Tokyo Stories

Hello Kitty Wine Time

Mark weitzman — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 12:08:34 GMT

Hello Kitty wine-favoring fans will soon celebrate as the first shipment of Beaujolais Nouveau arrived November 7 at airports in Japan. The Hello Kitty-brand Beaujolais Nouveau has been marketed in Japan since at least 2002.

Hello Kitty is licensed by Sanrio for over 50,000 kinds of Hello Kitty products in 60 countries. In a BBC interview, Sanrio spokesman Kazuo Tohmatsu says "Sanrio do (sic) not license Hello Kitty for knives, including knives for handcraft, or for strong alcohol like whiskey."

Beaujolais Nouveau traditionally goes on sale worldwide at one minute past midnight on the third Thursday in November. Japan is one of the first nations able to taste the wine. The average price of a 750 ml bottle is around JPY 3000. The Hello Kitty version is also about JPY 3000. The Jusco supermarket chain in Japan will sell Beaujolais Nouveau in 750-ml plastic bottles for JPY 1780.

VIA: 3yen RELATED: First Beaujolais shipments arrive in Japan; Hello Kitty named Japan tourism ambassador;
Hello Kitty Hell

Do More With Your Noodle

Mark weitzman — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:59:14 GMT

Eating those dried ramen noodles packs? Here’s what ramen is supposed to be like. Sure, Japanese eat dried instant ramen noodles too, and often. But for real ramen, we go to a ramen-ya (ramen seller). You had better be hungry at a ramen restaurant, because standard ramen servings in Japan are huge.

You can spice up your plain noodles from the pack and the powder broth mix. Add some sesame seeds, an egg (cooked or raw) or curry powder.

The Ramen Tokyo website specializes in ramen restaurant reviews. I discovered a review of a ramen-ya in my neighborhood. It's under the tracks.

The reviewer says: "The vegetable ramen was quite tasty, frequently some places throw a bunch of veggies into a simple chicken stock and call it vegetable ramen, however this tasted a level up from that and the noodles were ample, this is a dish for two people to share.”

A ramen “restaurant” in the Akihabara electronics district of Tokyo , sells instant ramen, makes it, and serves it to you. You can purchase extra toppings.

Sakura restaurant opened in 2006, then opened a second location. But the newer outlet closed in January 2008.

There seems to be only one other instant ramen restaurant in Japan, in Okinawa.

But we can always get our ramen in cans, cold or hot, from vending machines.

Ramen photo set; Nissin Ramen museum ( 1 ) ( 2 ); Nissin Ramen museum how ramen is made ; How ramen is made 2; Ramen pack image collection; The Man Behind Ramen Tokyo; Ramen finder (J) ( E )

Ramen recipes: Instantramen; Bob-An; mattfischer; Recipezaar

Eel Heads For Stamina

Mark weitzman — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:56:06 GMT

Ever eaten eel? In the US, sea eel (anago) is usually sold at sushi restaurants. Freshwater eel (unagi) you probably need to search for a little harder.

It's customary to dine on eel on special days called "Doyo ushi no hi", falling on July 24 and August 5 in 2008. The supermarkets expand their eel selection for eel eating days.

PHOTOS by MW

In the past couple of years in Japan, there's been dramatic price increases on the always expensive unagi at supermarkets.

Mislabeled eel scandals - claiming unagi from China as Japanese-raised and chemical-free - has caused the price spikes. (And just this month, some valuable live eels were stolen from a tank behind a restaurant in Japan.)

I cut back on eel last summer. But anticipating a need for stamina to survive the heat and humidity, I ordered frozen unagi in bulk, discounted on the internet, as I've done a couple times previously.

It's sold as "imperfect", meaning some pieces are broken and are not beautiful enough for supermarkets to offer. Other than the shape, it's perfectly fine unagi. (Unless it's that slightly tainted eel that's been purposely mislabeled by the Japan distributor as originating in Japan and unfortunately you bought it, which I'm pretty sure I've done, but I'll take my chances anyway. )

Did I mention the box of frozen eels come with their frozen heads?

The heads may be attached to the body or broken off the little eel necks. You open the styrofoam box, and there's all these eel stiffs and some eel eyes staring up at you.

I don't eat flattened eel heads. I don't eat eel heads of any shape. Instead, I chop 'em off and offer them to friends, who usually decline. So the heads get thrown away. (Probably the heads provide the most stamina but I don't care.)

If you ever find a frozen, flattened, sauce-covered ready-to-grill eel with it's head attached, go ahead, try a head.

FRIENDS: The One With Unagi

INTERIOR, hallway between the apartments. Ross hides behind a wall on Monica's side. Phoebe and Rachel come up the stairs into the hallway. Ross jumps out.

ROSS: Danger! Danger!
PHOEBE: Ross!
RACHEL: What the hell was that?
ROSS: A lesson in the importance of unagi.
PHOEBE: Ohh, you're a freak!!
Watch the unagi scenes from Friends here.

RELATED
Large, close-up photos of eels.
Eel sold on the internet in Japan.
School of Fish: Eel

Vegete Vegesh Vegetable Mess

Mark weitzman — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:21:06 GMT

New canned beverage in Japan. Mix carrots, spinach, beets, celery, lettuce, oranges, lemons, apples, asparagus, pimiento, cabbage, broccoli, pineapple, eggplant and a banana. Add some liqueur. Goes well with fresh broccoli scallop butter garlic salad and homemade cabbage crackers.

Vegete - the fruits and vegetables:
carrot, spinach, asparagus, pimento, cabbage, beet, celery, lettuce, chinese cabbage, kale, parsley, orange, lemon, manadarin, apple and a few more. (The Japanese characters too difficult for me to read.)

Vegesh - the fruits and vegetables:
carrot, spinach, asparagus, pimento, cabbage, broccoli, eggplant, onion, grapefruit, lemon, pineapple, banana, and, yes, more I couldn't read.

Asahi suggests dishes and recipes that go well with these two drinks.

Interestingly, Japan's top upset stomach medicine has a vegetable-theme name: Cabbage-in.

Delicious Cold Soy Sauce Treat

Mark weitzman — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 07:55:51 GMT

We use a lot of sauces here in Japan. And no one can do without soy sauce.

It is healthy. Doctor Soy Sauce says so. Mix soy sauce with other ingredients to make various condiments. Dip your sushi in soy sauce. You can add soy sauce to almost everything for dinner.

And, of course, put it on your ice cream dessert.

New Soy Sauce Syrup for Ice Cream & Shaved Ice

Some recipes that use basic soy sauce:

Hard boiled eggs (J) Chicken on rice

Spinach Rye rolls (J)

Search Tip

Mark weitzman — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:15:04 GMT

An easy way to find foods and recipes: use the PNN Search feature at the top of this page (next to the GO button).

Japanese Pudding Succulent

Mark weitzman — Sat, 24 May 2008 06:00:49 GMT

Nicely packaged purin dessert... What the..?

This is pudding? The proof is in the package.

Oppai Purin, on sale in supermarkets and department stores. About 400 yen.

VIA: Inventorspot MORE PHOTOS : Rukz
RELATED: Purin Custard Pudding Recipe

Japanese Food & Recipes

Mark weitzman — Tue, 13 May 2008 07:59:17 GMT

BLue Lotus

Bob & Angie

Obachan's Kitchen

Japanese Oiishi Food

Revolving Raw Fish Dish Fifty

Mark weitzman — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:04:57 GMT

When I need sushi, and fast, I go to a kaitenzushi restaurant, where the food comes to you on a conveyor belt that goes around and around, and customers seated along the way grab the dishes off the conveyor. (I have seen some pieces of sushi go around a few too many times - better to pass on those). But usually the dishes are taken quickly.

Now, conveyor belt sushi (also known as Merry-Go-Round sushi) celebrates it's fiftieth anniversary. The first "revolving sushi" restaurant, opened in April 1958 in Fuse, now Higashi-Osaka, Osaka Prefecture.

Kaitenzushi can range from a simple circular conveyor, to a system that snakes around a long, looping counter.

Sushi quality varies, but I have a couple favorites that serve the good stuff, both chain restaurants.

Sushiro's kaitenzushi is always busy. The one I go to is next to a 100 Yen store (like a "dollar store") and both are perched over a parking garage. The Sushiro Japanese web page has a slide show of the items on the menu.

MEATBALL CORN

Watch for the delicious meatball sushi - in the Sushiro images slide show, it's above left of the corn sushi.

And this same Sushiro website page has a nice animated description of how fish goes from ocean to table and becomes sushi along the way.

SUSHIRO (source)

More:
Different kinds of sushi going around video, with English subtitiles. (YouTube) And, video from the sushi's point of view. (YouTube)Very close-up images of sushi from Sushiro.

__________________

update: May,6, 2008

>How does sushi in Japan compare to sushi made in the US?

At many kaitenzushi restaurants, the rice is formed by a machine, and the toppings quickly added by hand.

The atmosphere makes the difference. At traditional sushi restaurants, I always sit at the counter. The sushi chefs like to talk, and they'll create a special dish for you if you ask. I have two favorites. One place has only 7 seats at the counter and two tables on tatami mats where you sit on the floor.

All about sushi . A new worldwide "sushi screening" for authenticity, from Japan.