[Food words often misused]

Good choice, Fat Guy. "Ahi tuna" always cracks me up. I once dated a girl that complained her tuna app wasn't "tartare tuna." Go figure, it's L.A.

[Japanese foods--tsukemono]

One of my favorite things about dining in Japanese restaurants is the wide variety of pickles (tseukemono or oshinko) that you can enjoy with your meal. However all my attempts to make these treats at home result in less than satisfactory results. For the finely shredded napa cabbage, all my oshinko came out too crisp -- more of a coleslaw texture than the medium wilted, seasoned texture you get in Japanese restaurants. My next stab at tseukemono resulted in a disasterous Japanese eggplant oshinko -- texture was so slimy, my gf never busted my balls for that incident.

None of my Japanese cookbooks mention tseukemono. Is tseukemono more of a convenience food, or is it made at home. And if the latter, how and where do you get the equipment? And, er, how do you use it?

Thanks in advance for your help.