Pocky Tainted with Melamine

Discard any Pocky sticks you may have as authorities in Hong Kong have found some to be tainted with melamine.

Kintame - A Restaurant Featuring Kyoto-style Pickles in Tokyo

Kintame is located in Monzennakacho and serves up a wide variety of Kyoto-style pickles with grilled fish, rice and miso soup.

Tokoroten

Tokoroten is a jelly-like long and narrow shaped cold snack.
It is made from Tengusa ( a type of seaweed ) and water.

Tokoroten is not so soft as jelly.
It has pleasant unique texture.

In eastern part of Japan, It is coverd with vinegar-based sauce. ( photo above is Tokoroten covered with vinegar-based sauce )
In western part of Japan, It is covered with sweet syrop.

Tokoroten is low in calorie, and rich in fiber. It is good for diet.

Michel Troisgros on Japanese ingredients in French Cuisine

Chef Troisgros' restaurant, Cuisine(s) Michel Troisgros, is located in the Hyatt Regency Tokyo in Nishi-Shinjuku. Some interesting thoughts on yuzu, wasabi and ichimi.

Oshizushi

Oshizushi is a type of sushi which is made by putting sushi-rice and ingredient into wooden mold, pressing them , and cutting into a bite, or two bite size.

If you have a oshizushi-mold, you can make oshizushi at home.

Oshizushi is popular in kansai region (western part of Japan).

Saba no Misoni ( Simmered Mackrel with Miso )

This is simmered mackrel with miso.
It has soft texture and nice taste.
Miso makes mackrel not fishy, and give rich taste to it.

Mackerel is one of blue back fish.
It is rich in DHA and EPA.
It is also oily and delicious.

Miso(soy bean paste) is typical seasoning of Japanese dish.
It is made by fermenting soy beans.

Usually we simmer filleted mackrel with water,mirin,sake,soy sauce, and sugar in a pan.
Add miso to the pan with dissolving it.
And simmer mackrel with pouring the sauce which is in the pan over the mackerel.

Ohagi (Botamochi)

Ohagi is sweet rice ball.
Traditionaly we eat Ohagi in autumnal equinoctial week.

Ohagi is made by cooking rice and glutinous rice (Mochi gome).
Cooked rice is mashed, formed into ball, and covered with sweet red bean paste.
But some time rice ball is covered with such as kinako flour and sesame seeds.


Photo above is Kinako version.


By the way, nowadays "Ohagi" and "Botamochi" are almost same.
We call it "Botamochi" in spring, and we call it "Ohagi" in fall.

Japanese Fish Sausage

Fish sausage is made from fish meat, lard, some seasoning and some spice.
When I was child, I often ate it insted of sausage and meat.
In these days, fish sausage is popular as healthy food.
Especially, It is rich in calcium and DHA.

Photo above is just stir-fried it on the pan.
I think it is good for Bento.

I think fish sausage is aloso good for ingredient of Yasai Itame , Yakisoba , and so on.

Photo above is fish sausage sold in supermarket.

Kiriboshi-daikon no nitsuke

This is simmered kiriboshi-daikon.
Kiriboshi-daikon is dried stripes of radish.

It is made by cutting fresh radish which is harvested during end of fall and winter, into stripe, and drying under th sun.
Kiriboshi-daikon is an excellent healthy food.
It is rich in high quality fiber and calcium.

We usually wash kiriboshi-daikon in water.
Put it into bowl which is filled with water.
Keep it until it is recoverd by absorbing water.

Drain off water it.
Stir-fry it together with such as carrot , aburaage and shiitake-mushroom on the pot.
Add water which kiriboshi-daikon soaked, soy sauce, sugar, and sake to them.
And simmer.

Photo above is packed kiriboshi-daikon.

Kaki Furai ( Deep-fried oyster )

This is a popular dish in fall and winter.

Usually, wash oyster in salted water.
Drain off water it,
Sprinkle salt and papper over oyster.
Coat it with wheat flour, beaten egg, and bread crumb.
And deep-fry it in salada oil until browned.

Squeeze lemon on it. ( optionally )
Put tartare sauce or Tonkatsu sauce on it, just before eat.

In my cace, I always squeeze lemon on it.
Because oyster is rich in zinc.
And vitamin C and citric acid which are included in lemon, aid the absorption of zinc.

Sanma no Shioyaki (Grilled saury with salt)

This is grilled pacific saury with salt.
It is a popular fish dish in fall in Japan.
Sanma is oily and delicious.

We usually wash sanma with water.
Drain watter off it with such as kitchen paper.
Sprinkle salt lightly all over sanma both side.
keep it 10 minutes.

Drain water off it again. ( water come out from inside of sanma )
grill sanma both side.

Squeeze lemon on it. ( option )
Serve grilled sanma with grated radish.

Tainted Rice Scandal

This scandal affects the shochu and osembei (rice crackers) industries.

Salmon no Nigiri-zushi

This is salmon sushi.
Sushi rice is formed into an oblong shape by hand. and placed thinly sliced raw salmon on it.
Salmon is oily and has nice taste.

By the way, "salmon" is "Sake" or "Shake" in Japanese.
But we rarely call salmon as ingredient of sushi "Sake" . we usually call it "samon" as ingredient of sushi. ( actually we pronounce like "SAAMON" )
Why?
I suppose the reason is that salmon sushi is new comer.
Traditionally we didn't eat salmon as raw. because, generally wild salmon is not good to eat as raw.
But nowadays, we can eat raw salmon which is cultured raised.

Ebi no Kakiage

Kakiage is a kind of tempura which seafood and some vegetables are mixed in tempura batter, and deep-fried.
In this photo, shrimp, carrot, onion, and Oba leaf are mixed.
we usually dip it dipping sauce (tentsuyu) and eat.
It is also good to top it on hot soba or udon.

Taiyaki

Taiyaki is a fish-shaped Japanese pancake stuffed with sweet red bean paste.
Taiyaki is made using fish-shaped mold.
Main ingredient of batter is wheat flour.

Nowadays, there are some taiyaki filled with custard, chocolate, or other ingredient instead of red bean paste.

By the way, "Tai" means sea bream.
Sea bream is a high quality cooking ingredient for Japanese dishes.
I supose it is why they made sea bream-shaped pancake.

Home made Yakisoba

Yakisoba is a Japanese stir-fried noodle.
Yakisoba noodle is similar to ramen noodle.
It is made from wheat flour.
ther are various yakisoba dish.
Today, I introduce you a kind of home made yakisoba.



We usually buy steamed yakisoba noodles. usually it is include sauce powder(seasoning powder).
Of course, you can use tonkatsu sause or worcester sauce, and some seasoning instead of sauce powder.

We usually stir-fry pork (some time ham or sausage) and some vegetables(soy bean sprout, cabbage, carrot, onion and so on) lightly with few salada oil on the pan.
Add yakisoba noodles.
Add water on them.
fry them with stiring lightly until water is off.
Add sauce powder, and stir them.