Japanese cuisine

[Aanvil]

Chazuke.

Must be different variations.

My wife says "I think its not so complicated".

For us its serves as "chicken soup" in our household.

Feel chill... sniffles or got the flu you get a bowl.

Nothing other than Sencha or Genmaicha, rice and a big ume.


Im still not totally sold on its cold fixin voodoo so I'll make chicken soup and rice from scratch as well.

[DCrom]

One of the things I like about living in the SF Bay area is the availability of good-quality asian food.

We most often make sushi at home. There are a large number of asian markets that have sushi-grade fish, and my wife learned how to make proper sushi rice from a Japanese friend years ago. (I can approximate it - but she guards the rice cooker fiercely.)

When our kids were younger, they preferred maki, especially the California roll (really cheap to make), over nigiri, but these days they want nigiri, too. Even so, we can make a huge amount of very good nigiri (high fish:rice ratio) and sashimi, enough for four hungry people, for about the same amount of money that it'd take to satisfy one of us in a sushi bar.

There's no real secret to it - learn to make sushi rice (not that hard - an inexpensive automatic rice cooker simplifies things a lot). Buy good quality ingredients (again, easy - IF you have access to a good asian market). If you like maki or handrolls, learn to roll them (pretty easy - *I* can do it, and I seem to have 10 thumbs). If you can get the ingredients, it's about as easy as making an omelette or fried rice. And a lot less work than making bread by hand.

The best sushi I ever had was a small place in Koriyama that a friend took me to years ago (thanks, Fuke-san!). But for taste, if not elegance of presentation, our homemade sushi is up there with most of the neighborhood sushi places I've tried in Japan. And a lot more accessible on a regular basis

[mukade]

Today's lunch.


This is a small Japanese-style cafe run by a mother and daughter.
They serve good, home-style cooking in a modern-style cafe.

We had the organic vegetable lunch for 900yen.

The Menu: Rice cooked with wheat, beans and other pulses, daikon and carrots in rice vinegar with citron juice, curry-flavoured potatoes, boiled burdock, royal heather boiled in soy, miso soup, pickles and a soy milk dessert and coffee to finish.

Simple and delicious.

After lunch we went for a drive to a local lake. My wife did some translation work while I wrestled with the Uilleanns.
Not a bad place to play the pipes.


Today was a good Birthday.

Mukade

[djm]

HB, Mukade. Many returns of the day!

djm

[The Sporting Pitchfork]

This should answer all you questions about sushi shop manners.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b75cl4-qRE

Mukade

Yappari samurai no kuni desu ne?

That was the funniest thing I've seen in...days. I loved the bit at the end with the nigiri that had toy cars and toy Yamato battleships on them...

By the way, o-tanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu, Mukade-san. Ano yasai ryouri no ranchi setto wa sugoku oishi sou datta.

[pancelticpiper]

The only Japanese food I've eaten was while I was on tour with a Celtic band in Japan. A Japanese guy whose English was not all that good was in charge of booking us into hotels, getting us on the "Super Express" or Shinkon-sen trains, taking us out to eat, etc. He wanted us to call him "Ted". Whenever we were eating we would ask him what it was that we were eathing, and it always went like this:
Gaijin: "Ted-san, what is this?"
Ted: "Oh, I don't know English for that. Some kinda fish."
Gaijin: "Ted-san, what is this?"
Ted: "Oh, I don't know English for that. Some kinda meat."
Then one fateful day:
Gaijin: "Ted-san, what is this?"
Ted: "Oh, I don't know English for that. Some kinda meat. Oh, I know! Horse!"
One of the other Americans on the tour said quietly to me, "It's better not to ask."
In any case the food, whatever it may have been, was very interesting and I got pretty good at manipulating O-Hashi. After coming back home I've peeked into a couple Japanese restaurants but they don't look anything like what I saw in Japan.

[Nanohedron]

After coming back home I've peeked into a couple Japanese restaurants but they don't look anything like what I saw in Japan.

Yeah, they're usually bigger, here.

The only place in the Twin Cities that made me think I might actually be in Japan was a sushi joint called "Origami" that had its interior, which was appropriately smallish, designed around that sort of ultramodernist Japanese approach to building and interior design known as "Street Burn". Painfully au courant Japanese interior notwithstanding (and probably lost on most of the locals), the sushi itself was uninspired, and the portions frustratingly small. You basic nigiri was about the size of a thumb, seriously. The prices made me think I was in Tokyo, too, although any Japanese would probably have thought it all a ripoff as much as I did.

I think the owners were banking on it becoming a fashionable "see-and-be-seen" magnet. It ain't around, now, unless it moved to a better location with a vainer local clientele. I thought the name was a poor choice, too. Nothing like obviously dumbing-down to your customers, eh?

[monkey587]

One of the things I like about living in the SF Bay area is the availability of good-quality asian food.

We most often make sushi at home. There are a large number of asian markets that have sushi-grade fish, and my wife learned how to make proper sushi rice from a Japanese friend years ago. (I can approximate it - but she guards the rice cooker fiercely.)

When our kids were younger, they preferred maki, especially the California roll (really cheap to make), over nigiri, but these days they want nigiri, too. Even so, we can make a huge amount of very good nigiri (high fish:rice ratio) and sashimi, enough for four hungry people, for about the same amount of money that it'd take to satisfy one of us in a sushi bar.

There's no real secret to it - learn to make sushi rice (not that hard - an inexpensive automatic rice cooker simplifies things a lot). Buy good quality ingredients (again, easy - IF you have access to a good asian market). If you like maki or handrolls, learn to roll them (pretty easy - *I* can do it, and I seem to have 10 thumbs). If you can get the ingredients, it's about as easy as making an omelette or fried rice. And a lot less work than making bread by hand.

The best sushi I ever had was a small place in Koriyama that a friend took me to years ago (thanks, Fuke-san!). But for taste, if not elegance of presentation, our homemade sushi is up there with most of the neighborhood sushi places I've tried in Japan. And a lot more accessible on a regular basis

If you had to go out for sushi in this area, where would you go?

I am really fond of Sushi Coast and Homma's Brown Rice Sushi

[Wanderer]

I thought the name was a poor choice, too. Nothing like obviously dumbing-down to your customers, eh?

Speaking of dumbing down, we have a place here in town named "I <heart> sushi'. Seriously.

[DCrom]

One of the things I like about living in the SF Bay area is the availability of good-quality asian food.

We most often make sushi at home. There are a large number of asian markets that have sushi-grade fish, and my wife learned how to make proper sushi rice from a Japanese friend years ago. (I can approximate it - but she guards the rice cooker fiercely.)

When our kids were younger, they preferred maki, especially the California roll (really cheap to make), over nigiri, but these days they want nigiri, too. Even so, we can make a huge amount of very good nigiri (high fish:rice ratio) and sashimi, enough for four hungry people, for about the same amount of money that it'd take to satisfy one of us in a sushi bar.

There's no real secret to it - learn to make sushi rice (not that hard - an inexpensive automatic rice cooker simplifies things a lot). Buy good quality ingredients (again, easy - IF you have access to a good asian market). If you like maki or handrolls, learn to roll them (pretty easy - *I* can do it, and I seem to have 10 thumbs). If you can get the ingredients, it's about as easy as making an omelette or fried rice. And a lot less work than making bread by hand.

The best sushi I ever had was a small place in Koriyama that a friend took me to years ago (thanks, Fuke-san!). But for taste, if not elegance of presentation, our homemade sushi is up there with most of the neighborhood sushi places I've tried in Japan. And a lot more accessible on a regular basis

If you had to go out for sushi in this area, where would you go?

I am really fond of Sushi Coast and Homma's Brown Rice Sushi

I like Homma's Brown Rice Sushi, too, though I haven't been there for a while.

Except for lunchtime excursions where "close to work" trumps all else, I'm embarrassed to admit that the only other places I've gone in over a year have been the Sushi Factory in SJ (good if you want to eat lots of not-very-traditional maki or handrolls, not good for nigiri or sashimi) and a boat-type place near my folk's house (actually pretty good) whose name I can't recall (Blossom Valley, the shopping center at Santa Teresa Blvd and Bernal Rd).

We used to like Minato Sushi in SJ Japantown (on 6th about half a block north of Jackson), but we haven't gone there much since the previous owner sold it a few years ago - the food was still very good, but it's a bit far for us these days. SJ Japantown has several other good places, too - if it's not too far a drive for you, you might want to just try restaurant roulette until you identify your favorite.

[Nanohedron]

I thought the name was a poor choice, too. Nothing like obviously dumbing-down to your customers, eh?

Speaking of dumbing down, we have a place here in town named "I <heart> sushi'. Seriously.

Hey, at least that's honest, even if it IS corny. So long as the chow's good...

The thing that bugged me about "Origami" was that it was merely a recognizably Japanese word that just about everyone knows but had nothing to do with anything. Might as well have called the place "Kimono" or "Ninja" or "Mitsubishi". 'Course, considering how long the joint lasted, "Harakiri" would have done nicely.

It ain't around, now, unless it moved to a better location with a vainer local clientele.

I must be psychic.

http://www.origamirestaurant.com/home.html

"Best Sushi in Minneapolis"? Maybe I'll try them out again and see if they've developed an understanding of the concept of value for one's money, anyway.

No "Street Burn" interior, now...those designers'll bleed you.

But they've obviously expanded their field of operation, and I see they offer donburimono and udon on their lunch menu; looks a bit too pricey, though...soba is described as "whole wheat noodles". Right.

Possible saving grace: you can get una-jū there - large strips of grilled, tender eel basted liberally in a savory-sweet sauce and laid out atop to conceal a hearty layer of hot Japanese rice served in a largish, flat, lacquered box. Nothing better! - at a price that could reflect the market, depending on the size of the order as they offer it. I may go there just for the una-jū. It's hard to come by hereabouts.

[I.D.10-t]

Not an expert on what is propper, I just eat the stuff, but here are some thoughts

Origami's sushi and tempura is about the same as Nami, with Nami perhaps using a little more wasabi and something else (?)I preferred Nami’s miso soup and rice, but Origami’s tea seemed to be brewed fresh with more than one option Origami seems to have the better wait staff.


Fuji-ya, Tanpopo, and Sakura will probably be the places we will return to (Tanpopo being the most afordable). Never ate the Sushi at Sakura or Tanpopo.

With United Noodleand Coastal seafoodwe have started to experiment with different recipes.

[Nanohedron]

I'm no expert, either, but as the museum-goer said, "I don't know art, but I know what I like."

Haven't been to Saji-Ya in St. Paul for sushi in quite a while (I provided no link as their site's homepage has a glitterati music riff that makes me think of Giada de Laurentiis more than anything), but for my money their sushi was the best in town for price, general quality and portion size, even if it was not always as "polished" as you'd get some other places. Dunno how things are, now, but there's always the teppanyaki if one must go that route. Their tep-chefs are pretty tame and aren't all that flashy and heart-stopping, anyway.

But Saji-Ya's sushi bar used to be (and maybe it still is) zutto cool because you'd always get the appetizer of the day - strictly at the sushi bar, and gratis, too - and it was always something good, if sometimes challenging: cups of marinated mushrooms, seaweed mini-salads, chunky stewlets. My most memorable was a big ol' stewed fish head - bonito, I think - and it was delicious. Um...I don't think you have to eat the eyes. The chef tried to get me to, and I asked him to show me how, and he firmly declined.

[Henke]

This thread has been very enlighting. I don't get a chance to eat muc other japanese fodd than Sushi (which I love), but I love to experiment in the kitchen with Asian spices and ingredients.