helenjp

That was petite tete de chou discussing the effects of moving away from the diversity and quality of food offered by a big city. It's a key point - that the need to cook well generates good cooking. The all-white = bad food thing...so many theories abound on why this should be so. I quite like the one about lower incomes for British working classes depressing a natural interest in food...possibly railroads bear some of the blame too?! Towns with good transport grew big enough to be out of easy reach of market gardens long before refrigerated trucks became the normal method of transport. The differences I see between my moldy suburb in Japan and similar moldy suburbs in New Zealand are: definitely, less willingness to spend money on food (both for personal use and for gift-giving) and consequently fewer businesses focussed on good foodstuffs or products. Another biggie: lack of interest in seasonal produce - Kiwis love their nature, but I rarely hear talk about the difference between spring lamb and autumn hoggett, or when to eat watercress or mussels. Last one: housework and cookery = outdated drudgery. Women's magazines seem to promote either "give yourself a treat" thinking or "go on, skive off!" food. I understand what Austin is talking about, and it disturbs me too - even if I *could* cook in masterly fashion, home and family cooking is what interests me most, maybe because there are so many constraints to challenge the home cook. On the other hand - eGullet shows me a world of people determined to deliver a loving kick at the backside of the food they grew up with. Discussions and experimentation on food within reach of even my table - that's the heart of eGullet for me.

Yup, Anzu's right - I'm interested in Polynesian history too, and the more modern research that I've read (not that I can quote since I wasn't anticipating a need for it on eGullet!) supports the fact that sweet potatoes came to Japan via the Pacific...doesn't mean that they followed an east-to-west route though, since the Polynesian settlement of the Pacific was done in a very planned manner, it seems. There is a NZ guy working at the Museum of Ethnology in Osaka (at the old Expo site) who has studied this area, but he's just one of many. Patrick Kirch's "The Wet and the Dry" is a book I'd love to read about Polynesian agriculture, though it's 10 years old now. There's a nice overview of the issues here: The Mystery of the Sweet Potato

Jason, I think that "no water" is particularly characteristic of Osaka-style okonomiyaki. I prefer to make them that way too. Mochi cheese topping for okonomiyaki...sounds like a good sort of dinner for teenage boys!

Shoyu - Kikkoman Monoshiri Shoyu-kan Open 9-3.30, not always open on holidays. 3 mins from Noda-shi station on the Tobu Noda Line (in Noda city, north Chiba). Need reservation, tel 04-7123-5136. No charge for visits.

Tyrol Chocolate's "Kinako Mochi" Kind of like chewing gum encased in chocolate!

I have to agree. My family is horribly unsporty, but even my boys need exercise to stay relatively sane. ADHD is scarcely admitted to exist in Japan, so medication is very rare indeed. I know two kids who would surely be on meds in other countries. If it helps at all, they both seem to have gained new powers of concentration with puberty. (Not lots, but some...!). Even my kids just couldn't settle to anything when they were cooped up in the house all day. I decided long ago to abandon all ambitions to raise cultured citizens, and just imagine that I have a couple of very large, half-grown dogs in the house. Feed, de-louse regularly, and exercise! . Please don't think I'm being insulting, but I've seen people with severe mental illnesses show disturbed eating patterns when they're worse. I don't know whether it is also true for ADD (hard to say how much of ADD is developmental, and how much is due to neurological damage or malfunction), but the two boys I'm thinking of whose ADD behavior really stood out are both small eaters and very picky. One of the boys often ate at our home, and he ate much better when he had helped make the meal, and knew exactly what was in it. The other, who is much more noticeably hyperactive, often goes to juku (cram school) with my son1, with a dinner of candy in his pockets. Son1 often takes a more nutritious snack for him, but we've discovered that the boy is nervous about being able to easily chew and swallow things - sounds like some kind of neurological issue there, which medication might improve. Prasantrin, thanks for that info. Hiking is a great way to restore mind and body, I think - getting away physically from a frustrating environment is so relaxing! Son1 has just over a year to stay safe before he can try for what he hopes will be the high school of his dreams (the type that teaches robotics to 15 year olds...). International schools that go up to high school are not within commuting distance (or within reach of our earnings, either!), but son2 is probably headed for a small Lutheran school next year...and I will begin making SIX YEARS of packed lunches for teen boys. (Is it possible to freeze 6 years of lunches in one go, do you think?).

Funnily enough, I've just finished watching a Japanese TV program featuring a Chinese chef demo-ing a veyr similar recipe as her personal recommendation for an ageing singer who needs to take good care of her throat! The idea is that the kabocha is particularly good for the mucus membranes (and chicken feet have long been recommended for coughs and colds). The version given was a simple version with just Chinese dates and wolfberries, along with kabocha, yam, greens, and maitake mushrooms (the additional vegetables were to make it more of a one-dish dinner).

Just revisiting the exercise thing again...my son1's BMI is around 80th percentile, so not overweight, but nowhere near skinny. Like many others, modern attitudes to child safety affect our kids' exercise dramatically. Our situation may be extreme, but I'm sure other families have related concerns. Any ideas? Safety is not just an abstract concept for our family - our son1 has suffered serious violence at his school, and police warned us to make sure that an adult is with him whenever he goes out. He lives only 2 minutes' walk from school anyway; school P.E., while it exists, is limited; and he belongs to the computer club, not a sports team. Since school violence has got to the point where even the table-tennis club is a good place to get your teeth knocked out, I'm not about to suggest he try for a team. Totally fed up, we are about to put son2 in a private school, and therefore canceled the boys' swimming classes this week - currently son1's only sustained exercise for the week. Grrr. I can only think of increasing our family activities at weekends...any cheap ideas apart from walking?

I agree with the nix on acidity and chocolate - bitterness, yes, acidity, no. Sanrensho asked about lemon...I like lemon with cardamon, or with nutmeg. Green tea with ginger. Touch of cumin in Christmas sweet spice mixes. Kiwifruit with ginger (a wonderful jam combination).

Croquettes . Make a thick bechamel and cook slowly (or transfer when thick to slow cooker) for much longer than you consider necessary, until every trace of raw flour taste has disappeared. Mix in seasonings and chopped cooked chicken, and allow to cool. Cut into squares, flour/eggwash/crumbs and repeat process if necessary, then deepfry. I used to hate chicken croquettes until I learned to cook the sauce so long.

Steel - Japanese knifemakers use quite a variety of steels, and then of course they like to do their sandwiching thing, combining different steels in one knife. So a Santoku could be made of quite hard steel or quite soft steel - the soft steel can be sharpened to a very fine edge, but it doesn't keep that edge as long, nor is the metal as forgiving of sloppy care.

Hmm..I have the opposite problem - I've pretty much forgotten what it was like to use anything BUT Japanese knives. I have a short Santoku which I hate (bought it for the kids - they use it occasionally). I have a longer Santoku (blade a touch over 6.5 inches) which I use a lot, but I probably use my Gyuto (7.5 inches) most of all. Partly size, partly because it happens to be a better quality knife. I have large hands - about 8 inches from wrist to middle finger-tip, so my Gyuto blade comes closest to the length of my hands...if that' significant! That said, there are jobs which even a good big Gyuto doesn't do perfectly - a nice sharp nakiri or usuba (flat square-bladed knife) really is the best thing for slicing a quantity of greens or herbs finely.

For a while herb madeleines were popular here in Japan. Not rosemary, but herbs such as chervil with a more delicate flavor, and especially ones that look pretty with a feathery litle sprig dropped on top of the batter before baking.

If you rinse out the pan with water before adding the milk, it seems to stop the milk adhering to the bottom of the pan so much. I sometime use a home-made clatterplate by putting a small saucer upside-down in the bottom of the pan - trapped bubbles force the saucer to clatter up and down on as the milk reaches boiling point, alerting me before the milk boils over but I also feel that it seems to distribute heat better and keep the bottom of the pan cleaner.

Glad to see you back! Take care, hope somebody else is doing the cooking!

That 3-variety graft must be a sight to see! I'm interested in the cinnamon aroma you describe in the pinkish variety, as the Chinese name includes the word for cassia (or cinnamon). The orange-flowered variety is often described as smelling like apricot jam, so I'd always wondered why the Chinese name for the plant referred to cinnamon. I bet you could get one or all varieties to grow from a cutting - the trees are fairly slow-growing, but if you used one of those hormone-rooting compounds, I bet it would strike roots.

I remember using apple peels for jellies which had fresh herb sprigs suspended in the jelly - you had to let the jelly cool quite a bit before pouring into jars, of course. Tthe mildness of the flavor was no problem, since the herbal flavor predominated anyway.

I've tried both methods. I started out using a method similar to the one on andiesenji's glace fruit links with this difference: each day when the syrup is reheated, additional sugar equivalent (weight) to 15-20% of the volume of syrup is added. This is supposed to raise the brix level of the syrup by 2 degrees (hope "degrees" is what you say in English, my recipe is a French one from a Japanese book on traditional French sweets). You remove the fruit before boiling up the stronger syrup, then return the fruit and turn off and leave overnight. This method takes about 10 days. In the end, you make up a separate batch of a lighter syrup (about 20 Brix - anybody know if this is the same as simple syrup??). This step prevents the heavy crusting of sugar you would otherwise get with glace fruits. Points: This most definitely produces a fresh flavor with very little bitterness. It does take a long time, but the other day, my husband tossed the syrup while I was draining the fruit, after about 3-4 days. The grapefruit peel was still a little spongy, and probably wouldn't have kept for a long period, but it worked perfectly in chufi's thick spicy cookies! N.B. My Japanese-French recipe shows a variety of fruits *including a whole, unpeeled pineapple complete with crown* being candied by the method given above! I've tried it using canned pineapple - it was OK for fun, but of course, that pineapple is cooked before you meet it. Since this is undoubtedly a bother, today I tried the "simmer in syrup till syrup almost gone" method for peel. It looks like candied peel - and tastes like marmalade. There is no way to disguise the fact that the fruit has been well cooked - much less aroma. It's OK...if you've never tasted the products of the first method!

Tennoji market, boy that brings back a few memories! Hope you're enjoying it! I often heard that Osaka people regard okonomiyaki as a meal, while Tokyo people think of it as a snack. Regarding "tenkasu", I think the problem may be that "kasu" is a term of abuse. In fact, there's a little campaign going on at my son's school by the boys who like to beat him up to make the teachers think that my son calls them "kasu".

Packed lunches deal with a lot of leftovers! Yesterday's spinach is chopped finely with a scallion and some parsley and becomes spinach omelette...the flesh is picked off the fish bones used for the soup, fried and seasoned into a savory crumble for rice. Etc. I try for a minor change rather than the "same again" idea for soup - the kids had fluffy dumplings in their chicken/veg soup last night...now that the dumplings are gone, I'll have some of the soup over a "crouton" of home-made bread grilled with cheese on it for lunch. Then I'll add pasta and just one tomato, chopped and sauteed, before the boys meet it again tonight. As you see, soup plus starch is a big winter snack item in our house.

Not forgetting that AUD28.00 *is* NZD30.00. But yes, the value of buying from the winery is usually tasting and discussing rather than discounting, sadly!

I have only made brief enquiries when back in NZ, but a winery owner complained to me about how hard/expensive it was to send smallish amounts of wine to overseas customers. If you follow Jackal10's advice, it may cost more than you expect, but it is probably cheaper than the post, and I've found delivery (though not of wine) prompt and reliable. Myself, I've given up trying to send wine, and either drink it there or carry a couple of bottles as cabin baggage.

Course, it depends where you choose for your birdwatching! When I lived in Tokyo near a posh kindergarten, the slender mothers could be seen trotting along on their birdlike legs at 8 in the morning, in their gorgeously accessorized suits, dragging their tubby little darlings by one manicured hand. I used to wonder why they didn't just lie them down and roll them along the road. Now I live on the other side of the tracks, and the mothers make the earth shake as they pound their considerable weight along the pavement. They couldn't possibly hold the fragile hands of their stick-like children, because they have their cell-phones in one hand, and their big bag of discount-shop instant noodles in the other hand. Guess which side of town I feel more at home in! More to the point...I think that "lots of rice" is only advisable for breakfast or lunch, and if you are doing plenty of exercise. The biggest snag with eating that way is that it works only if your diet is also quite low in fat and sugar - if you add modern levels of fat and sugar to traditional levels of starch, you may not lose weight easily. I have heard that Japanese short-grain rice with its high amylose content is not digested as quickly as most long-grain rices...but I don't know enough to say whether or not that would really affect weight loss. Japanese women often cook a mix of barley and rice when they want to lose weight, and when really driven, may resort to brown rice. "Japanese vegetables" in this case probably means in particular the high-fiber vegetables. Eggs...very likely the traditional breakfast would include salt/dried fish or tofu/natto, with eggs eaten more rarely, but obviously eggs are more easily available in the US. A bigger breakfast with more protein but less fat than the average cereal breakfast is one of the best aspects of traditional Japanese eating. When I first came to Japan, I HAD to eat the breakfast I was served, and although it was hard to get through that much food early in the morning, it stopped me feeling tired or craving sweet things late in the afternoon! Good luck.

So are we having Takikomi Gohan day again this Dec. 12?? I read in Japanese somewhere that maitake gohan is best made WITHOUT shoyu, because the shoyu disguises the maitake aroma. I tried it with just kombu-dashi, a dash of sake, and crumbled up maitake, and a little salt, and it was good! Serve with mitsuba if, unlike me, you remember to get them out of the fridge.