helenjp

You never know, it might just be my kids' school that sticks to boring stuff like meals for home economics! I made a strawerry milk kanten last night to see whether it had the slightly mushy texture which I remembered. It did... It looks pretty - pieces of strawberry in pastel pink (grenadine syrup) jelly, and my boys will gulp it down this afternoon without a thought. I forgot to sweeten it, because I was doing the dishes at the same time, so I plan to make a strawberry jam syrup to serve it with! I think the mushy texture must be caused by the fat or calcium content of the milk (chicken stock kanten sets without going mushy, so probably not the protein). It might be interesting to try lowfat milk and see what the texture is like. Yesterday we made a Philippines gulaman jelly. The texture was very close to gelatine, though the box says "carrageenan". I believe in Philippines food, the word is used as an English translation for agar-agar, but the texture was softer, though it set at room temperature.

Thanks! Now to find a plant...

I have pickled perilla leaves...it's best to wait till you have a big plant, then just uproot the whole plant, strip the leaves, wash them in a lot of cold water (it's amazing how much dust those frilly leaves trap), and then massage some salt into them. You really do need to do this step twice - the first time round, you will get a harsh, blackish, foamy liquid when you squeeze the salted leaves, and even sometimes a bit of gritty dust, despite washing. Repeat the step, as the last link Hiroyuki gave says, and you will get a more bluish liquid. It won't turn bright red until you add acid - plum brine for preference, but you could try it with rice vinegar. This stuff does go moldy fairly easily in hot, humid weather, so if you are in that kind of climate, it might be worth freezing some. Not sure how the flavor/aroma would stand up to freezing, though.

I should let you know...gas dryers are the way to go! They are more expensive than electric ones to buy (but around now, and again in the fall, gas appliance shops offer discounts), but they last much, much longer than electric appliances, dry heaps faster than Japanese electric dryers, and do surprisingly little damage to my gas bill. I even had one outdoors when we were renting...would never have thought of it if a friend hadn't recommended one when she saw us with a new baby in cloth diapers, living in a north-facing apartment shaded by trees... I won't even try to make that post relevant to food! Though Japanese baby food is a topic in itself, I guess.

We've run pretty close... I really envy you those beets!

Week before payday...that's a Japanese way of life, isn't it! What are your favorites for the week before payday? We sometimes have beansprout rice around then. The chopped up bits of beansprout cooked together with fried tofu, a sprinkling of sesame oil, and rice are surprisingly good. Must stopping reading Kris' blog and go and cook my own family's dinner!

There's a buyer's comment which says it's the type which requires you to freeze the main container in the freezer in advance. Apparently it was bulky enough to be a problem. Somebody else said that when they made a small amount (for 5 rather than 9-10 servings), the soft-cream didn't turn out so well (but the gelato and ice cream functions were fine). I have a deLonghi icecream maker of the same type (doesn't make soft cream though) and find that in midsummer temperatures in Japan, the container just never seems to freeze cold enough to work - I end up only using it around this time of year.

The really low-tech solution is to take a pair of pliers to an empty can...I make Halloween and Easter cutters that way, since they are not available in Japan. I'd show you some, but since they are too bulky to store, I toss them out after use.

Now THERE I can't agree! I know I spend ten minutes looking for my favorite ballpoint pen to write a one-line memo...it's a pleasure to use something that works efficiently! I was hoping nobody was going to ask that . At the time, I was cooking carefully from big-name Japanese chef books on classical Japanese cookery, but I knew little about the tools...I would read up on materials and technology, but as I wasn't taking lessons, I didn't have anybody to say "This is what you're looking for." There surely was a known ranking for knife makers, but the information wasn't accessible to me back then! So on my regular trips to Namba, in Osaka, I just looked at products and prices, and hefted knives until I found what I wanted. I knew nothing about the brands of knives I purchased until years later, sorry. I'm pretty sure, looking at my other kitchen equipment bought around then, that I did a lot of damage at the Ichimonji shop - I still use various molds and graters I bought there too! I probably spent around 6,000-12,000 yen per knife. Even if prices have doubled, that's not more than 30,000 yen on any one knife. The only problem with entry-level knives is that you may see some which command high prices simply because they are handmade, not because they are really good knives. If you go with a reputable maker, though, the "entry level" handmade knives will still be of excellent quality. Pro knives should be around 25,000 to 60,000 yen, and the lower half of that range is where I'd look. Anything over that starts getting into an area where it's hard to separate product value from brand name value -but I don't really know enough about the differences to comment. I don't recommend buying from department stores - too many gimmicky knives at outrageous prices. Some department stores may carry good knives, but how would you know unless you were an expert? Much better to go to a specialty shop. I've never been to Seki, sorry. The Japanese Chef's Knife site does look good, though of course I know nothing about their services... Maintenance...the plain carbon steel ones are not only the highest maintenance, they are not supposed to be cleaned with hot water, or anything much harsher than soap. Since most Japanese cooking is not really greasy, and regular sharpening also cleans off dirty surfaces, that's no problem for home use. If you are using your knives in a professional kitchen, it is an important consideration - why not send an e-mail to some place like the JCK site and see what blade types they recommend for pro use?

How did you serve the milk kanten, Hiroyuki? Did you mix anything into the jelly, or serve it in syrup, etc? Home economics doesn't seem to have exciting things like milk kanten here - my boys have made "meals" like rice, soup, stirfried vegetables, omelet etc!

My workhorse knife (red wood handle bottom in the photo of 2 knives) is a Masaomi, which is a sub-brand of Masahiro. Masahiro specialize in good kitchen knives rather than professional knives, but they are well respected in Japan. My traditional carbon-steel knives are from Ichimonji, a well-known maker in Osaka (e.g. the white-handled knife at top in the photo of 2 knives). From memory, they were more expensive than the Masaomi knife. My deba was a fairly expensive knife and has a solid blade. It has the maker's name 玄忠 which I assume is read Genchuu. I don't know anything about this maker, except that it's been a good knife to use, but I believe Masahiro handles their products.

Ha ha but in our house, it looks like they are a Pretz wannabe...I tested out the Pocky=girlz theory on son2 today, asking him at the supermarket if he wanted some Pocky for a snack tomorrow. "No, Pretz", he told me, and reached past the Pocky AND the Pretz to get those blueberry Frans... Pretz are a savory version of Pocky.

Barebones info on steel types used in J knives. As they say, the line between "carbon steel" and "stainless steel" is even more blurred than it used to be. Itch22, regarding nicking and rusting....are they a problem with carbon steel knives? Yes and no.... Following is a not very good close-up of a $20 25-year old supermarket stainless steel general purpose Japanese knife from Kaicut. I use it every day, it's very useful, but the blade shows scattered pitting all along it (most visible in marked area) and the edge has fine nicks in it - these supermarket knives look nice, but the blade edges nick more easily than any of my better knives. They sharpen fairly easily, but also lose their edge faster than my better knives. However, nothing could make them rust. Below are my two favorite handmade knives, both bought in Sakai, Osaka, 25 years ago. The top one I rarely use now, because it was stored very badly for several years (my mother moved it out of its cradle and into a damp cardboard box in the basement...). I cannot find anybody to repair it, and it has rusted fairly badly (though only surface rust) and the blade has nicked a little. (It looks nicked in the photo, but that's just the toweling pile, sorry...). However, it is not pitted...it is a straight-up carbon steel knife with a white-handle blade and water buffalo-horn casing, needs careful handling, but it has stood up well to 25 years of use, and sadly, abuse. I have other, cheaper knives of the same type which have rusted extremely badly in storage. The bottom one is my darling, also carbon-steel, but stain-resistant. I don't know exactly what alloy. It has a red wood handle and a stainless steel casing. It has a tiny amount of rust still remaining after poor storage, but no pitting and the blade edge is in beautiful condition. I am very careful to clean and dry it frequently even during use. I think it really does combine the best of old and new technology, and I would rather have more knives of this type than the white-handled type. I do have a heavy-bladed deba of the same type, which is also a joy to use. I have large hands, so I don't find the slight extra weight compared to the surprisingly light white-handled knives any problem. As for professionals, I think many of them do use more modern knives, but even if they use the very traditional carbon steel, they have access to professional knife-grinders and repair shops which are becoming hard to find, even in Japan.

Your kids are growing up!!! You're very brave to start blogging on the first day of the school year. For a while it looked as if Pocky were going to slowly disappear...on the one hand, the same nationalistic fervor that saved Apollo chocolates probably helped, on the other hand, they've certainly changed the face of Pocky as we used to know them! How popular do you think the original Pocky are? And am I just imagining it, or do Pocky definitely have a "girl" image? ("Men's Pocky" notwithstanding!).

Looks very nice! We had a refreshing 100-yen yuzu drink in the basement of Sogo department store (a local branch) that wasn't sweet, and was just perfect after a long walk lugging instruments and music and a long day! The canned yuzu drinks I have had were not inspiring, but this was perfect...

Torakris, if you hadn't omitted the radish, which would you have considered the better substitute for sweet pickled radish - dried radish (kiriboshi daikon) or bran-pickled radish (takuan)? I faintly remember eating it when I worked in a Chinese shop, but so long ago...and we never thought that much about what pickles to eat, just ate them in order of breakages . Pad thai looks like a good lunch before the school lunch schedule swings back into action! Chrisamarault, that looks like a wonderful pomelo salad. They are so good at this time of year.

I think lifting the ban makes good commercial sense, quite apart from other aspects - how good can anything taste if you feel that it was forced on you?

Lovely blog! And thanks for the jiaozi close-ups...you fold yours exactly the same way I fold mine (which my husband thinks is warped, he can't see why one fold shouldn't be adequate!).

That's another of the links between Japan, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific - in almost all those areas, repetitive words are common, and plurals are formed by repetition...

Bought these to send to my sister's kids, so we haven't eaten any yet ourselves...but I assume they are at least somewhat hot! Kameda's "Dodekaki" hot and spicy giant-size kaki-no-tane...don't appear to be listed on Kameda's site. Hiroyuki, we'll look out for the Habaneros. I'm a great fan of Tohato, ever since my husband won a carton of assorted snacks from them for a short story! (His short stories are not usually so popular, because he finds it hard to leave any characters alive by the last paragraph... ).

Volcano muffins - a matcha flavored muffin with a sweet black sesame filling. But we in Japan could *cheat* and use Goma Cream...

Kameda Shio-Wasabi senbei are *not* big at our house...except with me. They are light sembei, with a strong wasabi-salt surface. Strong. Let me repeat...strong! Excellent for waking yourself up while working! Not excellent for small fry wanting to stuff them into their mouths one after another...

It might be more accurate to say that it's about what you make of simplicity (for example, a lot of money ). Be that as it may, the most memorable time I've drunk formally presented matcha was at a '70s potters' commune somewhere in the mountains north of Yoshino, while watching the autumn full moon rise from their hand-built tea-house on the top of a mountain... The reason it was so good was that the potters were using their own bowls - they treated them with respect and affection, but they weren't tiptoeing round them. However, owing to the sweet-potato shochu, the place has become my own personal Peach-blossom Village - couldn't find my way back there if I tried!

Well, that was interesting! We tried the Gyukaku kimchi too (in fact, I was forced to buy that one, because everything else had been taken off the shelf ). DH still prefers his "direct import" Kankoku-kimchi in the 400g jar...just enough to get a guy through the weekend! (No details on the label, and can't find a photo online - the type with the girl in Korean dress on the lid!). However, Gyukaku must definitely be one of the better Japanese brands.

Therese, any kind of cheese will do. There are three common ways of cooking those square mochi: Grill - no need to use water etc etc Microwave - don't cover, or they won't be able to expand. You can use a free-standing plastic cover if you want, though. US microwaves normally more powerful than in Japan, so it's hard to say how long - too long and they melt into pools of starch . Try 2 minutes??? Drop into boiling water until they are soft and rubbery - they won't puff up and be crunchy this way, just soft and chewy. When done, pull out one by one and either drop in cold water till you want them, or drop straight into preferred seasonings...soy sauce/butter; kinako (brown toasted soybean powder) and sugar; ground toasted sesame seeds and sugar or salt, straight soy sauce etc.