offbeat

About some weird 'diet' pills labeled Japanese, even though they aren't from Japan at all, plus some REAL Japanese diets that are popular now.

Filed under:  offbeat japan health and weight loss

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About how I ended up in a French hospital, and how it's been. Some angst and pretty dodgy looking food pics follow.

Filed under:  offbeat philosophy france essay hospital

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Those famous realistic plastic food models aren't just used for restaurant displays in Japan. They are used for dietary and nutritional education in hospitals as well.

Filed under:  lighter offbeat japan health and weight loss hospital

If there's one thing I don't like about Japan, it's that everywhere you go, there are constant reminders to do this, don't do this, go here, go there, and so on. When you're going up or down an escalator, a high pitched polite (usually female) voice tells you to watch your step, hold your kid's hand, stay within the lines, don't put pointy things like umbrellas between the steps, and whatever you do, don't get your long hair caught somewhere (!). On a bus, not only does that high-pitched female voice (probably not the same voice, but they sound alike) tell you what the next stop and the next next stop are, but the bus driver usually repeats that information right after it's been announced. The female voice also tells you to not stand up until the bus comes to a full halt, don't smoke at the bus stop, give up your seat to the elderly...blah, blah blah, every 3 minutes. And as for the trains... it's enough to drive one batty. You just have to tune it out, if you can. I'm sort of trained to listen to and obey public transportation announcements (since they actually mean something in Switzerland) so I'm having a hard time.

Which somehow brings us to today's Cool (or in this case, wacky) item: Mammoth meat snack!

Mammoth meat snack!

Filed under:  offbeat snacks japan

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(Note: Your responses to the question posed below may be translated for a Japanese blog! Read on...)

Even though I'm Japanese, I do think that we eat an awful lot of food that could be considered to be odd. One of them is the infamous fugu, or puffer fish. Fugu's main claim to fame, besides its extraordinary appearance (it puffs itself up to make itself look a lot bigger to predators), is that its skin and organs are highly poisonous. Nevertheless, it's considered to be a great delicacy in Japan. It's now fugu season in fact, so many people are tucking in to fugu sashi (fugu sashimi), fugu nabe (fugu hotpot), and so on.

Filed under:  japanese fish offbeat japan

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iSnack 2.0? Really? Were they serious?

Filed under:  offbeat food news

A bit about Air Yakiniku, an odd slice of Japan.

Filed under:  essays offbeat japan humor

earlobe.jpgDuring a bout of procrastination, I came across this post on Serious Eats about making udon from an translated-to-English Japanese cookbook classic, Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji. You know this is a classic, since the original forward for it was written by M.F.K. Fisher! Anyway, the author of the Serious Eats post gets quite excited about the instructions in the recipe (which apparently calls for egg yolks...more about this later) saying to knead the dough until it's the texture of an earlobe.

Actually, the earlobe (mimitabu 耳たぶ) is used quite commonly in Japanese cooking. What? you say? Well...here's how.

Filed under:  japanese offbeat

Cherry tomatoes

Scene from a market.

Filed under:  offbeat vignettes
Keep reading Cherry tomatoes →

Spring Onions

Filed under:  vegetables offbeat

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