Masako's vegetable tempura with carrots from our garden.For the last few weeks I've been working on and off a vegetarian diet and constantly amazed how many meals you can put together without meat and it has yet to be a problem finding vegetarian grub for lunch downtown. A few favourites would include Souped Up which server at least one vegetarian and sometimes vegan offering daly, and I'm totally hooked on the simple yet delicious black bean burritos from IMHO one of the best eateries in Victoria, Hernande'z Taqueria. Both of which are located in St. Andrew's square between View and Yates street.

I'll have to get up a bit earlier to make the tortillas from scratch but I'm determined to make the Sin City Breakfast Taco this weekend.

I picked up this bento box from Muji last winter while in Japan. It looks small but I never seem to go hungry when bringing this and a piece of fruit on the side, and on the days when I need a bit extra I pack my stacked thermal kit (not the same one but close) that holds rice, miso soup, meat and veg in their own separate container. It packs more than enough food then again weighs as much as a large infant so I'm reluctant to lug it to work everyday.

Red and white scarf resembling marbled fat. On the scarfs reverse side, the colours are inverted making it a leaner cut of bacon. $35 from Shopsin's General Store.I love bacon. Salty, smoked, striped with marvelous fat. Doesn't get much better than that. Bacon's just one of those things that makes everything taste better, like melted cheese, and according to Masako, soy sauce, but I tend to disagree with that one.

Pizza Margherita is becoming a regular favourite at our house. The basic sauce consists of fresh tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Topped with mozzarella, parmesan, field mushrooms and fresh basil from our garden. I find not adding any grease producing meat as topping makes the cheese brown earlier than it should so to fix that drizzle a little olive oil on top of the pie before putting it in the oven.

I just started writing Delish, a new food based weblog to, among other things, help document my journey towards becoming a better cook. I'll be posting reviews, links, and other culinary bits and pieces I find worthy. And apologies for the bland site design, I'm just getting used to Wordpress.

Those who have not discovered the culinary delight that is Tabasco on pizza are surely missing out, or, depending on how you look at it, might be doing themselves a favour as now I can't eat pizza without a bottle of Tabasco or habanero sauce within arms reach. My tastebuds are probably beyond repair but it just tastes so bland without that extra kick. In Japan most pizza delivery shops included little packages of Tabasco and occasionally jalapeno sauce with the napkins. According to Wikipedia this practise is also popular in Austria, Norway, Germany and parts of Ontario, Canada.

I have fond memories of my first canned coffee shortly after arriving in Japan. My mother-in-law stocked the fridge with a few cans of Georgia Emerald Mountain Blend, and not long after she noticed I took a liking to it a case appeared above the laundry machine. Brewing a pot of coffee should not be on any sane persons to-do list during a hot Japanese summer afternoon, so those cold cans of Georgia, along with Mild Sevens, became close, close friends that summer. I had an on-again off-again relationship with the stuff. On when a newly designed can or brand showed up in stores and vending machines, and off when my body started sending me those little tell-tale signs that if I kept consuming the coffee-flavoured beverage bad stuff would follow.

By far the best, and only place to my knowledge for can coffee reviews can be found in Kuhaku and in the Chin Music Press blog Coffee Mondays. Now Chin Music Press brings us Canned Coffee. They've got posters, an e-book, and most importantly an all-in-one RSS feed.

A funky little cafe on the edge of Chinatown serving up fresh baked goods and tasty espresso drinks. And if you get a chance try the sourdough.

I miss the superb bento selection at my old 7-11, but they've got bawls here! I've been trying to get my hands on that stuff for years. Not too sweet, perfect amount of carbonation and best of all -- highly caffeinated. Now if it was just half the price we could get some work done.

After what feels like my longest streak of did-I-really-just pay-5-dollars-to-rent-this piece-of-crap-movie, we finally watched something good in Crash. A heavy, heavy emotional film full of racial stereotypes (some of which I didn't know existed) and intertwining human relationships that I could not recommend more.

I'm really loving the new album from Death Cab for Cutie - Plans. The video for the single Soul Meets Body reminds me of The War of the Worlds, minus the vaporization of bodies and the pending extermination of all human life. All those musical notes coming out from under the ground and slowly dying off in the end, and the acting is, well, you decide. I've noticed a lot of talk about this major label release being a more refined, cleaner sounding album and while I agree and enjoyed previous Death Cab efforts I find the criticisms misplaced cool-kid whining.

I've been spending large chunks of my weekday afternoons writing at Serious Coffee downtown. Fairly priced good strong coffee, friendly enough staff and free Wi-Fi. Starbucks can't compete with that, although I do prefer the Starbucks decor to Serious Coffee's grandkids-have-sticky-hands upholstered seats with the plastic still on.

Tyler Florence is a fucking genius, or maybe I'm just hungry. We've made these twice now adding more red curry paste each time for the desired burn, and man are they good.

Separate your chicken wings into two pieces, discard the tips. Toss in olive oil, salt and pepper and bake on sheet for 40 or so minutes until crispy at 475º. Meanwhile mix together 6 tablespoons of melted butter, a tablespoon (or more) of thai red curry paste, a tablespoon of honey, the juice and zest of one lime, and a teaspoon of soy sauce. Shake cooked wings in sauce and tuck in with an icy cold Singha and bowl of steamed jasmine rice.

There are still a few things on our wish list to purchase before we leave Japan. Things we'll have a hard time finding once in Canada, new rice cooker, some of Frankie's favourite snacks and a few other small appliances.


On Saturday we picked up three cook books, one Chinese with plenty of detailed step-by-step photos for myself and two more by Japanese semi-celebrity chef and illustrator KENTARO (if you google his name use katakana). The first is the more practical of the two packing 190 pages of his brand of simple, easy to cook Japanese comfort food recipes. The other, and nicer of the two as far as books go is Kentaro's Table. Released this year Kentaro's Table is a mix of recipes and beautiful food photography along side collages and snapshots from his childhood. Here's a video of him introducing the book. I don't find his recipes overly inspiring or creative, very basic, something you could easily expect to see cooked on a daily basis in a Japanese home, which is part of the appeal for us.

More on his publisher's site and his weblog.

I'm looking to expand my NetNewsWire feed subscriptions, and interested in what you guys think are some of the best food related weblogs. I'm primarily interested in weblogs focusing on cooking/recipes, and nice photography is always a plus.

I swung by Seijo Ishii on the way home tonight and thought I'd sample some new beer. We always have on hand about a case of whatever the co-op is selling that week, normally Asahi Super Dry or Kirin Ichiban Shiburi. Masako drinks about as much of that as I do. And Frankie, when asked what she wants to drink for dinner she never fails to request a beer. 17 years to go kid.

Seijo Ishii's import beer section seemed to have shrunk since my last visit, so selection was limited. My eye's gravitated to the bottom shelf display of Kirin Heartland in large label-less green bottles. And keeping with the green bottle theme I grabbed a bottle of Rolling Rock. I must have seen that in a movie before because the bottle looked familiar.

First the Rolling Rock Extra pale. To be fair, I will try my best to evaluate the highs and lows of this product while keeping an open mind regarding my own individual taste. That said,

It tastes like watered down piss. Honestly the worst beer I've ever had the misfortune to have ingested intentionally.

Moving right along to Heartland. Brewed by Kirin, Heartland comes in an old style 500 ml bottle with what I'm guessing is an oak tree logo in the center. I had no idea Japan had a heartland, or oak trees so already it's off to a questionable start. Their website says it's made with 100% barley malt and 100% aroma hops. Well I'm with them on the gentle part. A mid to high level of carbonation, fruity notes and the sweetness is defiantly there. Drinkable, but too light and sweet for my liking. Then again any Japanese beer not labeled Happoshu is worth at least one try in my book.

I've had bowls of ramen to die for, and others that honestly wouldn't pass North Korean soup kitchen standards. Pho on the other hand, we've only had at a few restaurants so the standard isn't set as high. This makes having noodle soup at home a cinch, granted you don't mind using seasoning cubes. In the stock I toss in a tablespoon of fish sauce (nam plaa), sliced chicken, prawn, and top the bowls off with finely chopped green onions, bean spouts with lemon, and heathy amounts of chili sauce. The chili sauce being my favourite part, adding little drizzles throughout the meal. And if you're feeling crazy try using rice *and* egg noodles. Doesn't disappoint.

Tonight I made a damn fine chicken tikka masala. This was my first time making Indian cuisine (Indian/British fusion). A dish created "when one of the world's greatest cuisines found itself confronted by a British palette unused to anything spicier than table salt." Pretty soon we're going to need a real spice rack.

Gotta say, I'm pretty damn impressed with what I've been able to pull out of the kitchen lately, or rather my enthusiasm in the challenge. Enthusiasm that started shortly after Frankie traded in her mashed bananas and prunes for big people food. Last night was a spicy eggplant penne, the night before slow roasted chicken legs with sweet basil and cherry tomatoes, and the list goes on.

Under the proper conditions, enough light, a steady hand, and a bit of creativity my mobile phone can produce some nice photos.

This is not one of them. Just me lunch.

The average consumer is bombarded with something like 3000 advertisements a day, so I've always wondered why people would want to add to the noise and tag their own personal space (this case websites) with more advertising. I don't care if google allows you to customize the text and border colours of their ads, it still looks crappy, and the financial gain just can't be worth it. And I've also thought it kind of lame when people use paypal links on their sites asking readers to help pay for hosting costs and whatnot. I mean, I could think of a million other places to donate money other than someone's hobby of maintaining a personal website. That goes double for websites that just plain suck.

But on the other hand...

If you're absolutely bent on sending some of your hard earned funds my way I'll only say no once. After that I'll just have to recommend you buying me one of these (in silver please). And if you can pony up another $300 we'd also accept the larger Francis! Francis! X1 model. I'll even throw in the honour of my presence for an espresso beverage of your choice, though you must promptly finish your drink and leave, no chit chat. I'm a busy man, and I we couldn't possibly have much to talk about.

This morning we met up with some friends for a picnic in the park. One friend was entertaining his ex-boss for the day, the head sommelier for the Maldives Hilton in town to help put together a wine list for the Tokyo Hilton. Yes, they fly people around the world to put together wine lists. I'm as shocked as you are. Conversation about wine petered out before we got to the park when I jokingly commented on the AM PM's remarkable selection of chilled Suntory reds, which didn't go across as well as I thought it should have. In fact, if anyone has a time machine they don't mind me borrowing, I could really use it for the day. I promise not to alter any major events in history, but I would like to go back to my wine comprehension class and actually pay attention this time.

Looking for recipes to use up my hummus tonight I decided on making paprika sirloin steak wraps. I find cooking out of any western cook book in Japan is all about learning how to substitute. The Cook's Thesaurus is your friend.

Anyway back to the wraps. Rub your your sirloin steak with extra virgin olive oil and score each side. Add a teaspoon of paprika, pinch of sea salt, ground pepper and finish cooking to your liking. In a separate bowl chop up a ripe tomato with some arugula (I substituted for mizuna) and mix with extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice. Warm up tortillas in a pan, slice up the steak and serve all together with soured cream and hummus.

After reading about the Starbucks Delocator on BoingBoing last night I was going to write something about all the Anti-Starbucks rhetoric but this morning see Kurt Easterwood already did a splendid job of laying out what I wanted to say. He quotes the delocator.net Why Delocate? page and goes on to say: Kurt also links to Adam Greenfield's Anti-Anti Starbucks/Ikea rant Ikeaphobia and its discontents, an article I've pointed quite a few people to in the past. I certainly don't see anything wrong in searching for alternatives, or even independent alternatives but criticizing a successful business like starbucks for "making all of the stores identical: the same beverages, food, ambient sounds and smells" seems to miss the point why people frequent them, consistency. And in Japan that also means a smoke free environment, which is worth the price alone. A completely smoke free environment is a rarity in Japan and while other businesses changed their policies to allow smoking (Subway I'm looking at you) Starbucks didn't budge keeping every store smoke free.

Personally I'd like to see more energy focused on the origins of the raw product itself. We don't all have the privilege of living in uber-progressive centers where Fair Trade, organic or shade grown coffee is readily available, so for the rest of us who don't want to buy Folgers and care where our coffee comes from a Starbucks is a welcome sight.

I had my first taste of hummus during Christmas last year, and I've been putting off making it at home ever since. I made a small batch tonight using one can of beans, and the way we eat it (spread very thin on toasted bagels and other breads) it should last us 6-8 months. Hummus is very simple to make and although everyone seems to have their own recipe the main ingredients remain the same: garbanzo beans, tahini (sesame seed paste, nerigoma in Japan), garlic, lemon, olive oil and a few other spices.

Apologies go out to my fellow commuters, garlic's now on the breakfast menu.

I've got a few items that don't quite deserve dedicated entries so I'll try to sum them up in one posting.

Trying to listen to a badly ripped version of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States: Highlights from the 20th Century (read by Matt Damon) on the train was the tipping point in convincing me to search for replacements to the standard iPod ear buds. I settled on a pair of Sony MDR-EX71SL in-ear type earphones. They do a great job of blocking out noise on the train, as well as keeping bodily noises in, or rather amplify them in my head. On the way home from work last week I ran into a KFC between stations for a quick dinner, paused the music and removed one ear phone to place my order. As I ate my twister I kept the music paused, put the right earphone back in my ear (for symmetry) and was amazed by the how loud the crunching, gulping, swallowing and breathing sounds got in my head. It was like putting your ear to the abdomen of a pregnant dog.

I made a great vegetarian chili last night, then added ground beef. It's sad how my brain is trained to be suspicious of meatless dishes. I keep telling myself next time I'll leave the meat out. I don't know what's stopping me as the beef really doesn't add much to the dish in the way of flavour (tabasco, chilies, paprika and cayenne take care of that).

Developed my first roll in many months on Saturday. I haven't developed as much as I would like due to the fact that until now I've had to wait until Frankie has gone to bed before pulling out the chemicals. With better planing, quick and thorough cleaning as I went, I was able to finish one roll, from mixing chemicals and loading the tank to hanging the negatives to dry in less than 15 minutes, or the time it takes Frankie to watch her inai-inai-ba DVD.

I buy and read books in quick rapid spurts followed by droughts where I systematically forget about the books I've bought and start adding more to my wish-list. I received the latest shipment from Amazon in the mail yesterday and will post on one of them shortly.

A chocolate sculpture of the Mona Lisa from Tokyo's Salon du Chocolat. They had a few other pieces on display including a miniature five-story pagoda and a women's dress, all made out of chocolate.

I just had what might very well have been the best cup (actually 3) of coffee I've ever had. No joke. I bought a 3 cup Bialetti Moka Express pot and a tin of Illy espresso coffee today and am in awe of how damn good it was. When the water started perking through the bed of grinds and bubbling into the top of the pot I took a deep breath and bit my lip in anticipation. Well worth the short wait.

I've been wanting to buy an espresso machine for some time now but our kitchen badly lacks the required counter real estate for even the smallest machine, so a moka express seemed to be the next best thing for espresso-like coffee at home. Looks pretty cool on the shelf too, puts my coffee press to shame in terms of style that's for sure. If you like thick strong coffee but don't want to invest in a proper espresso machine the moka express (stovetop espresso) is defiantly the way to go.

With my girls at the in-laws I stopped in Machida after work for some dinner and a little shopping. I had the philly cheese steak sandwich up at the bar and obtained my monthly fat and secondhand smoke intake in one sitting. After being fully discouraged by the high price of Japanese DVDs, and drooling all over the Hasselblad case at Yodobashi, I made my way to Seijo Ishii.

I'm like a kid in a candy store there, which is not far from the truth (I can be childish at times and they do have an extensive candy aisle). Seijo Ishii has one of the most impressive selections of cheese, wine, import beer and balsamic vinegar this side of Tokyo. I walked out with a jar of blueberry jam, some tim-tam chocolates and a few cans of Bass Pale Ale. Rounded the evening off with a double espresso and slice of New York cheesecake in perfect seats for viewing the drama that is the train station in the evening.

On the way to lunch today we eyeballed a new storefront bakery selling melon-pan (melon bread). I'd always thought of melon-pan as a children's snack but seeing as most people in the growing line were old enough to vote or smoke cigarettes, or both at the same time, I had to see what all the fuss was about.

I'm not exactly sure how to categorize melon pan. The top layer is made of sugar glazed cookie dough giving it a sweet crunch, and directly under the cookie crust is soft warm bread, like a dinner roll. Another reason why I had yet to try melon-pan was my false misconception that there would be baked chunks of cantaloupe melon thought-out, a not so appetizing prospect, similar to others in the hyphenated pan family (curry-pan, choco-pan, cream-pan, an-pan). Being wrong is delicious.

My friends, the future is now. The new Jones Holiday Pack will include these 5 new flavors. Turkey & Gravy Soda, Cranberry Soda, Mashed Potato & Butter, Green Bean Casserole, and Fruitcake Soda. And as if they didn't cover all the bases, you can even submit your flavor suggestions via a form on their site. [via metafilter]

Last night, leaving Fran at her grandparents, Masako and I went for Korean yaki-niku. This used to be a monthly event, but ever since Frankie was born we've decided against bringing her as the glowing red-hot center of the table tends to attract little hands.

Gyu-kaku is known as one of the cheaper chain yaki-niku restaurants in Japan, yet it's decor is nice enough to be considered an acceptable date spot. The food is always beyond delicious, plates of marinated karubi, rosu and tongue with lemon, ishiyaki bibimba and of course kimchi. We always leave satisfied, full of meat and draft beer, but the most enjoyable part of the evening comes from the actual ritual of cooking your own food. Barbecuing meat, taking in the smoke and heat all the while enjoying drinks and good conversation. It's all the fun of a backyard barbecue in a comfortable booth for two in non-smoking.

Kirin Guarana tastes like fizzy cough syrup for long distance truckers, only worse. With my stomach churning, I started to worry after a google search yielded only what seem to be sightings of the drink in vending machines and nothing from official from Kirin. Thinking the beverage might have been recalled for whatever reason, I brought the empty can home as evidence, and was relieved to learn a message on the side of the can read that it was only meant for sale in Hokkaido.

Guarana is said to have three times more caffeine than the coffee bean, but let me warn you that three cups of coffee are needed to get the wretched taste of this stuff out of your mouth.

Run cold water over hard boiled egg for about a minute.

Poke a tiny hole in the end with the air pocket.

Poke another hole in the opposite end, making sure to break the thin egg membrane between the shell and egg.

Put the end that had the air pocket to your mouth, and with your lips sealed over the egg, blow hard until you feel the shell expand.

I usually let boiled eggs sit in cold water for a few minutes, but when I'm in a rush the shell always seems to stick to the egg creating an embarrassing mess. And obviously, due to hygienic concerns, only shell your own eggs with this method.

Right after posting this last entry I see our coffee machine (Delonghi CoffeeCappuccino) is struggling to produce even half a cup --- sputtering, coughing, creating plenty of steam but little in the way of beverage.

Shocking news in USA Today, "Hello, my name is Mark and I have a problem." "Helllo Mark."

But don't flush your stash down the toilet yet.
and this final encouraging piece of advice,

Curry, and I don't mean Coco Ichiban, might just be the ultimate cure-all health food. Curry is said to fight cancer, Alzheimer's, and now the Guardian reports curry leaves may help control diabetes. I'd bet a few hundred yen that, with some selective googling, I could find a good Indian curry might also cure male impotence, asthma, whooping cough, pink eye and today's lunch. Now if scientists could enlighten us about the health benefits of tandori chicken, and garlic nan I'd never feel guilty again.

Every single time a commercial for Qoo comes on Masako tugs on my sleeve and in her best voice belts out a, "Qoooo---". She loves the ads but oddly never had it before and doesn't plan on buying the drink anytime soon. You can watch the latest commercials here, and can also choose not to buy Qoo at any conbini or vending machine that sells sweetened fruit drinks that, thanks to consumer protection laws, can not be referred to, or labeled as juice.

A brief history in [COLORS 62: Drugs] on "the world’s most popular, socially sanctioned psychoactive drug." Keep reading to learn how to put a friend in the hospital with shakes and a heart rate of 140 beats per minute with only one cup of Brazilian-Neapolitan-blend coffee.

On a trip to the basement of my office for some sort of bite-sized snack I witnessed a technician servicing the lonely and rarely used coffee vending machine outside the confectionary. He was refilling what seemed to be some kind of petroleum based product. Funny, I always thought toxic waste was removed from machines not refilled with it, but the coffee vending machine breaks all the rules ---not just the health department's.

What I saw when he moved aside simply can not be repeated. I don't have the time nor the vocabulary to explain the horror of what I witnessed. Let's just say that I've always steered clear of vending machines that add milk to your beverage on request, but after looking behind the curtain I'd advise the WHO to order immediate destruction of all these evil hot beverage machines.

I can't think of anything that would go better with curry then cheese, well maybe deep fried sausage. Coco Ichiban (pronounced: Coco Ichiban) is a chain Japanese curry shop and if at Burger King you can HAVE IT YOUR WAY® then at Coco you can HAVE IT PRETTY MUCH ANY GODAMN WAY YOU LIKE ® I say 'pretty much' because you probably couldn't ask for it to be served in your pocket or in your shoe, but then again I've never tried so I couldn't really say.

Coco Ichiban has got to have one of the most customizable menus on the planet, so much so that the back page of the eight panel menu lists five steps titled "How to Order". First you pick your meat, seafood, vegetable or miscellaneous. Choices range from menchi-katsu (battered deep fried hamburger), deep fried squid, cream filled crab croquette, eggplant or tofu which can only be classified as miscellaneous. Thirty-four choices in total, basically anything that can be thrown into the deep frier. Octopus, no problem. pickeled eggs, why not. Shoelace, sounds good. Next comes your choice of curry. If you don't specify then pork curry is the default "gravy" as they say in India, but you also have beef curry to choose from.

If you're one of those guys, and I say "guys" because I've never heard a woman say this, that loves really spicy food or rather likes taking about how they can stomach the rarest of chilies. You know the type, they can chow down on foods proceeded by the words "Suicide" or "5-Alarm" in which they need to sign a legal medical wavier to eat and the entire time brag about how "this is nothing at all, i've eaten much spicier". Meanwhile you can see the steam shooting from their ears, their tongue cracking like chapped lips in dry winter air and the waiter frantically hitting the 911 speed dial which happens to be labeled as one. If this describes you then you'll enjoy the next step of choosing your level of spiciness which ranges from 0 being the default level to 10 being the level in which hallucination is almost expected. As if this wasn't enough you can still pick from about fifteen different toppings like corn, garlic, scrambled eggs, bacon, kimchi or cheese.

With all the possible combinations available to me, I pretend to ponder the menu for a minute as if to impress the minimum wage high-school student behind the counter into thinking I'm making an educated well thought out decision, contemplating what a level two kimchi garlic omelet sprinkled with deep fried corn might taste like. A quick look at their menu would leave you to believe that pretty much anything goes in this place. If you wanted to try mayonnaise curry I'm confidant they'd throw a dollop in the frier for you and make up a price, in fact I think it's one of the toppings. With all this power at my fingertips I never fail to choose the same thing. "Creature of Habit.", my father used to jokingly say at our local chinese restaurant before predictably ordering his signature consomme soup and open-face hot beef sandwich. Me, I'm a chicken-katsu and cheese person but only two-hundred grams rice.

That reminds me. You can also customize the amount of rice to a hundred grams, 300g being the standard. If you can down 1,300 grams of rice, served in a plate the size of a small tire, in a certain time frame you get it for free. You get your polaroid on the wall and upon hearing your story of gluttony a small family in Bangladesh will curse the infidel pigs and their curry shop of unlimited combinations. When you die during your triple coronary bypass you get another polaroid on the back wall, except in this one you're not holding up your licked-clean plate with pride.

So when you're in Japan, alone and hungry (alone because it wouldn't be my first choice for a date) remember Coco Ichiban. You heard it hear first, or maybe second but I defiantly gave you more detail.

A couple times a week I try to eat an ultra-healthy dinner to make up for all the fatty foods I eat during the rush-rush Monday through Friday work week. Last night we made a really nice green salad - lettuce, cherry tomatoes, spinach, carrots, avocado, green peppers and baby cucumbers with a Japanese soy based (wafu) onion dressing topped with tuna. Sounds good doesn't it? Now wipe that drool from your chin.

While taking in large mouthfuls of salad and keeping up an interesting conversation with my one year old daughter regarding some mysterious thing only she could see on the ceiling and the baby picture on her Gerber brand jar of pureed prunes, I took a big bite out of my tongue.

I've never experienced that type of pain in that region of my face, or body for that matter. It would be the equivalent on a pain scale to being kicked in the privates. Yet on top of that you only have your self to blame where as it would be an incredible feat to bag oneself in the cojones.

I doubled over in pain, and out poured a mouthful of half chewed lettuce, cherry tomatoes, spinach, carrots, avocado, green peppers and baby cucumbers with a Japanese soy based onion dressing and a little bit of tuna. I rushed over to the kitchen sink and spit out blood, and for the rest of dinner I kept a wad of paper towel to the tip of my wounded tongue.

Speaking only in vowels I never did get a chance to ask Fran what she was talking about on the kitchen ceiling or if she recognized the Gerber baby from the hospital.

Flipping through the channels I landed on lala (ch. 44 for J-COM subscribers) and episode #004 of Jamie's Kitchen. Once every few months or so I stumble across Jamie Oliver's other show "Oliver's Twist" and make a mental note to watch or tape the next episodes, which of course I rarely do.

From the Food Network

From watching Oliver's Twist I came to believe that Jamie was this cool, easy going guy. Au contraire, as the shit-hits-the-fan in Jamie's Kitchen Oliver turns into a real hard ass with his crew of trainees. Mind you he's the kind you learn to respect as a teacher, and when complements come they mean that much more. I've never been a fan of "reality" TV shows but I�m patiently waiting for Japanese cable to air the next season of this one - Return to Jamie's Kitchen. Here�s a commercial (stunt double?).

I'm a real picky eater, even when it comes to desert. I'm not a big fan of maple walnut ice cream so it would be safe to say that raw horseflesh ice cream with "real raw chunks of meat inside" would be off my list. Or how about Oyster, Garlic, Whale, Ox Tongue, or Sesame Soybean and Dried Kelp ice cream? Tempting, but no thanks.

These and 16 other "mouth watering" exotic ice cream flavors are for sale at Ice Cream City in Namco Nanja Town in the Sunshine 60 building in Tokyo's Toshima-ku. But don't all go at once, as they might sell out of their famous Lettuce and Potato Ice Cream and then you'll just have to settle for plain old chicken flavor.

My rss reader tells me I'm not the first to post this. Oh fish sticks, thought I had a scoop.

A food-marketing slogan adapted from the south pacific cannibal's own "You eat what you are". Marketing analysts dismissed trying to adapt other cannibal catch phrases such as "Mmmm… man-flesh!" , "My neighbour, it's what's for dinner." and, “Caucasian, the other white meat. ”

As a side note the Atkins marketing people declined our request for an interview. ;-)

How do you politely ask to see the legend diagram in the bottom of the box mapping the chocolate shape to the filling type, that is without offending the person making the offering of chocolate?

Well, I froze under pressure and now stuck with a chocolate with some sort of creamy lemon filling. I think I’ll leave it on my desk for someone to steal along with a small but growing pile of senbei, manjyu and individually wrapped soy based treats.