I actually have been to that Kan Man a couple times. And the pho restaurant on the same parking lot.
They did have a decent selection of Japanese food items as I recall, but that was maybe 10yrs ago.

I made some more sushi rice yesterday for lunch. Sadly, there were no pictures this time. I handmade a few Spam musubi and practiced my temaki rolling skills with some spicy canned tuna and leftover scraps of smoked salmon. It definitely gets easier as your comfortability handling the sushi and nori grows. I can see why people use the mold for musubi, it is very tough to get a good shape and even tougher to get it to stay together. I made 4 and I would (grudgingly) say that only one was really edible as a musubi, the rest were just rice and spam.

On a sad note, our Korean market downstairs has scaled back their prepared foods considerably over the last week. Premade bibimbaps and gimbaps have all but disappeared. They've conspicuously been unable to restock their Asian coffees/drinks and those are meager now. Thankfully they are now VERY well stocked with flour, vegetables, and paper goods so I can simply make my own!

The restaurant I have been ordering our prepared meals from is doing a good deal on a wagyu galbi addition to their menu. 14oz portion for $20 (You can get two). I'm sure it's merely American washugyu but even being a bone-in cut, it's a nice price. Our local wagyu vendor is actually running some steep discounts on A5 Miyazaki but I honestly wouldn't feel comfortable cooking it. Even discounted 20% it is nearly $120 per pound! I'm going to just save that money for when we're in Japan in February.

A Sushi chef at a Sushi restaurant at Westchester County at New York once told me that Japanese rice still stick and hold shape when it is cold. But other rice when hot it sticks and hold shape together but once cold will not stick and not hold shape well. When making musubi or onigiri hands are used to shape rice, and obviously cool down cooked rice so that is easier to handle by hands. But not using Japanese rice making musubi or onigiri may be difficult because at cool temperature where rice can be handled by hands it may not stick and hold shape.

Ths is according to the sushi chef at Westchester county. :)

That makes a lot of sense. It looks like I'll be doing temaki for lunch and musubi for dinner next time!

I think AlwaysAisle nailed it - your calrose type rice would need to be piping hot if you want to shape it for anything other than norimaki/temaki.

Every now and again I’ve had to make large batches of onigiri (without nori) for groups of little people with not quite optimal rice. If you don’t use piping hot rice for this, the onigiri shapes disintegrate in a child’s hands - the mess is horrendous and the kids go hungry as they don’t get their snack.
Some people have skin like asbestos. Not me! Handling hot rice is painful!
Solution? Sarin wrap! (You can re-use it). If you have some food handling gloves, use them too. The more layers between you and the scalding rice the better.

If the rice isn’t blisteringly hot, the temptation is to exert too much pressure. Packing onigiri too hard also affects the taste.

Another scenario where it’s important to use well made onigiri that are resistant to disintegrating is yaki-onigiri. Vital to make these with very hot rice also, otherwise they just fall apart in the pan/BBQ/under the grill.

—-
On Saturday we had lunch in our tiny garden, the weather was beautiful and we enjoyed Okinawa inspired Taco Rice in the sunshine.

Put away that Sarin wrap!

Saran Wrap
... In 1943, John Reilly and Ralph Wiley of The Dow Chemical Co. completed the final work needed for introduction of PVDC, which had been invented in 1939. PVDC monofilaments were also extruded for the first time. The word "Saran" was coined by a combination of John Reilly's wife's and daughter's names, Sarah and Ann Reilly.

Sarin
Sarin was discovered in 1938 in Wuppertal-Elberfeld in Germany by scientists at IG Farben who were attempting to create stronger pesticides; it is the most toxic of the four G-Series nerve agents made by Germany. The compound, which followed the discovery of the nerve agent tabun was named in honor of its discoverers: Schrader, Ambrosias, Gerhard Ritter, and von der Linde.

Good catch!

In our home it’s the “good” cling film (we usually bring some back from Japan just for this kind of purpose as the English stuff is cobweb thin and frustrating - although it does “stick” to itself better). Saran for me is an exotic word, for some reason I confuse it with Sarrasin and give it a Faux-Franco spelling.

Now there's a word that pops up in all sorts of unexpected places - from blé sarrasin, to Saracens rugby club, Sarson's vinegar, and the sarsen stones at Stonehenge (where the demons dwell, where the banshees live, and they do live well).

No way would I waste them on whatever it is this recipe is for.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/202...kake-fried-egg[/QUOTE]

wow.......just....... wow

I bought a bag of frozen edamame in an Asian supermarket, cooked in boiled water per instructions, got them out of the water, put some salt on - they tasted so good that I forgot to make a photo.

I hope edamame are healthier than nachos :)

Low rent tastes here. I miss konbini sandos. Shokupan has been sold out and tuna was a little too thick, but still felt close. Secret imo is to use Kewpie's eggy mayo and a blender to get more of a pate consistency rather than flaked.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...16e48735b.jpeg

My local Japanese grocery is an hour away but unfortunately their food court and sister stores are currently closed. Made the following to tide me over until the next visit. Hopefully they still have prepared food still available.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...795f854952.jpg
Chicken Shoyu Ramen

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...19dadeea7e.jpg
Sous-vide gyukatsu-sando (Recommend the shokupan recipe from the NYT Cooking)

I found a picture of the musubi that my SO took.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...3635ef631.jpeg
No furikake but it tasted nice.


I also made some cheese buldak with leftovers from breaking down a whole chicken.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...2b535dec8.jpeg
After first cook.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0dcfb65c7.jpeg
After second cook under broiler and addition of cheese to half

I could have broiled it longer for a slightly crispier cheese texture but the chicken was already incredibly spicy as the sauce reduced.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b0fbd0e24.jpeg
In taco form for lunch the next day. I had to serve it with avocado, the smooth texture and cooling mixed perfectly with the spice of the chicken.

Love that as everyone is going down the - now crowded - sourdough starter route, you are careering down the yudane highway.

I got a text today saying that the dried yeast I finally managed to source is being packed and shipped. Now that eggs are available again, and with decent amount of yeast (500g - woohoo) a sweet milk bread will be a welcome alternative. Just need some harts horn salt and I can tackle melon pan.

I jumped on the sourdough train about a year ago. Judging from social media trends, its a very crowded train. Looking forward to going down the yudane highway, now that I learned the proper Japanese term and can look for more recipes. Most places I've referenced use the Chinese term, tangzhong.

Lucked out with yeast and the flour, I happened to stock up on a large package of instant yeast and a large (10 lb) sack of flour a month before the stay at home order. I'm glad the large packs of European-style butter (82% butterfat) are still available.

Melon pan has been on my hit-list for things to bake. Do you have a good resource for Japanese pastry/baking recipes?

These pics take me back to the two times I had buldak in Korea. First time, it was barely after one month living there and still wasn't used to spice levels yet. Local friends decided to take me out for the cheese buldak, since it was good for "beginners".:D That was definitely not the case, felt like fire from my mouth all the way to my stomach.

Second time was with close friends and their parents. After a super greasy dinner of grilled duck, my friend's dad wanted to go for round #2 and decided on a bar/buldak restaurant. We did not get the cheese buldak, just straight-up regular. Initially this was better than my first experience. I was offered copious amounts of soju (local alcohol, for those wondering) during both rounds, which helped dull the burning sensation. Also, according to social etiquette, you have to accept whatever is offered by elders during dinner. So, couldn't really refuse Mr. Kim's offers of more soju and buldak. I soldiered through round #2 and somehow made it back to my apt. The rest of the night was spent dealing with an angry digestive system full of duck grease, soju, and spicy chicken.

I got really into baking with yudane about 8 years ago, but then stopped due to health issues and then gave up most carbs as a way to recover (which was very successful).
Am going to go back into it. During my 2011/2012 personal “yudane boom” I used this recipe (Hah! Just realised I’m in the comments!), which in turn led me to using a few Chinese sources for Japanese style baking projects. It’s rather easier to get Japanese tutorials nowadays than it was back then.
Asian-Style Pain de Mie | The Fresh Loaf
It’s excellent, but it is a three day process. Which means there’s never been a better time to get back into making it.

Can’t remember which recipe I used to use for melon pan. Have just ordered the hartshorn salt from a vendor in Bulgaria so I have a bit of time to decide (I used to buy it from a Scandinavian grocers in London, but they don’t have it now). If anybody knows of a great recipe, would love to see it.

Found it! This is the recipe I used to use for melonpan. Not as convinced about it as the enriched pain de mie though. I do remember it was good, but keeping evaporated milk AND condensed milk AND milk powder is too tricky.
http://web.archive.org/web/201102031...hristines.html

Am enjoying the tutorials by this Japanese baker. Will try out his melon pan.

After you master the melon pan, can you then take on curry pan ? :tu:

That involves deep-deep fat frying doesn’t it? Afraid that’s a dead end for me.

But I will be thinking of you when I make the Asian style Pain de Mie and comparing it to that Hiroo Shokupan.
My ultimate goal is to make something that approximates Mont Thabor’s Hokkaido Milk Bread.

You can bake them too .......:D

Thanks, I will look up his recipes.

I've been following this Japanese-American home-cook on Youtube. Her recipe on melon pan is one I'm eyeing at:

https://www.justonecookbook.com/melon-pan/

JOC is one I've used for a while, particularly for her recommendations of local US substitutes of harder to find ingredients. Also like NHK's Dining with the Chef for both the recipes and programs.

Made gyudon with this NHK recipe and the wife said it was better than my usual one from JOC (sorry Nami!).

https://www.nhk.or.jp/dwc/food/recip...ers_31210.html

Our lockdown is considerably more stressful than it should be due to an ongoing... err... “situation” in the household next door. Cooking (and eating) has been a big comfort during this time. If we’d been in Japan we would have missed the worst of it, but that’s 2020 for you. Our dearest are doing fine, MrLapLap hasn’t been conscripted into an army, my daughter still has a semblance of a school life. We have blessings to count despite it all.

Two days ago we broke out one of the packets in MrLapLap’s Fukuoka and Tokyo haul from his visit in February.
It’s from Ajinomoto, and it’s called Ma-bo Chezu, which seems to be a sort of Mabo Nasu (Nasu is aubergine/eggplant)
https://www.ajinomoto.co.jp/cookdo/l...awase_001.html

Was very nice to eat something that didn’t taste anything like mine or MrLapLap’s cooking - just as a change.
Looked like this (with beef instead of pork mince) and we had it with rice and salad in a rare quiet moment out in the sunshine.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...150b380a0.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...cd1f18c2f.jpeg
The challenge today is to make it without the packet. Have a few dregs of very salty toban djan (Lee Kum Kee) left and will substitute miso for tian mian jang.
I knew about Mabo Doufu but hadn’t come across Mabo chezu or Mabo nasu before.
Will try this as it doesn’t seem too complicated
https://translate.google.co.uk/trans...ml&prev=search

EDIT TO ADD:
That worked out well. Followed the Ajinomoto packet’s recommendation for vegetable quantities and frying (although with my big European aubergine I sliced, salted, drained, rinsed and squeezed it first as they aren’t as tender as the Japanese kind).
Then removed the vegetables and fried the mince as in the Kikkoman recipe recommendation. Instead of the tian mian jang I subbed a bit of miso and some oyster sauce.
The biggest difference between this version and the one from the packet was the absence of a hint of Chinese star anise, so I’ll add a little of that next time I make it. Added a little spring onion/scallion and had it on rice with shredded cucumber on the side.
Suspected it would be rather salty, which it was, so didn’t add any of the salt the recipe called for. The rice and cucumber moderated the saltiness. Find this happens every time with Lee Kum Kee condiments.

Shocking to hear this from someone who is half(?) Spanish :D

I'm not an expert but, from my travels in Spain, I don't remember deep-fat frying being a signature of Spanish cuisine. I think it's more common in the UK.- and I've heard that the British were introduced to deep-fried, battered, fish by the Portuguese ... who also introduced tempura to Japan. Why they gave the daikon oroshi and ponzu to the Japanese and malt vinegar to the British is a mystery.

I’m not that kind of Spaniard.
Before the Thermomix phenomenon caught on, a deep fat fryer served a certain kind of Spaniard the same way as microwave ovens serve a certain kind of Brit (or North American). There used to be whole shops that only sold frozen food destined for the deep fat fryer. Even now, in the supermarkets you’ll see plenty of food for that category.

Saying all that, my grandmother never ever deep fat fried food, nor did her sisters and I know plenty of households who still never use one either. Not surprising that jib71 didn’t come across them much on his journeys.
When I was little the deep fat frying was for treat food, we were taken to certain shacks (1970s and early 80s) where vats of oil on big petroleum barrels produced churros in the morning or potato chips in the evening. Both were stunning.
We do plenty of shallow frying, but I’m just too fond of olive oil to want to cook in large vats of something else. Nevertheless, I did find a way to reproduce some of that taste of chips cooked in a drum from my child-hood. I have a Phillips AirFryer. Means I can brush olive oil onto potatoes and whack the heat up to 220C without completely smoking up my kitchen and slathering it in a nicotine coloured sticky film.

Apart from the churros, here is one very memorable deep fried dish that I enjoyed in Spain - Flamenquin from Cordóba:
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d45a2100f.jpeg

Vaya plato!
That’s exactly what I might order in Spain because I would never make it at home.

However, saying that, I do roll ham and other things like cheese together, then toss in batter and/or eggs and panko to make mini versions for packed lunches. But I use this wonderful gadget which I bought in Japan.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...42f884a39.jpeg

This style of micro-deep-fat frying reminds me of Lewis Carroll’s traveller’s plunge bath described in “Silvie & Bruno”:

“One great advantage of this plunge-bath,” continued the Professor, “is that it requires only half-a-gallon of water——”

“I don’t call it a plunge-bath,” His Sub-Excellency remarked, “unless your Active Tourist goes right under!”

“But he does go right under,” the old man gently replied. “The A. T. hangs up the P. B. on a nail—thus. He then empties the water-jug into it—places the empty jug below the bag—leaps into the air—descends head-first into the bag—the water rises round him to the top of the bag—and there you are!” he triumphantly concluded. “The A. T. is as much under water as if he’d gone a mile or two down into the Atlantic!”

https://classic-literature.co.uk/lew...e-and-bruno/2/

Since my identity as a Spaniard is in question, I am going to share what has become a small obsession.
Earlier this year, as MrLapLap walked around KitaKyushu and sent me the occasional photo, I looked up on tabelog an Izakaya near where he was staying.
It was run by an elderly couple and had a speciality that I had never seen before. I gave my husband a mission. Took him a couple of attempts as the opening hours were erratic, but he made it there and had this - behold!

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8069d28ea.jpeg

The food of paradise; battered aubergine (eggplant/nasu) sandwiching a gyoza core.

😍😍😍

It pushes every single culinary button for me.

https://tabelog.com/fukuoka/A4004/A400403/40014275/

Plunge sauna for eggs. Don't heat a milliliter more than you need :

I’m laughing but I was seriously thinking about the feasibility of a travelling sauna bag to use on a plane - lets you shroud yourself in a hot moist virus-unfriendly microclimate AND gives off bonus “I’m a freak, stay away from me” energy, which is also highly effective.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e9ffc6217.jpeg
Must have read “Silvie and Bruno” at a peculiarly impressionable age because that plunge bath idea is never too far from my thoughts.

I've been using an "air fryer" aka convection oven for quite a few years. They're a reasonable substitute for a light frying but I find it to be only moderately more useful than a conventional oven. The current fad tabletop versions are too small for my tastes and marketed very deceptively.

Unfortunately, the sauna bag wraps everything except your head. Back to the drawing board...
Has anyone tried injecting molten lava into their veins? I'm not a doctor, so what do I know, but really what do you have to lose?

You’ve nailed the “I’m a freak, stay away from me” energy radiation. But the complete steam sauna suit is easily achieved with a small upgrade:
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...377feeba0.jpeg

Our night was ragged, but it’s a beautiful morning now and I’m feeling mild excitement about reaching day three, the final stages in my premium shokupan project.
Couldn’t be arriving here at a better time! Thanks to [MENTION=605904]Gradfly[/MENTION] for the propitious reminder 👍 just what I needed to help take my mind off the unpalatable realities we’re having our noses shoved into.

My SO has given up on her sourdough dreams for now and is pivoting over to more simple breads. She's made us an amazing matcha banana bread and matcha muffins in the last two days. My waistline is going to be a major casualty of this quarantine. I've been taking 2-3 hours to prep each meal on the weekends these days just to fill the time.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5fe7d70e34.jpg
Was able to make the 1-hr trek to the Japanese market place last week. Should have gone earlier for better selection but happy nonetheless with what was available.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ccca43a6aa.jpg
Shokupan

Thanks [MENTION=37887]LapLap[/MENTION] for the the shokupan recipe. I incorporated the overnight ferment on this latest batch and it came out great.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0b935e1a60.jpg
Anpan

I was intending to make melon bread but realized I had a bunch of leftover anko from a past mochi project.

If your SO wants to revisit sourdough, I recommend looking at King Arthur Flour's guide. I've also heard that running the water through a piece of ginger or pineapple helps with propagating the yeast culture.

I'm with you about the waistline statement. Been baking a lot more and just spent the past day and a half making banchan.

Events took an even darker turn so that day 3 anticipation was shelved to day 4 and I managed - with somewhat trembling hands - to get my “3 day” bread completed late last night. Forgive my photography, none of this has the polish of gradfly’s skills. But the aroma, oh the aroma, was so therapeutic!
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...871e84d33.jpeg
mochi mochi gossamer pane dough
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...aee25184bd.jpg