Virtual Visit - support thread
 

We’re all sealed into our own lock downs - and yet, miracle of the age, here we are, online, connected with each other, all over the world.

And if you are in this forum, on this thread, we have a bit of something in common. Yokosou! Welcome! (Y bienvenidos tambien!)

Thought I could start by offering my services to anybody who might want them. We’re not going to restaurants or cafés, takeouts and deliveries are much more restricted (if available at all) than before, perhaps there’s someone who would like to try making some Japanese food now that they have a bit more time, but are unsure if they have enough ingredients or if they could adapt certain things as substitutes.
I am here for you! Have lots of experience making a wide variety of Japanese food from scratch with Western items. Ask me anything!

Doesn’t mean I don’t have my own questions too.

Anyway, we can’t go to the world, let’s bring the world to us!

My question.
Currently I have access to fresh milk. Yeay!
Not sure if that will last, or at least if there will be uninterrupted delivery in the supply chain.

One of my kid’s absolute favourite meals is Chicken Cream Stew - very versatile, you can have it with fish pieces too, or a vegetarian version if you wished.

I know that cream stew became popular in Japan after WWII when powdered milk was introduced, it was one of the few ways of making the stuff palatable enough for school children to consume.
Has anyone seen any recipes for making this original version with powdered milk? I can decipher recipes with translation tools but find it very difficult to search and identify them in order to do so.

If you have fresh milk and want to give this a try, my favourite recipe is the following from NHK. It’s for cream stew with oysters. The revelation was realising that you can add plenty of water (4 parts milk to 3 parts water). Apart from ignoring the oysters and using chicken (or fish) the other modification I make is cooking onions with the butter at the start before adding the flour to add flavour to the sauce.
Yuzu kousho is an amazing condiment to eat with this, but you can add a Tabasco type chilli instead, it just becomes “chowdery”. Means a family can eat it together but each still have a plate adapted to their own tastes. Have it with rice or bread.
https://www.nhk.or.jp/dwc/recipes/detail/43.html

I just realized you are in London. Good luck you you all. I've heard it's getting crazy in the UK. Original Post: Where are you? I am around Fussa, Japan. Where I am, there seems to be no issue with restaurants or grocery stores. Stocks are not full, but not empty either. As long as nobody hoards, there is enough for everybody. Restaurants look open and the one's at the malls definitely are open.

This page may help.
https://housefoods.jp/data/stew/japa...n_story04.html

It says most of the early versions of the white stew (japonés) were simple and flour was used to add some thickness.

Thank you. That’s what I use now, fat, flour, milk and water. Without milk, it wouldn’t taste the same.

Food is hard to come by at the moment, and it may become harder still soon.

Was hoping that someone in some recipe blog or forum had replicated the original style of cream stew with powdered milk. In another time I’d experiment, but this isn’t the time to make mistakes, I’m just not in a position to throw away food.

To be honest, even flour is hard to come by. Haven’t seen any on sale for quite some time now. Sugar? No problem! Flour? Nada de nada.

I’m in SG so we haven’t locked down, but the mood on the ground that it’s just a matter of time as our locally transmitted / untraceable cases are growing by the day.

So my day to day life is fairly normal for now except for the depression that sets in seeing all the sakura on my FB and Instagram feed.

If food is at the top of your agenda on trip to Jpn, then you guys in Singapore don't even need to go to Jpn!
Saw lots of Japanese things in Singapore that I wouldn't be able to get anywhere near my hometown in Jpn. Certainly far more than what you could find in LA.
Can't believe you guys have Dosanko Plaza (there's one in Liang Court) and my favorite ramen place Ajisai which is a small ramen chain that only exists in Hokkaido in Jpn.

Is this a thread about making Japanese food at home?

Here in Germany, we don't have a "hard" lockdown. There are even a few Japanese restaurants still open, offering sushi to go. But as a good citizen, I am trying minimizing my social contacts of course.

So I want to make sashimi out of frozen fish at home. I understand frozen fish (salmon and tuna) is safe, because at some point, it was frozen at -30C, which is supposed to kill any worms.

I have soy sauce. But where do you get wasabi? Supermarkets only have "wasabi paste", which looks (and tastes) quite differently from wasabi served at Japanese restaurants.

Also, some Japanese restaurants have salmon roe with a very low salt content they use to prepare certain dishes, like "ikura oroshi". I like it much more than salmon roe sold at supermarkets, which has lots of salt in it. Any idea where one can buy such salmon roe and how is it called?

Thanks, and everybody stay healthy of course :)

I don't think that's a good idea. Much also depends on the cold storage chain between the fish being flash frozen and your dining table. You wouldn't want to get food poisoning during what is a very tough time for hospitals.

A Japanese supermarket would be your best bet. The root is called nama-wasabi. Outside of Japan, it is expensive and rare. Mainly because it is very particular about moisture and hence doesn't ship and store very well. Here in Singapore they go for about S$40 (25 euros) per root. You need to grate a la minute because the oils that give wasabi its distinctive kick and aroma dissipate (or oxidise? not sure of the science here) very quickly. A serviceable alternative to my tastebuds is a paste that contains hon-wasabi. This means Japanese wasabi, as opposed to western horseradish, which is what the cheap stuff is made of.

Again, Japanese supermarket. It would be called ikura shiozuke or ikura shoyuzuke, depending on whether it has been cured in salt (shio) or soy sauce (shoyu). During the autumn, when sujiko (raw salmon roe in its sacs) is in season, I usually buy 2kg of the stuff and do the curing myself, freezing portions of the ikura for the rest of the year. It is quite an involved process though, but it brings your cost down to about half. In Germany, you might be able to find a fishmonger who'd save the sacs for you after gutting a whole salmon.

In a pinch, I wonder if soaking your supermarket salmon caviar in some freshwater before consumption would reduce the saltiness?

Wow is hon wasabi expensive on Amazon.de Hon Wasabi is made from wasabi root. Regular tube wasabi is normally a different horseradish variant. The powdered stuff.... I would pass on that unless traveling carry-on only with liquid restrictions (and even then, I have a small stash of decent wasabi packets).

The actual wasabi root is expensive but not that expensive. It's also labor intensive to grind it from the root. We usually get hon wasabi tube from our local Japanese grocery for around $6-7/tube since we're fortunate to have styles of asian grocers (Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, etc). It might be something you can get from Amazon.co.jp in the future after all this or bring back from Japan. It is shelf stable until it is opened.

I will say that we/I have been more attentive to food safety recently along with actively being more easy going about food. It isn't the time for tummy aches or wasting food. My state's restaurants are delivery and take out only at the moment. If we do get take away then we are ordering two meals worth and storing the second meal & re-heating properly to reduce trips.

@LapLap Perhaps another thickener like cornstarch or arrowroot? Do people use rice flour as a thickener?

I think the thread is for virtual visits since many of us are outside Japan at the moment? I'm enjoying the start of cat X sakura season and regular sakura season on instagram.

A buddy in Tokyo has been posting just random street photos with sakura blossoms. Antidote for the drizzle at home right now. :tu:

Yes, quite a few of us would be in Japan right now, or preparing and packing in order to be there next month.
nutwpinut ’s location in Fussa is particularly poignant to me as being at the nearby Showa Kinen Koen is such a family tradition for us in the Spring. LapChild not being with her grandfather is a tremendous disappointment for us, then again, not being with my parents brings us sadness too, but Spring really is Ojiisan’s time. Nevertheless, it’s good to learn here that there is food around, he’s a widower, does cook for himself, but doesn’t have the range and experience my own parents have and I would be worrying if Tokyo was experiencing the same problems London is.

cowie Sushi. Nigiri sushi is something I hardly ever make. LapChild (like SOO many kids who have been introduced to it at the right age) is a Nori Seaweed monster, LOVES nori, so I never really venture past norimaki and temaki sushi styles. You’ll hear that norimaki is the hardest of the sushi styles for an itamae/chef to master, that may be so, but it’s also the style where they need to somehow show excellence when many Japanese home cooks have a degree of competence - that must be a challenge.
But I’m going to assume you have no nori and focus on the salmon - I would never prepare frozen salmon to eat raw.
Two options
1 chirashi sushi (a very venerable style of sushi - when I go see family near Sendai for the Sakura season, a big plate of the most beautiful chirashi sushi will be on the table*, they don’t make nigiri sushi either, we go out for that)
2 onigiri - it’s fantastic with salmon.
Both options are great with fish eggs of any kind.
For chirashi sushi, if you can’t get sushi vinegar you can make your own, involves heating a mild vinegar to supersaturate sugar and sugar in it and then cooling it quickly so the vinegar doesn’t continue to evaporate.
For both options, main thing is getting the rice right - no need for a rice cooker. Any pot with a sealable lid will do (you can seal holes with paper, sarin wrap/cling film, foil, anything that stops stew from escaping). Will happily give a full walk through if you or anyone else is interested - needs to be a short grain rice.

* an example of that home cooked “sushi”

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c32a610b3.jpeg

Potato starch - katakuriko. A kitchen staple for us. Widely used by the Chinese and Koreans, so hopefully that’s something we can continue to buy.
Really hoped to learn more about how milk powder was used - that was the original point to its introduction to Japanese schools; milk powder was one of the food stuffs introduced to Japan at that time, the directive was for the kids to consume it and they (naturally) hated it. Except in Cream Stew. The clock has turned, we’re back at that time (albeit for very different reasons) I could do with some of that old time wisdom, it’s just locked away beyond my reach.

Wasabi - unless you’re able to get yourself the fancy stuff (or grow you own) it’s mostly just standard European style horseradish with colouring. If you can get your hands on powdered “wasabi”, you can mix that with a bit of finely grated daikon (or a peeled salad radish) instead of water to get a slightly more “authentic” texture. Even in Japan, a lot of the cheaper wasabi is just zhuzhed up horseradish.
Even freecia might accept powdered wasabi reconstituted with ground daikon - just don’t disclose what it is! If you add a bit of fresh horseradish too it will be indistinguishable from most store bought brands.

Do you prepare any raw fish at home at all? If yes, where do you get the fish?

Because to me, the alternatives seem to be either frozen fish, or cooled "sushi grade" fish some places sell. An I am not sure I can trust that sushi grade fish either - in addition to the same question about the refrigeration chain, there is also a question of how long it has been sitting on the counter and whether it could pick up any bacteria/parasites there.

Hmmm, onigiri looks like an interesting idea - I do have some nori sheets left.

This thread is a great idea!

That cream stew is very similar to a basic clam chowder. Sub in clam juice for the dashi and white wine for the sake and you've got a like for like. I make a version with clam, oyster, and squid that's a crowd pleaser during the fall and winter. As to the powdered version, I've seen homemade "Cream of Soup" mixes that utilize the ingredient and can be subbed in for a regular wet cream base. I've got one in my recipe spreadsheet, see below:

• 2 cups dry Milk Powder
• 2 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup Chicken Broth Powder
• 2 Tablespoons dried Onion Flakes

Mix and store in a dry jar. Add dashi or any stock.

I have a question, what is the right nori for ongiri? I'm very lucky to have a small Asian market about 40ft from my building's door but I never know what kind to buy. I have been trying to make spam musubi but the last two nori packages I tried just fell apart and ended up being a snack before dinner.

Only “raw” fish I eat in London is smoked salmon and herrings pickled in vinegar. Our annual visit to Japan is where we get my daughter acquainted with this part of here heritage.
Thankfully, there are PLENTY of other Japanese foods that don’t involve raw fish.
Mind you, chirashi sushi is delicious with smoked salmon as a component part.
If we were in Japan, we’d be eating salmon soboro every day at breakfast time. This is definitely something you can make with frozen salmon. It’s a staple in many Japanese homes and I prepare it in England quite often (although it never lasts more than a couple of days, no matter how much I make). Salmon soboro is perfect for onigiri (rice balls) and makes an ideal ochazuke ingredient - hard to think of anything more typically Japanese than ochazuke.

Thanks for that milk powder chowder recipe (although canned clams may be difficult - canned fish is being rationed heavily in my part of London, that’s if you can even find it)

Nori. All I can tell you is that there are different kinds with one type that disintegrates when wet (which is great for adding to pasta and stirring into dishes) and the other that is sturdier and more robust which is much handier for spam musubi or temaki etc... What I can’t tell you is how to tell them apart without trying it, especially if relying on English packaging or a product information sticker.
There’s also the “Korean” kind (popular in Japan at breakfast time) which has oils and seasonings. These are much more likely to fall apart than not.
All I can say is, check the ingredients. If there is oil listed, or more ingredients than simply nori or laver, I’d assume it would fall apart easily.

This makes a lot of sense. The market downstairs is predominantly Korean. I'll take a careful look when I take my now regularly scheduled daily excursion to restock what bits I need.

The Korean kind of nori (gim) usually has sesame oil and roasted, with smaller flakes so bending it while fresh makes it crack more easily. https://www.opb.org/artsandlife/seri...asted-seaweed/ I've also suspected that the seaweed algae type is also slightly different but perhaps it is the treatment? Wikipedia says they're both red algae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nori https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gim_(food)

LOL. I like wasabi in all price ranges (like I do sushi) but do try to avoid the ones with extra dyes. I just usually don't get the water ratio right for powdered wasabi and it becomes a watery green puddle. Might be good for introducing the diluted flavor to kids who like a bit of hot kick?

If using the full sheets, what they usually do is heat the sheet over a flame or electric coil for a little bit before serving. Makes the seaweed more flexible and less prone to cracking. They also sell them in smaller sheets and these are usually the seasoned ones. My favorite kind are the roasted and seasoned seaweed flakes with anchovies and peanuts. I use them in a similar way as furikake.

Examples of the Korean kind if anyone is curious:

• Full-sheet, including ones used for rolls: https://www.maangchi.com/ingredient/kim
• Smaller sheets: https://www.hmart.com/88070048028
• Roasted flakes: https://www.hmart.com/880105274172

Am not sure about the Wikipedia page. The way I understand it is that nori sheets harvested from the Ariake Sea will dissolve easily in water - you can make sushi with it but only if you eat it immediately. Taste is excellent so a big favourite with many. Tends to look “blacker” too. Nori sheets farmed from the Seto inland sea keeps its integrity for longer, better for onigirazu. Also looks a bit greener. Speaking generally. There’ll be more to this - how deep it grows, the temperature it was farmed and at what time.
I’ll do an integrity test with some nori we have farmed near Shiogama (close to Sendai), but in a few days - haven’t opened the pack yet, and it’s really my daughter’s, a gift from her aunt.
It’s the nori made with oil that I can imagine breaking apart when using it to hold spam and rice together. Added to an onigiri should be fine. Gradfly’s tip about roasting this kind of oil infused nori sounds like sage advice.


if you ever end up with powder, grate some daikon and introduce a bit of the powder, bit by bit. Won’t get watery that way. My kid hates wasabi, so have just run out of stock - we (the adults) are heavily into Yuzu kousho (green but red when we can get it), wasabi took a back seat long ago!

I have had quality wasabi only at high-end sushi places here in NYC. I don't mind the garden variety dyed horseradish at all though, I just use less and it's pretty tasty.

I have a huge stock of shichimi togarashi, korean red pepper flakes, and hondashi currently. I have been on a quest to make the perfect miso soup. I've added everything from sweet potato to raw garlic to see what fits. My current favorite is dashi, chicken stock, a tiny pat of butter, soy simmered chicken thigh, scallions, and dark brown rice miso. I vary the veggies depending on what's in the root basket.

The korean red pepper has been a constant since I learned about cheese buldak and make it every time we have guests.

Speaking of wasabi and "spicy". What are the Japanese words for the type of nasal burn that wasabi/horseradish brings rather than mouth burning/heat peppers? It's not the same words in Mandarin and most Indian dialects also have different words for flavorful, nasal spicy, vs mouth burn but alas, in English, it's all "spicy"?

Not a word but a phrase:
Hana ni kuru (goes to the nose)

And there is an onomatopoeia - tsu-n, and depending on how long the nasal sensation lingers you lengthen the word.
So tsu——n if it is lingeringly eyewatering.

Tsu-n to kuru (comes like a tsu-n)


An exploration of how to ease the suffering from strong wasabi:

and from that we just learned why wasabi is not used with oily or fatty fish.

I've always thought spicy was just the wrong word to describe mustard, horseradish, or wasabi. I think pungent, hot, sharp are better adjectives - and kick or bite are better nouns to describe the sensation. Recently, I see the word "mouthfeel," gaining currency in culinary discussions. For wasabi, we should be talking about "nose feel."

Diner 1: Do you think this is real wasabi?
Diner 2: Meh. It's got a sharp bite but there's no disguising the caustic nose feel of ersatz wasabi.
Diner 1: Yeah. It tastes like they made it by mashing up leaves with gasoline and ammonia in a pit
Diner 2: Hmm. I'm getting aromas of old leather too.

That sounds more like fermented fish paste with aged vinegar. Something like Hakarl.

Nose feel should be a thing. I think it would useful for describing acidic flavors which seem to reach into my nose with some bite, at times, beyond just tongue tartness. Tsun is similar to Mandarin "ts-ong" which is used to describe the same feeling. Maybe I can appropriate the word into English like umami (which is a personal pet peeve of mine - I find it to be a lazy descriptor and overused buzzword in English).

Nose feel might be the only “taste” you get whilst experiencing the classic COVID-19 absence of sense of smell. Then again, if fat blots it out instantly perhaps it is the sixth taste that we perceive as a feeling.
Haven’t got my head around this yet.

Did lose my sense of taste for months once through Bell’s Palsy, but never did any horseradish or wasabi tests then. Only thing I remember tasting delicious from that time was grapefruit.

Yesterday I sowed two tubs of earth with Mizuna seeds. Am not an avid gardener, but have grown mizuna before. It’s similar in some ways to rocket/arugula but is far less spicy.

Takes about 6 weeks to grow. Lovely raw, but can be lightly cooked, it’s a nice addition to a nabe. Quite resistant to pests compared to other salad plants. If you haven’t considered growing mizuna before, I highly recommend it. Has a mild taste and is very versatile.

Am also freezing some shiso/green perilla seeds and will be trying to germinate these next week. Warning: snails and slugs LOVE young shiso. Don’t leave it outside until it is substantially grown, once it is reasonably robust it should withstand a ravaging by the molluscs, but not whilst it is young and tender.

I've wanted to plant shiso but fear it'd take over the yard as it grows like mint or basil. https://justhungry.com/how-grow-shiso-perilla

In a bit of virtual visit fun, I queued up some of the "homenami" videos Cherry Blossoms Are in Full Bloom, But This Year Let?s Enjoy Them From Home | Spoon & Tamago but can't stop staring at the people. Social distancing people! Social distancing!!! No, not relaxing. So I give you the midnight version. Put it on mute if you like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKOfdZpANuI

And some Dogen coronavirus haikus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC35ibZd1LE

Shiso, once full grown, does have some seriously strong roots that resist removal and can strong-arm it’s way across a plot. I’d suggest keeping it in a pot.
I adore pickled shiso seed Tsukemono and would love to have a go at making it but have never managed to get it to grow to a point where it produces seeds. Not sure if I’m using some sterile hybrid selected for the taste of its leaves or if the season just isn’t long enough. As I said, am not much of a gardener - way more interested in cooking than cultivating.

And thanks for remembering our predilection for night time Sakura viewing ❤️

In North America, these are packages with photo of sushi rolls on the outside. Some would even have instructions on how to make hand roll or maki sushi. These are ~20cm square sheets.

To make spam masubi you'll have to cut up the large sheet.

Speaking of food in sheets...

There is this wonderful website that offers print outs of paper crafts.

The food page is here: https://paperm.jp/craft/food/index.html

And if you’re missing the shopping experience, these delightful examples might help: https://paperm.jp/craft/dollhouse/index.html
If you’re dedicated, with a bit of effort you can make your Japan visit a little less virtual.

I have been using this site for years as a source of greetings cards: https://paperm.jp/craft/hagaki/index.html

I ordered some on Amazon and then immediately found it downstairs at the market. It's actually been harder to find Spam than the nori. Strange days.

That paper website is amazing. I've passed it on to my SO as she is the crafty one.

Many people I know have been stock piling the spam - many Asian markets are out according to some family in NY. Try some of your European markets.

I've tried every store around here along with the grocery delivery services. No one has any except for strange flavors that seem off-putting. Amazon is basically a competition to see who can overprice it the most.

Link for reference: https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/...context=search

Not sure where you are in NYC but Hmart does delivery to certain NY area codes. According to this page, they do have the classic flavor available: https://fresh.hmart.com/groceries/in...s/canned-foods

I appreciate the help, I ended up having to order a larger amount than I wanted but the price wasn't awful. I'm outside the Hmart delivery range sadly.

No problem. I feel the same way about my Hmart situation. Used to live like 5 min down the street from one, now in a place where the nearest location is 3 1/2 hrs away. My consolation prize is having a legitimate Japanese market about an hour or so away.

I have one within subway distance but I'm not risking it for some Spam.

Apparently after some recreational beverages l also ordered some nori from FreshDirect last week. Sadly when the order showed up last night it was missing what was going to be the star of the show for my temaki/handroll learning, 1 lb of lump crab meat.

Does anyone have any ideas for what I can use?

I currently don't have easy access to sushi grade fish so I'd rather find a more traditional protein to use.

I was thinking something like chicken katsu strips or maybe some bbq pork?