helenjp

How funny, son1 just went back to his dorm for the rest of the summer vacation (too busy to stay home...)and I was just getting ready to read the latest posts in this topic when I was interrupted by a phone call from him...made spaghetti with beansprouts and mentaiko (spicy salted cod roe) for lunch, and what should he make for dinner with the remaining roe from the pair he bought?? The answer was: chazuke (rice with roe and shredded green veg on top, doused in green tea). His "unexpected" need was for really airtight containers to store sugar/salt/flour...he only needs to cook weekends and vacations, so he needed containers that would keep basic supplies fresh as he slowly uses them up. The dorm's only rule on appliances is that you mustn't trip the breaker for your floor! That makes the multi-purpose kettle/noodle pot look like an attractive option, as more ambitious efforts can be made in the main kitchen. Selling snacks...son1 complains that he ends up feeding hungry ramblers attracted by cooking smells, but I don't think he's thought of selling his dinner!

You can buy gluten-free soy sauce and take it with you to restaurants...that should make sushi one of the easiest Asian dishes to eat, since nigiri-sushi contains only rice, salt, sugar, rice-vinegar (just check that they haven't subbed any other type of vinegar), horseradish, and seafood. I did a test-run on different types of gluten-free soy sauce and found the types made with sesame and several seeds/grains were tastiest, but many contain millet, which I understand some people can't tolerate. Wasabi - I believe that it's theoretically possible to add gluten to wasabi (so that the volatile spiciness doesn't disperse so fast) but have never seen any prepared wasabi that did actually include gluten. Nori sheets SHOULD be plain grilled nori, which is fine, but it's just possible that a restaurant could use the seasoned type, which would include soy sauce. With plain nori, you should be able to do hand-rolls, but non-traditional maki (and a few traditional types which include cooked or processed ingredients) are risky.

You find the rice bran, coarse salt, and coarse raw sugar and I'll find the recipe (haven't made it for a few years)...you'll have to pickle it in the fridge in this weather. Sure you wouldn't rather pickle it lightly with salt, honey, and yuzu?

The most creative thing I've ever done was to memorize basic proportions for various items. Once I had that baseline in mind, it was much easier to predict outcomes when I made changes, and my mind was also freer to play. Fruit pies...I'm absolutely no pastry expert, but I use a little lemon juice in the pastry (vinegar is OK too). I read that even unsweetened short pastry is crisper with 1 spoonful of sugar (preferably powdered or very fine) added, and I think it does make a difference.

I notice that the variety of fish available in Japan has plunged since supermarkets took over from specialist fish vendors. I've often tried to work out exactly which fish are the big movers...I'd have to say that even in terms of volume, tuna has a huge place in the chilled display, though that's partly because anything remotely related to it is going to get the "something-tuna" label. I suppose part of the lack of variety comes from increasing dependency on imported fish (and that's been coming ever since the 200-mile territorial waters concept became law). For the past decade, Japan has imported more fish than it catches. So. The fish that I always buy varies a little bit, but I tend to check price and quality of sardines and mackerel first, and then start seeing if there are any other good buys. Our family packed lunches are almost always fish. I guess childhood experience dies hard...husband would eat only salmon or greenling if possible (good ole Hokkaido boy), I grew up eating snapper, mackerel, and flounder, and so my children have also grown up enjoying mackerel. Hmm, time for mackerel po' boy to hit the menu again! What's always in the shops? Tuna (about 2 varieties?) Squid (seasonal variety) Sardine (2-3 varieties) Mackerel (2 varieties, according to season) Salmon - salmon and salmon-trout Yellowtail (farmed) As salted, semi-dried fish: mackerel, horse mackerel, greenling (hokke). For much of the year: horse mackerel, saury Things you are likely to see even in small supermarkets, depending on region and season...but the truth is that many people no longer feel confident in cooking many of these: snapper, skipjack tuna, spanish mackerel (sawara), yellowtail - half-grown, white croaker (ishimochi), grunt (isaki), alfonsino (kinmedai), various flatfish, alaska pollock (sukesou-dara), flying fish, herring, cod.

I'm with Heidi....there are whole-wheat flours around now that produce a very light color and texture. The Japanese whole-wheat flour that I buy from Hokkaido astounded me when I first used it...if you are used to traditional whole-wheat flours, you WOULD think it was mixed with white flour. Why not ask the vendor and see what she or he has to say?

Gosh, I have a strong desire to make andiesenji's lemon shrub with Japanese sudachi. I thought this topic needed a revival, prompted by the vinegar topic elsewhere, and by a nice cool drink of a very mellow and refreshing lemon/ginger/green shiso vinegar drink I made in 2008. There's a promising recipe on the Mitsukan vinegar site for orange/tea sour...200 ml cider vinegar, 100g peeled orange, in slices,1 tea bag (let's say 1 tsp tea leaves) and 200g rock/candy sugar, left to sit in a jar, and inverted occasionally. Add about 5 parts water to 1 part drink base when serving. I haven't made the matured version, but it works out OK (though less mellow) in an unsweetened quick-mix version too.

Not exactly bought, but DH sent in coupons enthusiastically for a beer server. I think he used it once when a friend of his came to stay for a while....you stick a large can of beer in it and it sends the beer through tubing that resembles the map of some major urban subway system and pressurizes it so it comes out "just like draft beer". Just like soap suds, more like, and the large can of beer simply got warm sitting on the table while they wrestled with the pour nozzle. The guys got a good laugh out of it anyway, and DS1 took it upstairs to his magpie's nest of "useful junk", thinking that he could make a mini rocket launcher out of it...son left for college, taking only his soldering kit with him, so there it lies, along with all the bicycle parts and "useful bits of wire".

Japan was not a paring-knife friendly country when I moved here. I did without and didn't miss it...until I got a ceramic paring knife. I use it a lot now, especially for fruit or soft herbs etc., because the whole blade is light and quite thin, not just the edge.

As far as texture is concerned, cold pickle would be my choice. Somewhere on eGullet I entered a milk & vinegar pickle for small aji which should also work...will look it out but not in time for your herrings.

Yamazaki whisky line-up At a guess, I would say yes, but only if you are wanting to get an idea of Japanese whisky. As you can see from the site, Yamazaki whiskys go up to 50 years. Hibiki and Yamazaki are Suntory's better blended and single whisky brands, while Old and Kakubin are supermarket quality (supermarkets can indeed sell any whisky, but that of course doesn't mean they stock everything consumers want to buy!). US review UK review Caveat: Husband hates whisky with a passion, so I'm absolutely not an expert.

My husband doesn't care for European spices and herbs very much, so I cure our salmon with honey rather than sugar (and salt, of course).

Our kitchen floor is a typical Japanese "parquet" veneered plywood. It's easy on the feet, but the top layers peel, and it's incredibly badly insulated...floors in winter are too cold to stand on. On the rare occasions when I stain and wax it, my kids make comments like "gosh it looks like a rich person's house!", so the scuffed everyday look is nobody's fault but my own. If I get it done again, I'll pay a lot more attention to the substrate.

That is a spectacularly good bento, Mr or Ms Cats' Meat, and welcome to eGullet! I was surprised to see taki-komi gohan in summer, and you have so many side-dishes as well. The daikon sprouts are such a good idea, I'm going to steal it immediately...much more robust in summer than shiso. Heck, I've made a bento every morning this week and struggle to remember what was in even one of them. A photo record is a real resource.

You're in Tokyo? And you haven't taken the Nikka Whisky distillery tour? I haven't taken the tour, but I find myself driving round it every time I lose my way going east of where I live. If you have time on a weekend or a Monday, I'll take you...but perhaps I'd better not drive!

Please do keep up with the updates! I love Singapore, though it's been a while since I was there, so can't remember specific names too well...I think one of the good things about Singapore is precisely that you have Burger King next door to places where you can get down to some gooooooood makan! Makes it easy for everybody to enjoy themselves.

Hmmm....I'm beginning to think that son2 needs to go to university in Wellington rather than Melbourne!! I'd love to comment, but really, after re-reading two or three times, so many things caught my attention. By the way, is Viognier becoming more established in NZ, do you think? I saw some a few years ago and was very interested in it, but wondered if it was going to be more than a passing trend.

Actually what I need is not so much a place to buy knives, as a place to give the ones I have a little TLC...any recommendations for the greater Tokyo area?

Indeed, thanks for the detailed update! My nephew is about a year into a 2-year stint as a volunteer teacher in Namibia. Since he's Japanese, I've never heard him complain about too much rice, but must ask him for more details.

So what types of tomato are you going to grow this year? I'm really interested. So far, only "Home Momotaro" on sale locally. Last year the same shop happened to have some "Black from Tula", which I really enjoyed...tends to split, but it's easy to keep an eye on that with just a couple of plants. This year I'm working full-time, and wondering just what I dare plant.

Sorry no, I just flipped through it and passed it on...not that I have anything against the book, but she has a lot published in Japanese too, which is naturally more easily available to me.

Noticed this recently published book: A Cook's Journey to Japan by Sarah Marx Feldner, Yumi Kawachi, and Noboru Murata. The book appears to deserve a place in the English-language Japanese cookbook shelf, because it has quite a large number of regional specialities, an area that is not much covered in English. The dishes that I saw gave me the impression of being "craft" recipes, needing some care but no needless effort to build...for example, the oyaki pastry recipe contains a little buckwheat flour, which adds interest to the pastry and goes well with the rich flavors of the filling, but most of the oyaki recipes around use only wheat flour. I'm guessing from the few recipes viewable that the people who formed Feldner's tastes are interested in the "natural" side of traditional and local food. I might even have to buy a copy to find out for myself...

Thank you all for so much information, both on the area and what to expect. I don't know whether he will get to travel at all in the region, but I'm guessing he will be based somewhere in the Phoenix area. I know that son2 will be interested in the Spanish/Mexican/Indian influences...even the tacos or burritos he's eaten are only Mum's ignorant "best effort", since I've never been to the US myself. Natto...it would have spent a good fortnight in his suitcase by the time it got to Arizona! On the other hand, there is a type of freeze-dried natto which allows you to taste the stuff without dealing with the sliminess. Salad-style pickles...that had crossed my mind as very summery and fresh. I had no idea that sushi would thrive so far inland, but that's great news for a summer menu, thank you! Thanks for the hint on bentos...with no small children, I have no excuse to buy silly bento stuff, but I bet that even adults would have fun molding boiled eggs into stars and hearts etc. One more question...what (smallish) items should I ask him to try to bring home. Dried beans? (So expensive and hard to find most types here.)

Son2 is off on a fairly lengthy school trip this summer, involving a homestay in Arizona where he will be expected to cook up something Japanese for his host family. It took me a while to figure out that Arizona falls under "southwest", so you can guess how much I know about the Arizona family dinner table. Son2's best dish is pasta carbonara (no-cream style) but he's a keen enough cook to learn some new dishes before he leaves. The question is...how adventurous are people, really? Should he be thinking pork/chicken/beef/egg with a Japanese twist, or can he take it a little further than that? Would simmered dishes such as eggplant in soy sauce be too horrifying served at room temperature or lightly chilled? Fish-based flavorings? Fried tofu pouches?(I can hear some of you saying "Come ON!" but I've met a good number of people who would never take a bite of any of those. And the second question is, how hot is it going to be in August? In Japan, the humidity at that time of year means that people turn to chilled noodles and chilled boiled vegetables at that time of year. Does the dry heat make a big difference to summer eating habits?

Or does it act to wick condensed steam out of the pan so that it does not drip back and reduce the temperature of the rice that is cooking in the fat at the bottom of the stack? That's what I think...I use a thin Japanese handtowel and fasten it in a bobble over the lid with a rubber band, because I'm afraid the trailing edges might catch fire.