in salads and sandwiches. Shelled edamame replace peas in soups and rice dishes. I substitute cooked soy beans for other beans in minestrone, chilli and the like. I also use Japanese rice to make risotto. It has the right amount of starch and the final result is not all that different from arborio. It is also cheaper and a heck of a lot easier to find than imported Italian rice.
  4. Oh, chankonabe is a great suggestion! There are a number of chankonabe restaurants in Tokyo run by former sumo wrestlers, mostly in Ryogoku (where the sumo stadium is). I think there's a sumo tournament in January, so you could watch sumo and follow that with a chanko dinner. If you don't manage to get sumo tickets, Ryogoku has an excellent museum (Edo Tokyo Museum) that is definitely worth a visit if you have any interest in the history of Tokyo. Two more nabe places are in the Kanda Awajicho area: Botan, serving tori-suki (sukiyaki made with chicken instead of beef) and Isegen, which specializes in ankou-nabe (nabe made with monkfish/angler fish). I've been to Isegen and had the full course, with monkfish served in a variety of ways. I really enjoyed it. Both places are housed in charming old buildings and offer food that is hard to find elsewhere. The neighborhood has a couple famous old soba shops (Yabusoba and Matsuya) and a Japanese sweets shop (Takemura), so you could start the evening with an appetizer of soba, move on to nabe, and finish up with dessert at Takemura. The place is known for its age-maju (deep-fried mochi filled with red bean jam) and oshiruko (sweet red bean soup) and the tea they serve changes each month to reflect the season. A visit to any of these places is highly recommended. I have no idea what foods here are not available in Australia, but perhaps unagi, anago and dojo (freshwater eel, conger eel, and loach) fit the bill? Tokyo has good restaurants serving all three, and I think Asakusa is especially well-known, especially for dojo. It's an area you will almost for sure be going to anyway since it is the home of Asakusa Jinja, perhaps Tokyo's best-loved tourist spot. Hokke is another fish hard to find elsewhere, and although it's caught in Hokkaido you can find it all over Japan. Tokyo is known for its tsukudani (seaweed and seafood simmered with soy sauce and mirin). The airport and department store basements are easy places to find it. It lasts a long time so is a good thing to bring back home with you. You will probably also be able to find excellent local seafood (and seaweed) in Northern Honshu. Any idea where exactly the tour will take you? You may have to go to Kamakura for Shojin ryouri, which is OK because it's a lovely day/overnight trip from Tokyo. Don't know too much about sake, I'm afraid. But the Tokyo Food Page has info about sake retailers and sake pubs. Again, your Northern Honshu tour might offer some sake possibilities. Ukai Toriyama is not a Ryotei. I've never been to one- they are extremely expensive and many don't serve walk-ins, prefering costumers to be introduced.
  5. Filo dough?? Thanks for the info! Frozen strawberries are really hard to find. None of the supermarkets near my old apartment had them, and we're talking about 7 or 8 different places. My new apartment, just a 30-minute bike ride away, has 2 or 3 supermarkets nearby that sell frozen strawberries. Weird. One of them is Summit (it also sells frozen raspberries, blueberries, mangoes and pineapples!), but the Summit near my old place didn't have them. I've also seen them occasionally at 100 Yen/99 Yen shops, but they're always gone by the time I go back for more. Friends in Osaka say frozen strawberries are sold everywhere. I don't get it-- why are they so hard to find in Tokyo? All I can recommend is check every single supermarket/100 Yen shop/department store in your area and you just might luck out. And luckily, the fresh strawberry season is just beginning-- yay!
  6. I third the Ukai Toriyama suggestion. It's not exactly kaiseki but the food is good and the overall experience is fantastic. A bit hard to get to, but it is near Mount Takao so you can make a full day of it. The mountain (more of a big hill, really) is beautiful, has a unique history, and views of Tokyo and Mt. Fuji from the top. You can do an easy hike to the top, or take a cable car. Plan it well and you can get two meals out of the trip- Takao is known for its yamaimo (mountain yam). The two most popular dishes are mugitoro (grated yamaimo poured over barley rice) and tororo soba (soba noodles with grated yamaimo). The base of the mountain has several soba shops offering mugitoro and tororo soba, I recommend Takahashiya (Japanese). Ukai Toriyama is very popular though, and you'll be there in a very busy season, so I'd recommend you make a reservation soon. If it doesn't work out try Kurochaya, which is similar but a bit more rustic, and not too far from Fuchu. Kurochaya's website is here. The English page doesn't seem to be working, but check out the Japanese pages for the pictures. You should also do a morning visit to Tsukiji fish market, and follow that with a sushi breakfast. No specific restaurant to recommend, but they are all priced more reasonably than what you'd pay for a lunch or dinner elsewhere. And extremely fresh. There's no longer any special need to go to Tsukiji super early, since the tuna auctions are now closed to the public. But the place is still better the earlier you go, so you might want to do it when you're staying in Shinjuku- it's a quick subway ride away. In Kichijoji, a cheap and fun meal is fry-it-yourself kushi-age (deep-fried food on skewers) at Kushiya. You choose the skewers you want from a buffet and fry them in a vat of oil at your table. Not haute cuisine, but loads of fun and costs a fraction of what you'd pay at fancier kushi-age restaurants (2500 Yen for all-you-can-eat). Here is a coupon for 500 Yen off. Do check out previous threads about Tokyo recommendations too, there's a lot of good stuff. Links anyone?
  7. I have. Pyrex was all I could find locally (I'm in Japan, not a big home-baking country). It worked just fine, and I loved that I could watch the bread bake through the oven window. The Pyrex was brand-new though-- wouldn't want to use anything that was old and worn. I'll keep looking for a proper oven-safe pot though (this is a great excuse to finally buy Le Creuset). I have a bunch of questions (as a non-baker without access to the right equipment and ingredients), so I'll write a proper post when I get the time.
  8. Ooops! Forgot the link. The Metropolis Thanksgiving list is here. Thanks, Thelobster. Yup, the Hilton's buffet is more expensive, but it includes coffee or tea. So factoring in drinks it may be cheaper than Roti or Beacon. I've actually been to one of the Hilton's lunch buffets before and was impressed. Pricey but totally worth the money. I think Roti is a bit over-rated, and I really hate the service there. So with the fancy hotel-style service and live jazz (I can do without the wandering magician, though!) I think I'll shell out the extra few hundred extra yen and go to the Hilton.
  9. This week's Metropolis has a list of restaurants offering Thanksgiving dinners. My husband and I will probably be going to the Hilton lunch buffet.
  10. It sounds delicious though. If I ever see a small bottle of the stuff (same fridge issues as you) I'll be buying it.
  11. That's what I did a few years ago- just put them straight into the nabe. They were quite hard and chewy, and less sticky than Japanese mochi. I liked them, but now I'm wondering if I did it wrong! Or maybe the kind sold in Japan isn't dried? I don't remember the package saying anything about rehydrating them (but then again I don't always read the packages carefully).
  12. Thanks for clarifying. In North America, HFCS has replaced other sweetners so quietly and insidiously that I'm sure most people there don't know what it is either. But it does have a fair number of people worried about its effects. Strange that it should be so completely uncontroversial in Japan. Ogkadansha, I imagine both the smell and the texture make corn tortillas an acquired taste here. Also, keep in mind Mexican food is most likely being introduced to Japan via America and other countries, where flour tortillas are more popular than corn.
  13. Interesting. I find "white liquor" to have strong funky flavours, so I usually use a smooth vodka instead. But sake? I've always assumed that umeshu (or any kind of fruit liqueur) requires a spirit with a high alcohol content. As in hard liquor. Isn't that necessary to prevent the ume from going off while steeping, and to ensure that the finished product will have a long shelf life? How long does umeshu made with sake keep? Does it require refrigeration? Will the flavours develop as it ages, like regular umeshu?
  14. Thanks for the replies. Just to clarify, I was asking about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is different from corn syrup. While corn syrup is hardly a health food, many people believe that HFCS is a harmful additive that causes a range of health problems, including obesity. I'm not sure if I believe HFCS is the evil substance it is made out to be, but it is certanily not something I want to consume very much of. Unfortunately, vaguely labeled sweetners are present in a huge array of products here. This is hardly surprising for stuff like sweet drinks and snacks, of course. But when I'm at the local supermarket and every single brand of bacon (or bread, or other non-sweet food) contains several kinds of unidentifiable sweetners, it's annoying. I'm not sure what you mean by this, Hiroyuki. Do you mean that it's not a problem because it isn't highly used, or because it's not harmful, or because people aren't concerned about it?
  15. A friend taught me a great way to prepare sardines, and it works for other canned fish (plain versions like mizuni only) as well: Remove the lid, drain the oil/liquid, splash with a little ponzu or soy sauce and sprinkle with sashimi. Then stick the can in the fish toaster/toaster oven and toast until the fish is browned on top. Put the can on a plate (handle with care!) and serve. So simple and it really makes the fish taste great.
  16. Well I'm glad this came up because I've been meaning to ask about it for a while. I've never seen HFCS listed on an ingredient label here. Does it go by other names? Or is it allowed to be called "mizuame"? And what's up with this "origotou"? I've had a hard time figuring out what it is, but as far as I can tell it's simply beet sugar. Which is certainly not the low-calorie health food that it's touted to be.
  17. OK. I think I have a fairly good understanding of Japanese cuisine. Perhaps even better than my understanding of Canadian cuisine (I still struggle for an answer when people ask me to describe Canadian food). But not growing up in Japan is a major handicap, since a familiarity of Japanese homecooking is vital to the understanding of the cuisine. The number of regular home-cooked meals I've had here can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The very few times I've eaten at a Japanese person's home have been special occasions where special food was served, and this includes at my in-law's house. So not only do I not know how home-style foods are supposed to taste, I have no idea how to serve them: what dishes should be used for what foods, what side the soup bowl should be on, what food matches with what, what direction a whole fish should face, etc. What did I think of Japanese cuisine before I came? I knew very little about it but was eager to learn. I already enjoyed exploring new cuisines, and loved Chinese and South-east Asian food. And as a former vegetarian I was familiar with quite a few Japanese ingredients, like tofu and its various forms, miso, soba and seaweeds. Naturally I assumed that the Japanese were fish-eating vegetarians! How did I learn about Japanese cuisine? Eating out lots and buying a few good English-language cookbooks was a start. But what really helped was watching Japanese cooking shows and using recipes from Japanese food magazines and cookbooks. I'm still learning though, and would like to improve my knowledge not only of home-cooking, but of the regional cuisines. I went on a cross-country tour of Japan earlier this year and was just amazed at the differences between regions. If travel was cheaper in Japan I'd be touring the country every weekend trying the various regional specialties...
  18. Yes, Japanese cuisine is misunderstood in my home country of Canada, and probably most other countries as well. But then again, there are few cuisines that are fully understood outside their native territories. I seriously doubt the average Canadian really understands Spanish or Cajun food, for example. In fact, even familiar cuisines like Italian and Mexican are terribly misunderstood. But the thing is, restaurants serving authentic cuisines do exist in most big cities in Canada (and I assume the US as well). So if people want to get a fuller understanding of almost any cuisine, they can. Except Japanese. Most Japanese restaurants, whether owned by Japanese or not, prefer to offer a very limited menu of westernized Japanese food. I don't know if this is because most diners aren't interested in authentic Japanese food, or if the restaurant owners think most diners aren't interested in authentic Japanese food. But in any case, I think much of the blame for the misunderstanding of Japanese cuisine lies with the restaurants.
  19. No, seishu is just another word for sake. I'm not sure, but I get the impression that when a recipe calls for "seishu" instead of "sake", it means you should use a proper drinking sake (rather than cheap cooking sake).
  20. Thanks Mallet, that seems to be it. Except that there were two, and one of them was way too big be of any use as a tongue. As revolting as they are, I can't help but admire the evolutionary perfection of this parasitic relationship. The Darwin quote was very appropriate. Easy for you to say! You didn't find it in a fish you just ate. But I suppose I'm lucky. You know what they say- the only thing worse than finding a cymothoa exigua in your fish is finding half a cymothoa exigua...
  21. What about that one that brain-eating parasite that can be found in salmon? I'm sure everyone heard about that guy who ate salmon sashimi every day - some time later after getting severe headaches they cracked his skull open and found some evil worm parasites on his brain. Not trying to scare anyone though.... I'm just saying. I think they're actually pretty rare. I heard that wasabi could kill them. ← Are you sure?? I don't think I have heard of such a parasite... I did some googling but found none that matches your description. Are you talking about a parasite called broad fish tapeworm, broad tapeworm, or diphyllobothrium latum (don't ask me how to pronounce it) by any chance? It's not a brain-eating parasite, though. ← Nope. I think Tantan was referring to an urban myth that was circulating around the internet a few years back. A grotesque picture showed the inside of a man's skull crawling with worms. Although the picture was real, that caption that accompanied it (claiming the worms were the result of eating sushi) was made up.
  22. Thanks for the replies! Yup, that's it. Tainoe, huh? Never heard of it or encountered one before. Anyone else? I couldn't find anything in the links about safety. Seeing as my husband and I are still alive this morning, I'll assume everything's OK. But I'm still really disturbed by the whole thing. I think I'll be stearing clear of whole fish for a while... Jgm, do mean do a search of eGullet? Will do. Tried searching the net but didn't come up with anything.
  23. I made a very unpleasant discovery after dinner tonight. I had scaled and gutted a small sea bream and then poached it whole. Filleted after cooking, leaving bones and head in the cooking pan. After dinner I decided to pick through the head to retrieve the cheeks, and I got horrible, horrible shock. Inside the head, near the gills, were two nasty creatures that looked like-- well, I'm not sure as I've never seen anything like it. Imagine a large beetle larvae crossed with a mantis shrimp. Then imagine it 10X nastier, and you're getting close. Now, I have a fairly high tolerance for grossness-- I love bugs, have no problem gutting a fish. But I was so revolted by these creatures that I felt nauseous, and now I'm getting worried. Very very glad I didn't serve the fish whole, as discovering them at the table would have been far worse. So what on earth were they? The fish's last meal? Parasites? Do they pose any danger? Should I contact the store I bought them (to warn them/ask for my money back)? If it helps, this was a small sea bream, about 20cm. The Japanese label said "tai", and I don't remember the country of origin or whether or not it was farmed. I was disappointed at the taste of the fish-- too soft, almost mushy. And distinctly fishy, even though it appeared very fresh. (No idea if the taste of the fish would be affected by these creatures, just an observation.) The creatures were inside the head, around the throat or gills. One about 5cm, the other .5cm, both white. Any help would be appreciated!
  24. The Summit chain of supermarkets (might be Tokyo only) carry fresh lamb-- two kinds of chops, thin slices, and cubed stew meat. Good, fresh and not too expensive.
  25. Ramen. Although I'm not sure what kind of Chinese noodles ramen was originally based on, so I can't truthfully say it's an improvement on the original.
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