Taco nan and Chorizo nan

At Mosburger.

Switching blogs

I'm closing out this blog. You might say it's a week early since 2009 isn't quite over. But my plan is to write a book about a year of food in Japan, and that will start and end with osechi ryori -- New Year's food. Preparations for that start now, so I'm starting a new blog at http://notjustrice.blogspot.com

See you there!

Hearty satisfaction in a very small can

Prices again

I walked over to Shimomura Shoten, a nearby store that sells baking goods, including canned pumpkin, and bought a kilo of whole wheat flour for 231 yen and a kilo of popping corn for 326 yen. The former because I was reduced to making two boules from 100% bread flour the yesterday. My wife and daughter loved them, but I didn't. Maybe if I'd waited a day after proofing, but I needed the bread then. The latter because we need a fun snack now and then, and our glass-topped sauce pan makes it fun even before we eat it.

Where are the apostrophe police?

Christmas SUSHI Cake

http://www.japantoday.com/category/picture-of-the-day/view/sushi-christmas-cake

Christmas is coming

I was at a nearby private school yesterday and saw the lunch they were going to serve the students. It's was a fancy little bento, accompanied by a piece of cake. Christmas cake!

Last night, we went out to Mos Burger, where the signs say "Merry X'Mos" and they had these ads:

What is it???

It's a bag of Winter Cheese Doritos.

So now the question is, what's winter cheese?

Honesty

Along rural roads, you can see little stands like this, where you can buy a bag of four persimmons (like these), tangerines, carrots, or whatever the neighboring farmer is growing. It's an honest country, so the stands usually are unattended, though the money boxes are often more secure than this one.

How much for André champagne?

How much do these cost where you are? These prices, in yen, convert to slightly higher amounts if you change the yen to U.S. cents.


Regular Tabasco


Bosco Extra Virgin olive oil -- I forget whether this is 200, 225, or 250 ml.


Boones (lacking an apostrophe) fruit wines.


André Champagne, Brut and Rose.

Nimono ("boiled things")

The famous Japanese dish called nimono -- literally translated boiled things -- is a no-brainer for a cool fall day, or cold winter day, plenty of which are on tap now.





Basic directions: First you make your dashi, then you put in the cut up things and boil them until they're done.

More detailed directions:

1. Dashi for nimono
Put one or two pieces of dried konbu in one or two liters of water (or litres or quarts, depending on where you are cooking it). Bring the water to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Take out the konbu. Save for some other dish. Put in a small handful (or a large handful) of katsuobushi (flaked dried bonito). Wait one or two minutes until the katsuobushi has all sunk to the bottom. Strain out the limp flakes and throw them out. (If anyone knows a good use for used katsuobushi, please let me know.) Add about 1 teaspoon each per liter (litre, quart) of liquid: sake, mirin, sugar, soy sauce. Stir. Stop. You're done.

2. Add more or less whatever you want, meat, fish, vegetables, tofu. Boil until everything is done and nothing is falling apart.

3. Serve with spicy Japanese mustard -- or not.

Konbu -- before and after

Before and after simmering 15 minutes to make the dashi for the nimono.

Mushipan

Sweet steamed bread, sometimes sold by little trucks that play a kids' song that was popular about the time I was starting kindergarten. The bread, too, was created about that time and is now available in many flavors, including curry. Sometime when I hear the truck go by at night I'll try to get a picture.

Apparently this is one of the few places in Japan where the trucks still run. Mostly you have to buy your mushipan in stores (like I did).

Persimmons drying

Thanksgiving party pictures

Turkey Challenge Report

I slathered the bird inside and out with herbed oil:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• about 1 1/2 teaspoons each of sage, oregano, and thyme
• salt and pepper and LOTS of chopped garlic

After two hours at 160 C, it was a little burned on top but only 120 F in the thigh, so I increased the temperature to 170 and put a bit of foil over the breastbone. After 3 1/4 hours the thigh was still only 158 F so I took it out, put it on a dish, and put it back in, then microwaved it for 6 minutes.

The meat was tender and moist, with a lovely aroma from the herbs -- especially the garlic!

The birds were ordered on the web from the Foreign Buyers' Club. I think they were about 5,000 yen each. That's about US $55 for each 5 kg. (11 pound) turkey.

Eggplant miso

Sauce

• 1 part mirin
• 1 part white sugar
• 2 parts miso

Directions

1. Cut eggplant into cubes (or whatever).
2. Slice bell pepper (or similar) into strips.
3. Saute in oil.
4. Mix with sauce.

Best served at room temperature.

Thanksgiving Challenge

Oden

It feels like winter, though it was only about 8 degrees last night. Still, we've started using the kerosene heater and one of the things you can do with those, other than die of carbon monoxide poisoning if you forget to allow for ventilation, is keep your oden warm.


Oden is stew. Actually, it's interesting that I just typed the word stew. Last night I explained that word to a couple of my students although it's used in Modern Standard Japanese as a gairaigo (a foreign word in regular use). But it's only used for one particular kind of stew and, of course, the pronunciation is very Japanese.

しちゅ　　pronounced she-chew, with equal emphasis on the two syllables.

It means chicken cream stew.

Beef stew is also popular in Japan but it's called nikku jagga.

Oden

Oden Recipe

Get a box of Oden base


and add it to a pot of water, or use one of the thousands of standard recipes for making your own broth. Then throw in cut up chicken, chikuwa, whole eggs (in the shell), konyakku (cut in any shape you like), whole potatoes, carrots, whole blocks of tofu . . . basically whatever you like. Like the French pot au feu, you can add ingredients at any time. Restaurants that specialize in oden ofen add ingredients throughout the day. However, I've never heard of any that add ingredients throught the century, as is supposedly true for a few country inns specializing in pot au feu.

Don't add the potatoes too soon or they might disintegrate.

Most people eat with Japanese mustard, the kind with horseradish in it, though many restaurants also offer a sort of sweet and sour sauce I'll have to look up sometime. I prefer it to mustard.

Vending machines