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canoshiz posted:While we're on the subject, anyone know a good spot to pick up some nice knives? I figure I've been looking at getting a sujihiki and maybe a deba and gyuto as well and I might as well take advantage of the USD:JPY conversion while I'm there. Tower Knives in Shinsekai is nice, they have English service since the owner is Canadian. Lot of the knives are from local Sakai craftsmen, there's even a little space in the store where they (at least pre-covid) have one of them come in and work on knives right where you can see it.
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Oct 30, 2022 18:08
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canoshiz posted:Got a trip to Japan planned in December. How do I like, find good places to eat there? Do I just kind of stumble around on tabelog to see what's good? I saw that Yelp works there but I'm pretty sure only American people use it there so I'd like to know ways to find places I might otherwise miss by sticking to English language stuff. What towns are you going to? I did a trip in 2019 and just asked here or in a "where to eat" thread, can't remember. But goon recommendations have never led me astray. For example: Daiwa Sushi at the new fish market (was about 40€ per person, Omakase sushi 12 pieces, Miso soup and a tea). You can combine that if you do it for breakfast and got to the Digital museum afterwards that is only 1 subway stop away iirc. We walked the way. Also yakiniku at Kabukichu Black hole. And Tower knives is a good recommendation. I went to the one in Osaka and got a nice knife there. They always have English speaking staff and will let your try different handle shapes, slicing techniques etc. They even got one of their staff to do a quick live tutorial on how to sharpen a knive for me and 1 other guy. Definitely got to Kitchen town, you can get a pair of dishwasher safe chopsticks for about 1.5 bucks (buy at least 2 pairs more than you think you need, you will love them), thiny benches for chopsticks for 1 buck a piece etc. and you will want to fill an entire suitcase with the stuff there. I could have bought so much more... Edit: Check page 42 of this thread, I asked for eating advice and got a lot of tips in the following posts. Hopper fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Oct 31, 2022 |
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Oct 31, 2022 10:20
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Is there an Austin goon (or I suppose a Houston goon now since they have on there) that can give some tips on recreating Ramen Tatsu-ya's Mi-so-hot? I'd like to get a handle on that especially since it looks like I'll be moving away and my only recourse will be to make it myself. Clearly it's doing something with miso, but my issue is how to to work with miso without making the whole thing taste like a brick of salt.
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Dec 3, 2022 07:07
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Has anyone tried making okonomiyaki with just shredded coleslaw mix?
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Dec 3, 2022 16:18
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SilvergunSuperman posted:Has anyone tried making okonomiyaki with just shredded coleslaw mix? Funny enough I was thinking about this the other day because I have an 18 month old so my time for being able to prepare stuff is basically in the negative numbers at this point. I bet it would work great - you should try it and do a trip report. The only thing I'd probably chop and add in there would be scallions.
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Dec 3, 2022 17:24
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SilvergunSuperman posted:Has anyone tried making okonomiyaki with just shredded coleslaw mix? Was thinking of doing this with stir fried udon, since i never go through a whole cabbage fast enough.
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Dec 3, 2022 20:22
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SilvergunSuperman posted:Has anyone tried making okonomiyaki with just shredded coleslaw mix? I have, it works well but I'm a grocery penny pincher so I went back to whole cabbage when prices started getting bad. My family likes lots of cabbage.
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Dec 4, 2022 03:32
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Rocko Bonaparte posted:Is there an Austin goon (or I suppose a Houston goon now since they have on there) that can give some tips on recreating Ramen Tatsu-ya's Mi-so-hot? I'd like to get a handle on that especially since it looks like I'll be moving away and my only recourse will be to make it myself. I haven't had this and I'm in NYC, but if you like a spicy miso ramen you should just make a miso ramen but with spicy elements. Use tobanjan or gochujang or doubanjiang in your miso tare and potentially add other sources of spice and you should get in the ballpark. (Miso tare is a mixture of miso, garlic, ginger, and probably sake/mirin/other stuff, which you combine with your soup stock to make the soup.) I like Ramen_Lord's Book of Ramen as a general reference; you should specifically check out the spicy miso tare on page 93 and/or the akayu spicy miso ball on p112 (with ideas on how to use it in a complete bowl on p133), but don't feel like you need to follow those recipes exactly or anything. If you have access to good noodles, and you can make good stock (even if it's just plain chicken stock), you can make good ramen and you can tweak it to be all your own.
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Dec 4, 2022 05:00
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My biggest problem with working with miso is everything I find is saltier than salt. I only ever play with miso when playing with ramen, so I can inexperienced. I am probably finding the wrong stuff. I have found some hot sauce that I like but that's also salty. So I wind up with something so salty that I could walk across it.
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Dec 4, 2022 18:07
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Rocko Bonaparte posted:My biggest problem with working with miso is everything I find is saltier than salt. I only ever play with miso when playing with ramen, so I can inexperienced. I am probably finding the wrong stuff. I have found some hot sauce that I like but that's also salty. So I wind up with something so salty that I could walk across it. You're probably not finding the wrong stuff, miso is insanely salty. It started as a way of preserving soybeans with salt, after all. Typically when you use it you aren't adding salt separately or using any other salty ingredients--you'll notice in that ramen book I linked that there is no salt in any of the broths/stocks, for example. All the salt is coming from the tare, and in the case of a miso tare, from the miso. If you're adding miso to a salted chicken broth or something, yeah, it's going to be inedibly salty. Edit: and yeah, most/all prepared hot sauces are also salty, so if you want more heat in your ramen you want to look at chile flakes, powders, or those three other condiments I listed (all of which are fermented chile pastes, and basically sub in for part of your miso). Double edit: or chili oil, duh. See also "ra-yu" "la-yu" or be on-trend and get some chili crisp. Scythe fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Dec 4, 2022 |
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Dec 4, 2022 23:07
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That explains some stuff. I was using ham and pork bone broths I had prepared and canned beforehand which got some salt thrown in them, so I was doomed from the beginning. Edit, more: There's another one of their things that my wife particularly likes. It's the Nu Skool, which is a vegan offering using an "almond milk tonkotsu." Has anybody here experimented in that general area? We aren't vegan, but my wife wants to eat more vegetables (and I really should too). I think I will get more chances at refining something like that than a thick miso meat stew, so I should give something like that some attention. Just searching that Ramen_Lord document for "vegan" was not getting me much. Edit edit: for hot sauces, we've come to really like Youki's Touban Jian. Really sharp pepper aroma. Rocko Bonaparte fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Dec 4, 2022 |
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Dec 4, 2022 23:14
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Rocko Bonaparte posted:That explains some stuff. I was using ham and pork bone broths I had prepared and canned beforehand which got some salt thrown in them, so I was doomed from the beginning. I've made this recipe for myself and a couple of friends and it was actually quite good -- added some ajitama so not technically vegan but the sun dried tomatoes were a great topping too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQUPGGcGM6Q
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Dec 5, 2022 01:55
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So I've begun dabbling more and more into Japanese cooking and something that I absolutely adore is the various pickled veggies. Outside of kimchi(which is Korean) most of my Asian markets don't offer much else. I've found pickled ginger but I want like....pickled everything. Like you get when you go to a restaurant so I've decided I want to get a pickle press to make my own. Any particular one that people recommend? I don't know what's hot garbage on Amazon and whats actually useful, if that makes sense. Any models people enjoy would help me out a lot. Thanks!
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Dec 8, 2022 16:06
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I have one just like this with a green lid and it works well. I've had it for like 10 years at this point. Before that I was making them in a ziplock bag with a heavy rock placed on top which is also an option.
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Dec 8, 2022 16:16
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hallo spacedog posted:I have one just like this with a green lid and it works well. I've had it for like 10 years at this point. Before that I was making them in a ziplock bag with a heavy rock placed on top which is also an option. Perfect thank you! Now I'll pair it with a julienne slicer and just....pickle everything. Literally everything. Salt, soy, mirin, sake....freakin' try it all!! They are so tasty and are the perfect compliment to my rice dishes
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Dec 8, 2022 19:37
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Tiny Chalupa posted:Perfect thank you! Now I'll pair it with a julienne slicer and just....pickle everything. Literally everything. Salt, soy, mirin, sake....freakin' try it all!! They are so tasty and are the perfect compliment to my rice dishes I have this book which is pretty good. Looks like it's out of print again but it should eventually come back in print.
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Dec 8, 2022 20:21
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hallo spacedog posted:I have this book which is pretty good. Looks like it's out of print again but it should eventually come back in print. I have a version of this I think, that I found in a local used media store. Made the garlic misozuke for a dinner party and it disappeared pretty quickly. Just One Cookbook also has some pickle recipes.
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Dec 8, 2022 21:08
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hallo spacedog posted:I have this book which is pretty good. Looks like it's out of print again but it should eventually come back in print. This book rules. -- Edit: Rocko Bonaparte posted:Edit, more: There's another one of their things that my wife particularly likes. It's the Nu Skool, which is a vegan offering using an "almond milk tonkotsu." Has anybody here experimented in that general area? We aren't vegan, but my wife wants to eat more vegetables (and I really should too). I think I will get more chances at refining something like that than a thick miso meat stew, so I should give something like that some attention. Just searching that Ramen_Lord document for "vegan" was not getting me much. I missed this a couple of days ago. I'd just make a vegetable stock you like, going hard on onions/alliums and root veg like carrots, and not using any celery or herbs, since those aren't typical Japanese or Chinese flavors (ramen is Japanese-Chinese, after all), then mix it with some almondmilk. You could theoretically use any tare in combination with a veg stock (that's the power of building ramen through separate stock + tare, you unlock more combinations), but miso tare will give you the most body (which you want if you're trying to mimic tonkotsu but vegan). I know I'm being really sketchy and hand-wavey here, but that's because home ramen can be way more relaxed than people make it out to be. I spent a couple years thinking it was really complicated and each little thing mattered, and it's actually really easy and you can do whatever you want and it'll still be good. Here's an attempt to be somewhat more specific, because really what I'm trying to say is: just start making some ramen and then start tweaking it to your own preferences.
I hope that was helpful, even if it's still just a sketch! Scythe fucked around with this message at 05:37 on Dec 9, 2022 |
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Dec 9, 2022 04:57
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I got some nukazuke bed mixture from the local Japanese market because it was there and cheap. Any recommendations for a container for a small bed?
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Dec 10, 2022 20:30
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Anything works really. I used the crock from an old broken crock pot. A big locking tupperware thing is probably simplest. You just need it to be big enough to fit the vegetables in comfortably, and able to keep it somewhere convenient since you have to stir it daily. And yes you do actually have to stir daily, I once let it sit a few days because I was tired of dealing with it and it went rotten. I think if you fridge it you can get away with stirring every other day, maybe every three, but it'll pickle slower too.
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Dec 10, 2022 20:44
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That’s the only reason I haven’t started a nukazuke pot. I can’t figure out how to keep it alive over vacations short of asking a friend to come by and stir my weird pickle pot. It’s annoying because I love that style of pickle, though.
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Dec 10, 2022 20:53
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Scythe posted:asking a friend to come by and stir my weird pickle pot  But yeah I tried it a long time ago (gently caress like nearly a decade ago? When did I get so old) and the daily stirring did not last long but I'm ready to give it another go
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Dec 10, 2022 21:07
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Would a fish tank bubbler agitate it enough for a small vacation?
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Dec 11, 2022 00:54
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djfooboo posted:Would a fish tank bubbler agitate it enough for a small vacation? It's way too thick for that. The internet is telling me if you stick it in the coldest part of the fridge it should be fine for a week. Longer than that and you can freeze it. It won't kill off all the bacteria and yeasts and stuff so it should come back to life.
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Dec 11, 2022 01:00
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You need a nuka-doko sitter
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Dec 11, 2022 01:09
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I'm heading to the Japanese grocery here and want to get as much of the screw-around stuff out of the way as I can. I'm trying to figure out how I can tell what noodles might be good for otherwise handmade ramen. I don't want to get into the noodles too. I have a pasta roller, for example, but I don't have much space and I'm already screwing around too much with bread to mess with that too right away. For other stuff, I have an eclectic mix of things: 1. white miso (I have nothing specific) 2. red miso (particularly hana tezukuri aka miso) 3. mishio konbu salt 4. kombu 5. mirin (nothing specific) 6. ehh dried mushrooms (wood ear mushrooms?) I'm staying away from fish stuff. My wife just isn't into it. I already have a bunch of soy sauces and rice wine vinegar, along with sesame oil. Anything else I should just have on-hand?
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Dec 11, 2022 07:51
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Nori, wakame, yuzu kosho, sake.
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Dec 11, 2022 08:58
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Packets of Curry roux. My Japanese store carries brands you don’t see in the other supermarkets
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Dec 11, 2022 10:39
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Hijiki Katsuobushi (even if your wife doesn’t want it you can use it) Instant dashi Hatcho miso Sansho Shichimi/nanami togarashi Dried soba Frozen udon Agedofu Umeboshi You want dried shiitake for Japanese, also. Wood ear is more of a Chinese thing. Re: ramen: theoretically certain noodles go with certain styles, but that’s more of a tradition thing. Get whatever kind looks good to you. Sun Noodle is a good brand.
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Dec 11, 2022 15:04
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I'm good on curry roux. We got a bunch from a previous big Asian supermarket run. My family doesn't really like them that much so we've been slowly going through them. I'd probably have to boost them with something else--especially with some heat. I'm curious about that yuzu kosho in particular. I'm mostly looking into ramen stuff but I'm going to take a shot at most of those things. Well, I'm going to look for all of them and get lost. The one thing that really gets me about the Japanese stuff in particular around here is that there isn't a drop of English to be found anywhere on the stuff and the staff have no idea what I'm talking about. I don't think it's specific to the Japanese stuff; when I was looking for specific Chinese and Korean stuff too, I got similarly lost elsewhere. But the place I'm going to is a newish place so I haven't been able to tell how it'll go yet.
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Dec 11, 2022 19:07
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Scythe posted:That’s the only reason I haven’t started a nukazuke pot. I can’t figure out how to keep it alive over vacations short of asking a friend to come by and stir my weird pickle pot. It’s annoying because I love that style of pickle, though. From what I've read you can hibernate it by adding salt to the top and putting it somewhere cold (the fridge).
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Dec 11, 2022 19:34
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I got everything in, the particular Pickler I ordered everything written on it and with it is in Japanese which made me chuckle some, so I'll be getting a jump on trying to make things today. I got a daikon, some baby bok choy and eggplant calling my name. As much as I wish I could get that book currently, I don't want to drop 60 bucks on a used copy with it being out of print, I'm going to Google some combos and give it a try. I don't want to just do salt + veggies so going to try to find random recipes and cross my fingers. I want some soy, or miso or cooking wine....something to kick it up an extra notch. Bam!!
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Dec 12, 2022 18:47
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Tiny Chalupa posted:I got everything in, the particular Pickler I ordered everything written on it and with it is in Japanese which made me chuckle some, so I'll be getting a jump on trying to make things today. JOC has some recipes here.
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Dec 12, 2022 20:00
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I tried doing something close to that vegeterian ramen. It was kind of meh. Half of it is definitely me and my inexperience, but then there's a 25/25 split between it not being our style and I think my soy sauce is kind of crap. I don't think dashi is particularly for us, or at least not for a regular consumption. I'll probably just lean on the miso next, but the Ramen_Lord book has a bacon dashi to try and I might as well give that a go. Recall that we don't actually care about not having meat; there was just an almond milk tonkotsu that my wife liked at the ramen place here and I figured it would be easier for me to regularly toy with that first than trying to work on a miso using an unsalted meat stock that I'd have to craft myself. Towards that, I'm getting some collagen powder and have some beef gelatin around here somewhere. My wife was using it for paper mache or something. Shopping for that is hosed up. I guess collagen is the hip thing now for ketone. My soy sauce is a Chinese kind I have been using for Chinese cooking experiments: https://www.weichuanusa.com/en/dark-soy-sauce.html https://www.weichuanusa.com/en/light-soy-sauce-33-oz.html I think there's tannins or something in it. I've try to use it for the soft-boiled eggs twice now across a considerable amount of time in between, trying two different recipes. They come off with a black tea effect, really dark, and taste pretty bad. So I think I need something more Japanese-specific and milder. Is there a recommendation in the US for a milder, common dark/light soy sauce mix for ramen that I can lean on?
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Dec 14, 2022 02:19
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Uh were you using dark soy sauce? Dark soy sauce is for very specific purposes and most of the time it's just a dash for color, if you use it like regular (light) soy sauce it's going to ruin anything you put it in. Like half a teaspoon is a lot of dark soy for any given recipe. It's also a LOT saltier so if you were putting it in ramen that could be what your salt problem was. I guarantee those two are poo poo, too. And Chinese soys are different than Japanese. Yamasa is the best normal, widely available Japanese soy sauce IMO.
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Dec 14, 2022 02:31
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Grand Fromage posted:Yamasa is the best normal, widely available Japanese soy sauce IMO. Agree with this whole heatedly. Also for the most part cooking Japanese food you can use one single Japanese soy sauce and don't need two.
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Dec 14, 2022 03:27
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I was using both. I had a recipe calling in the tare for 100g/ml of dark soy and 100g/ml of light soy sauce. But I was using that Chinese stuff so I don't know if I could carry that over. It was making decent Chinese food so it's at least not 100% crap. Still, I was working through some stuff with those dishes and I wonder if a totally different soy sauce will just finish off what issues I had. Regarding salt: I'm still going to try to really lighten up the salt in the broth because I can always put it in but I can't take it out. I'll totally get some different soy sauce first though.
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Dec 14, 2022 03:42
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Rocko Bonaparte posted:I was using both. I had a recipe calling in the tare for 100g/ml of dark soy and 100g/ml of light soy sauce. But I was using that Chinese stuff so I don't know if I could carry that over. It was making decent Chinese food so it's at least not 100% crap. Still, I was working through some stuff with those dishes and I wonder if a totally different soy sauce will just finish off what issues I had. Do you have a link to the recipe? Japanese recipe calling for light and dark is weird to me, it's not like a concept they really have in Japanese cooking? Some exceptions with western Japanese cookery and usukuchi but that's like literally totally different.
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Dec 14, 2022 03:47
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Man. I don't know much about making ramen but from Chinese experience the thought of mixing dark and light soy 50/50 just sounds like an insane thing to do. Are you sure it was referring to Chinese style dark soy? Sometimes Japanese recipes will refer to normal soy sauce as dark soy and usukuchi as light soy. Saltiness also varies by brand. I find Kikkoman incredibly salty but Yamasa is fine.
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Dec 14, 2022 03:47
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hallo spacedog posted:Agree with this whole heatedly. Also for the most part cooking Japanese food you can use one single Japanese soy sauce and don't need two. Yeah, Yamasa ftw. I pretty regularly use both the usukuchi and regular, but you're probably fine with just regular.
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Dec 14, 2022 03:57
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