I really want to, we have a very nice specialty store in fact and I found out upon further inspection that they carry eel and other such products for more serious at-home chefs. I really want to ask the woman more questions when I'm in there, but I'm an awkward little ginger grabbing packs of super spicy ramen and pot stickers. Next time I'm getting kimchi. There are also these really big jars of pickled things, like larger than my head, but I don't want to waste anything if I don't like it...
Mmm... eel can be really yummy if cooked right. I also really like spicy ramen and pot stickers.
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What do you know, I've never left America! Though in retrospect I'm not sure what that is on the scale of impressive when Japan is the size of Montana. (Just refound a tumblr thing showing how Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, a corner of France, and a couple of other countries all fit into Texas) Well, I have gone to Canada, which is pretty much Cold America. So pretty much I know nothing of authentic food, save maybe bullets and bangs. No seasonings to be found in those!! (So good though. Plain bread and a soup that's just beef meatballs served in a water broth. I squirt ketchup into mine.
I think Canada counts as a separate country. But I don't think you have to travel to understand different foods, but I do think it helps if you can. Or at least it helps if you can try some foods prepared by people who know what the "real" stuff tastes like.
For example, most of the food you find at "Japanese" restaurants around my hometown aren't very close to the stuff you'd find in Japan. The menu is adjusted to match the palates of Americans and often includes dishes from different countries because more often they were run by Chinese or Korean immigrants than Japanese people.
I've never seen a "teriyaki restaurant" in Japan and most dishes that do have teriyaki flavor, the sauce isn't as strong or sweet. Sushi dishes in the US are often kind of different too. On the flip side, restaurants in Japan do the same thing in reverse. People love eating "hamburger steak" (think hamburger patty served without a bun, often with a side of rice) and usually assume it's American. Likewise Italian food in Japan is often loaded with seafood and there are a few popular pasta dishes that don't exist outside of Japan (such as Napolitan).
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And I've heard of tandoori chicken, but I haven't tried it yet. Sounds good, though. Do you find yourself having to get used to the spice pallet, or are you already a fan of spicy food?
I like spicy food, but Japanese food is rarely spicy. A lot of Japanese people can't handle food that has even the slightest hint of spice. I don't go out of my way to add more spice, but I'm usually fine if I'm served something that's considered "very spicy" by Japanese standards. I like Korean, Thai, Indian, and Mexican food which all use quite a bit of spice.
How about you? Do you usually add a lot of spice to your food?
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Sorry about that! I meant the fish sauce. I was nervous to try it, but it's like a slightly thicker, less salty soy sauce with something I can't put my tongue on... a fishy-meaty thing? I've never heard of mirin, though. And sriracha's a little different. There's the sauce, the hot paste and the garlic paste, and I've recently seen the mayonnaise! It looks perfect for sandwiches.
Ahhh, gotcha! I think fish sauce is more common in Chinese cooking rather than Japanese cooking, but I've had it before and I think it tastes fine. I'm pretty sure it's an ingredient in some of my recipes. I have several beginner cookbooks with popular home dishes that includes a lot of Chinese-style dishes.
As for mirin, it's one of the essential ingredients to a lot of Japanese cooking. It's not popular in the US, but it's kind of a sweet rice vinegar, I think. I've never seen sriracha mayo, but I like Japanese mayo a lot. The formula is a bit different from US mayo so it's a lot tastier.
What's your favorite kind of ramen, by the way? Do you have any restaurants that serve ramen near you? I'm glad that it's starting to catch on outside of Japan.
30 ingredients... hours cooking... holy cow, she is passionate about cooking! I can only admire that, but I have nowhere near the dedication, patience, energy, or time for that. Hopefully you're taking similar considerations to heart and aren't expecting yourself to be able to do that if you don't have that sort of time/energy/patience/passion/etc.? Of course, if you're interested in going that hard, by all means, do so!
Something from this thread actually came up yesterday! My boyfriend and I were at a sushi place, and while we're passable with chop sticks (he's better than me), we're no experts with it. I'm constantly using my other hand to adjust them, twisting my arm in awkward angles to get the food, and generally looking ridiculous. So I ended up losing a good half of a spring roll to the floor, and my boyf dropped his piece of sushi (on the plate, thankfully). After laughing at ourselves, I told him about how your MIL can flip a four person omelet with a pair of chopsticks, and his reaction was pretty funny. "WHAT?! how? Just how?" I'm considering buying myself a pair of chopsticks for use at home, just so I can get more practice and not make such a fool of myself at restaurants.
Lately my cooking is pretty pathetic. Work, classes, and homework take up so much of time that my cooking adventures pretty much involve getting creative with really fast things. Lately my favorite thing is this frozen fried rice mix from Trader Joe's. All you do is put it in a pan with some oil for a couple minutes and bam, fried rice with veggies, already seasoned. I can make a good stir fry, but I've yet to figure out fried rice, so this is a godsend. My big strokes of creativity there just involve cracking a couple eggs in it or stirring in some kale.
The boyf and I do cook sometimes though, and that's where things get more interesting. Since I have my weekends clear (and it's a group effort, thus more fun), there's a lot more room for (slightly) more labor-intensive things. The other day we made a pizza with pesto sauce, artichoke hearts, feta, and diced roma tomato and that was delicious.
---------- Post added 09-17-2014 at 04:11 AM ----------
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Originally Posted by Ferra
As for mirin, it's one of the essential ingredients to a lot of Japanese cooking. It's not popular in the US, but it's kind of a sweet rice vinegar, I think. I've never seen sriracha mayo, but I like Japanese mayo a lot. The formula is a bit different from US mayo so it's a lot tastier.
I have used mirin.
I needed it for a Japanese recipe, so I had to go out and buy it.
One of the best authentic places I've been was a Thai restaurant. Beautiful presentation and delicious food. If only I could copy it. Really? That's weird, and also a good fun fact. I love teriyaki, and enjoy Salisbury steaks, but I've definitely been wanting to try a Japanese hamburger ever since I found out how different they are. My current favorite being the volcano burger with a runny egg inside the patty.
So is Japanese food more salty/savory then? I personally love the taste of spice more than the heat. It's why the sriracha mayo would be perfect for me. Seriously, I just made tuna sandwiches with tuna, salt, pepper, garlic powder, diced onions, sriracha, and mayo, and it was absolutely delicious without being the least bit spicy. Adding mirin to my grocery list. I'm currently exploring with new flavors. And we do have a few new noodle places in town! Back where I used to live there's a Drunken Noodle that I've heard is nice, but I don't eat out much. I get the taste for dinner away from home and then I've gone and blown $80 in one week on "out" food.
I can't speak for exactly how salty Japanese food is, but I can say with relative certainty that no food as salty as American food. We put that shit in everything.
Pistachio: Oh-ho-ho-ho... Oh, I loved that video. I feel like such a jerk laughing, but I know I sound just as strange when I try to speak another language. It's really hard to get emphasis placement correct in foreign languages. I really want one of those omelets, though. Is that what you mean by a lot of ingredients, Ferra?
Cherry: I know, and I freaking love it. No more salt would be the death of me.
Be very careful?
I have a wok, yes, I got it for five dollars. (Score~!)
It's MASSIVE.
Very heavy.
I don't toss food with the pan yet, because it's heavy. I have tossed food with a smaller pan, though.
xD
Time to make some noodles~~~
Practice time~!
I also have a rice cooker that I scored for three dollars~!
SO MUCH RICE WAS MADE
xD
I got one for 60% off because, as a retail worker, I've learned to look behind signs because some places are lazy and will put next week's sign up behind the current one.
30 ingredients... hours cooking... holy cow, she is passionate about cooking! I can only admire that, but I have nowhere near the dedication, patience, energy, or time for that. Hopefully you're taking similar considerations to heart and aren't expecting yourself to be able to do that if you don't have that sort of time/energy/patience/passion/etc.? Of course, if you're interested in going that hard, by all means, do so!
I'd say it's less out of passion and more due to the fact that as a housewife without young kids, she has plenty of time to invest in cooking.
But definitely she puts in a lot of time and effort to make things taste good. She also usually has a huge variety of dishes available because she pickles her own veggies so there's usually way more on the table than you could possibly eat for a typical meal. She then packs away the left overs and pulls them out again for breakfast or dinner the next day. I gather it's because she likes to nibble on different flavors herself. But it's funny how hypocritical she can be sometimes.
"Why isn't X being eaten?" she'll say as we all ignore a side dish since we're full from eating the main meal. "I went out of my way to make it. I guess it's just not delicious enough..."
But when I try to grab another piece off of the communal plate, "Be careful not to overeat you know. It's not healthy."
WELL WHICH IS IT, HUH?? There's no winning. But I can't complain since I get free delicious food every day on top of free cooking lessons. I just nod and smile.
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Something from this thread actually came up yesterday! My boyfriend and I were at a sushi place, and while we're passable with chop sticks (he's better than me), we're no experts with it. I'm constantly using my other hand to adjust them, twisting my arm in awkward angles to get the food, and generally looking ridiculous. So I ended up losing a good half of a spring roll to the floor, and my boyf dropped his piece of sushi (on the plate, thankfully). After laughing at ourselves, I told him about how your MIL can flip a four person omelet with a pair of chopsticks, and his reaction was pretty funny. "WHAT?! how? Just how?" I'm considering buying myself a pair of chopsticks for use at home, just so I can get more practice and not make such a fool of myself at restaurants.
I think you might be imagining something bigger than the real thing. A "four-person omelet" is just 4 eggs, so it's not that big.
The way you make dashi-maki tamago (omelets with sugar and dashi) is by adding one layer of omelet at a time in a special pan and roll it up (with chopsticks) so it gradually gets bigger. You use the chopsticks to direct the movement, but the pan should be doing most of the flipping for you. I'm just not good at coordinating it so I keep putting too much pressure on the omelet with my chopsticks which cuts into it and doesn't flip it correctly.
Afterward, you cut it up into slices and serve. A regular omelet or omurice (rice-filled omelet) is a main dish, but I think dashi-maki tamago is mostly just a side dish.
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Lately my cooking is pretty pathetic. Work, classes, and homework take up so much of time that my cooking adventures pretty much involve getting creative with really fast things. Lately my favorite thing is this frozen fried rice mix from Trader Joe's. All you do is put it in a pan with some oil for a couple minutes and bam, fried rice with veggies, already seasoned. I can make a good stir fry, but I've yet to figure out fried rice, so this is a godsend. My big strokes of creativity there just involve cracking a couple eggs in it or stirring in some kale.
Well, hey, whatever works! I've been looking into utilizing my microwave and preparing foods in advance and freezing them semi-prepped to cut down on cooking time. I want to make full, healthy meals but I get the feeling I will be too tired after work to commit to doing full prep so I'm looking into shortcuts. I have one book that gives really good advice about how to freeze a big range of foods and how long they will stay good for. I think I want to give it a go when me and my fiance are on our own.
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The boyf and I do cook sometimes though, and that's where things get more interesting. Since I have my weekends clear (and it's a group effort, thus more fun), there's a lot more room for (slightly) more labor-intensive things. The other day we made a pizza with pesto sauce, artichoke hearts, feta, and diced roma tomato and that was delicious.
Mmm, that sounds delicious! Do you have a good recipe for pesto sauce? I love it so much, but it's really expensive here. I've been thinking about trying to make it, but I think the raw ingredients are probably expensive too. =/ That's great that you can cook together though! My fiance and I spent a day cooking curry once but usually we like to go out on weekends and try new ramen shops.
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Originally Posted by Pistachio_Moustache
I want to make this so bad.
I can't watch the video since I'm at work (I should have checked it at home, darn it!) but I get the impression it's an omelet or omurice? Either way, they're pretty yummy! Give it a shot!
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Originally Posted by Alexander J Luthor
One of the best authentic places I've been was a Thai restaurant. Beautiful presentation and delicious food. If only I could copy it. Really? That's weird, and also a good fun fact. I love teriyaki, and enjoy Salisbury steaks, but I've definitely been wanting to try a Japanese hamburger ever since I found out how different they are. My current favorite being the volcano burger with a runny egg inside the patty.
Mmm, that burger sounds really delicious. When I make hamburger steak with my MIL we usually put in ground beef and bread crumbs, milk, and eggs I think. It's similar to meat loaf I think, but they turn out juicy and tasty. I'm sure there are plenty of other recipes though.
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So is Japanese food more salty/savory then? I personally love the taste of spice more than the heat. It's why the sriracha mayo would be perfect for me. Seriously, I just made tuna sandwiches with tuna, salt, pepper, garlic powder, diced onions, sriracha, and mayo, and it was absolutely delicious without being the least bit spicy. Adding mirin to my grocery list. I'm currently exploring with new flavors. And we do have a few new noodle places in town! Back where I used to live there's a Drunken Noodle that I've heard is nice, but I don't eat out much. I get the taste for dinner away from home and then I've gone and blown $80 in one week on "out" food.
Yes and yes. Japanese food is all about salt and all about savory. In fact, the word for savory is "umami" which recently has become an international word to describe savory flavor. Sweetness is valued, but mostly when it's very subtle. There are also a lot of vinegary and sour dishes too and even a few that are intentionally bitter like goya champloo.
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Originally Posted by Cherry Who?
I can't speak for exactly how salty Japanese food is, but I can say with relative certainty that no food as salty as American food. We put that shit in everything.
I dunno, I think Japan could give the US a run for its money on saltiness. There's salt in soy sauce, salt in dashi, and salt in miso, which are key ingredients in most dishes. And then you just add plain salt on top of that. Lately a lot of doctors are urging people to cut down on the salt and there are cookbooks targeted toward low salt alternatives.
America would win hands down on sweetness though. My goodness everything in America is sweet or just packed with flavor of all kinds. I honestly can't eat a lot of snacks from the US in anything but small quantities because it tastes too strong now. You only realize how strong everything tastes once you've been weened off of it. American candy and soda in particular is really gross to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alexander J Luthor
Pistachio: Oh-ho-ho-ho... Oh, I loved that video. I feel like such a jerk laughing, but I know I sound just as strange when I try to speak another language. It's really hard to get emphasis placement correct in foreign languages. I really want one of those omelets, though. Is that what you mean by a lot of ingredients, Ferra?
I need to watch the video! But what I meant was that there are usually tons of dishes to every meal, not just one. And there's usually ingredients from a bunch of different food groups.
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Originally Posted by Pistachio_Moustache
I'm a pro at chopsticks.
Only because of my obsession with Asia.
xD
I have a pair of stainless steel ones at home.
I love the accent of Dog.
xD
My favourite part?
You like button!
xDD
Wow! I can't really get the hang of metal chopsticks but I know they use those in Korea. Plus, I've heard that it's rude to lift a bowl to your mouth to eat in Korea. So that makes it doubly hard! I like that in Japan you pull the bowl or plate close to your mouth so even if stuff falls it doesn't fall far. Also, you can just use the chopsticks like a shovel for hard-to-eat things like rice.
Okay, maybe I was misunderstanding then. Considering I can eat three eggs in one go if I'm hungry, I wasn't imagining an omelet for four people consisting of only four eggs. I was imagining an omelet the size of a wok...
Frozen things are huge for making things easier! I buy nearly all my veggies frozen and already chopped and then just throw that directly into whatever dish I'm making. There have been a few times where I bought something fresh I couldn't find frozen (like cabbage), chopped it myself, threw it in a freezer-safe bag and froze it.
No pesto recipe, I'm afraid. We bought a little jar of it. The stuff we use seems to be just basil, garlic, and olive oil, though. It doesn't have pine nuts since I'm allergic. But it doesn't seem like it would be terribly hard to make, especially if you forgo pine nuts (which can be pricy).
The boyf and I like to go out too. We do that a lot, but with me on minimum wage and him having just lost his job, we're definitely looking to save a bit more on meals lately. We still go out, but not as much. Whereas before we might go out to eat two nights and eat in one night, now that's flipped so we're eating in more often than out. We also love baking! We use a lot of boxed mixes, but it's still fun to whip up some brownies and snack on those all weekend.
@Cherry: Yeah, I probably should have clarified since Japanese portions and meal planning is totally different from US style. In the US you can eat maybe like... a burger and some salad and fruit of some kind on the side and that's a pretty "balanced meal". But here you've got to have your starch (rice, bread, or noodles), main dish, side dish, probably at least one thing of veggies that's fresh or pickled, and then if you have fruit it's always eaten at the end because that's a dessert. Yogurt is a dessert too and often served with fruit. And since you have so many things in each meal, your portion sizes for each thing can be pretty small.
Yeah, frozen veggies sound like a good idea. I think I'll start using mixed frozen veggies more to supplement regular veggies since we probably won't be eating at home enough to make sure we consume it all in a timely manner if I buy too many things. On a typical day we both have bread for breakfast (toast with jam for me, toasted sandwich with veggies and meat for him to take on the go since he never gets up early enough for breakfast ), then lunch provided at school, then dinner which is almost always at home and chock-full of things with a side of rice. On the other hand, my in-laws eat virtually all of their meals at home so they need to stock their fridge accordingly and that's another reason why my MIL makes so much in one go - they gradually eat them as left-overs over the following week.
Ah, I see! Yeah, I could probably live without pinenuts to be honest. I think some of the store-bought kids have too strong of a pinenut flavor and not enough basil. But the pizza sounds super yummy!
Oh no, sorry to hear he lost his job. I hope you're both doing alright! Baking sounds fun! I finally got a microwave with oven settings, so that's an option for me now.
Mmm, that burger sounds really delicious. When I make hamburger steak with my MIL we usually put in ground beef and bread crumbs, milk, and eggs I think. It's similar to meat loaf I think, but they turn out juicy and tasty. I'm sure there are plenty of other recipes though.
Yes and yes. Japanese food is all about salt and all about savory. In fact, the word for savory is "umami" which recently has become an international word to describe savory flavor. Sweetness is valued, but mostly when it's very subtle. There are also a lot of vinegary and sour dishes too and even a few that are intentionally bitter like goya champloo.
I need to watch the video! But what I meant was that there are usually tons of dishes to every meal, not just one. And there's usually ingredients from a bunch of different food groups.
That sounds tasty by itself. The actual meatloaf I make is more sweet because I ad a tablespoon or two of honey because I usually pour too much of one of the spices into it. Honey flavored meat is soooo good. How do you guys do the gravy for it?
I remember that word! I don't know why, but I believe there were arguments when that word was created about whether or not it deserved an official word. And I recognize the word chanpuru, but tofu and spam really throw me off. I'm more of an armour canned meat person.
I think the only places in America that eat like that are schools, which aren't really successful because the average kid eats less than 50% on their plate at school. I personally stick as much stuff into one dish as I can so I don't have to cook so many things at once. It's like the omrice! Last Friday or Saturday I tried making one (didn't have the chicken and something else) but it was still pretty delicious. I was glad I had leftover brown rice from the night before. So freaking hard to flip, though!!
Yeah, it's Omurice~!
I want to make it sooo bad.
It looks so delicious~!
I lean forward when I'm sitting, when I eat with chopsticks.
Other times, I hold the bowl, when I'm standing, or have nowhere to set the bowl.
xD
I love Japanese sweets~!
I don't really like American sweets, it's too....sugary.
xD
I don't like that they put sugar AND hfcs in things. D:
---------- Post added 09-25-2014 at 11:41 AM ----------
PiM! made a video!
:o
I actually have no idea why I didn't put those scissors away right away.
xDD
Last edited by Pistachio_Moustache; 09-25-2014 at 03:44 PM..
I wish I could watch videos at work. I've been super busy lately so I haven't had a chance to use the computer at home for the past several days. (I probably won't tonight either since I have a party right after work.)
@Cherry: Yeah, I probably should have clarified since Japanese portions and meal planning is totally different from US style. In the US you can eat maybe like... a burger and some salad and fruit of some kind on the side and that's a pretty "balanced meal". But here you've got to have your starch (rice, bread, or noodles), main dish, side dish, probably at least one thing of veggies that's fresh or pickled, and then if you have fruit it's always eaten at the end because that's a dessert. Yogurt is a dessert too and often served with fruit. And since you have so many things in each meal, your portion sizes for each thing can be pretty small.
I think I actually knew that (or kind of suspected it) but it slipped my mind.
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Yeah, frozen veggies sound like a good idea. I think I'll start using mixed frozen veggies more to supplement regular veggies since we probably won't be eating at home enough to make sure we consume it all in a timely manner if I buy too many things. On a typical day we both have bread for breakfast (toast with jam for me, toasted sandwich with veggies and meat for him to take on the go since he never gets up early enough for breakfast ), then lunch provided at school, then dinner which is almost always at home and chock-full of things with a side of rice. On the other hand, my in-laws eat virtually all of their meals at home so they need to stock their fridge accordingly and that's another reason why my MIL makes so much in one go - they gradually eat them as left-overs over the following week.
Oh, okay, so she doesn't cook like that every day! That also makes things make more sense. I was thinking of this "hours and hours of cooking" thing being a daily event for her. But yes, frozen veggies are super great if you don't think you can eat fresh veggies before they spoil! I tend to only cook about twice a week, so I definitely can't use up much of anything before it spoils. I even have to freeze my bread because I make sandwiches so infrequently! Who knows how I'm going to continue this when I'm on my own, since right now I do depend a lot on fresh things that are shared amongst the household but that I don't eat regularly (like eggs). If I don't have someone else eating things up so they don't spoil on me, I'm screwed!
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Ah, I see! Yeah, I could probably live without pinenuts to be honest. I think some of the store-bought kids have too strong of a pinenut flavor and not enough basil. But the pizza sounds super yummy!
I've tasted it both ways and honestly pesto is much better without the pine nuts. And that's not my allergy biasing things. I don't know why they even bother putting it in there. Basil garlic sauce is much better without nuttiness.
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Oh no, sorry to hear he lost his job. I hope you're both doing alright! Baking sounds fun! I finally got a microwave with oven settings, so that's an option for me now.
We are surviving. He's trying to get some freelance work while looking for a stable job, but it's not going so hot. He needs experience to get a good job, but the experience he has was not in a great position (and was minimal since he's only a couple years out of college). So he's sort of stuck in a negative feedback loop, and the job market for his field does not seem great here. Drastically more people applying than there are jobs to go around. But he's been working hard at updating his resume and portfolio, networking, and researching all the current stuff in the design world to try to put himself in a better, more hirable position. Fingers are crossed!
Aw, and there was me thinking the US has way cooler stoves because of some fancy heat method that doesn't exist over here, now I'm disappointed >< I'm really intrigued about it showing up as blue then!
But I don't think you have to travel to understand different foods, but I do think it helps if you can. Or at least it helps if you can try some foods prepared by people who know what the "real" stuff tastes like. 
I'm pretty sure it's an ingredient in some of my recipes. I have several beginner cookbooks with popular home dishes that includes a lot of Chinese-style dishes.
), then lunch provided at school, then dinner which is almost always at home and chock-full of things with a side of rice. On the other hand, my in-laws eat virtually all of their meals at home so they need to stock their fridge accordingly and that's another reason why my MIL makes so much in one go - they gradually eat them as left-overs over the following week.
I hope you're both doing alright! 
Baking sounds fun! I finally got a microwave with oven settings, so that's an option for me now.
I've been super busy lately so I haven't had a chance to use the computer at home for the past several days. (I probably won't tonight either since I have a party right after work.)
But he's been working hard at updating his resume and portfolio, networking, and researching all the current stuff in the design world to try to put himself in a better, more hirable position. Fingers are crossed!
