helenjp

Oh right, here's a Japanese one... "Resentments based on food run deep." (Kuimono no urami wa fukai). My husband and I used to work in an inbound travel agency, where we frequently had to field comments from tourists who felt that their frozen green peas weren't a patch on the frozen green peas the tourists at the table next door were getting...

Thanks for the new picture showing the chiles! It's not your fault though, my monitor is stubbornly dark no matter how I set it. Seeing the seasonings before the final dish makes it possible to almost smell that Chile Colorado. Look forward to seeing that Peach Crisp, too. You probably don't believe me, but sourdough pancakes, chile and beans, peach crisp, kraft dinners...are all things I've read about in books, but never seen actually on somebody's table! I'm having a nice little tour here!

I'm enjoying guessing what your "dinner started" photos are going to be! Is that black shiny thing on the right a plastic bag? I guess it would taste better with plenty of garlic...? Bubble tea certainly was big in Japan about 2 years ago, but this is the land of the fad - none to be seen this year!

Well, practically! If she added them to congee instead of oatmeal, you wouldn't sneer, would you? I have a great sympathy with your mother's cross-cultural making do. Here in Japan, I like buttered toast, like the good Kiwi I am...spread with cold bean jam!

Does stuff you make badly all by yourself count? I'm too impatient to soften the butter for a quick tomato sandwich, so I end up with a sandwich consisting of alternating lumps of tomato and butter, with gaps that allow the tomato juice to sog right into the bread. It's a texture that requires a fair bit of black pepper to get it back into "food" territory, but every mouthful is a surprise...

Japanese curry didn't get here from India - it's basically a curry-flavored Edwardian British white-sauce. If you think of it that way, the whole "roux" thing makes perfect sense.

Having a great read of this...my grandmother's scone method checks with that described by Varmint and by Suvir Saran...she would "knead" or turn the dough 3 times, and felt that while that was essential, any more kneading would make them tough. She also used the "bake close together, at the top of a hot oven" method for everyday scones, and brushed them with milk before baking. In New Zealand, our flour is pretty soft anyway, so most people used an all-purpose flour or mixed it half and half with cake flour. She used butter, which is normal for scones. My mother used a melt-and-mix method which did produce the softer, cakier texture she preferred, but I found tended to get very stodgy in the mouth. The one thing they agreed on was that the milk should be soured in some way, even by adding a spoonful of vinegar if necessary.

My students were sharing out a pack of those crunchy sour individually wrapped umeboshi in class yesterday, trying to beat the heat in our unairconditioned classroom. The first big batch of this year's umeboshi is due to finish drying and be packed into barrels today! They're reeeeally sour and salty at this point, give 'em a year or three and they'll mellow considerably.

Thanks a lot...and you're a brave blogger to bare your kitchen !

What? Barely got one foot out of the airplane, and craving ochazuke already?! Dashi chazuke used to be a favorite at the expensive restaurants my first father in law used to take us too occasionally, but I really prefer the bite of the normal tea ochazuke in most cases. Hope you are enjoying a few "home-style" foods, and also hope it wasn't you who took the very hot weather away with you - it's cooled down a bit today in Japan.

This is uncanny...while thinking about curd rice recently, I was flipping through my cookbook and wishing I could see a photo of an idli, a dhosa, an appam, etc., and there they are! We went to a South Indian restaurant on Friday, but in our case, it had unfortunately been sold out to a Japanese guy who had no clue what he was cooking. I'd been meaning to tell the original owner (who was very shy) that business might be better if he made it easier to tell exactly where the door into his restaurant was, but too late . I can practically smell the beeswax in that honey photo...

So many good ideas...made a *totally* Japanese version with cucumber, toasted sesame, green shiso leaves, and a little dried red chili pepper. Should have added a hint of scallions. At least it shows that it still tastes good with what is in a fridge in Japan! Look forward to trying some more plausible combinations!

Whatever the cork vs screwtop climate is like at the top of the heap, down here where I shop, I get more dud corks than I really care to accept Not "maybe" duds, either, I mean corks with holes that go the whole length of the cork, etc. Bring on those screwtops.

Sorry, whenever I've been in Nelson, I've been working and not seen the town for myself...and since I haven't been there for nearly 20 years... Arrowtown - sounds good, but I hear the small restaurants there fill up quickly, so if you have a hotel picked out, you might ask them to book you into a good Arrowtown restaurant?

I was actually thinking it might be nice with Torakris' favorite yuzu-koshou ( apreserve made from coarse salt, minced green chili, and finely grated yuzu - rough citron). I've been meaning to make it with lime actually, so maybe this is my chance Glad some people enjoyed the blog...afraid I went a bit overboard

*Not* a problem! Currently 38degC in my office... Cucumber sounds like an addition my sons would enjoy too. This is a peanut-growing area, so raw peanuts are cheap too. Sounds good! Cumin and mint? I often wonder exactly where the middle east and India stop and start. I've been using a home-made Bulgarian yogurt - that has plenty of flavor, but is mild and not sour.

I've just discovered this stuff. So wonderful on hot, hot days. I found a recipe that involved stirring some yogurt into cooked rice, tipping a little bit of spices (mustard seed, chili) cooked in oil, and scattering green herbs (chili, coriander) on top. Any other ideas? Dishes that go well with curd rice?

Oops, sorry, just had to add... Western food, with thickish stews and sauces, is a lot easier to burn in a thin pan. Those paper-thin aluminum Japanese saucepans are rarely a problem for boiling vegetables or simmering things in thin stocks!

Hmmm....I think it's more a case of really poor cookware being a handicap than really great cookware offering a significant advantage over "serviceable quality". Saucepans with thin or bumpy bottoms, glass lids with thin metal bands that warp so that the lid doesn't fit, plastic handles that exude nasty smells when even slightly hot, and then melt...metal handles that come off pans full of boiling water...I met them all when I first tried to buy cookware in Japan. In the past FEW years, quality here has improved a lot, but paying to ship my Scandina pans from NZ was money well spent. (I think Scandina no longer make cookware, though?)

Frypans... I left my cast iron in NZ. It's just too heavy, once you've messed up your wrists with a lot of computer work. So... Heavy stainless steel frypan with lid. Expensive, still spotless after 10 years (not spotless on the bottom, since I cook on gas, but the cooking surface is immaculate). Worth every yen. Small, light, no-brand steel (not stainless) mini-frypan, used daily for making lunches, now seasoned to a good finish. I've had it with Teflon for everyday frypans. Rectangular Japanese omelet pan, Teflon-coated (my tinned copper one has lost its tin, don't know where to get it re-tinned...). This is good, but I think the Teflon prevents you from gettting a really thin coating of egg. 2 Scandina copper-bottom (a separate disk of copper welded to bottom of pan) pans, medium with steamer and double boiler, large. I've used these every day, on gas and electricity, for over 25 years - my grandmother gave them to me when I left high school. I even use the steamer frequently. Great pans. Large stainless steel pot with insulated outer jacket, for slow-cooking (made by Tiger and also Zojirushi). The inner pot, which goes on the fire, could do with a thicker bottom. However, pot is narrower at the top, a shape which I found very successful in the large, expensive, French stockpot which I left behind in NZ (regrets, regrets). Wok, definitely. Yet-to-find-what-I-want...large, shallow pan for rapid evaporation or cooking things which I want to maintain at high temperature (greens). Pasta pot. Ovenware...most western ovenware doesn't fit my Japanese oven! I therefore use Pyrex. Grump, grump.

Yes, very nice peaches in Japan. Not so common in NZ because of brown rot. Nectarines very common in NZ, horribly expensive (and not as good) in Japan. What other summer fruits are common where you are? Is it too warm for good berry fruit?

DOES anybody know of an online source for pandan flavorings of any type? I'm finding it very hard to keep reading about it on eGullet and know I can't buy any. It's such a wonderful flavor/fragrance!

Rotorua and Queenstown *will* have good restaurants - the biggest tourist hotels are located there, which means some good chefs move out of the hotels into start-ups or existing restaurants in the town - especially in Queenstown. However, I have been away too long to know what's what. Ask at your hotel (especially if it's a big hotel) about the latest and greatest. Otherwise, if you are prepared to book ahead and spend money, consider having dinner at one of the "Lodges" or upmarket, small, private hotels with extensive grounds, usually secluded in areas well out of town. In Nelson, consider dining at one of the wineries - and ask for recommendations, some offer fine dining, others just a quick bite. Again, sorry I can't tell you which to head for. Nelson is a very popular area with NZers, especially the well-off from Christchurch or Wellington, so I'm sure you can find something nice to eat there. It also has a number of art/culture activities, such as music festivals, so I'd expect to find a small but varied range of restaurants.

I greeted that bottle of Ravenswood with recognition, too! It's available (most of the time) in my local Daiei supermarket. Is it really? People here get quite "heated" about how long it takes for optimum flavor to develop in certain dishes. In the US, is yesterday's food strictly leftovers, or are you "allowed" to like it better next day?

Cereal! Sage! Nectarines! Waves of exotica! I'm enjoying this already, and especially looking forward to hearing more about wines - this kiwi knows absolutely nothing about California wines, except to stay away from that strange stuff in flagons!