After my debacle of using fermented shrimp paste in the wrong quantity last year I've stuck with only fermented hot sauces. This looks like a good gateway to get back into it. Most of the store-bought kimchi I can find up here isn't aged at all so I have to buy it and leave it in the fridge for 3 months before it gets that lovely sour tang.

I was surprised at how quickly this kind of kimchi matured enough to get that Shichuan Peppercorn type tang which feels like a mild electrical fizz. It’s more intense than what we find in the Korean import plastic pouches of napa cabbage kimchi.

MissLapLap is a big fan of Yuzu tea and we can find large kilogram jars of this drinking jam/marmalade that come from Korea (where yuzu is called yuja). It’s extremely handy for Japanese tsukemono (most kinds of white/green cabbage will do). Cabbage, yuzucha, kombu/kelp strips, some salt and a few glugs of rice or apple vinegar and it’s ready in a day or two.

Katsu Curry
 

Not exactly homemade, cheating as far as homemade meal is concerned. I bought tonkatsu bento (豚カツ弁当) from a neighbor bento shop. I had leftover Japanese curry I made from curry block bought from a store. Made katsu curry out of it. Ended up a lot of volume. Satisfying dinner.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4504212064.jpg

That curry looks delicious! I think I know what I'm having for dinner Wednesday night.

Looks good but really HEAVY. Definitely a stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal. Real Otoko cuisine, with a denim place mat, no less. If you ate this every day you might need to take パンシロン after each meal.:D I miss these food topics and discussions and was thinking of starting a new thread, perhaps about exotic foods eaten in Japan. I wonder if there would be any interest?

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f3c035354.jpeg

I've been practicing my maki rolling in anticipation of two upcoming bluefin tuna fishing trips next week.

These microwaveable rice bowls are great and adding my sumeshi right out of the microwave it produces passable sushi rice.

This was my attempt at a thicker tuna maki after making 3 standard size tuna maki. They turn out delicious but the seaweed ends up getting steamed a little too much from the warm rice and becoming both hard to slice and hard to eat. Should I let the rice cool down further before rolling? I've been going with the same ~95-100 degree temperature that I use for nigiri.

Yes, I have to practice moderation. :D Tonkatsu bento I bought did not look that big. I thought the addition of curry will be a nice compliment to tonkatsu bento, but it ended up a lot. I am all in for exotic foods eaten in Japan!

Enjoy the tuna fishing trip. Are you going to fish for tuna at off the coast of Cape Cod?

I am. I'm lucky enough to have a neighbor who is a charter captain. He lets me know when he'll have extra spots on the boat and this time he happened to have them for tuna. Usually I just fish for squid with him during the spring.

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Hi everyone,

I come in need of virtual support.

More specifically. I am trying to replicate a dish we ate in Kyoto that I have been dreaming about. Our friends are in Kyoto and actually visited the restaurant today and reminded us that it's the best thing ever.

The dish:

"Kyoto salt chicken" at Manzara Honten.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7fa11c87ac.jpg

I know that 90% of this dish is just the incredibly high quality chickens that Yoshinori & co get from their local source but I want to try to get as close as possible using our local birds.

I think it's a deboned thigh. I know they definitely dry brine it with salt. I'm assuming it's slow roasted and then finished under a broiler for the skin. Any help would be more than a little appreciated.

Also for any of you folks living in Japan, this is a dish I'd go out of my way to try if possible. It's a 4-5 minute walk from the RC Kyoto.

I'll take a stab. When you mentioned deboned chicken thigh with crispy skin, I immediately thought of this video:

The general recipe is this: https://cookpad-com.translate.goog/r...n&_x_tr_pto=sc (the liquor would be sake)
https://cookpad.com/recipe/7165409

I can’t quite tell from the photograph but it seems to have some unusual colouring. Is it possible that it was cooked or marinaded with squid ink?

Personally, I follow Mandy Lee’s method for making crispy chicken. But to make it more succulent you can first marinade it in shio kouji (and if you don’t have access to shio kouji/shio koji, try with a combination of yogurt and salt - lots of instructions on the internet to do this)

Thank you to both of you!

I don't think it had any squid ink, merely a bad lighting situation for my phone. I actually have shio koji in my pantry! I've been a bit scared to give it a use so this will be the motivation I need. Hopefully my local chicken guy is at the farmer's market on Saturday so I can give this a go.

Was wondering how the Manzara Honten might describe this chicken and noticed they are currently making a black version. https://www.manzara.co.jp/shop/honten/cuisine.html (3rd item down)
Then my imagination got the better of me and I wondered what a chicken salt marinade might be like with a little squid/cuttlefish ink in the mixture. I might try it out myself one day, a little ikasumi along with shoyu and see how it compares as a chicken marinade to shio kouji.

Seems to me that you have the perfect excuse to try out your shio kouji. Let us know how you get on, just make sure to get the skin as dry as you possibly can before cooking if you want to get it to crackle.

I would have loved to try that version as well.

The seafood carpaccio was just as pretty as it is in that picture. It would have been the highlight if we hadn't been so blown away by the chicken.

I promise to report back next week with pictures.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c65823bdc.jpeg
Here is my first attempt. I had a heritage bird frozen so I thawed that and took a whack at the recipe.

I deboned, salted, and evened out each thigh and then left it for 15 minutes while prepping the rest of the bird for stock and roasting. I heated my pan to med-low with canola oil (going to use something else next time) and then once the oil was just barely bubbling, dried off both pieces completely and then skin side down until about 80% cooked through, the first 2-3 minutes with weights on each piece to flatten out. I spooned a bit of oil on them and then flipped. I think at this point I left them about 30 seconds too long because they weren't overcooked but they were close. I let them rest for 10 minutes while cleaning up and then sliced them up and served with salt/wasabi.

I'd grade myself a 75 for taste and 60 for visuals. Lots of room for improvement. It was also a fairly small bird so the thighs cooked much faster than the recipes would indicate. I am picking up another bird this weekend so I'll give it another go, this time with a shio koji step.

Nice work! Looks delicious.
I have taken to Mandy Lee’s advice on crispy chicken and to get the skin just so, as well as the pre-drying out part her suggestion is to to go with a non-stick pan and just put the chicken skin side down directly, no canola/rapeseed, no butter, no oil at all. Chicken has enough of its own.

That's how I do duck breast. I start it similar to bacon in a cold pan with cross-hatching in the fat and then medium heat to render the gobs of fat out.
I have been using canola oil and it has an off-putting smell above a certain temperature that I am tired of. I have some non-virgin olive oil and peanut oil I want to try next but I think no oil is a good option too.

We went out for a ramen night at one of our local restaurants and the kitchen forgot to put the miso tare in mine. Also it was served with what I think is fettuccine? Take me back to Tokyo :o

Am getting closer to nailing my own ideal of a cookie topped milk bread. The main bread dough was laminated with a sweetened milky layer, similar to how croissant pastry is made, and then cut to strips and coiled. Once it had proved for a while I added the cookie crust topping.
Inspired by Mont Thabor’s most famous offering.

This one was a bit too big and thus took too long to cook to be exactly what I want, but I got very close.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...da60d83e5.jpeg

Is there any secret to making sushi rice that doesn't instantly make nori sheets wet when making a roll?

I like sushi rolls with the nori sheet still dry and crispy (that's why I usually order temaki, because they are made to order and do not sit on the counter). But when trying making them at home, nori gets wet the instant I press the roll together with the sushi mat. Seems I am missing some crucial step here, but not sure exactly which...

I make sushi rice in accordance with the instructions on the package, and it feels and tastes OK otherwise...

There, that’s the problem. I’ve never seen a usable set of directions on a package of that kind of rice.

Whatever the measure of rice you are using don’t add more than 1.10 (1 and a tenth) as cooking water.

I can go through all the steps if you want.
ETA - here we go. I’d preempted you but you weren’t yet ready:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32259727-post55.html

1.10 by weight or volume?

Now I remember that post, but I fell for instructions on the rice packaging again :mad:

Volume.

Agree with LapLap . My rice was far too wet using the package instructions. Use the instructions linked in that post and you're going to see an immediate difference. Especially the advice to lower the water a touch if you're going to make seasoned sushi rice with that batch. Another "fix" if you end up in this predicament is to let it cool a bit longer than usual and try to start from the top of your rice.

This won’t solve the problem and they aren’t a necessity but, once you’ve achieved appropriately cooked rice, will slightly improve the seasoning process:


It’s a sushi oke or hangiri, and whilst it is better to buy them in Japan where you can give the wood a sniff first (the classic kind is made of cypress) so long as the wood has some absorbency you should still get a better texture combining hot rice with vinegar in one of these. The one in the link is likely to be pine wood.

The price for these - which ideally come with a lid - is very affordable in Japan https://shimizumokuzai.jp/en/sushioke
This link has excellent instructions on how to wash and get a sushi oke ready before using it for the first time.

——
Another way to improve vinegared rice is to carry out that extra suggestion in the rice making instructions at Step 5, Resting. The easiest way to do it is to have a second lid handy with a tea towel secured onto it that covers the underneath part of the lid. Once the rice has finished cooking, very, very quickly, losing as little steam as possible, swap over the lids.

Without a tea towel, or paper towel, lining the top, once cooked, the steam inside the pot is going to collect onto the top, condense and then drop back onto the rice. The cooled drip water won’t be reabsorbed consistently and will contribute to making rice feel wet.

Yes, the rice got much better (still a little too wet because I failed to account for vinegar).

Maki rolls still look like after a car crash though.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8560ec1ab9.jpg

Last trouble shooting point is particular to sushi rice (that made with vinegar) and that’s to begin the seasoning process the second the rice has finished resting as you’ll want the rice to be as hot as possible during the mixing process.

I personally don’t usually load rice with enough seasoned vinegar to be “authentic” (I’ve often made my own sushi su and know how much salt and sugar is super-saturated in there) but I know it’s part of the art of making sushi, professionals use piping hot rice, sushi oke, and put muscle memory skills into action by fanning the rice as they stir in the vinegar. You might find adding, say, 25% or 20% less than the recommended amount of seasoned vinegar is a totally acceptable compromise.

There is one last suggestion, and that’s to join many other Japanese households and “cheat” with this last step using a powdered seasoning vinegar that won’t introduce additional moisture. It’s called Tamanoi sushi no ko and is a common addition in home style chirashi sushi.

https://dawayo.de/en/product/tamanoi-sushi-no-ko-75g/

Might be that the nori sheets aren't at the right moisture level as well. We live in a humid area so I have to put mine flat in a dry pan over low heat for a minute or so (sometimes less) per side and they get "crisp" again. Also, work fast. I found when I am rolling maki if I use a plastic sheet over my bamboo mat (maki-su is the right name I think) I end up with soft nori because I work slowly. If I just go without the plastic I fare a bit better.

There was this terrible cheat I used to do in order to make long thin “soba maki” - which was a way of making soba noodles into finger food snacks for my kid. I found rolling nori around soba noodles much trickier than making nori rice rolls and, in order to keep them firm so that the contents wouldn’t slip out, I’d very gently toast the roll in a dry pan. The nori would contract a bit and tighten around the filling and I would then cut it up in pieces which would survive a toddler’s grip just long enough to reach the mouth.

Advice I’ve seen repeated again and again is to not toast wilted nori on both sides when applying heat to crispen it up. The pro technique is to place two sheets together, smooth side of each on the outside, and apply heat keeping them in that position. The idea being that the taste/aroma will stay sandwiched inside and won’t dissipate into the air.

Yes, I think working too slowly is my main problem - it takes me too much time to spread the rice evenly over the nori sheet.

When I was Youtube'ing my way through, another tip I saw was that you can spread the rice flat on a plate, cover with clingfilm or plastic wrap and flatten it into an approximate size of a nori sheet. Let it cool a little and then upend the plate so the rice separates, put the rice side on the nori, and remove the plastic. Seemed like a great way to cool things down. All this talk has me ready for some maki. I'm going to make some tomorrow.

That's a great idea!

My plan for the next time was to spread the rice inside a cold teflon coated frying pan, then put nori on top, then gently turn the pan upside down and remove the rice coated nori sheet this way. A plastic wrap probably makes it even easier.

I think getting the nori on there at the latest possible time is the best move for us amateurs. I debated doing the whole process without nori and then just wrapping it at the end. Inspiration for that came from the way onigiri is packaged in Japan. Keep it crispy until the last second before you eat!

Made another attempt at salmon maki. This time, I made the roll without nori first (used a transparent film instead), then removed the film and wrapped nori around the roll. Looked and tasted much better, but the nori would sometimes come off the roll when cutting it into pieces.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...223b5e0f02.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...29a4737deb.jpg

Nagasaki Sara Udon (長崎皿うどん)
 

Japan has started 2024 in a rough situation, Noto earthquake on Jan. 1 and JL 516 and the Coast Guard plane accident at HND on Jan. 2. It was like bad karma for starting the new year 2024.

I will put some positive and continue this thread. I found Nagasaki Sara Udon mix at a store. So I decided if I could not go to Nagasaki, then bring the flavor of Nagasaki to me. :)

This required little cooking on my part. Besides the Sara Udon mix, I got cabbage, bean sprouts, onion, pork, Kamaboko (fish cake), and frozen seafood mix.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d2183efff7.jpg

The Sara Udon mix is made by Mirokuya (website in Japanese only), a company in Nagasaki that makes Nagasaki Champon, Nagasaki Sara Uond, and other Nagasaki flavored goods. So this Sara Udon mix is authentic!

The content of Sara Udon mix is noodles, soup mix (powder), oil (for browning noodles), and lard (for meat and vegetable cooking)

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...2b39e30d8f.jpg

First, cook noodles in boiling water as directed.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...887a069e5f.jpg

Same time start cooking meat, seafood, and vegetables using lard. Prepare the soup mix with water, soup is in the right top corner of the picture. Once meat, seafood, and vegetables are cooked, add soup.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...fa7b71fb2a.jpg

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...513b127d4c.jpg

After boiling the noodles, remove them from water and brown noodles in a pan using oil. Make noodles slightly crispy.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...83ca3e7457.jpg

Add meat, seafood, and vegetables to the top of the noodles. Finish, ready to eat!

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...63f4d9bbe7.jpg

I had Sara Udon at Nagasaki when I visited Nagasaki a little more than a year ago. I visited Inasayama during the evening and took a taxi to Inasayama. Upon return from Inasayama, it was still early in the evening to go back to the hotel. The taxi driver told me that the east side of Nagasaki station another side of the street is an area with drinking holes. I did a little drinking in that area, and before heading back to the hotel (Hilton Nagasaki), Kamome Market at Amu Nagasaki at Nagasaki station has Soshurin which is open till a little later in the evening serving Nagasaki Champon and Nagasaki Sara Udon. I had Sara Udon at Soshurin at Nagasaki station. The Sara Udon I had at Soshurin was a thin noodle, but the one I made here is a thick noodle.

I had been contemplating whether this was going to be the year where I finally learned to make crispy noodles (such as those eaten in some Sara Udon, Gomoku, Kokura style dishes).

However, having learned more about the horrendous fire that ripped through the Torimachi Shokudogai in Kitakyushu on the 3rd January I suspect it won’t.

Anyone fluent in Japanese?

Last autumn we ended up, by accident more than by choice, in Kushiro. At dinner we went to one of those classic restaurants with booths and grills, a bit like an izakaya, of the kind you can find under a train station in Tokyo. We ordered random food, had a great evening, and when it came to leave the whole staff (and a few of the other customers) saluted us (to the point that they were waving out of the windows) and gave as a present these two bananas with something written on it. Google Translate is having a very hard time coming up with a translation, but it feels as if it's some sort of encouragement. If anyone could translate it for me that'd be great! Thanks.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...60c6fe9bdc.jpg

長い道のりも、まずは一歩から。

大変な時こそ大きく変わるチャンスだ。

After this cut and paste into Google Translate should do it. :)

Thank you :) How kind of them.