Entries tagged with 'japanese'
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The hot pot or nabe in Japanese is more than a meal—it's a social event, a reason for people to gather around the table and enjoy not just a meal together but one from the same pot. In Japan there is a common belief that str sharing a meal forges closer relationships among diners. You might not have shared a steaming hot pot before, but anyone who has tackled a cheesy, bubbling pot of fondue with friends knows it's a fun, though a bit messy, way to eat with friends. Japanese Hot Pots by chef Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat, Japanese food aficionado and creator of the comprehensive Japanese food culture bolg, The Japanese Food Report sets out to bring...
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[TO-GENKYO] Spoon and Tamago's preview of the Good Design Awards features an expiration date label concept, Fresh Label, by Japanese design studio TO-GENKYO. The hourglass-shaped label would track a food's expiration date "by changing colors based on the level of ammonia the food emits as it ages." When the food has expired, the label would no longer readable. [via swissmiss]...
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Photograph from Microworks "Stickpecker," a pair of reusable chopsticks from Japanese design studio Microworks recreates the feeling of breaking apart wooden chopsticks with a magnet and features subtle woodpecker and branch designs at the base of the chopsticks. $38 from Tokyomade [via Bree Lundberg] Related Chopsticks Aid, a Fork Attached to Chopsticks Chopsticks + Cutlery = Choplery...
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Best described as a "melty creamsicle," but I still don't like it. Have you ever tried Yakult? A probiotic dairy drink that comes in wee 65-milliliter plastic containers, I've only known it as "yahkuhluhteh" (essentially Yakult pronounced in Korean); that icky drink that my parents and grandparents drank but left my mouth with a strange, dry feeling whenever I took a sip. Created in Japan, it's a staple there and in other East Asian countries. Given my childhood distaste for the drink, I thought it was time to bring it into the Serious Eats office and get a collective judgment once and for all. Is Yakult actually secretly delicious? Were my taste buds of yesteryear just incapable of dairy drink...
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The advertising world really does not flex the powers of maniacal cheese-faced men with curry-shooting laser gun fingers enough. Not nearly enough! I can't vouch for the tastiness of that orange goo but having Cheese Face Man himself pop through the window and blast your cup, now that is tableside service. This ad inspired a remix with Cheese Face Man deejaying (and busting his cheese curry gun moves on stage, obviously!) mashed up with cameos by Onion Bulb Face Man, Tomato Face Man, and what appears to be White Circular Blob Face Woman. The videos, after the jump....
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For those of you who pooh-poohed the Un-Constipated Gourmet post we posted over the weekend, here's something else to digest. Slog, the blog of Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger, dropped this photo on Sunday of a poster in the window of Seattle's Uwajimaya, a Japanese food and gift store. It advertises the Japanese manga and anime series Crayon Shin-chan, about which Wikipedia says: "Many of the jokes in the series stem from Shin-chan's occasionally weird, unnatural and inappropriate use of language, as well as from his inappropriate behavior." Not completely surprising, considering the fact that the children's book Everyone Poops is also a Japanese import. [Thanks, dmarina!]...
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In the past several weeks I've had very bad luck with ordering food for delivery. As a New Yorker, this is particularly distressing, as we tend to order takeout more frequently than we turn on our own stoves. It all started with a grilled chicken salad: I asked for the balsamic vinaigrette on the side, it arrived soused in a dressing so thick it bordered on mayonnaise. I practically had to spoon through it just to find the lettuce. Then, I got a falafel platter with ho-hum hummus instead of the babaganoush I had been craving. Finally—and this was the worst of all—my sashimi entree arrived all by its lonesome, without the miso soup. I have no problem sending...
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If you're looking for some pep, this "Hot Pepper" video has got it. Besides the title, it has little to do with food, but has enough bop and boop to make your day very upbeat. According to my Japanese cultural consultant and YouTube commenters, Snoopy and the gang have teamed up with Kaela Kimura, a Japanese pop singer, to promote Hot Pepper, a free coupon magazine. The random beeping and booping only cement this match made in heaven. The video, after the jump....
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Portions of this memoir read very much like a Murakami novel—the quiet yet inexplicable obsessions of neurotic protagonists, interwoven with the mythicized stories of unknown figures and minor characters that stop just short of the surreal. Struggling with chronic infidelity and frustrated in his career, a disillusioned American thirty-something looks toward redemption by writing confessional letters to Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant ramen. If there were ever a less likely book premise, I have yet to hear it. All the more so because The Ramen King and I isn’t a work of fiction but a memoir. Author Andy Raskin appears to live for two things: casual dates and Japanese culture, particularly where food and comics are concerned. At the...
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I feel like the most fun part of making dumplings is the part where you crimp the edges and marvel at your hand made dough pouch, but maybe my opinion would change if I tried Bandai's new gyoza (dumpling) maker [English translation]. According to Bandai's website, the gyoza maker is geared towards 8 to 12-year-old girls (no boys allowed?) and their parents, and will be available starting on July 25 for ¥3,150 (about $33). Place the dumpling skin on the rollers, use the included spatula to plop in some filling, close the lid, crank away, and—ta da, dumpling sort of instantly plops into the drawer below! If I were a kid I'd probably love this thing. As an adult,...
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