helenjp

Thanks for a wonderful blog, Hiroyuki, best wishes to your wife, and hope your children's gardens do well . (By the way, it seems that many SFG people who live in regions with hot summers add more compost in August or so, so that the soil can hold more moisture). I drove past Kitakogane tonight, and the coin-operated rice polishing machine has been replaced! It seems that they were just waiting until the new, rebuilt police Koban was completed before installing a nice, new machine. I don't know who uses it though, since most people buy their rice at the supermarket, and there is MUCH less farmed land than when you lived around here. Enjoy your evening off! I finished a 2-week job today too.

Yes, as for the mess, I'm very suspicious. . Hiroyuki claims to be a translator, but every translator I know wades through their living room thigh-high in books. So where are they??! Thank you for the re-run of the saba furikake - now that bento season is "on" again, I was planning to find your recipe and make it. I already bought 2 cans of saba (discounted, of course) ready. I think there's a place for instant dashi - and lots of people use noodle soup concentrate for practically every soy-sauce based dish too. However, they are quite intense in taste - you can also get non-MSG instant dashi powder, and you can find many versions of home-made soy sauce seasoning mixes on the net in Japanese by googling 万能調味料 or 合わせ調味料 Japanese bento boxes are shallow, so the lid is probably only half a centimeter away from the contents in most cases. They are packed fairly firmly though, and people pack things diagonally into corners, which is where they'd move anyway, with larger items in the middle. Finally (bit hard to explain) there is a knack to packing them - while it looks like a sand-picture from on top, in fact the layers often overlap slantwise just a little (one reason why leaves etc are often used as separators, I guess), which means that you end up with a shallow V-shaped gap at one end of the box. The idea is to jam something bulky in there which practically locks everything into place like a keystone. Makes you wonder what the Japanese bento looked like before cherry tomatoes were invented .

Poor sausage. Give him plenty to drink, even if he is sleepy. As for unpredictable, yes - our elder son, after 10 years of HATING RAMEN suddenly asked for home-made ramen tonight. When younger son gets back from violin-bashing, they're on boiled-egg peeling duty.

Funnily enough, I have started serving everything on one plate this past month, because otherwise I am washing dishes at midnight, and getting up at 5am. It's a practical solution to the old Japanese problem of everybody coming home late from school and work (and I often have work to finish at night) - but whenever I do use one large plate, I feel horribly guilty and WRONG! Suspicious tofu was meant to be drained and used in iri-dofu or tofu/ground meat burgers! And don't be too strong - pick one day a week to be a slob and make everybody go to the sento, eat cup ramen in the sento lobby for dinner, and come home in their pajamas!

I do agree, actually. At home, onigiri has to be the cheapest snack. My husband's favorite "desk drawer" snack at work is chocolate almonds, although he says he'd like to eat pickled garlic and shio-kara (fermented squid-gut) on the days when he's particularly annoyed with the people in his department. Other "stingy man" favorites around here: coconut sable often found in 100 yen shops Mr. Ito Butter Sable wild extravagance, this one! Deviant senbei in Kansai, these things are not known as "senbei", but when my husband says "senbei", this is the kind of stuff he means.

My sister says that cheese wires and other slicers are regularly used in the Netherlands on pliable Dutch cheese, so she sent me one. Hmmm...every time I use it, the wire comes out of the handles . I only ever use it on processed or cheddar cheese, because other cheese is sold in pieces too small to slice .

?? Why you don't buy Pocky? Wasn't it because your family preferred Pretz? Please enlighten us! In my case, not only do my boys prefer Pretz, they can eat a pack so fast that I feel I should just open my purse and invite them to crunch their way through my money directly, why bother turning it into food first? I was thinking about that green plate that your wife likes. I bet she likes it because the color looks good with almost any food. Doesn't the color remind you a little bit of Oribe-yaki? I believe that various mushroom logs are quite popular, because you don't even need light to grow them. We've never had one, because we live so close to a shiitake grower that we can't justify passing up cheap bags of too-small shiitake for expensive grow-your-own logs.

Snap! Our car is practically old enough to vote, too! Shaken coming up in a couple of months! So do your children make their own breakfast on the weekends?

I often breakfasted with my grandparents when I was small, and they ate the full, old-style farm breakfast - and needed it, because my grandfather and uncle had put in 3 hours of hard work before breakfast. No fancy cereal, and not a lot of sweetness - porridge with salt, bacon/egg or a fried flounder, and toast to fill any empty corners. The only thing I don't want for breakfast is something really dry and stodgy. Like a bagel, for example! I guess it's all habit though, because my boys are happy to have their starch as porridge or pancakes or toast, or Chinese congee with pickles, or rice/ with fish/miso soup, but they absolutely draw the line at scones for breakfast. Sandwiches for breakfast - OK if they're lightly toasted, because they go better with hot tea that way (I think). My family's favorite breakfast is the buffet at the YWCA Fort Canning Park in Singapore - the buffet table laden with the makings of western, Chinese and Indian breakfasts suited them very well.

Does my husband get sick of eating meat? No, because he grew up in a rather isolated inland part of Hokkaido. He only eats fish because I insist on cooking it (I grew up beside the sea)! Yes, I put fish in curry. I like mackerel (saba) curry best - but it tastes best with a sour, light home-made curry, not bought curry roux. I agree with the comment that beef can smell beefy, etc - when I go back to NZ, I notice the smell of raw meat much more since I've been living in Japan. Also, even though we eat meat very often in Japan, we don't eat as much meat per person/serving - 2 weeks of good Kiwi tucker makes me feel ill these days! But of course my sons are delighted to eat sausage, steak, huge flounder and snapper every day. I feel like crying when I see one tiny flounder for 360 yen here, and think that I could buy a whole bag of BIG fresh flounder for that price in NZ! Easily digested hulled sesame seeds? Hmm, absorbing 100% of nutrition from my food is not a priority for me! - though maybe for my skinny husband . I like the crunchiness of unhulled sesame, and the fact that it grinds to a powder. Prices here are closer to what Prasantrin pays - cheapest I see is about 50yen/100g for chicken breast, and that's *very* cheap around here. Hiroyuki, do you remember the shop near Kita-Kogane that sold "white" or pale soba? It closed down !

I'm curious...why did you choose the hulled sesame seeds? In many western countries, you can only buy hulled seeds - the unhulled seeds are only found in health food shops. I also noticed that hulled seeds have been available here for a few years, but I much prefer the unhulled ones! Somebody asked about meat prices. Chicken, and then pork seem to be the cheapest protein these days, apart from tofu. Hiroyuki, do you choose meat because your family like it, or because it is cheaper than fish? Approx. cost of fish and meat for 3 of the meals Hiroyuki has cooked: 360 yen for 3 small pieces of salmon (less then 1/2 slice each piece, so total 1 good slice?), 250 yen for 3 slices of pork (for cutlets), 350 yen for shredded pork (for curry). The average weight of a slice of salmon these days is under 80g, but let's assume the total was about 100g - that makes the salmon nearly 3 times as expensive as the pork, which would be running at $4 or $5 per lb for supermarket specials. That type of salmon is usually an economical way to buy fish, because the supermarket takes unsold salmon from the day before and pickles it in a miso mix. If you are lucky, you can find saury or sardines for under $1 each, but you must either wait while the supermarket guts them, or do it at home and deal with the mess and garbage too.

We had curry tonight too, but we didn't have miso soup with it. My husband would definintely approve - he thinks that EVERY meal needs miso soup, even spaghetti. Hiroyuki, do you find it hard getting time to cook dinner when you work at home? I find that clients tend to call me to wind up the day's business just when I need to cook dinner. I made our curry in the pressure cooker in 15 minutes, just in time, whew! I hope your daughter enjoyed her curry...and did that white plate come from a bread manufacturer? Looks awfully like ours...

We use some of the same furikake too - the green vegetable one, and of course the nori-tama one. Honey umeboshi - you can make a version at home, instructions in the umeboshi thread I believe. I'll look later - work calls, although I'm not as disciplined as Hiroyuki! I quite understand why you aren' t out there gardening, Hiroyuki, but it's nice to see your son doing some - I hope it's one of the nice things in his life at present. Please tell your son that my okra seedlings are (just a tiny bit!) bigger than his okra seedlings Those are VERY nice kettles you use for your mugicha - I use an ancient red enamel kettle that's not so elegant!

Boy, that's an elaborate menu - all set out just like the food tray. My boys say they don't particularly miss school lunches now that they have to take bento, but *I* sure miss them. Kukicha is our favorite green tea too. Mild, easy to drink. Are you and your kids planning to plant some vegetables this year? ...and did you know that you can pickle dandelion flowers in salt, just like cherry blossoms?

Yes! I've also been hoping for ages that Hiroyuki would do a food-blog one day. I'm glad to see that you have PICKLES on your breakfast table . That breakfast looks like a fine start to the day. Your kitchen looks very easy to work in - but don't you think you should put the toaster oven on top of the microwave ? And then stack some saucepans on top as well? One question: what do you use your Milser for most of all? Your children were looking very serious in their photo - awed by the responsibility of representing Yuzawa to the world of eGullet? My family will be thinking of you and your wife and family, and hope that her stay in hospital will make a big improvement in her health. You have our prayers and best wishes.

No expert, but yuzu are well-known as one of the toughest and hardiest of citrus. I would be careful about drainage, but otherwise, just leave it alone and wait...and wait... You could always try sprouting some other more tender citrus and graft that onto any spare yuzu seedlings! Yuzu rootstock is very tough, but it does tend to delay first fruiting (though not necessarily for 15 years). Yuzu is notorious for fruiting every 2nd year, but apparently you can lessen that tendency by pruning judiciously to open up the center of the bush to light more, as long as you prune before the leaf buds for spring growth become active - they are the ones supposed to be the ones which blossom and bear fruit best! I have a seedling citrus in my garden, but darned if I can remember now what it was!

Sounds interesting, but JUST IMAGINE THE POSTAGE!

What Blether says about times is about what I remember. I can't recall how long I preheated my cheap one either. Considering the price of electricity here, I leave the pizza stone in the oven while cooking something on the other shelf, and then in goes the pizza. Then of course, it stays hot, so it's a waste to cook just one! With 2 teenage boys, cooking a single pizza is never an option. The problem I find is that living in Japan, I just don't use my oven as often as I would if I were in a western country. That means that cooking 2-3 dishes in succession to make best use of oven time while preheating/using retained heat requires a big departure from my normal "heartful kitchen life" = it's a hassle. Hence, pizza stone stays in box...

Jam-making with small fry: use the microwave (small batches only, of course). I think microwaved jam maybe doesn't keep as well as usual, but it keeps it's color better. The jam is out of sight of small people, which is half the battle, and the timer keeps distraction-related boil-overs to a minimum too. And there's a door between any boil-overs and small investigators too. Pollination: I planted chamomile and thyme, hoping to improve pollination (plants with lots of flowers, or flower-heads made up of clusters of tiny flowers). Too early for me to tell yet!

SuzySushi: Piiman-zuke Commercial "piiman-zuke" in this photo doesn't actually contain green pepper (possibly why it's so popular with people who hate green peppers ). This site says it "includes" pickled shiso seeds, ginger, cucumber, and gourd. I guess that the cucumber, gourd, and shiso seeds at least are already preserved in salt, and that the ginger maybe lightly salted first too. Then they will be de-salted, and re-pickled in a tastier mix such as shoyu and mirin, sugar, possibly calcium etc to keep it crunchy, etc. This is done because the sweetened shoyu "marinade" doesn't keep as well as a regular salt pickle. However, restaurants and homes often make various kind of quick pickles which are intended to be consumed quickly rather than being allowed to ferment. One of these types is "kizami-zuke" - finely chopped vegetables which are salted and squeezed. Sometimes green shiso leaves, finely chopped ginger, dried chili, or sesame oil or seeds are added, and sometimes all or part of the salt is replaced with umeboshi or miso or soy sauce. Sometimes sugar or sake are added to make the pickle mellower. Try this - I made an experimental basic version which lasted 1 meal and one day of lunchboxes, so it should work!: 1 cucumber or about 3-4 oz daikon Roughly the same amount by weight in green peppers Other aromatics to taste. EITHER: 1 tab salt dissolved in 1 c water, OR about 1/2 tsp salt. Chop vegetables finely, and put them in a baggie with your selected salt ingredient. Massage a little, and leave to shed water. Squeeze lightly, serve. Edit. leave overnight or 48 hours for a mellower, less obvious "salt" taste. OR, rinse briefly and squeeze, and toss with (VERY ROUGHLY!!!) 1 tsp soy sauce and 1 tab sake, or 1 tab noodle soup base (men-tsuyu), or 1 tsp miso and 1/2 tsp soy sauce In other words, the basic rate of salt is around 3% of weight of main vegetables, or half that for pre-salting and half for final marinade. (Pre-salting helps get rid of bitterness from the green peppers - I find the salt in water the fastest and most foolproof method, but very frequently use straight salt - 1 small pinch per 100g veges usually).

Maybe something like this? which seems to be either the "flavor" of cultured butter, or a starter culture producing a very mildly cultured butter???

Pinwheel scones. That's retro where I come from, probably foreign food for the rest of the world . Come to think of it, ginger crunch, and pink potato salad may fall into the same category. Late 80s early 90s means "timbales" to me. Seemed like every plate looked like an oversize lego block. In Japan, there's a sudden interest in the food of the Showa era. Heck, some of the retro reprints in food magazines are things I remember poring over, dictionary in hand, in 1980 . Yes, there were Japanese hippies making brown rice onigiri back then, but there was a growing interest in learning to make "the real thing" at home, and I learned a lot about classic pastry techniques from Japanese magazines back then! Salmon pie? Maybe the biggest gourmet impact of the '60s here was expensive-but-just-affordable canned crab? Combine that with the explosion in aquaculture of nori and the availability of cheap machine-made sheet nori and there you have the crab roll and other sushi rolled up in nori sheets...I always wondered why '70s nori rolls were *so* elaborate, like Brighton rock candy sticks!

I didn't mean getting the amount wrong (though I wouldn't have known the 15-20% percentage if I hadn't seen it here), I was really thinking of not knowing that I should tip at takeout counters, or trying to leave a tip for the bank manager. Compulsory, set-percentage tipping is such an engrained habit for Americans that various aspects of a commercial transaction act as a cue for you, but not for me. If I saw an empty container on a takeout counter, I'd probably think it was for used special-offer coupons . or that somebody had forgotten to fill it!

The butter onigiri is supposed to be microwaved before you bite in...

Just in case Pat has signed off for the night downunder, here's the link to the recipe on her site: Pat's Anzac Biscuits