helenjp

I used to work in a Chinese grocery when I was a student - Chinese tofu was firmer than any Japanese-style tofu I've eaten. But as Hiroyuki says, people in Japan do use either silk or cotton tofu for ma-po dofu, and some drain or parboil cotton tofu to make it even firmer - defintely a matter of personal taste.

Cafe Sweets, oh yes, I've never had a good enough excuse to buy an issue before. Vegetable juices, yes, there is something about Tokyo humidity that turns you off really sweet things, no matter how icy cold. I've been thinking about something similar to tomato water, understated. Bitter melon juice (cut with green grape juice etc) is popular at juice bars here. Avocadoes are here, but avocado icecream and avocado juice seem to have only a sluggish popularity. Honey/lemon/ice, or yogurt/honey/soy milk seem to be the popular additives...maybe the problem is in this horrible joke I spotted: "Looks like barium, but it's actually 'bari-uma' [very tasty]"...

I have about 60 pages of materials and references... The reason I didn't give references were 1) material is quite scattered, and 2) I was a bit reluctant to indicate use by certain regions or companies, when I wasn't sure whether such practices had been discontinued or not, and how many other undocumented cases exist. There is a mountain of reports on experimentation in this kind of antemortem procedure, dating from the late '50s through post-2000. Look for publications such as the Journal of Animal Science, Meat Science, World's Poultry Science Journal, Journal of Food Science, Handbook of Food Additives. Also numerous patent abstracts. What is much harder to trace is the commercial application - where, when, and to what extent? However, I made the post only when I was confident that this was a real procedure, in commercial use, and that there were real questions about the effects on the animals while still alive. Award given to scientist who made the ProTen Beef product possible - his name appears on numerous research reports from 1960 through to the 1970s, and the ProTen process may be the biggest commercial application ever made of the antemortem enzyme injection process. The company's own media release states “And in 1970, [company name's] ProTen tendered beef was reported to be the largest dollar sales, branded food item in the world. “ General information websites give the following type of information, which also suggests that the process is still in commercial use, however widespread it may or may not be: "5. Papain (in active form) Meat (tenderisation) Injected into the jugular vein shortly before slaughter; after slaughter, papain is activated and tenderises the meat; only 2-5 ppm (of body weight) enzyme injected." Commercial use is also referred to in industry reference books such as Lawrie's Meat Science, or Quality and Grading of Carcasses of Meat Animals. I believe that the practice may be waning, but really can't get a good grasp of that - hence my query about the extent of ante-mortem tenderizing (pre-slaughter tenderising if you want to find UK sources). Here's one reference: Enzymes in Food Processing, etc Tucker, G. A., Woods, L. F. J. Pub. Springer P 173-4 “Based on government figures, about 2% of the UK beef production is treated with papain, with higher figures in the US (Maclean, 1999).” It looks as if the process itself has changed, so that the active enzyme which originally caused shock and death (Enzymes in Food Processing, Tucker et al, fig. 5-8) are now used in smaller doses of less active enzymes, promptly neutralized - but slaughter is still supposed to happen within minutes, for reasons which are not clearly described - probably because organ meat deteriorates past the point of usability? In which case, the animal can hardly be in good condition by that stage? One report states that chymopapain was used, which has certainly caused serious problems when used intravenously with humans. Ref. Further this patent suggests that inactivation of enzymes and neutralization are not as straightforward as could be hoped: " While this technique is of substantial value in obtaining meat which, when cooked, is uniformly tender, there are undesirable animal side reactions which occur if some commercially available enzymes are utilized. Specifically, injection of the enzyme into a live animal often causes internal hemorrhaging and edema of the internal organs. " One question I have is whether the push to provide halal meats is likely to limit ante-mortem injection of enzymes, as I understand that even plant enzymes are not accepted by all authorities as halal when used in animals. Second, some of the problems seem to be associated with antemortem tenderizers other than papain - and many have been tried, from saline, calcium chloride, propanolol and reserpine (in big doses, rather than in small doses to offset shipping stress, as it is most commonly used (I believe)). And it's hard to tell which of these processes ever entered commercial use. One report suggested the use of fish-derived antifreeze, if it could be injected 24 hours before slaughter. Ref. Ref. Debated by UK parliament regarding animal welfare, Rejected by EC Scientific Community on Food on hygiene grounds http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/c...Writtens-9.html UK parliamentary debate, stated that meat processed this way must be labeled "tenderised", and that "Government's decision not to seek provision for the continued use of the pre-slaughter injection of cattle with the enzyme papain when [European] Community proposals are discussed". I am not sure what the actual, current status of antemorte tenderizing in the UK is. (Meat Hygiene, 10th Ed., Gracey, Collins, and Huey)Sorry if these seem out of context, since I assume nobody wants to scroll through a 60-page post!

I have eaten it, just as a snack - I don't think it would ever "reconstitute" completely even with thorough soaking. Stock - that's a good idea, though dried octopus is so expensive it seems a pity to do anything but eat it as is!

Oh great, some good ideas already! Yes, cold coffee always popular. I was mulling over some summery variation of Vietnamese coffee. Any flavoring or serving idea for frappes that might catch? I'm not sure on how much room there is for freezing - probably not a lot, but then, it's not hugely busy. A bigger problem would be the need to leave the serving area and go to the fridge - being a sheltered workplace, people don't always turn up reliably for their shift. Cucumber, yes, I was considering cucumber/yogurt doogh, or cucumber/sudachi (a green citrus) soda, or maybe green tea/cucumber/grape juice (which could be pre-mixed)... Limonana - that's mint BLENDED right into the lemonade? Looks so pretty!

Absolutely true - hard to justify cooking for one in central urban areas. 100 yen shops often sell single-serve packs of fresh vegetables (often pre-cut!). You can buy slightly insulated packs for pet bottles, so you can refill your used pet bottles at home and drag them off to work every day (I send my kids with those too - really is too expensive to buy 1-2 bottles daily). If you take one small bottle frozen, and one just chilled, you'll have enough to last you the day even in summer. When I was a student in Tokyo, I regularly made okonomiyaki - perfect 1-plate dish! In fact, who needs a plate...

Need your help! I was recently asked for cold beverage ideas for a coffeeshop run by a sheltered workplace group in Tokyo. Apart from hot and cold coffee and tea, their staple has been sesame/banana milkshake or lemonade, and clients are asking for something new! I imagine the milkshake is made something like this: 1 medium banana 2 tsp raw sugar or other sweetener to taste 2 tablespoons ground sesame seeds, black or white, or 1-2 tsp sesame paste 200ml (call it a cup) of soy or dairy millk Whizz in blender, serve over ice. (Makes two Japanese-size servings with plenty of ice. So they need something that will not be too hard for staff to make (these people don't have intellectual handicaps, but even depression can affect the ability to learn and remember things), nor too expensive (even more cuts in subsidies to sheltered workshops recently), but with some appeal (exotic or healthy twist) for clients - young office workers, mothers and retired couples out for a stroll along the nearby river. Apart from super-cooling midsummer drinks, there's a demand for spring/fall drinks too.

I knew somebody would pick me up on the poppyseeds! I use them mostly as a garnish when I don't want the flavor of sesame - or when I want something that will stay crunchy instead of gradually absorbing moisture, as sesame tends to. They are handy on mirin-boshi fish (brushed with mirin, sprinkled with seeds, and semi-dried before grilling), on kinpira, as a coating for deepfriend items, as a garnish for things grilled with nerimiso, or a topping garnish used in the same way as sesame seeds. I think I learned to use them from fucha ryouri (Chinese-influenced Buddhist vegetarian cooking of the Obaku zen sect). Mostly, I just use them because they are pretty!

Update: Starches: rice, sweet/sticky (mochi) rice, sprouted brown rice non-rice grains: hie (barnyard grass), millet, barley rice cakes (mochi) in winter Potato starch, wheat flour, tempura flour (good for making tiny quantities of tempura for lunchboxes). (Rice flours, real arrowroot flour, powdered green tea, red sweet-potato flour for keen confectionery makers). Seasonings: Mirin, good rice vinegar, cheap cereal vinegar, bulk soy sauce, good soy sauce, canol a oil, sesame oil, umeboshi (salted dried plum, whole and in paste form), sake (cooking), shouchuu (preserving). Home-made sushi vinegar, simmered-dish seasonings and other pre-mixed seasonings Spices etc: Whole chili pods Fresh ginger Garlic Szechuan pepper (sansho) Mixed red chili spices (shichimi-tougarashi) Japanese mustard (tube) Garden herbs: Green shiso, nira (giant chives), mitsuba, seri (for soups, salads), sanshou Sugar: Plain "spoon sugar" (granulated sugar for bakers), black sugar, san-on-tou light brown sugar. Noodles: Green beanthread vermicelli (harusame), somen, hiyamugi (slightly heavier), soba. (Buy udon fresh or frozen). Beans: Water-packed cooked soybeans, small white beans, azuki beans, tora-mame Other dry goods: Dried wheat gluten (fu), dried tofu, small cube style Konbu, wakame (soup-cut), chewier wakame root, hijiki Black nori (various names) little clusters of nori, for soups, ochazuke. Sheets of dried nori, various sizes Ao-nori for sprinkling on rice, etc. Katsuo-bushi in small packs Sakura-ebi (tiny flat pink shrimps) tea-bag style dashi packs of kombu, fish flakes, mushrooms etc. Shiitake mushrooms, assorted northern Japanese dried vegetables Black and white sesame seeds, whole and ground White poppy seeds Dried yam powder, for okonomiyaki in an emergency! Cans: pack of small cans of tuna can each of: saba (mackerel), corn, tomato, mandarins Ready to eat: Some form of soft-dried squid, kakinotane drinking snacks Senbei or crackers Small stock of ochazuke sachets (usually don't use sachets) individual serve miso soup sachets to pack with lunchboxes Green tea (usually only one type, as fresh is best) Vegetables in stock most of the year: Seasonal green leafy vegetables Daikon (giant radish) onions, potatoes winter: taro, burdock, carrot spring: citrus, flowering greens summer: eggplant, tomato, bitter melon, various gourds fall: fresh shimeji, maitake, preserved chestnuts Refrigerator: Usually chicken breast or thigh, pork scraps (komagire), salt fish. Chikuwa (tubular fish-sausage) Konnyaku (devil's tongue root jelly) tofu natto (fermented soybeans) miso - at least 2 types, plus neri-miso (seasoned sweetened miso spread) Ponzu (citrus/shoyu seasoning) Japanese mayonnaise, tonkatsu sauce (thickened worcestershire sauce) Men-tsuyu (concentrated noodle soup) Numerous useless packs of sauces or dipping sauces from bought noodles... yuzu-koshou Kanzuri Salted cherry-blossoms, mostly for cheering people up in lunchboxes Furikake, sprinkles for lunchbox rice Nuka-doko, rice bran pickling bed. Miso-doko, miso pickling bed usually with fish in it. Freezer: Used konbu awaiting recycling Aburage (thinly sliced fried tofu) Satsuma-age, emergency stock Filleted sardines (prepped when cheap, emergency lunchbox stock) frozen udon noodles

Ichiban Shinsetsu na Washoku no Kyoukasho (The Kindest Japanese Food Textbook") I saw this in a bookshop recently, and was very taken with it. Tthere are a number of cookbooks around at present called "Ichiban shinsetsu na..." (The kindest...", or "Ichiban Yasashii..." (The Easiest...), but this is the only one devoted purely to Japanese food, I think. It does start from dashi and rice, so if you already have Tsuji or similar, you wouldn't get as much use out of it, but it does contain a good range of useful dishes. It includes articles on plating, equipment, and general points about certain dishes etc as well as individual recipes. If you have even minimal Japanese, you might find this useful, as it has lots and lots of (admittedly small) step by step photos. The photos are useful because they are not the glossy finished-dish titillation, but the nitty-gritty preparation images. If my sons weren't still working through their personal cookbooks, I'd be inclined to buy them a copy each...

I knew we had a topic on this! Here... Japanese pantry Most everyday cooking topics are listed under 1) season. e.g. "Shun no mono - natsu" (seasonal items, summer), 2) preparation technique e.g. "nimono" (simmered dishes", or 3) ingredient, eg, "gobo" (burdock root). Meanwhile here a few other topics, old and new, that might be of interest: Japanese cooking at home is one topic to read through, though not all respondents are here in Japan. Japanese cookbook recommendations Best Japanese Food Magazines Favorite Japanese food products A Calendar of Japanese Foods What's for dinner

Fruit Vinegar Drinks discusses some vinegar drinks, both alcoholic and not, including the Tait Farm products. How is your experimentation going? Any non-fruit (peels, spices, green herbs) vinegars involved? A mild vinegar is definitely the way to go!

I *did* give a ramen party, when I lived in New Zealand...before there were things like ramen restaurants outside Japan. It was a lot of fun - guests had to bring their own bowls, as the bowls were harder to find than the ramen ingredients! For some reason, having guests walking into a party clutching noodle bowls made the party fun right from the start...

That Alton Brown recipe IS great. I used lard instead of vegetable shortening, since that was what I had. Possibly the use of lard rather than butter or oil was responsible for the softer "crust" and the bouncier texture. I had a doughnut recipe or two that I liked, but THIS is better! Definitely the best doughnuts I've made, especially after half a day. I absent-mindedly started to make the recipe without thinking about the huge quantities, so ended up "baking" some of the dough as rolls (literally - snail-style roll-ups) in my heavy frypan over a flame-tamer, since my oven has died. The soft top to the rolls got a sprinkle of spiced sugar, which improved their looks no end.

Animals are sometimes injected before slaughter with substances (most often papain or other protease, or substances intended to aid the action of these proteases) to start the "tenderizing" or proteolysis of muscle protein. It seems that sometimes cattle are just fed nutrients which will aid postmortem tenderizing treatments, but I'm concerned with the actual antemortem injection of tenderizers. Similar effects are achieved by using suffocation with carbon dioxide as a slaughter method, I believe. It's taken me a while to work out what is involved - as far as I can tell, the usefulness of this type of injection has been known for decades, but it was hard to control. I am not sure exactly how widespread the practice is now, and if it is "mainstream", how long it has been so. The problems appear to be about what you might expect from the breakdown of tissues while the animals are still alive - cardiac stress, hemorrhage, edema, coma, and sometimes outright death. I found descriptions of animals which collapsed and remained unconscious for 2-20 hours between injection and slaughter. It was very hard to find specific information about actual commercial antemortem tenderizing injection processes, so I cannot tell how it works in actual meat production. However, meat can obviously be made more tender not only through postmortem processing (though I believe that is problematic) but also through better feeding during the animal's life, minimum stress prior to slaughter, and longer aging before freezing or sale. In other words, the process appears to be there mostly to reduce production time (costs) and achieve higher prices, rather than to produce better quality meat for the end consumer. As a consumer, I've noticed that cheap pork and chicken is flabby when raw, mealy when cooked, and doesn't keep well - though I am sure that this is also due to postmortem tenderizing treatment. Cheap "boiler" chickens culled from egg farms seem to have vanished from the market - they need slow, moist heat when cooked, but they repay the effort with extra flavor. On the other hand, cheap tenderized meat can be grilled or fried quickly and remain soft - but that really is its only benefit to either cook or diner. And if the picture I've built up of antemortem tenderizing is even halfway correct, I'd rather just chew my food better.

My husband grew up in eastern Hokkaido, in a mining town which has simply disappeared off the map, and out of the landscape as well - just vanished. The few Ainu families who lived near the town were not well integrated, and integration was not considered a priority - most of the Ainu kids were not made welcome in school, for example, and teachers didn't bother to fetch them back when other children drove them out. Under those circumstances, except for people in very isolated settings, Ainu families had to think more about putting food on the table than about sticking to traditional cuisine. Ainu food has always included a good amount of wild food, but they also grew grains and vegetables. Guide (in Japanese and English ) to Ainu foods published by the Hokkaido Ainu Culture Research Center. >>- whether it's still commonly eaten amongst the Ainu community in Japan<< There is an Ainu diaspora, and many Ainu who are interested in their culture now have rediscovered it rather than grown up with it. There are Ainu restaurants (not a great many of them), and Ainu people preserve some of their eating habits, but in most of Japan, it wouldn't be economically feasible to eat only traditional Ainu foods. - whether there has been a growing interest in it There was a big boom in folk studies in the '70s or so, and since then minority traditions have received more attention, but I wouldn't say that it has continued to grow, or that it is as popular as, say Okinawan cooking. - what are some common/popular dishes Although bear is famous in ceremonial dishes, salmon and deer are more characteristic of daily food. "Ohau" is a salmon and vegetable soup - a similar dish is made with deer. Cereals are mostly eaten as a kind of ojiya called rataskep, cooked with beans and vegetables. "Tonoto" is a kind of unfiltered sake originally made from hie (barnyard grass). Fish is not salted and dried the way it is in the rest of Japan - salt is used when it is eaten, and the fish (or meat) is dried, or frozen, or smoked, or a combination of the three processes. It may be dried raw or cooked. - are there any Japanese dishes of Ainu origin I think that quite a few Hokkaido family dishes are Ainu in origin, but flavored to suit Japanese tastes. - is there such thing as Japanese-Ainu fusion cuisine today Maybe there is no other kind.. - is it vastly different from mainstream Japanese cuisine Main things would be absence of miso and soy sauce, and use of animal fat or fish oil as a flavoring. - are there any books about it Yes, but I don't know any in English. This book is mainly anecdotal (I have it). I don't know anything about this collection of oral lore on cooking and food. - and...if anyone has had experience with Ainu food, please share! From the link at the top, here are two recipes (which don't appear in English in the text, I think). Rataskep Soak dried corn and beans (kidney beans, small white beans) in a potful of water. Add pork bones (horse bones traditionally) Add azuki beans if you prefer them to other beans. Cook till tender, flavor with salt and animal fat/fish oil as desired. Japanese people in the area where my husband grew up had trouble obtaining rice (cold-hardy varieties are modern), and also cooked a variety of grains and beans together with potatoes, squash etc., but a meat or fish broth would have been for special occasions only. Ohau Salmon, cut in pieces (includes head) Daikon (with some leaves), carrot, potato, onion, Japanese dividing onion (negi) Cut vegetables into bite-sized pieces, simmer in water until nearly parboiled, add salmon and continue cooking until tender.

Yes, the May one - I bought it specifically for that recipe and the fish feature, to overcome Golden Week cooking marathon blahs...but virtuously resisted Orange Page. Thanks to rubbing the chicken stock powder into the cabbage, the mixture appeared sloppier than usual, but it wasn't gluey when cooked.

I think (myself) that konnyaku is better cooked in with the rice (takikomigohan style) as it takes a while to absorb flavor. But I do think that maze-gohan is great in spring and summer, as it tends to be a lighter dish than takikomi-gohan. We had a "maze-gohan" today, of some seriously substandard beef "steak", with crispy fried onion, tomato, and peppers.

Okonomiyaki is great with tender spring cabbage, isn't it? We had okonomiyaki yesterday, from a recipe in this month's NHK Kyo no Ryouri magazine...cabbage shredded and "massaged" with chicken stock powder, mixed with a minimal amount of flour, beaten egg, and grated mountain yam. Pork scraps fried, cabbage mixture poured on top, mixture topped with softened ramen noodles (not the instant type, the "steamed" type). Flipped half way to crisp up the noodle topping, served with kochujang mayonnaise, and a sauce of finely chopped scallions with sesame oil and a little soy sauce. It was very good!

What a wonderful occasion! Glad to hear that you were able to introduce your wife to a favorite spot! We had my brother in law staying with us over Golden Week too, and it was a pleasure to think of tasty treats for him, and to rejoice that he was able to enjoy them. Happy to hear that we weren't the only people enjoying family time this weekend! I was interested to see the sakura masu, always wondered why I didn't see it in sushi shops.

I made some falooda today for the first time, as a special treat for Children's Day in Japan (but really mostly to please my aging brother in law!). Went with: basil seeds, cornflour noodles, rose syrup (home made, so I was able to go easy on the rosewater), aloe slices in syrup (yes, well, easy to come by in Japan, taste and look cool), milk, and Japanese lacto-ice on top with a tiny drizzle of rose syrup on the top. To my surprise, it was a major hit - just proves how very pleasant the combined textures of falooda are. Any further ideas on favorite faloodas?

Freezer, wow, that's a good tip! The only miso that you are likely to have trouble with is white miso, which is sweet but not too salty - in other words, doesn't keep too well.

I hadn't thought of using udo for tempura...now I know what to do with the udo tops after I use the young stems!

There's a discussion upthread about tsubugai (a kind of Japanese whelk), and whether or not they are safe to eat. Today my local supermarket was selling "toudai tsubugai", so I bought a pack of these finger-length whelks. This Japanese site says that Buccinum inclytum also known as himo-maki-bai are not toxic in the way that neptunea is...but supermarkets tend to sell any Hokkaido whelks as "toudai tsubugai"... It does seem that the longer, more slender ones are Buccinum inclytum rather than neptunea. They are reputed to be softer-fleshed than neptunea too. Anyway, to be on the safe side, I called my sister-in-law in Hokkaido. She says that they usually boil them briefly, pull out the whelk, trim off the lens and the JELLY-LIKE GRAYISH SUBSTANCE in the middle, which she regards as the source of any baddies. You can eat the yellow and black coil of gut at the very tip of the shell, but it's not that tasty and is usually discarded. For toudai-tsubu(gai), they don't bother removing the salivary gland. You can see a youtube video on the removal of these glands in a much larger ma-tsubu-gai (probably a Neptunea variety - the "ezo-bora" types which have the toxin are ezobora or N. polycostata, ezobora modoki or N. intersculpta, chijimi-ezobora or N. constricta, kuri-iro ezobora or N. lamellosa, and hime-ezobora or N. arthritica, though that's only useful if shellfish are correctly named, which they are not always). My sister in law says children are not normally given tsubu-gai, to be on the safe side, but adults normally don't feel more than a bit "woozy-drunk" even if unlucky. Anyway, if you wish to trim anything suspicious out of a whelk, take off the lens "plate" at the base. That leaves the frill and the muscle at the bottom of the shell. If you trim the lens off, you are left with a U-shaped muscle. If you sit the U on its belly and cut the long muscle open along the opening of the U, you will see a few organs at the far end (away from the lens), surrounding the base of the siphon. In larger whelks, the yellowish ovoid salivary glands would be on either side of that. In small toudai-tsubu, if you just clean out the siphon and surrounding organs, you will have got rid of anything questionable. Once the muscle and frill are cleaned and rinsed, simmer them in equal parts of mirin and sake, then add one part of soy sauce and simmer/soak till flavor is absorbed. They were indeed soft and tasty, and we certainly all lived to tell the tale!

A Japanese recipe for peanut butter cookies included a generous amount of lemon zest. If you're a peanut butter cookie fence-sitter, it makes all the difference!