Japanese food in Hawaii

http://dailydish.honadvblogs.com/2010/07/30/fuud-shiges-saimin-stand-in-wahiawa/

Saimin, which is ramen, which is (of course) Chinese/Hui/Uiger la-mien.

Camping food

Matsuri Sushi

In the nearly 20 years I've been living here, sushi selections have changed raidcally, at least, at the cheap conveyor belt places. Today was a national holiday. My daughter and I dropped my wife off at her office and then went out for an early lunch. Everybody else seemed to think it was too hot to cook. We got the last parking place even though it was before noon.

First of all, there are so many of them now, and the prices are lower than they used to be. They used to have a graduated pricing system, with different colored plates representing different prices. Now it's all 105 yen per plate. At least, the actual sushi is all priced that way. (Some items are available with a larger, higher quality selection with only one piece on a plate.) The chicken and french fries, which you'll see cruising by in one of these short video clips, is 280 yen.

Second, there is a lot of mayonaise-enhanced sushi available.

Third, there is an awful lot of meat sushi: roast pork, teriyaki chicken, duck, little hot dogs, and even steak. Some places have what they call "raw ham."

Also, there are lots of desserts (cake and pudding) and juice cruising by on the same little round plates as the sushi. Today I saw takoyaki for the first time.

All in all, kurukuruzushi (conveyor belt sushi) has become much more of an adventure. The choices are almost endless and, if you're selective, you can still find the classics -- I had hamachi (yellowtail), salmon, uni (sea urchin), and unagi (eel). I ended by finishing my daughter's fries.

Home garden -- 100 sq. feet for $1,000 a year

http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/more-people-growing-vegetables-for-food-safety-healing-purposes

And there's a waiting list!

Rice bread maker

>http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20100714a1.html

Well, it looks like bread, anyway.

In the U.S., some people make or buy bread made from rice flour. I think most of these people are allergic to gluten and are looking for gluten-free bread. This new machine obviously has a different rationale since gluten is listed as one of the ingredients. According to the article, "Sanyo said baking bread at home will help increase the nation's food self-sufficiency rate and reduce transportation, which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions."

I don't see how making bread out of rice will "increase the nation's food self-sufficiency rate" since Japan is alreadhttp://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20100714a1.html

Well, it looks like bread, anyway.

In the U.S., some people make or buy bread made from rice flour. I think most of these people are allergic to gluten and are looking for gluten-free bread. This new machine obviously has a different rationale since gluten is listed as one of the ingredients. According to the article, "Sanyo said baking bread at home will help increase the nation's food self-sufficiency rate and reduce transportation, which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions."

I don't see how making bread out of rice will "increase the nation's food self-sufficiency rate" since Japan is already importing some rice, though not for consumption as rice -- it's used for industrially-produced food such as rice crackers. Rather, it seems to be an effort by Sanyo to take advantage of the prejudice in favor of rice, as the central element of Japanese cuisine. Also, it may be partly an attempt to trade on the idea of eating food produced in Japan (rice) rather than food imported from another country (wheat flour). Many Japanese prefer to eat domestically produced food for various reasons: safety from pesticides, promoting Japanese farmers, supporting the Japanese economy, and even reducing the carbon footprint of the foods they eat, as the article says.

Summer food

We've been eating a lot more take-home meals since the weather has gotten so hot. This was a cross between okonomiyaki and omraisu. The former, for those of you who don't know, is sometimes explained as Japanese pizza, which is a really poor comparison. It's much closer to the Chinese egg foo yung, though the batter is usually mostly grated taro root. The latter is an omlet stuffed with lots of what we call in the U.S. fried rice (in Japan, chahan).

Unfortunately, it wasn't very delicious, but at least it didn't heat up the kitchen. The bento we got for the same meal (which I started before I got out the camera) was better.

Teas' Tea (that's what it's called)

But the strange name and bizarre punctuation aren't the only things I find strange about this. Just about everything written on the label is strange, each in its own way. The company claims to have something to do with New York. Is this supposed to be New York style tea? Then what about the soy milk combined with cow's milk? Is that all the rage in New York these days? How many calories are you saving by substituting soy milk for regular (or low-fat or non-fat) since the milk makes up a pretty small percentage of the contents, anyway? (The label says カロリ OFF --" Calorie Off" though it doesn't say how many off what.) Maybe it has less sugar than most packaged milk tea sold in Japan. The VERY small print on the side of the label says it has 18 kcal per 100 ml.

Konpira gobo riceburger

Konpira gobo is shreds of burdock root cooked with shreds of carrot. It's a common vegetable preparation. Here, at Mosburger, they serve it between two grilled rice patties. It was okay -- nothing exciting.

Taco nan and chorizo nan

At Mosburger.