helenjp

Tissue, sounds like kakiage - they are often fried that way with a little carrot, but for some reason, frying really brings out the aroma and sweetness, and smooths out any harshness or bitterness.

Yes, I think you're right about charcoal, that's definitely peaked as a trend, though still more in evidence than before the boom. Azuki etc....this could be around for a while. I don't see quite the "mixed grains" fervor there was a year or so back, but on the other hand, every bookshop is currently knee-deep in "macrobiotics". So this wave may not have crested yet. Thanks for your report - interesting reading.

White Day...my son2's friend confided that he wwas relieved it was finally over - one of the class princesses had given him some chocolate on Valentine's Day, and spent the intervening month reminding him that she expected MAJOR REPAYMENT on White Day!

I use aburage in cooking bento - I open out a thin slice of pork or butterfly some chicken thinly, lay aburage on top, add some veg, roll up and pin or tie, brown in a pan then simmer, cool a little, and slice. It seems like an uninteresting variation on all the rolled meat items possible, but the aburage absorbs some of the cooking liquid and seems to make the resulting rolls moister, wiht a more complex flavor, and less chewy and fatty.

I have to agree - but I don't own it, though I have one of his cookbooks in Japanese. Though I have other personal favorites, his cooking is really the standard of quality to aim for in contemporary preparation of traditional food.

Pop it in sesame oil (the dark brown toasted kind).

Is it safe to use them on an electric burner? I used to work in a Chinese grocery store, and that was the million dollar question. The answer is, maybe. A thin nabe of poor-quality clay is quite likely to crack or break. Even good ones are earthenware, not china. Lots of do-nabe showing glazing inside and out, with the unglazed portion on the bottom. There are do-nabe made for use with IH cookers - they have a special carbonized coating or insert, haven't seen one so not sure. They may suit you, especially as they have a flat bottom. However, I have also used 1) an electric frypan with a lid, 2) a shallow, enameled pan with lid, and 3) Yamamoto-nabe Mine doesn't look like that photo though, it's a sandwich-style steel/aluminum/steel pan shaped like a flat-bottomed wok, with a flared edge at the top to cool boiling liquids and prevent overflow.

NZ Mussel Industry Council website might be able to provide more specific information. I believe that liquid nitrogen is used, but I don't think that by any means all mussels processed in NZ use nitrogen, either in gas or liquid forms. I really think spiral freezers are still common. Could be wrong though, don't have any up to date information. The taste of the fresh green-lipped mussels is noticeably different from blue mussels anyway. Green-lipped mussels are larger, softer and milder, blue mussels are smaller, chewier, and have a stronger "briny" taste. I would choose the blue for a steaming bowl full of mussels in wine and herbs, with big chunks of bread; but the green mussels for slowly simmered dishes such as mussels in milk or cream with saffron, and chopped green mussel meat for stuffings. ...and smoked, of course, but as I haven't had smoked blue mussels, I can't really compare them. Green-lipped mussels are grown in very clean water - although the thing I remember most about interpreting for a documentary on them was hanging onto the cameraman's pants so he wouldn't fall out of the helicopter as he'd taken the door off to film, I do also remember the amazing depth you could see down to - you could see pretty much to the end of the ropes hanging down off the mussel-farm rafts. That may affect the flavor too - I suspect but don't know for sure that the blue mussel is less fussy about where it will grow, though it likes gentle currents of clean water too.

Arctium lappa, nice little wikipedia article on origins and use. I gently fried some of the new gobo with some chicken I was frying for husband's bento, then added a little vinegar, soy and mirin to finish. Gobo and chicken go together well, and the new gobo absorbed the chicken flavor beautifully!

I don't wipe the konbu first (unless I drop it on the floor ) - the white powdery stuff is mainly gooood stuff. Shaving katsuo-bushi - I've been tempted to go that route, until I consider where in my tiny kitchen I would store the box!

I think the new gobo is traditionally an early summer crop - early June. And what we are seeing now is not the really thin gobo, so I assume it's cultivated in greenhouses, further south? Thanks for the links Hiroyuki. I think I likely will end up frying it, because 1) it preserves the flavor so well, and 2) it's quick and easy, and tomorrow's the deadline for tax returns!

robinjw13, I think that the "new" young gobo is probably first harvested in the condition you describe - sometimes I see packs in the shops with the new, curled-up shoots at the top. I'll have to check on the leaves - I won't say what I thought they contained, in case I'm wrong! Edit: OK, I checked. The type that has edible leaves or stems is not the regular gobo、which tends to have reddish stems, but "white" gobo, which has plain green stems. Even then, they are only eaten young - either as simmered dishes, or chopped and stirfried with sesame oil. This latter treatment raises my antennae - it seems to be mostly used for things that are almost inedible without the sesame flavor!

I think Adam has it right. I've eaten both, although only once knowingly tried frozen green-lipped mussels, and they were a bit tough. Fresh, they are milder-tasting than blue mussels. I think the frozen product could make good food if you were willing to do a little head-work. I've had excellent home-smoked mussels, for example, though the ones I've bought at delicatessens were extremely disgusting - covered in sweet, slimy ketchup! I honestly think that NZ needs to think once, twice, thrice again about how they process and package seafood. Work-related visits to marketers and processors long ago gave me the impression that the people right at the top really didn't have a passion for seafood, and were inclined to take a "near enough is good enough" approach. I hope that's changed. I may sound supercilious, but growing up in a harbour town and then mo ving to Japan encourages a girl to enjoy her fish!

Hiroyuki, yes the whole point of using shellfish is to save the bother of making dashi! Torakris, I think you're right about clear shellfish soups in restaurants. I was curious to see if anybody had worked out a great way to get the flavor AND the clarity. But I've heard Japanese cooks say that when making regular dashi for miso soup, they boil up the ingredients for more flavor, and let the dashi get cloudy too.

AzianBrewer, what a lot of whimps, why in New Zealand we use fenceposts... I notice the new-season soft gobo is in the shops. I bought a pack and now I can't decide what to do with it to make the most of it! Can't waste it on kinpira. Any hints?

Hey, now that Spring is here and Dolls' Festival is past, the hamaguri are getting cheaper and the clams are back in town...when I make a clear soup I always include the juices because they are so tasty, but it does tend to make the broth slightly cloudy. What do you guys do for a special occasion clear soup with hamaguri or clams? Sacrifice the flavor, or the clarity of the broth? Just wondering.

Up to my ears in deadlines, but looking forward to hearing about everybody else's visits to FoodEx, which is actually not too far from me...

Hope it's the kind of fracture which will heal quickly and well... Meanwhile, how about using kitchen scissors to do some of your "chopping"? Not totally easy to use one-handed, but worth a thought.

I used to have no trouble with them - so I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Reading your method, I think I probably didn't preheat the grill long enough, and undoubtedly impatiently turned them over too soon! . I tried a couple this afternoon, taking care to mold them extra firmly, and they were fine! Whew!

Yes, Torakris does well to keep her bill that low. I think that's low average, and from ardent reading of housewifely magazines, a lot of women who keep their bills that low have extremely young kids/parents back on the farm who send rice and vegetables regularly. I used to run from one shop to another shopping the specials, but where I am now, they are too far apart, and I'm normally too pushed for time. These days I go for the closing specials at 9pm! I think 60,000 to 80,000 is probably what it costs me these days, with 2 boys who eat a lot, but people who basically buy what they want can easily spend 90,000 to 120,000 per month, from statistics that I have seen, and as Torakris says, just adding up what you know of how people eat!

If it's genuine, I expect so - I'm sure the price I saw was for a 5kg bag, and it was a little over half the price you give. The rule of thumb for a good housewife seems to be to produce dinner for 4 for under 1000 yen, but then you realize that doesn't include rice or other staples and condiments...with those conditions, it's quite doable. Tonight's dinner - pork meatballs made with one darn expensive negi (JPY100, 2 packs of ground pork on special (JPY88/100g x 500g) and a half pack of shimeji (JPY50), condiments, salad made with wakame and half a small lettuce (JPY198), soup with potatoes (forget the price, maybe JPY50), and one small head of broccoli (HPY198). Plus rice. One pack aubergines (JPY300) with ginger and soy. Total excluding rice and condiments - JPY1,300/USD10.90 for 2 adults, and 3 teen boys (they pop up overnight in our house, like mushrooms - we have one extra for the weekend!). ...and on the way home from the bathhouse, which my son2 and his friend regard as high entertainment, at the local "non-convenience store", nicknamed for its high prices and inconvenient hours, I bought my husband one small can (350ml - 12oz?) of fake beer for JPY140 - roughly $1.18?

Tofu - "cheap" tofu is about 75cents per 12oz pack, and prices go up to around 4 times that for 12-16oz. But occasionally you can buy tofu much cheaper, though not often where I live (not urban enough for lots of small, competitive shops and discount stores, not rural enough for direct-sale fresh produce). Fish - I grew up on a harbour with plenty of fishing, so fish seems very expensive to me. It used to be that one slice of fish weighed enough for two small servings. Now it's not even 100g - 80g is standard, and that's less than 3oz. 150 yen ($1.45 or so) would be a bargain, premium varieties might cost nearly twice that. The cheapest whole fish would be sauries at peak season, for 75 cents each, but small whole fish (one fish per adult serving, roughly) such as yellowtail or sardines would be USD$1.20 to $1.80 each, a bit more for white-fleshed fish, and anything from $10 to $50 per fish for desirable varieties. I know that other people can buy chicken or pork for 40cents/100g, but where I live, extreme discount would be $0.65, I expect to pay $1.00, and I will pay up to JPY150 for $1.25/100g for everyday meats. The rice farmers are not getting rich so much as the Agricultural Cooperatives - these do the same things that big corporations are accused of in other countries, only they have government sanction and therefore more complete control over retail distribution (until the reforms Hiroyuki mentions are complete). The original intention was to scotch the black market trade which flourished during the war and postwar period. A well known Japanese journalist wrote a book about the Ag Coops, it's dated now but still great reading. Vegetables - we've had a very cold winter, and I recall that it was quite rainy last fall, so vegetable prices are definintely high at present. I think close to JPY300 ($2.50)for a small bunch of spinach. Long onions going for USD0.85 each last week. The teishoku prices that sanrensho mentions seem very reasonable to me, but then this area is not very urban. I would feel I had a bargain if I found something under 700 yen, and I would sigh if my sons chose something over 900 yen! (Lunch prices). This is the Macdonalds Menu JPY560 is USD4.73. Here's Tenya ten-don chain shop menu. Engimon chain "nomiya" drinks/snacks menu - there's one near us, JPY150 for a stick of basic onion/chicken yakitori, small dishes JPY350-500 or so. Generally I would say 500-700 yen would be enough for a bowl of noodles, and set menus with noodles or kama-meshi etc starting around 700 yen and up to nearly 1000 yen. Husband says that it costs 500 yen for a rice n fries type bento from hokka-hokka-ben. At the supermarket, that would be 400 yen for a small women's bento, 500-600 average bento.

I don't keep a record , though I have a rough budget. Including rice and staple condiments, I expect I spend around JPY15,000 (USD125) per week, sometimes more like 20,000 (USD155). I cook for 2 adults and 2 teen boys - 2 meals a day plus snack, plus packed lunch for at least 2 of us. The impact on food costs is immediately noticeable if my boys are home from school. It's a challenge to find rice under 2000 where I am, and if I do, it's a blend of current season rice and old rice. I try to pay less than JPY2100 (USD18:00) per 5kg(11lb) bag, and we use up to 3 of those per month. I noticed rice from Hiroyuki's area going for $60.00/22lb at a local rice shop (around JPY6900/10kg). I shop mostly at a major mid-range supermarket, Daiei, as we're a bit short of small markets out this way, and so I miss out on the real bargain prices for fresh produce.

What they said - pound cake, with the preserved green plums added to the batter.

I'll look forward to that, Hiroyuki. I googled "yakionigiri" and "jouzunatukurikata" and found that quite a few people recommend leaving the firmly-shaped onigiri to dry for a half-day before grilling. Sounds like a good idea!