Category: Uncategorized

I got this $9 disk of tea, and it’s pretty good. I don’t recall the name, but it’s at a couple of the local Chinese/Viet markets. To make it, you break off a chunk that’s a couple tablespoons. Then you break and crumble that into smaller pieces. To brew pu erh, it’s Chinese style. The…

This is a super basic roux-based “curry”. The three ingredients are fat, flour, and curry powder. You can optionally add salt and soy sauce, but I never do. Over low heat, heat half a cup of fat in a frying pan. You can use anything, but lard seems to be the one used in the…

Someone on FB was asking, so I answered. Futomaki and inari (without complicated fillings), is the OG Japanese American sushi from the early 1900s to the 1980s. The other common one, which seems to be the main sushi at temple and church bazaars until the 1990s, was chirashizushi, which is more like a mixed rice…

$500 per year.

Is Shoyu and Soy Sauce the Same? Yes. “Shoyu” is just the Japanese name for “soy sauce”. It’s based on Chinese, “soy yu”, which means “soy sauce”. There are, however, many different types of soy sauce! You don’t realize this unless you live near a Chinese or Vietnamese market, because they tend to carry more…

This was pretty inexpensive when I bought it – around $10 – and it had good reviews. I think I got it on Swanson Vitamins, but I think it’s also on Amazon. Overall, not a great tea, but about as good as Chinese supermarket bag tea, and roughly “Lipton” level US supermarket tea. Better than…

http://savoryjapan.com/wordpress/2011/09/takana-japanese-mustard-green-onigiri-recipe/ If you have a pickle press, it’s easy to make takana with mustard greens (they have them at the Chinese store if you don’t have a Japanese store nearby). Separate and soak the leaves for a few minutes in warm water, rubbing them to remove any dirt. Remove any rotting bits of leaf. Sprinkle…

Kotatsu is a heater that is installed under a table top; the table’s covered with a blanket, and the system heats your feet. With the coming climate crisis and total social collapse, keeping your toes warm won’t be a priority, but after the collapse, you may want to have one of these, low-energy heating systems.

This site doesn’t have ecommerce, but it has lists of businesses that sell specific products, mostly everyday Japanese items that are hard to find. [child-pages]