The new Japanese Cooking Thread: Now With 72% Less Pocky and Instant Ramen.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > The new Japanese Cooking Thread: Now With 72% Less Pocky and Instant Ramen.

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Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Carillon posted:

There's a sake bar in Kyoto where the guy ages some sake for a very long time, but yeah I hear it's the exception. Otherwise agreed above where it depends on how you want to use it, cooking is definitely more forgiving.

Yup, bottle aging and koshu are kind of trendy of late. Bottle aging sake is a crapshoot though, sometimes it comes out great, others it sucks. And like with beer it's not just letting a bottle sit on a liquor store shelf for two years, you have to store it for a while (I've read three years minimum since it drops in quality then goes back up, if it's one that can bottle age well) and stored properly in a cool dark place. Also some sake is already aged when it's bottled, I've seen ones that spent three or four years in the tanks at the brewery so doing further bottle aging on those is going to be a whole different thing.

So even if you're going to play with bottle aging, you still want to buy the bottles fresh to begin with. And this is entirely for drinking, nobody's cooking with koshu.

# ¿ May 20, 2022 01:15

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 18:21

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

What is miso broth?

# ¿ May 26, 2022 22:27

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

It wouldn't taste anything like dashi. What are you trying to make? You might be able to just skip it, or some chicken powder (or just straight MSG in water) would do you.

# ¿ May 26, 2022 22:29

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

MarsPearl posted:

I feel like Japanese people are totally capable of making bizarre sounding fusion foods on their own without pretending that it's just a thing white people do. Go look up Tsukomo cheese ramen or fish sausage corn dogs if you need convincing.

Japan and especially Korea are playing in an entirely different league when it comes to making bizarre food. Saw a good joke about going to the US to open a traditional Japanese bakery that just sells hot dog buns full of whipped cream.

Also why I laugh every time someone makes a midwest crack about excessive mayo. If only you knew.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2022 20:03

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

captkirk posted:

Do people actually each 1 go of rice in a meal? I am not a small guy but I think if I ate a full go (dry volume) of rice it would have to be my whole drat meal.

People usually eat a pretty substantial amount of rice in Asia. I'm not running around with my rice calipers but one go looks pretty normal to me. 150 grams of cooked rice is often called a go as well when specifically talking about food, which is the standard size of a Japanese rice bowl. Standard onigiri is 100 grams of rice, people will eat two or three of those no problem.

I have not lived in Japan, just eaten six times a day on vacations there, but for sure in Korea and China people obliterate the rice. Totally normal to see someone house like five bowls of rice and leave behind half of the other food, whereas I focus on the "side dishes" (the mains, to my thinking) and don't eat nearly as much rice.

Since the picture is handy, that bowl hallo spacedog has upthread a bit is a tiny rice portion. I don't think I ever saw one that small in Asia, even the lunches for elementary school kids were bigger than that. If I were in Asia I'd expect an average person to eat like at least three or four times that much.

E: Here's a few random supermarket/convenience store bentos I found to give some idea of a generic standard portion for one.

Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Sep 1, 2022

# ¿ Sep 1, 2022 04:22

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I rarely bother with sites at all unless I'm looking for something specific. Tabelog is good. Keep in mind it doesn't have the kind of vote inflation you might be used to so like a 3/5 is a strong rating.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2022 05:26

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

hallo spacedog posted:

I could probably count the number of bad meals I had over the course of like 2 years in Japan on one hand.

Yeah it is true that having a genuinely bad meal in Japan is rare. I think the worst I've ever had was at a Gusto, but I was just curious and knew what I was getting into there so it was fine.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2022 19:53

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

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.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2022 18:08

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

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.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2022 20:44

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

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.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2022 01:00

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

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.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2022 02:31

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

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.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2022 03:47

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I have a ridiculous amount of soy sauces because I'm a dipshit who buys weird artisanal stuff. Regular Yamasa is the (Japanese) one I use the most though. Haven't tried the shinmi, I have a bottle of marudaizu that I use sometimes.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2022 18:38

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

big black turnout posted:

It was almost certainly calling for half regular Japanese soy sauce and half usukuchi

I agree, I think we've finally solved at least part of the problem.

It is annoying that two completely different ingredients are commonly called "dark soy sauce" in English.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2022 21:45

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I made kabayaki with bronzini, was good. I did not take pictures. Drinking a bottle of Ohyama hiyaoroshi for my New Year booz.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2023 01:20

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:

I understood the word �booze�

Bronzini is a tasty fish. Kabayaki is the way eel is normally cooked with the thicc sweet sauce, but you can use other fish. Ohyama is a sake brand. Hiyaoroshi is the fresh single pasteurized sake you can get in fall. Tends to have a more intense flavor, though not as much as the unpasteurized namazake that comes out in spring.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2023 01:28

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

It's just personal preference. Have your nudes as hard as you like.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2023 16:48

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Scythe posted:

I haven't found a really good English-language book on sake, unfortunately.

These are the ones I've read:

Exploring the World of Japanese Craft Sake, Nancy Matsumoto and Michael Tremblay
The Book of Sake, Philip Harper
The Sake Handbook and Sake Confidential, both by John Gauntner
The Japanese Sake Bible, Brian Ashcraft

Thirding that most Japanese drinking culture is "pound cheap beer/whisky/shochu until dead" but sake is very much worth exploring.

On the cocktail subject, if you happen to be in Osaka Bar Nayuta may be the best cocktail bar I've ever been to.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2023 16:34

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I never add anything sugary in mine since the roux is already plenty sweet. Anything that isn't a leafy vegetable works. Potato, onion, lotus root are standards for me.

As far as adjusting the curry part I always use dashi (powdered, don't waste fresh) instead of water, add sake and soy sauce, garlic, ginger, umeboshi, and I usually finish with some yuzu kosho and vinegar or lemon juice.

Other classics in the "secret ingredient" department are instant coffee, dark chocolate, yogurt.

# ¿ May 9, 2023 20:11

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I chop them up into a mush.

# ¿ May 9, 2023 20:30

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Oh yeah I should say I am a fan of sour so you may not want to stack as many as I do. I think at least the vinegar or lemon at the end, off the heat, is very nice to brighten up the flavor.

# ¿ May 9, 2023 20:36

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Mason jar sounds like a nightmare. Get a plastic or glass tub that's wide and shallow. You're going to be mixing it daily so that makes it a lot easier, plus you want room for the vegetables.

I used the crock from an old broken crock pot.

# ¿ May 22, 2023 21:04

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Annath posted:

Awesome!

Re: the Kombu supplier - they have a "Dashi Pack" listed, but reading the description it doesn't sound like powdered Dashi. The instructions say to heat the whole pack in boiling water, not dissolve the contents in water.

I'm not sure if this is a translation issue, or if this is a product I'm unfamiliar with that is used differently.

It's basically a teabag with kombu and katsuobushi and/or niboshi in it, saves the mess of straining. You can usually find them in the freezers at Korean or Japanese groceries.

# ¿ May 23, 2023 19:41

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Fists Up posted:

How do I get my shredded cabbage to be just like you get in a decent tonkatsu restaurant? I find it's always just a bit too hard/crunchy. Do I need to cut it as finely as possible? Soak in cold water? Use a specific kind of cabbage? Something else?

You have to use one of the flat and wide Asian cabbages, not the round western ones. Slice it up thin. Then try some straight and some that's been cold water soaked and see which you like, I don't find the water necessary but I know some places do that.

# ¿ May 24, 2023 16:17

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Fists Up posted:

Are you talking about a napa cabbage/chinese cabbage/wombok? I'll give that a go

No. This guy:

I sometimes see it as Taiwan cabbage in the US. Napa won't work at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9kK2sNR_uQ

# ¿ May 24, 2023 16:44

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Just One Cookbook has a kushikatsu recipe, I'd probably start with that. I'm usually happy with her stuff and at least it's a base to tweak from.

# ¿ May 24, 2023 21:31

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Yeah if it's not fuzzy it's fine. I've never seen it go off. I have some miso that is five or six years old (plus was aged three years before it was sold).

There is a kind that has dashi mixed in and I'm unclear if that changes the lifespan of it. I wouldn't buy it anyway.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2023 16:14

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Oh that makes sense if you're doing daily miso soup.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2023 16:30

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

That miso also got carried around in my backpack for a month in Japanese summer, so if it survived that it should survive anything. :v:

# ¿ Jun 1, 2023 16:46

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

hallo spacedog posted:

spicy pork stir fry

Or many of the other stuff on that same website

Bapsang rules. For the best jeyuk, add some chopped kimchi and kimchi juice in there too. Serve on top of rice and then sprinkle shredded seaweed on top. And feel free to reduce (but not eliminate) the sugar.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2023 17:27

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I'm pretty sure you need a giant hammer and a bunch of dudes in happis to make mochi.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2023 16:51

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Yeah, it gets more sour and softer (and sometimes will kind of carbonate) but I have never seen it go bad. I have heard that if it does it will grow mold, so check for fuzz.

Traditionally all kimchi is made at once when the cabbage is harvested and was intended as your supply for the entire year, pre-refrigeration, so. It'll last a while.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2023 03:15

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

The nuances will get lost in food so there's no reason to get anything high grade. Sho Chiku Bai's basic junmai is what I use. The lighter floral/fruity elements in a ginjo usually disappear when heated.

To drink will depend a lot, sake has an enormous range to it. Not hyper expensive bottles I think are worth picking up if you see them:

Dassai 45 (Dassai tends to be popular among everyone)
Konteki Tears of Dawn
Dewazakura Oka Ginjo
Fukumitsuya Kagatobi Junmai Ginjo
Anything from Harushika brewery
Dewazakura Dewasansan Junmai Ginjo
Atago no Matsu Tokuetsu Honjozo
Anything from Nanbu Bijin brewery
Kurosawa Kimoto Junmai
Kenbishi Kuromatsu Honjozo
Ozeki Taru

If you want to try warm, futsushus, honjozos or junmais are generally the ones to do that with. Tozai Typhoon is pretty good warm.

Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 04:31 on Jun 18, 2023

# ¿ Jun 18, 2023 04:23

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Yeah me either. I just use my regular nonstick pan.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2023 20:47

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Origami Dali posted:

Do opened bonito flakes go bad? i�ve had a good amount stored in a ziploc for a couple of years and need to make a dashi.

They don't go bad per se, but the flavor will fade. I don't think you're going to get much out of them after a couple years. I keep my bags in the freezer.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2023 17:26

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I've always been told to remove the kombu before the water starts bubbling since it can add bitterness if you boil it. I've never experimented to see if it's true.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2023 01:08

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I also would like the enormous scallop.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2023 20:56

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Griddle is a good idea if you're going to do it a lot. I don't have one so when I've made Hiroshima okonomiyaki I end up using two pans and it's a pain in the rear end. Also prepare for a huge mess.

Worth it though.

If you're still there when you read this and haven't been yet, go to Lopez. He makes a great one and tequila with your jalapeno okonomiyaki is luxury.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2023 19:19

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 18:21

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I had no idea there was a difference, I've just bought whichever was available and never noticed.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2024 21:49

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > The new Japanese Cooking Thread: Now With 72% Less Pocky and Instant Ramen.

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