helenjp

Almost certainly - it appears in Japan at the same time, and in the same locations/social milieu as Buddhism.

Sending you a PM...absolutely not urgent, so enjoy your dinner!

I lost a LOT of weight following the Sugarbusters plan a few years back, and kept it off for a couple of years, which proves that it's do-able with a Japanese way of eating (put it all back thanks to poor eating, high stress, lack of sleep and absolutely no exercise ). I will respond more specifically when work is less busy, but I found I could make it work in Japan even with a soybean allergy , and my friend with the severely diabetic husband is a keen cook, so we have often discussed the issues involved.

What time of year will you be here? How long? Budget? Traveling companions? "Must-see" places or activities?

I'm hoping that the manufacturers make a statement, because I'm curious to know whether the folate is actually "added" or not! I know that several news sources have said so, but since vegemite is already rich in B vitamins, I'm still curious about the facts...

I'm just putting some peas and beans into a planter on our veranda, so they can grow slowly over winter. I'll put in a catch crop of tsumami-na with that, and maybe some other greens like shungiku too. Our garden is just too shady for success, but this year our sons pleaded for windowbox-style planters to grow vegetables in.

Happy birthday! We're practically twins . I am looking forward to hearing about hoagies - for me, they are one of those mysterious American foods I've heard about, but have only the fuzziest conception of.

At the risk of getting WAY off topic, Japanese people do have a genetic tendency to develop Type II diabetes at much lower levels of obesity than some other races. At the same time, Japanese rice seems not to behave exactly like other short-grained rice. This site is not the last bastion of scientific reliability, but shows the general tendency of high-amylose rices to have a much lower glycemic index. I know some mild diabetics who can control their condition through diet, and one severe diabetic who has very badly damaged kidneys and has lost a leg. They all eat rice - just less of it, and often with the husk only partly polished away. The hardest thing for Japanese diabetics seems to be replacing the high-sugar elements of the "sweet and salty" tradition in seasoning. Mostly the advice is to use soy sauce and vinegar rather than soy sauce and sugar. Well-made mirin also has a lower impact on blood sugar. Udon is a hard food for diabetics, but 100% buckwheat flour soba is an excellent choice. As for pesto in the country...basil is related to shiso, so it's not too hard a taste for Japanese to get used to!

Chestnut season seems to be over here - maybe not such a good harvest this year, with lots of rain and not much sun during the growing season. I like to soak the peeled chestnuts in water and then boil them very briefly before adding them to the rice - makes the color much brighter. Going the other way, somewhere I have a recipe for kurigohan with the thin, inner "shibukawa" of the chestnut left on. I will dig around for it when current work deadlines are out of my way!

Black sugar has the same slight sharpness and bitterness, Cheeko. I use it in simmered dishes, and also to fry or grill things fake-kabayaki style. Goes wonderfully with strong flavors like fresh sardine! Sweeteners - if I could afford it, I'd probably use mirin instead of sugar even more often than I do now. I find it much lighter and less obtrusive for sweetening delicate flavors.

Kinkistyle, my younger son would agree with you completely. Last night, just AFTER I'd put on rice on to cook for bentos, my son1 said he needed a bento today too. Today: Fresh (unsalted) cod deepfried in breadcrumbs and white sesame, with okra in breadcrumbs and black sesame. Carrots in su-miso. Broccoli (how boring - but it was the only fresh-looking green vegetable in the shop). Home-made fukujin-zuke, nice and crunchy since I learned to have the mirin and soy boiling rapidly before adding the pickles and vegetables. Rice molded shokado-style for ease of eating, sharp-flavored early mikan. Tomorrow: Gingered tsukudani of clams, Thick deepfried tofu simmered with miso and ginger. Patties of daikon leaves and satsuma-imo. "Hitashi" of thin-sliced daikon. Momi-zuke of mitsuba, maybe?

Thanks for that! I knew the milk was boiled down, but hadn't ever seen pictures, and had no idea it was cooked for so long. Now I understand why it wasn't fermented - before I saw the pix, I'd always imagined something more like a normal fresh curd product.

Folded towel thing - nope. Shift too easily, damp, etc., you knew it already. Pot holder. Would use them if I could find any that are more than decorative (I don't really live in Pot Holder Land). Oven mitts. Yes, I use them, and have a pair which cost considerable, but which deal with more heat than anything else I've used. They have magnets in a tape at the end, so I can just slap them on the side of my oven. Although they don't degenerate after a couple of washes, and they still work when wet, after 10 years they definitely need replacing, if I could find anything as good. I have large hands, so I want longish, gauntlet-style gloves that are wide at the wrist and smoothly lined so I can pull them on and off quickly.

Cheese...no. Apparently dairy products appeared in Japan in the Nara period (I think) as health food for the super-rich. I don't recall any mention of cheese or even butter though it's a little hard to imagine that the concept of drinking/eat milk arrived in Japan without any knowledge of fermentation etc to preserve milk arriving with it.

Bento stuff such as chopsticks and chopstick boxes, bandanas for wrapping bentos. Molds for making quick log-shaped onigiri - kids say they are faster to eat than flat-packed rice when they have stuff to do during lunch hour. Filing trays for work papers. Weird but wonderful... one of those wire mesh tea-strainer inserts for teapots. I squish it a bit, put it upside down in a big pot, and stand my Christmas pudding on it ready for boiling/steaming. It's more stable than the traditional upside-down saucer, and much cheaper than a trivet!

Definitely the sacrilege option! That would bother me less if any of us could warm the rice at lunch time, but we can't, and I'm aware from eating bentos myself that the rice is less tasty, and more crumbly and hard when cooked the night before, even though I reheat it in the morning. I just use a lot of pickles, nori, and furikake! The reason is that when I only have 2 bentos to make, it's too difficult to cook a tiny amount of rice in the morning. However, some people cook rice in the morning using a microwave rice cooker (which will cook as little as a half-cup of rice) - put the rice to soak the night before, and zap it in the morning. I have one somewhere, but I've forgotten how long the rice needs to be cookedt for...

One of my sons has a long commute, so this year I joined the 5am bento makers...urgh. Top time savers: * Make one item the night before. Not only does it save time, it starts you thinking on what will go with that item, thus speeding up the rest of the bento-making. * Pre-mixed seasonings. The one I find most useful is strong katsuo dashi mixed 1:1 with shoyu (keep refrigerated). Handy for dressing greens, and for adding to simmering vegetables. * Asa-zuke quick pickle mix makes it easy to have plenty of vegetables in the bento. * I buy two of each type of bento box. That way I can pack some items the night before (before the day's bento boxes have arrived home to be washed), and it's also easy for me to estimate amounts when I'm always using the same container. By next year, everybody in the family will be taking a bento. I no longer have to worry about preparing minute amounts of food for bento - it's just another meal to make.

That was a great harvest! Last time I grew them in our shady garden, we got lots of leaves, and only finger-thick satsuma-imo! P.S. Did you know that you can make wreaths out of the vines? Make 2-3 loops of thicker vine, then twist thinner vines round and round, and leave them to dry - later on, you can add autumn, winter, or Christmas decorations.

Recipe for Hindle Wakes - this stove-top stuffed whole chicken is what I made for Christmas the first year I was in Japan. You don't need an oven, but you need a pot such as a pasta pot big enough to hold a whole chicken. If you don't fancy prunes in the stuffing (they are traditional), use your own favorite recipe. This is a good recipe, but the chicken will of course be pale, not golden brown like a roasted chicken. You can indeed make a stuffed chicken roll. Get a whole skin-on chicken momo (thigh) or mune (breast) piece, and lay it out, skin-side down. Pull out and cut any tendons. Slide your knife horizontally through really thick pieces, and open them out like a book, so that you have a flap of meat extending past the skin. Otherwise, it is too small to make a good-sized roll. Get some kitchen string ready... Lay your modest amount of stuffing onto about half the chicken surface (covering the skinless "flap" area, and start rolling from the flap side. You want the flap to end up insie the roll, and all the skin to be on the outside. Fasten with toothpicks or skewers temporarily, roll up with string and tie off, fry till outside is browned, then add water and a little vinegar, and simmer (covered) until tender. Loosen from the pan, but allow to cool somewhat before taking the string off and slicing. Make gravy from the pan juices and pour over.

My kids seem to be on diverging paths... Son2 dug through my recipe books till he found a recipe for taralli (a sweetish yeast-raised dough formed into small rings, boiled, and then baked), which he made a creditable job of. A few days later, he made a batch of snickerdoodles to take to church, because he thinks buying cookies for morning tea is a waste of money when they are so easy to make! Meanwhile, son1 decided to make himself breakfast, poured about half a cup of oil into a frypan, heated it to something approaching fission point, dumped an egg in, and then transferred the whole oily, charred mess onto his plate and ate it. After that, he spent the entire day in bed recovering...

lapasterie, Mutsu is a Japanese apple - we get them once or twice a season in our monthly 10kg apple order . My sons like them to eat fresh, and I use them for cooking. They are pleasant enough but perhaps a little bland.

I will try that thank you! Moistening dried fruit in black tea works well too if you want a non-alcoholic option for recipes where sinking fruit isn't a problem.

The currants I ordered arrived today, and since I also have suet (two rare and precious ingredients in Japan), I'm about to make Christmas pudding. I recall that my grandmother never pre-soaked fruit for Christmas pudding, although she did for Christmas cake. She did use a grated apple with the dried fruit for the pudding, however. Anybody care to comment on the pros or cons of soaking dried fruit for Christmas pudding in stout, brandy, grated apple/lemon juice, tea, or what have you?

Tops was two and a half hours. It was never less than an hour - what a waste of time, I can make the dough, knead it by hand AND make the topping and have it hot and crisp on the table in less than that time!

Two pies! Apple tart thickened with tapioca yesterday, and pumpkin cheesecake for today.