Miso

I got this e-mail from my English teacher.

I was wondering if you could explain to me what the different types of miso are used for?

I'm from the eastcorst of Hokkaido, so in my hometown we use Hokkaido white miso. It looks like Kyoto white miso but the taste is diffrent, it's salty. It's really weak for heat so put miso just before you stop cooking. Don't boil it.

Now I live in Aichi prefecture which is famous for red miso( single soybean miso) , and I had red miso soup here for the first time. I thought it was OK. I bought red miso and tried cooking by using it. I found several interesting things.

Red miso is good for
simple miso soup : deep fish soup stock is needed. The ingredients should be simple like tofu and leeks (Negi).
"Nabe" : Japanese pot dish. Red miso is strong for heating and teste become deeper.
"Nimono" : cook anything with miso instead of soy sauce.

White miso is good for
miso soup : with lots of ingredients like veggitables , potatos and fish or meat.
gratin, stew : add some white miso instead of salt
milk miso soup : it tastes like Japanese stew.

Either red , white or mixed (Awase) miso is good for
vinegar and miso dip : for seaweeds and seafood. I like "wakame" seaweed and boiled octopus with it. When you think it's too salty, add some sugar or "Mirin". (Mirin is sweet Japanese alcoholic seasoning, which is made by rice.)
Sweet miso dip : add some sugar or "Mirin", and put it on steamed vegetables.

I found the site which explain about miso. ( click here) This site has English information, too.(click here) But unfortunately it doesn't have many receipts.I'm gonna look for more information about miso.

to be continued...

booms in Japan

After I went to Korean school, I dropped by my favorite store as usual, and found one kind of stuffs were all sold out.

They were cinnamon.
No cinnamon stick, no cinnamon sugar, no cinnamon powder, nothing.

At once I knew that there must have had a TV program about cinnamon. People who watched it buy them at once and the shortage of them lasts several weeks or days. It sometimes happens. I think a lot of Japanese people really like something healthy or good for losing weight and they are affected a lot by media. they don't seem to care to spent tons of money for supplements or healthy diet. Some of them are occasionally doubtful about the information and expect little. They are not disappointed the result and don't complain it because they have already started new things.

To tell you a truth, I'm one of those people. I was really curious what cinnamon was for at the store, checked if another store was the same situation, and looked for the information on the net in home.

I tried several dieting but never succeeded except one. When I think about them now, I wonder why I wanted to try some of them. The only one which I could lose weight by was a step machine. Yes. I know I just need to work out but I can't, I hate exercise!!

I've heard this.
The happiest people are who always go on a diet but never succeeded, because they can keep dreaming.

That's me.