eG Foodblog: torakris - a week of fun in Japan

[torakris]

!

Pardon my idiocy, but what's with the point system??

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Sorry about that, a lot of the most of the stores in my area have point cards and you get points every time you make a purchase. My favorite store that I do a lot of shopping at, the drug store I bought milk at earlier, gives you either a 400 yen ($4) store certificate at 30 points or 1,000 yen ($10) at 60 points. Rice and a couple other items could get me 20+ points in just one day, so I save my big purchases for the triple point days which fall on the 10th, 20th and 30th of every month.

[Palladion]

I like kuri okowa (glutinous rice plus chestnuts) much better than kuri gohan (ordinary rice plus chestnuts).

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That's what we had, actually. It was great. I knew it used glutinous rice without even needing to look at the menu. The glutinous rice adds a lot of flavor and texture to the dish.

Picked up a package of the kurigohan no moto at the store today, and I'll be making it once I finish up the Thai green curry that I cooked yesterday.

Right next to it at the store were packages of matsutakegohan no moto. How well does this kind of thing work? I'm intrigued by the lure of the matsutake, but I just can't shell out ￥1500 for a little tiny mushroom.

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Alex Parker

[Palladion]

Sorry about that, a lot of the most of the stores in my area have point cards and you get points every time you make a purchase. My favorite store that I do a lot of shopping at, the drug store I bought milk at earlier, gives you either a 400 yen ($4) store certificate at 30 points or 1,000 yen ($10) at 60 points. Rice and a couple other items could get me 20+ points in just one day, so I save my big purchases for the triple point days which fall on the 10th, 20th and 30th of every month.

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And it's not just grocery stores, either. It seems every store, from electronics stores to discount clothing stores and even used book stores have point cards. The local karaoke place and the barbershop/hair salon that I go to both have point cards (in fact, I think they require them).

I'm going to have to replace my poor, abused, American wallet at some point. It just wasn't built with enough room for all the cards that you need in Japan, and its seams are starting to pop 'cause I've been stuffing them in anyway. Not to mention the fact that American bills are slightly smaller than Japanese ones, so my money peaks out the top of my wallet a bit.

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Alex Parker

[Phish]

Kurozato is literally black sugar and it is a type of raw sugar mostly from Okinawa.

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OK.. I can't wait any longer... I Need to know about this stuff!!

Here's a link i found... im not sure if it's right..

http://www.nest-wgt.com/guide/kurozato/kz.htm

Is this anything like Molasses?? I've been looking high and low for those caramels in the local japanese groceries but i couldn't find them...

[Hiroyuki]

I have no ideas what those characters mean though and am unable to find an English translation in any online sources....

Hiroyuki? Helen? anyone?

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Here are some of my findings:

たん白加水分解物 is hydrolyzed protein in English.

Two sites on hydrolyzed proteins:

http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html

http://allergies.about.com/library/blificmsgmyth14.htm

(There are many others.)

I checked (twice) the labels of the five curry roux boxes that I happen to have at home at the moment (kokumaro karakuchi and amakuchi and Vermont amakuchi, karakuchi, and chuukara; all are House brands) to find that no hydrolyzed protein is listed. So, maybe you should use House brands rather than S&B's.

[JennyUptown]

Hide has grown so much since your last blog!! As cute as ever.

The green cake looked a little scary though...

[pingarina]

Hide-licious!! I'm beginning, hopefully not too late in life, to see why women have the urge to make babies. Wonderful blog. Interesting for me as my best friend and his GF lived in Tokyo for five years and had similar takes on food and mixing the cuisines.

[alacarte]

Mia (in 3rd grade) told me at 7:00am this morning that she needed a sankaku-jogi to take to school today. I, for the life of me, can not remember the English name for this.... it is the triangle shaped ruler.

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I think it's a protractor??

edit: I love the michevious picture of Hide!

avocados are being quite popular here recently, I can find them at any grocery store hear my house, however when I talk to me neighbors they always say they never buy them because they don't know what to do with them, but obviously someone is buying them!

It's funny you should say that. Avocados are widely used in maki rolls here in the U.S., so I always assumed that was because the same was done in Japan. I"ve also seen Japanese restaurants serve as an appetizer a half avocado, thinly sliced with ponzu sauce.

Edited October 7, 2004 by alacarte (log)

[herbacidal]

And it's not just grocery stores, either. It seems every store, from electronics stores to discount clothing stores and even used book stores have point cards. The local karaoke place and the barbershop/hair salon that I go to both have point cards (in fact, I think they require them).

I'm going to have to replace my poor, abused, American wallet at some point. It just wasn't built with enough room for all the cards that you need in Japan, and its seams are starting to pop 'cause I've been stuffing them in anyway. Not to mention the fact that American bills are slightly smaller than Japanese ones, so my money peaks out the top of my wallet a bit.

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Alex Parker

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I'd get a second wallet, and kep all the point cards in it, and leave that wallet in the car, and just grab the individual card as you get out of the car to go in the store.

[melonpan]

hello.

i was going to wait until torakris posted the thread, but it seems phish is really curious, so ill post this here and maybe post this there later...

anyways,

if you cant find those caramels (which i have not seen around me), you might satisfy your curiousity a little bit with these hard candies from asahi called kokutou nodoame, which are also brown sugar flavoured. they are quite delicious, which a nice molassasey kick... (they also taste ever so slightly minty with some honey flavour too. its really tasty!)

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041006kokutou.jpg"></center>

<a href="http://www.asahi-fh.com/hc/products/candy.html">asahi link to some of their candies</a>. on the page you can see the candies in bag form (under the mitsuya cider bag) and also in roll form as shown above.

[jschyun]

yum curry.

I've read the back of the S&B curry block box and I think mostly it's just flour and some fat or oil (I believe I've seen beef fat in the list) and curry powder and then probably MSG. I suppose one could google "S&B curry" or "House curry" and find out for sure.

I'm almost positive there are no fish products in those little curry blocks. Fish products don't fit in a roux anyway.

[melonpan]

just letting you know but i found online that <a href="http://www.morinaga.co.jp/catalog/kashi/index4.html">morinaga</a> sells these caramels too... and i think i have seen them at our local store so you might have luck with these caramels as well as the asahi hard candies (im also going to the store today, so ill keep an eye out for other brown sugar schtuffs). their packing is less rustic than the block printed box (which is very attractive to me) that kristin showed before, but still has that old style feeling.

sometimes brown sugar is called kokutou (黒糖) and sometimes its called kurozato （黒砂糖）. same words, just that the first one has the middle character dropped. the "black" has different readings in each word. i think kokutou is more common way to reference brown sugar. maybe theres some difference between the two words that i dont know of... maybe they are different sugars in the way turbinado is different from say demerara or jaggery. anyone care to teach?

as a side note, in doing research for more candies, i kept finding reference to something called brown sugar agarasaa. i take it that this agarasaa is a kind of kastella, or it is in fact a kastella... whats the origin of the word agarasa? is it an okinawan term?

i really probably should have waited to post this in the appropriate thread, instead of on the blog. ill go away now... back to the blog~

[Foodie_Penguin]

Just spent some time reading your New Years blog.

It was great, especially seeing you and your family.

Very much looking forward to this week!

I have a Japanese student in my EAP (university ESL) class. He doesn't seem to know much about preparing his own food, and his homestay mom is not helping much at the moment. To date, I have only seen him bring butterless rye bread to school for lunch!

I have been making extra food when I cook supper, mostly Chinese stuff. He seems to like it.

Takayuki is 19 years old. What can I feed him without taking a whole course on Japanese cooking?

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Sheesh. Takayuki sounds like a very mollycoddled young adult. He needs to be directed to a Chinese grocery store or Asian store so he can pick up some familiar foods like "larmen" (Japanese instant noodles). Maybe he can buy a small rice cooker there and some Japanese rice too.

Foodie Penguin

[Foodie_Penguin]

halloween isn't really celebrated in Japan, though it seems to be getting a litlte more and more popular every year. <<snip>>

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When I was in Japan in '99 (based in Yamate in Yokohama funnily enough), I was there until just before Halloween. I thought the Japanese were getting into Halloween back then because just like in the US, there were Halloween cookies and stores were adorned in orange and black.

I left the country before Halloween itself so I don't know if kids go around trick or treating.

Foodie Penguin

[Hiroyuki]

sometimes brown sugar is called kokutou (黒糖) and sometimes its called kurozato （黒砂糖）.  same words, just that the first one has the middle character dropped.  the "black" has different readings in each word.  i think kokutou is more common way to reference brown sugar.  maybe theres some difference between the two words that i dont know of...  maybe they are different sugars in the way turbinado is different from say demerara or jaggery.  anyone care to teach?

as a side note, in doing research for more candies, i kept finding reference to something called brown sugar agarasaa.  i take it that this agarasaa is a kind of kastella, or it is in fact a kastella...  whats the origin of the word agarasa?  is it an okinawan term?

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As far as I know, the terms kokutou and kurozatou are used interchangeably. I never thought about it, when I come to think about it, I always use the term kurozatou myself. I found one site that explains that jun kokutou (pure kokutou) differs from kurozatou in that the latter contains pure kokutou and sotou (crude suger).

http://www.kakinohana.co.jp/qa.htm

(Japanese only)

But I guess that this difference is specific to that manufacturer only.

I didn't know anything about agarasa, and I just had to find what it is. In short, its a kushi (steamed) kasutera containing kurozatou. As you guessed, it's an Okinawan confection.

http://www11.ocn.ne.jp/~ninjin-s/jiten-a.html

(Japanese only)

Correction: Not kushi but mushi kasutera.

Edited October 8, 2004 by Hiroyuki (log)

[Foodie_Penguin]

One thing I've noticed in your photos is that english frequently appears on food packaging.  Why is that?

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The inclusion of English on packaging or anything in Japan is mostly a marketing tool. It's especially appropriate when the food or item is of Western origin. English words on products for the Japanese market make the product more desirable, in the same way Chinese characters/kanji appear on garments and furnishings in the US.

Foodie Penguin

[torakris]

the kurozatou/kokuto thread:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=53115

[torakris]

It is 7:15 am and Hide, Julia and myself are munching on the green tea chiffon cake for breakfast, Mia had a bowl of oatmeal. I also have a large tumbler of iced coffee.....

[torakris]

well typhoon #22, the Japanese number their typhoons rather than naming them, it going to start descending on the Tokyo area tonight and it looks like it may batter us until Monday.....

Sports day is supposed to be Saturday, if it rains they will move it to Sunday and if it rains Sunday it will be moved to Monday. This wrecks havoc on mothers who are trying to do major bento planning....

[torakris]

Danielle,

about the curry the specific package I used did contain fish products, it is called Tokeru Curry and made by S&B, but like Hiroyuki said other boxes don't list it so I would look for a different brand.

Hiroyuki,

5 kinds of curry?

wow!

[torakris]

I finished off the rest of the cake with a glass of juice while watching The Practice this morning, then I went shopping and bought

I haven't decided dinner tonight, but looks like the making for a hotpot (nabe)....

I also ate a couple of the pocky snacks ....

[Hiroyuki]

Do you go shopping everyday??

[hillvalley]

could that be what I think it is......will natto be in our future I'm giddy with anticipation

[foodie52]

I lived in Kobe in the mid-60's. There was a vendor who would come and sell tofu from a cart which he wheeled down the street. Do they still do that??

[torakris]

Hiroyuki asked if I go shopping everyday

actually no, I normally go shopping once maybe twice a week to a supermarket and maybe once a week to a drugstore type place. I also have my food delivery that comes every Tuesday.

This week is unusual in that I had to go shopping for my cooking class and today I had to buy some preparations for the undokai (sports day) that will probably not happen tomorrow, it was also our monthly Costco trip this week....

I also don't normally buy this many snacks except f

or right after payday.....

Edited October 8, 2004 by torakris (log)