JAPANESE - Winter 2022 (Jan-Mar) Cuisine of the Quarter

Thanks, I’ll try to look for it next time in the Japanese grocery store, btw should it be stored in room temperature or in fridge before consumption?

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Very neat looking onigiri! I looked quickly at several stores in little Tokyo in Paris last weekend, didn’t see the mold on sale. Don’t know what happened, queues were everywhere in front of shops there on Saturday, didn’t look like a typical food shopping weekend for families, mostly, I see youngsters lined up.

Looks like Korean and Japanese food and especially Japanese dessert like mochi or puff cream choux with Japanese ingredients are getting hot here. Also quite hot are the Taiwanese boba tea shops.

Maybe I will try with another rice without mold to see how the onigiri go.

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Tuna mayo, otherwise called tuna salad in the US. I clicked through the link and read the little background story about the “sea chicken” rice ball. Maybe they called it sea chicken because the brand of canned tuna was Chicken of the Sea! I’ve always thought that was an odd name for a tuna brand. Tastes nothing like chicken.

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It’s actually a lot easier than it looks

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It should be refrigerated, I found it in a refrigerated section at the store. Apparently it keeps for a month when opened and stored in its original liquid.

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@BKeats I love Midnight Diner, in fact have watched the whole series 3 times!!!

I was hungry, now I’m starving and craving ramen…

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I made udon last night…Dashi, Mushrooms, Chicken and noodles.

You mentioned ramen….what is ramen in your area? Is this fried noodles vs fresh?

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I know you weren’t asking me but the explosion of ramen over the past few years has been amazing. I grew up thinking ramen was that package of flash fried dried noddles with the salt package broth. I thought I was being innovative putting things like an egg sliced carrots and hotdogs with my 25 cent pack using an electric hot water kettle in my college dorm room. Then I discovered Sapporo in NYC. Freshly made noodles with a broth made by boiling bones for hours with all sorts of toppings. There used to only be a few ramenya just a handful of years ago in NYC and now there are at least half a dozen within 15 minute walk of my apartment. Quality varies a lot. But the average ramen place is a lot better than the average poke place.

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Kamo nanban soba - soba with duck, using frozen soba:

Pretty easy to make and came out well even though I overcooked the duck a bit!

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Over the last 2 weeks, made both the hotpot shabu shabu and sukiyaki, they are similiar but sauces and order of cooking is slightly different.

Shabu shabu is made with a kombu dashi broth has a ponzu sauce and a seasame dipping sauce, we cook our own food.

Sukiyaki, the meat is cooked and put aside before adding soy sauce broth and vegetables, and serve with a soy sauce and raw egg as dipping sauce as well.

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As student, our school organized a 14-day study trip to Japan: Kyoto, Nara and Tokyo. Those days, we saved up money to buy books, music, clothes, ceramics, toys and even firework (lol). Food was the lowest priority. Our lunch, when eating out, was always, Gyudon, 300 yen a bowl, if I remember correctly. That was very long time ago.

I tried to make this beef rice bowl from memory. Recently, tried several times to get the texture of beef right. I prefer them to be fatty and thinly slice.

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Osaka style okonomiyaki - cabbage pancake with pork belly, sweet okonomiyaki sauce from a bottle, Kewpie mayo, dried seaweed, and katsuobushi (shaved bonito flakes).

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It’s a neat way to use cabbage and a lot of them!

I saw in some videos by some chefs, they use all types of leftover vegetables in the fridge, with the cabbage.

Did you use the premix batter or you mixed it up yourself?

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Yes, it is a great way to use up cabbage! A while ago I tried using the premixed batter but I just make it myself now, it’s just wheat flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar nothing special really.

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I usually made it myself, but when making the takoyaki, I used the premix for the first time, found it a bit more puffy than my usual okonomiyaki.

Just curious, what is the price of katsuobushi in your city? Here, in the Japanese and Korean grocery, 500g is around 40€.

Hmm maybe I should try the mix again, I don’t remember much of a difference though.

I just got a pack of 20 individually wrapped 2g portions for between $5 and $10 I think. I don’t use it that often so its nice to have them packed into individual packets. 500g is a lot of katsuobushi, do you buy it in a block?

Actually, the smaller packages were out of stock in many places here, maybe due to the Japanese new year, only the huge pillow sized package was left in shops, eventually I was able to find 25g for 3.90€. But I was thinking, in order to make proper dashi stock (not the instant powder ones) one needs a lot more katsuobushi to be tasty, 10 g or 20 g, is it worthwhile to invest in a bigger bag, 500g sounds too much, unless I’m cooking Japanese everyday.

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That looks like heaven in a bowl

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Bento x 2 today

Veg with Angelo Pietro dressing, chicken teriyaki, potato salada with ham, boiled egg, and mentaiko, rice with furikake.

More of the same veg with Kewpie sesame dressing, chicken karaage (marinated chicken coated with potato starch and deep fried), more potato salada, onigiri with umeboshi.

And some sake - Suigei Tokubetsu Junmai “Drunken Whale” of which the name is also a good description of myself.

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