quote:

A Dying Man’s Lost Recipe Made His Daughter a Multimillionaire

Kushikatsu Tanaka shares surged after going public. Tanaka gave all the credit to her father’s secret memo.

https://getpocket.com/explore/...source=pocket-newtab

Kushikatsu is awesome! And indeed, hard to get right. Where I used to live, there was one restaurant that we went to where I loved the kushikatsu, other places were just as likely as not to be good. I didn't realize it wasn't as well known outside of Western Japan though, that's interesting! Although I shouldn't be surprised, so there are a lot of East-West food differences in Japan.

One example is miso soup, which I think in the US, people just think of it as one thing. Actually there are tons of different ways to make it, different ingredients and, crucially, different kinds of miso to use.

In Western Japan, "white miso" is most common, whereas in Eastern Japan, it's "red" miso (neither are really white or red) and then there's also "mixed" miso (and I'm not really sure if that's actually red and white mixed together or something else).

And then there probably tons of types of miso that I don't know about!

Thanks, wtg, now I'm hungry!

I always like a rags-to-riches story. They're inspiring.

Now I'd like to eat kushikatsu. There are probably lots of other Japanese foods I'd like as well. I only know of one distinctly Japanese restaurant in my area and it's not too near my home so I've only eaten there a handful of times.

My wife and I occasionally shop in an Oriental market that she was introduced to by two Korean ladies that were her students in an English as second language class that she taught as a volunteer. However, without the help of someone knowledgable with the various foods, we're pretty limited in experimenting with unfamiliar products.

There are a few Korean restaurants in this region and one that is located in a small town has a particularly good reputation. My wife went there with her two students and they guided her through the menu to some very good food that they identified as authentically Korean. I wish I had such a guide for some other ethnic restaurants.

Big Al

quote:

without the help of someone knowledgable with the various foods, we're pretty limited in experimenting with unfamiliar products.

That's how we are with Korean food. I know maybe 1-2 things by name, so could order them in a restaurant. But when we've visited H-Mart, the massive Korean supermarket chain, we never really know what to buy and just end up buying the Japanese things they have in the store!

Don't know if it's authentic Korean food, but we love japchae, aka Korean noodles.

https://www.yummly.com/recipe/...lass-Noodles-1455943

https://kimchimari.com/japchae/

I'm pretty sure I've had that in a restaurant.

Have you ever had chijimi (there may be another name for it) it's like Korean ... savory pancakes? Super yummy!