A great noodle recipe for hot summery days :)

Regardless of where you live, Japan or otherwise, this is a video that everyone should see.

Check out these links for references:

G8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G8

34th G8 Summit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/34th_G8_summit

Hokkaido, Japan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokkaid%C5%8D

The Cost of Food: Facts and Figures
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7284196.stm

Food Prices on the Rise
http://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/2007/08/13/17/85-20070813-FOODPRICES.large.prod_affiliate.91.jpg

World Commodity Prices from 2000-2008
http://images.quickblogcast.com/43162-39414/foodprices2.jpg

Percent change in food prices from 2007 to 2008
http://www.deseretnews.com/photos/5395442a.jpg

The Rising Demand for Commodities
http://www.researchrecap.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/rising-demand.gif

Does Ethanol Deserve the Blame for Rising Food Prices?
http://seekingalpha.com/article/73420-does-ethanol-deserve-the-blame-for-rising-food-prices

Surface Air Temperature Increase 1960 to 2060
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20050111/01_class-pic.jpg

Income Spent on Food 2006
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/images/commentarynews/incomefood.jpg

The World’s Growing Food-Price Crisis
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1717572,00.html

Rich country leaders wrestle with shaky world economy
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g…

Bento boxes are the cutest and prettiest things to have around. It makes lunch time colorful and it definitely whets your appetite when you know you have a little ornamental box waiting for you with a bunch of goodies inside. I bought myself a nice bento box for work and every evening, I would fill it up and refrigerate my food for the next day.

The best thing about bento boxes is that it gives you portion control, which is definitely a health plus for those who are watching their weight or is just sick of the MSG and salt laden food out there.

And I found an awesome site where you can buy bento boxes and its accessories called Cooking Cute!

The site even gives you tips on how to pack your food into these lunch boxes as well as what food you should avoid :)

Check out this Bento Basics video by a girl I found on Youtube:

Have you ever eaten hamo? May it be cooked into a rich broth or barbequed, it is not food for the squeamish.

Hamo is essentially pike eel to the Western world. In Japan, hamo is a delicacy that is popular around the Kansai region, particularly Kyoto. To prepare hamo, you need a chef that is skilled at eels for the this slippery sea creature. Do not mistaken hamo for the common unagi, as hamo is smaller and slender and is prepared either broiled, deep-fried or in soups.

Do you have an eel recipe you would like to share?

I am sure you’ve had some very delicious Japanese food with Octopus? You can buy octupus pre-prepared and cooked in any Japanese store. However, preparing it yourself maybe a little daunting. Where do I make the incision is the most frequently asked question. This video has the answer to your Tako preparations :)

Please ignore that George Micheal background music, it’s ….inappropriate but god knows why they put it there. Otherwise the video is a helpful one :)

I must say the video was very well made, in terms of functionality and usefulness it’s very helpful :P

Dango (団子, Dango?) is a Japanese dumpling made from mochiko (rice flour), related to mochi. It is often served with green tea.

Dango are eaten year-round, but the different varieties are traditionally eaten in given seasons. Three to four dango are often served on a skewer. One variety of dango from Hokkaidō is made from potato flour and baked with shoyu (soy sauce).

But I would like to focus on the Mitarashi Dango, which is Japanese dumpling soaked in soya sauce, sugar and salt syrup. It’s like a perfect marriage of sweet and savory and I can see why it’s loved so much. However, to the western palate, it might take a bit of a getting used to. If a taste for salty-sweet is acquired, you’ll find Mitarashi Dango to be an excellent dessert.

I found an excellent recipe for dango from one of my favorite food blogs of all time: Just Hungry.

If you wanna know how to make Mitarashi Dango at home, follow this link: Mitarashi Dango, rice dough dumpling with sweet salty sauce.

There’s always a way of eating sushi, such as making it look like a teddy bear:

Cutest thing i’ve seen and quite inspiring too. :)

One of the most monumental scene in Memoirs of a Geisha was when Chiyo met the Chairman for the first time. It was also the first time she tasted cherry flavored shaved ice. The picture of her savoring that ball of snow flavored red is sweetness. Kakigōri is a Japanese ice dessert that’s popular during hot summer days. We can anticipate eating Kakigōri really soon, that is if the weather would stop acting unpredictably cold again.

Popular flavors include: strawberry, cherry,lemon, green tea, grape, melon, “blue-hawaii” sweet plum, and colorless syrup. Some shops provide colorful varieties by using two or more different syrups. To sweeten Kakigōri, condensed milk is often poured on top of it. It is nearly identical to a snow cone but can have a slightly rougher consistency and a spoon is almost always used. The traditional way of making kakigori involves using a hand cranked machine to spin a block of ice over an ice shaving blade. However, electric ice shavers are most often used; though street vendors can still be seen hand-shaving ice blocks in the summer.

Make your own shaved ice: Kakigori with poached apricot
In addition to the streets, Kakigori is also sold in festivals, convenience stores, coffee shops, restaurants; during the hot summer months Kakigōri is sold virtually everywhere in Japan. Some coffee shops serve it with ice cream and sweet bean paste. Convenience stores may also sell it already flavored and packaged similar to ice cream.

I really like her, she simplifies Japanese food to the shreds for the home cooks. As usual, her tuna donburi looks delicious and simple enough to make.