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Yes, I couldn't get that page to load properly before, after spotting the very appetizing photo on Google images! What I want to know is the name of the herb in the photo...we had some on our shima-zushi too. I recognize the flavor, a bit like angelica, but don't know what it is. The red-skinned passionfruit also shown in that link are the same type as in Okinawa, but they are new to me. I still have a few from a bag I brought back from Ogasawara nearly 2 months ago. The shells yield a pretty pink color (I heard that you can freeze the shells first to encourage them to yield more color) and can be used to color food or dye cloth. More later...

So has anybody made a pandowdy in the past 4 years? I was surprised to see a pastry rather than a biscuit topping...is a sweet biscuit topping the way to go? (That's what's in my mother's old Betty Crocker book, her window into the American food world). What about the apples? Caramel-y brown sugar is what I remember, but what about honey, molasses, raisins, dates...and heck, what about whisky or rum, in this weather? The Betty Crocker recipe is under Fresh Fruit Cobbler, and is covered with a "shortcake" spooned over the apples and baked at 400F: 1 c flour 1 T sugar 1.5 t baking powder 1/2 t salt 3 T shortening 1/3 to 1/2 c milk The New Settlement recipe is for a much plainer batter poured over the apples and baked at 350F: 1 c flour 1/4 c sugar pinch salt 1/2 c melted butter 1 c milk Compare and contrast, folks!

Just a little overdue...I made the loooong ferry ride (over 24 hours) to Chichi-jima, and later further south to Haha-jima, at the end of November '09 in a party of 10 foreigners who were there to check out what Ogasawara can offer foreign visitors. A place to live, is probably the answer most Kiwis would come up with, but meanwhile, I thought people might like to hear about what we ate. Since I haven't been to Okinawa, I was particularly interested to see what arrived on my plate. The food on the ferry was ferry food (curry, noodles, stir-fries, deep-fries, pasta...etc.), but it was freshly cooked, care had gone into "doing it right" and the photos in the wall-menu were unflattering. What it would be like in peak season, when the boats are crammed, I can't say. The mix and match approach was perfect for the long-term Japanese resident, who likes to have yogurt and a croissant for breakfast, with a nice nori and cucumber salad on the side! The woman at the cash-register looked as if she could deal with any number of drunk and disorderly customers without so much as drawing a deep breath. I made it a project to get a smile out of her, and it took me nearly half the journey! The ferry sells a very small selection of island items, including Ogasawara rum(plain and a passionfruit liqueur). Probably the passionfruit one is the one to go for, as this is not actually "rum", but a sugar-based shochu similar to Iriomote's black sugar shochu labelled rum because of regulations regarding shochu labelling, and it definitely tastes somewhere between rum and shochu. I am not sure where the sugar comes from - although a LOT of sugar was grown on the islands by the prewar Japanese settlers, I was told that the current rum (which has a commercial history of less than 20 years) is not made from local sugar. Yet elsewhere I read that it is made from Ogasawara sugar...I would be interested to know which is true! One thing that was particularly obvious was that the islands are officially part of Tokyo...especially on Chichi-jima, the bulk of the residents are quite recent arrivals, and probably mostly ex-city dwellers. They seem to eat as if they were in Tokyo - I kept spotting plants on the roadside or in the bush that are considered good eating around the Pacific, but it might take Ogasawara's current residents another generation to eat them, or more importantly, to consider them worth putting on guests' plates. A quick look along the main road showed that the restaurants are mostly serving "Hawaii gone west" favorites, plus standard Japanese resort food, albeit using locally grown vegetables. You can see the urban background of the owners - the cafes, bars, and restaurants know what they want to serve you, it isn't food that "just happened". If you want food to take out on day-trips, the options seem to be a normal Japanese bento (e.g. from Island Deli or to take a pack of shima-zushi. Seems that people often order the night before to pick up early the next morning...it is a smallish island! Shima-zushi is click a nigiri-zushi with a sweet zuke flavored generously with mustard, instead of wasabi. In Ogasawara, it's sawara (spanish mackerel). This type of sushi comes from Hachijo-jima, birthplace of many Ogasawara's original wave of Japanese residents, and also of later postwar settlers and returnees. The whole sushi tends to be on the sweet side, both rice and fish, but the mustard saves the day! It seems that people make the zuke marinade with soy and any or all of white sugar, zarame sugar, sake, mirin etc., in varying proportions. The batch I saw being made included mustard in the marinade, but some people just add a dab of mustard under the topping. I thought the addition of mustard to the marinade helped the attractive amber color of the topping. As well as shima-zushi, you can buy "Ogasawara-zushi", usually a plate of nigiri with local fish, and kame-zushi (scroll down to bottom for green sea turtle sashimi, sushi, simmered turtle, and turtle in zousui). Although the turtles are protected, islanders are allowed to catch a certain number each year as a traditional food, and somehow this includes selling it to tourists... There is no local source of meat, I was told, as there are no people/facilities licensed to slaughter or butcher animals. This means that the the goats that over-run much of Chichi-jima are not available for food, which seems a pity, especially considering the damage they do to the rather dry island's vegetation. For foreigners, though, there is a silver lining to the situation...the few markets sell imported sausage and meat products that are quite hard to find on the mainland! Since we were moving around as a group, I didn't get to look into every nook and cranny, but I'm sure other eGulleteers who have visited the islands (smallworld was part of the same group, and has both a great collection of photos as well as the blog entry that made me stop procrastinating and post about the food here!

Today's lunch featured oyster tsukudani. This is one thing that I think benefits from a touch of sugar - I normally don't use sugar in any kind of nimono, although many recipes call for it, as I think it cloys, but here it just adds richness and keeps the tsukudani moist. 1 pack oysters well rinsed and drained 2 T each of soy sauce and mirin 1 T sake 1-2 t sugar 1/2 knob of ginger shredded or coarsely grated Simmer together till liquid has all but evaporated, and oysters are covered in a thick, shiny glaze. Serve in or on rice, or as a side dish with egg and green snap peas. For Japanese readers...I'm pleased with what I read in Onna no Ko no Daisuki na Obentouby Yoshiko FUJINO. There's a companion "boy" book, but I bought this hoping to find good ideas for non-fried, lightly seasoned items for the easily-upset tummy of my very ungirly husband. The food is light but also stylish and satisfying - not pretentiously "I'm dieting harder than you are"! Two samples: Microwave "chinese-style" okowa rice (1 teen boy serving or two more modest servings) 1 rice-cup of sticky rice (160 ml) rinse, soak overnight Drain, pop into a heatproof bowl with: 1 cup (200 ml) chicken stock (use 1 t stock pdr if needed) 1 t soy sauce 30 g (1 oz) boiled bamboo shoot 50 g (2 oz) Chinese roast pork diced 1 dried shiitake mushroom, soaked and diced 5 cm (2 ") naga-negi (dividing onion/leek) shredded Mix all together, cover with plastic food wrap, microwave around 8 mins (probably a 600W range). Add 1 T green peas, re-cover, microwave 5 mins, stand 2-3 mins before serving. Since I make this in a rice-cooker in a larger amount, I don't soak the shiitake but snap them into small pieces and toss in. Nothing to stop you subbing other meats or vegetables...ham, carrot, etc. Goes well with a hardboiled egg peeled and simmered in a soy-sauce broth, the author suggests. Yellow Pepper & Orange Salad for 1 1/4 - 1/2 yellow or orange bell pepper 1/4 orange Blanch pepper and cut into fat strips Cut orange free of membrane Toss together in: 1/2 T olive oil, 1 t vinegar, little salt and pepper

Hmmm. It's rather reassuring to see a Brit having problems with toffee! What is the Hanamasa mizu-ame made from? Some people seem to think that you really need to use rice-malt, others think it doesn't matter if it's barley or sweet potato or whatever...I don't know. Edit: I see on a Japanese site that somebody was grumbling about how thin the Hanamasa mizu-ame is...stays runny even in the fridge. It is true that usually refrigerated mizu-ame is so stiff it's hard to get a spoon into it. Proportions: I see everything from 60-75% sugar : 40-25% mizu-ame, don't know if there is a "perfect" proportion.

Just thought I'd tack a comment on here... I know many people have axes to grind with management of bistros such as Terminus Nord - but I have to say that the current Terminus Nord filled a need for me! My sons and I were there on a one-day flying visit a few days after New Year, looking for a bite to eat before catching our train. As it turned out, the train was late, but Terminus Nord was: - open when we needed to eat, at 6:30 - open when many other restaurants were still shut for New Year - easy to find and just steps away from the station - able to give very professional service, possibly the best we encountered in a oouple of weeks of low-moderate dining in Europe. - moderately priced. Yes, that's important, and after a bank machine swallowed my cash card, I had to watch every one of my tourist Euros! Yes, the menu was unadventurous, but at 6:30 on an icy January evening, we turned to the menu for a respite from further adventure! My sons were very happy with their choices, but I was more than happy with the herring entree that I ordered. It was as good as any equivalent salted/pickled raw fish I've eaten in Japan.

I think it also has a sharp, sour taste that doesn't seem to be there in any other brown sugars I've tried.

Kuromitsu, syrup made with black (dark brown) sugar, though commercial kuromitsu might have rice malt too.

Westland Milk Products make Westgold sweet (non-cultured) butter as well as Westpro Lactic, which would be closer to Lurpak, but still more strongly flavored than a northern European butter. I have never seen Westgold, which I notice doesn't claim to be made from fresh cream, but it is certainly true that NZ dairy cows eat grass/hay/ensilage/other root or leafy crops much more than pellets or other feed. Also, Lurpak is a cultured butter...totally different taste from any sweet butter. If I had the money and the opportunity, I'd buy cultured butter over fresh (=long periods of cold storage) butter too...and I'm guessing that cows from Hokitika are a wild lot anyway!

Regarding staff for eat-in/take-out businesses...an eat-in business is a SERVICE business, and service = staff. I saw a perfect example of this kind of problem last year - a roadside bakery running a cafe in a room off the sales area. The food was better and more interesting by far than most roadside bakehouses...the owners obviously knew what they wanted to create, and weren't afraid to do things their own way. However, the cafe side of the business was a wreck, and could have easily compromised a customer's impression of the quality of the food and hygiene standards of the bakery. It was a small town, and no doubt staff would be hard to come by...but if customers can't eat what they've paid for, there's a problem! This particular bakery/cafe stayed in my mind, because the quality of the food was exceptionally good, yet the quality of the eating area and service was beyond bad. The counter girl offered to heat up our selections, but I said no, because I could see that she was busy with regular lunch customers who wanted to be out of the shop as soon as they possibly could. Customers were already looking mildly irritated because it took her a few short seconds longer to load our items onto plates instead of stuffing them into take-out bags. So already, both cafe and take-out customers' needs were in conflict. Too many tables had crumbs on them, and chairs were haphazardly pulled out from tables where departing customers had left them. In the end, our drinks simply never arrived...we ate, chatted, and went back to the counter for a refund - our cups were still sitting, empty and untouched, on a tray near the coffee-machine. The bakery staff were frantically re-stocking display case shelves, and the counter girl was too busy ringing up sales to even turn around...customers in the cafe area were simply out of sight and out of mind. I'm sure the owners thought that there were enough staff overall for "somebody" to work the cafe, which may have been true at 10 am, but certainly wasn't true at peak times, and cafe staffing is surely all about peak times! Also, the cafe looked very much like "somebody" (nobody) was in charge - food businesses need to be more than clean, they need to LOOK clean, which means spotlessly neat and hospitable, as well as "clean enough". Take-out businesses with customer seating probably regard the seating as a free giveaway, because they presumably sell take-out and eat-in items at the same price, and have only the drinks sales to generate income to cover the additional costs of providing eat-in facilities. I don't know whether businesses find it more profitable to keep seating to a bare-bones minimum ("Well if you INSIST on eating here..."), or to compete with cafes with more profitable items such as an attractive drinks menu, fancy plating for desserts, sides such as soup or salads etc.

Blether, I quite often see small rainbow trout in Japanese supermarkets...I've never eaten them that small in NZ, where rainbows and brown trout are game fish, and subject to throwback regulations for small fish, so I'm not too sure what size fish you have in mind. The small Japanese ones seem to be in need of a flavor boost, so they either go into a court-bouillon or get crisped in butter.

I think quite a few Japanese people feel that way too...I can't quite see the need to add MORE sake to finish! After some experimenting, I think that a little white miso helps round the flavor out, and I'm beginning to think that the key is to simmer the whole kaboodle long enough to mellow it.

Although it's winter, I seem to get boxes of big hothouse tomatoes at a good price...1-2 of these skinned in boiling water, sliced up and sprinkled with the kaisou salad mix. When the seaweeds have absorbed enough moisture from the tomato add sprigs of broccoli if liked, and a sesame dressing (I don't use the vinegar, as the tomato is fresh enough for a winter salad - so just a dash of soy, sesame oil, sesame seeds).

It's that kasu time of year again...I don't much like kasu-jiru (soup thickened and flavored with sake lees), but maybe there's something I'm just not getting right. Recipes I've seen vary from 60g to over 200g of sake lees for 4 cups of dashi...plus a dash of soy sauce, often some sake and mirin, and sometimes white miso, ginger etc. as well. Older recipes seem to be pretty much like thisone from Tsuji cooking academy, which works out at: 1 liter dashi (5 cups, but the instructions are to simmer it "for a while", so probably somewhat less than that in the end). 200 g sake lees 20 g light brown miso salt, light (Kansai-style) soy sauce, sake "Housewife" style recipes seem to use MUCH smaller amounts of sake lees than this, and 1 part white miso to 1 or 2 parts of sake lees. I plan to experiment...meanwhile, does anybody else *like* kasu-jiru?

Maybe because salt would encourage the dried pasta to absorb moisture, but perhaps also because of the texture? I remember being told that only amateurs added salt to their pasta dough...that salted dough was easier to handle but the texture was too puffy. Of course, softer texture may be why salt IS added to udon noodle dough.

BKLYN, I agree, there's no need for anything elaborate. If he WERE struck by dreams of culinary greatness, he could deal with that later...what's needed is the bare minimum. All students at this dorm get two hot meals daily during the week, and use the main kitchen and equipment to cook weekend meals if they aren't on campus (a long bus or bike-ride away), or don't buy a bento boxed meal (frozen dinners are rare in Japan, so bento is the easiest option). So the point about deep tray/basket is useful, the dorm kitchen would be a long trek from some rooms. In Japan, judging from past students' comments, self-catering is most likely to be bread or one-pot noodles, with other meals (even curry and rice) quite a big step up from that! As for cooking equipment, I'm sure we will get guidelines, but probably students do have some way to heat food and drinks in their rooms - especially as there are no communal kitchens they can use during the week, just the main kitchen (available at weekends when the cook is off duty). Students also provide their own heaters, heated tables etc.

The porridge line for water is almost certainly intended for rice porridge...I use the same amount of water as for stove-top porridge. Steel-cut oats seem to work better in a rice-cooker than any other type (although whole-grain thick rolled oats are not bad...anything too fine or easily cooked tends not to cook with an even consistency),

I'm really just musing, as my current focus is more on getting son1 up to speed with a few failsafe dishes, with hardware purchasing decisions a few months away yet. What cooking equipment do college students keep in their dorm rooms? I'm thinking... - small microwave with toaster function (cheaper to microwave hot drinks than to boil an electric kettle) - earthenware lidded "nabe" suitable for cooking rice in the microwave or for cooking one-pot dishes in the microwave or on the kitchen gas range - a few bowls, mostly a bit oversized, so they can be used for serving as well as eating. - thin plastic chopping sheet, 1 all-purpose knife, kitchen shears I'm beginning to see dorm cooking as a really specialized area! When I went to university, students lived in big old houses, and cooked huge meals for up to a dozen flatmates and hangers-on. Very different from the dorm student who only needs to prepare (or buy) weekend meals, hot drinks, and snacks. Son1 will likely have the use of the dorm kitchen on weekends, so knives/pans etc are not a big priority, but I assume there will be traffic jams.

We made a quick trip to Luxembourg a few days after New Year, and couldn't seem to find anything but Italian food in the old city area...finally settled for wurst from a stall in the Christmas market, which was hot and tasty, at least. We did walk past Kamakura, but weren't looking for Japanese food! Apart from that, scrambling around the Wenzelmauer left us little time for more than nibbles at the chocolate bars in our pockets...I'd love to hear what we missed, especially for lunches?

Son 1& 2 and I spent 5 nights in Brussels (though not every day was spent there) recently. I didn't spot this thread until we got back home to Japan. Since we don't live in a western country, our eating priorities were probably a bit different from many eGulleteers, and with two teen boys hungry from long walks in the cold, hearty eating was one priority. That said, the cold weather while we were there meant that we sacrificed lunch several times for 2-3 hourly "hot bites". The day we arrived was New Year's Day, very cold, snowing most of the day, and most places were shut into the bargain...a hot waffle from a Belgaufra stand (boys had theirs with chocolate sauce, I much preferred my plain one!) was very welcome, followed later by hot chocolate from the Godiva shop, which was not only open, but very accommodating with suggestions for penurious but lovestruck boys wanting a little something to bring back to Japan . Son1 is a big fan of hot chocolate, but even son 2 was enthusiastic about this...not stickily sweet, but rich and aromatic, and very reviving - absolutely a meal in a cup. Sipping as we stood around in the snow, we attracted the attention of two little girls, who immediately tried to drag their grandmother into the shop, but she had them back in line in moments with a murmured "tellement cher!". Our hotel was near Sainte-Catherine, so we fought our way through the remains of the Christmas market, and had dinner at Jacques. There were several other restaurants which probably had similar menus, but we enjoyed our meal there very much. It was just as well that hunger drove teen stomachs to dine early, as the place filled up very quickly even on Jan. 2! I started with a fish soup, and very much enjoyed this thick, mild soup dish, because I naturally don't find such things in Japan. Son 2 started with herring fillets and proceeded to a baked salmon piece with tartare sauce...he was very curious about salmon in Europe and had several different salmon dishes over our fortnight-long trip. Son 1 is wary of fatty food, especially when tired, and had the tomato salad with little shrimps, a generous serving, and exactly what he wanted. He followed this with a half-dozen Zeeland oysters. These lush-looking pale oysters certainly seemed to have led a life of ease, and I notice that son1 wasn't offering anybody else a taste! However, their work was not yet done. In dithering over my main dish, I failed to notice that my final choice - mussels, another thing that is all too rare in Japan - was a 1 kg serving. Even the pot of mussels in a wine and cream sauce that arrived in front of me didn't alert me - I just thought it must be window-dressing with a large onion or five in the middle, but sons quickly disabused me, and had their plates emptied ready to help me out. The mussels were a double treat for me, as NZ restaurants now rarely serve blue mussels. I did suggest that since the boys had eaten all the bread provided with the mussel juice and sauce, perhaps they might forego the frites, but they doused them liberally with lemon juice and soldiered on. I believe they later regretted that last act of bravado, and it certainly took them a day or more to recover their appetites fully! Apart from that, we ate twice at museum cafes...the MIM (Musee des Instruments de Musique) does indeed have a good view, but that's not a good enough reason to have more than a cup of coffee in their slack period...there are simply too many tables, and either/both kitchen or waiting staff are overtaxed...and if that's what it's like in the middle of winter, I hate to think what summer might be like. I remember the unrestful nature of the experience, but totally forget what we ate. The Museums of Fine Arts seem to have at least one restaurant and two cafes (I think)...we ate at the one off the main atrium of the Museum of Ancient Art (where I was determined to see if they had any Memlings...they did, and where son 2 wanted to hear the music students' lunchtime concert of Schubert trios). Although it was self-service, the sole cashier had her work cut out for her trying to juggle the trolleys full of dirty trays, and there was nobody to help the elderly clientele, who with the icy roads outside, naturally wanted to lunch their after the cheap concert. Sons were directed to get busy carrying for poor old ladies trying to negotiate lunch tray plus walking-stick(s)! Perhaps unwisely they ordered steak, which was strictly average, but there are two things worth noting: the frites were the tastiest we ate in Brussels (tasted like some beef dripping went into the pan), and the cafe also serves HUGE salads, which seemed to be popular with the women customers. One woman tried asking for a small salad to go with her soup, but the server scotched that smartly: "No SMALL salads HERE, madame!" Our only other "eat-in" experience was a cafe chain...execrable and not specially cheap. Our "train food" was mostly either cheese or cheese/ham bread rolls from Paul's, or pots of fresh white cheese with some very nice dates and a small bar of chocolate.

Our other dining experience in the Netherlands was in Delft, not Amsterdam, but here's quick report anyway: Kleyweg's Stads-Koffyhuis - a pretty, multi-storey coffeehouse with a relaxed atmosphere and a menu that ranges from "economical treat" on up. The restaurant was pretty busy, but service was prompt, accurate, and cheerful. We visited with family, firmly intent on pancakes, so I'm afraid we barely glanced at the other items on the menu. I enjoyed my apple and speck pancake (pancake texture was just right, and the sweet/salty balance was not exaggerated but very pleasant), while my boys not only enjoyed their slightly more "dressed-up" pancake with Biesland beef and vegetables, son 2 scored a free pancake - every 100th pancake (NOT counted on a per-person base, just in case you wondered!) is free. The Koffyhuis apparently hosts small art exhibitions, but perhaps because we visited between Christmas and New Year, and perhaps because we were busy with family chat, I didn't notice.

Our last day in the Netherlands ended serendipitously...sons 1 & 2 and I blundered around in the snow looking for something hot to eat near the Amsterdam Centraal station before heading to the airport, and were getting very uninspired when son 2's sensitive gourmet radar spotted De Belhamel. We were very late for lunch, and in retrospect, it's possible that the kitchen was hoping to shut, but if so, they gave no hint of it in their hospitality. The location really is a big point in the restaurant's attraction - not only is at the junction of two canals, but the side that the restaurant is on is on a slight slope, giving a particularly nice view from our window seat. The area where we sat, right in front, had higher ceilings than the downstairs and upstairs dining areas, and there was no music, just a quiet and peaceful winter afternoon. Unfortunately, that clear grey afternoon light revealed that the interior could do with a bit of refurbishing, but it is indeed in an art deco style so extravagant as to be almost outre. We were tired and cold, and didn't want to eat too much before a long plane ride, so we all had the watercress soup, ignoring things like gamba prawns, venison. The creamy soup was very mildly seasoned, and the flavours of the watercress and cream were gentle but full...the soup was not so rich that it fought with the brie crouton topped with what looked to be mild mustard sprouts. We also enjoyed an entire loaf of toasted walnut bread (this is what happens when you take teen boys to dine), and the boys followed their soup with apple tart, while I had a reviving espresso. The apple tart was a much happier dessert than the apple tart we sampled in Brussels...pastry was reported to have a good texture, and the apple and raisin filling was sweet but not too sweet!

I found some Belle de Boskoop in a supermarket in Brussels...we ate them raw, and although there was a slight bitterness to some of them, they had a great texture (although firm, they weren't hard/crisp, but had a very pleasant mouthfeel), were aromatic, and had plenty of flavor as well as sweetness to balance the considerable acidity. These were nothing more than average examples, and probably intended for cooking, judging from the mixed appearance of our half-dozen, so well-grown fruit should be very good indeed.

Keiko Ishida "Okashi" came out late last year...haven't seen it, though a blog references it here There's also an out of print (I think) book by Sachiko Moriyama, "Cakes you can Make". That's from 1989, and may be less characteristic of the modern Japanese approach to cake baking, which is to reduce sugar and fat to levels which are sometimes very successful, and sometimes alter the texture beyond the cakelike. Funnily enough,I don't get the impression that "yougashi" is considered a Japanese-born subtype of patisserie the way that Taisho/Showa "youshoku" is...although if somebody said "yougashi" I'd immediately think of Japanese-style strawberry shortcake...and my husband's response was "cream puffs". I did a bookshelf check at home and at local stores and on Amazon.co.jp and noticed that most Japanese books on western baking just refer to "okashi", and have dropped the "western" part right out...just as the Ishida book title suggests.

I can see how this happens...tests can identify numerous foods which you may never have noticed any problems with, and then when related items are added in, you quickly have a loooong list of "no-go" foods...without ever having thrown the kind of allergic reaction that puts people in hospital. All tests are not equally valid predictors of food allergy, and you can also end up equating a sensitivity with a full-blown allergy, and then if you include every item that provoked even a slight reaction, your list will be very long indeed. Of course some people do like the fuss that goes with special treatment... I got quite a long list myself when chasing up a recurring rash on arms and legs - but luckily the allergist told me which foods had significant reactions, and which were just "also-rans". So I never felt that I "couldn't" eat a food just because I had a positive reaction in an allergy test. Through subsequent experience, I've learned to avoid unfermented soy and take care not to eat a couple of other things regularly or on an empty stomach, but I could easily have believed that I needed to avoid soy and most beans, rice, all citrus fruits, most nuts, avocado, cinnamon, bay leaf...blah blah. I've got it figured out, but I still get caught...thought that a small amount of soy milk was fine, as it's often heavily processed, but a tiny amount recently gave me a rash, probably because it was hand-made and quite fresh. But nobody forced me to eat it, so I've only myself to blame! What I'm sure everybody hates, and I experience far too often, is turning my kitchen upside down for an "allergic" guest or spending a big chunk of time providing allergy information on Japan in English for people who then blithely eat whatever they want "because it's no big deal, really", after giving me the whole nine yards on what they absolutely MUST avoid, on pain of death or disfigurement...I don't mind the work, but I do object to pointless hard work.