jueves, mayo 31, 2007

Las Galletas Danesas

Llevo un par de días desayunando galletas danesas. Me traen buenos recuerdos de cuando era pequeño. Y están riquísimas. Ahora estaréis pensando que sí, que están buenas pero que tienen mucha mantequilla. O más probablemente que vaya entrada surrealista, ¿qué le ha dado a éste con las galletas danesas? Pues es que Luisja, el compañero de máster y becario de Dinamarca, vino a visitarnos a Japón desde esas gélidas tierras, y nos trajo a María, Iván y a mi una caja de galletas danesas a cada uno.

Ya me he comido media caja...


Y estos días cada vez que desayuno galletas danesas con leche me acuerdo de él, y he pensado que podría hacer una entrada en agradecimiento por esos regalos gastronómicos que suelen traer las visitas y que tanto le alegran el estómago y el corazón a uno.


Esto es un licor koreano que me ha traido Laura (becaria en Korea) y su prima Nuria, que están este fin de semana por Tokyo. Tiene buena pinta mmm.

Y atención a esto... pedazo kit de fabada asturiana que me trajeron Ricardo y Nacho:


¡Que grande! jajaj. Cuando lo vea Ric sé que me va a querer canear porque todavía no lo he preparado, pero que sepas que tengo apuntada la receta de la abuela y caerá en breve. Por su puesto le dedicaré una entrada propia como se merece. Y aquí un poco de jamón serrano que me enviaron mis padres. ¡Esto en Japón es oro rojo!


¡Muchas gracias a todos!

22 comentarios:

Anónimo dijo...

Veo que está extendida la idea de regalar cosas fungibles, y si se pueden comer mucho mejor. Son los mejores regalos, no dejan rastro y no tienes que buscarles un sitio en la casa para colocarlos. Y si son como los que nos muestras tienen el exito asegurado.

Ricardo dijo...

Atención: este comentario deberá ser leído con acento asturiano.

Adrianciño, pero como no te comes la fabadiña, qué pasa, que no te gustaaa. La próxima vez que vaya te voy'llevar unas manzanicas de las del lagar, que eso no hay que cocinálo.

Bueno, me alegra que en todavía las tengas por'álli, eh? Y come más, que estás mu flaquiño.

Besicos,

Ric.

Anónimo dijo...

Jeje. Cuando he visto la foto de la caja me han venido también recuerdos a mí de hace muchos años. Tengo unas cuantas cajas de esas guardadas por aquí llenas de utensilios de costura de mi madre. Son un clásico XD.

Anónimo dijo...

Siempre he dicho que tienes un corazón y unos sentimientos que muchos los quisieran tener ¡QUE GRANDE ERES! te acuerdas de todos, otra vez que me emociono....te pasa a veces lo que a mi que no sabemos expresar lo que sentimos, pero tranquilo que deja calado... y como siempre dije: "el que siembra recoge" Un besote muyyyyyyyyyyy grande
Ah¡ lo de la fabada mejor que la comais entre varios, debe estar buenisima, pero ¡ ojo¡ cuando la hagas estate delante, varias horas a fuego lento y lo bueno que se puede calentar y seguro que estar mas rica de un dia para otro
Sukina

Anónimo dijo...

Yo tengo en mi habitación una lata de fabada litoral desde hace dos meses, pero me da una pena abrirla...
No encuentro un momento tan importante como para merecerse ese manjar de dioses.

Por cierto Adrián el otro día comí en Shin-okubo con los koreanos pulpo vivo ¿Te animas?. No es como para desayunarlo todos los días, pero no esta mal. Tome videos del pulpito ahi peleando y bailando en el platito...

Núria dijo...

¿Has tenido alguna vez problemas en la aduana por querer pasar jamón, lomo y demás? Porque yo una vez le envié lomo a mi novio (en lonchas y al vacio) y le llegó, pero otra vez le envié jamón (también al vacio) y no lo dejaron pasar. Recibió las demás cosas pero el jamón se lo quedaron en la aduana "para incinerarlo", según ellos (me lo creo...). Ésto me hace dudar ante el momento de ir a Japón y llevar o no comida.

Anónimo dijo...

Nuria, si lo facturas y vuelas desde Europa no hay problema porque se fían de los controles de sanidad de occidente. Ilegal no es.

En el equipaje de mano o volando desde Asia no te lo dejan pasar porque lo desconocen y dudan de lo que es. Hay mucho tráfico de carne desde China y Korea...

Anónimo dijo...

¡Vaya manjares!!!. No se si es de agradecimiento o una indirecta para que cuando te visitemos te llevemos "goyas","jerez","alubias" "pata negra" y "...........
Tu nos dirás.
Eso, tú come que te estas quedando muy delgadito y empiezas a parecerte a la mayoria de los japoneses.
Muy bien Jacobo,¿Que hacemos? probamos a enviarle por correo certificado pata negra?

Anónimo dijo...

Si se trata de jamón serrano de pata negra, o en su defecto lomo ibérico lo que recomiendo es que me lo mandéis a mí.

Yo lo someto a mi particular control de cata, por si estuviese intoxicado y una vez certificada su calidad se lo doy a Adrián.

No se me ocurre mejor solución...

Anónimo dijo...

Mmm, pues esperate, que aparte de los chupa chups de marihuana de Amsterdam, el "vegamite" de Australia y los pastelitos portugueses, a lo mejor cuando te vea te doy tambien... una botella de ron cubano!! Que me han dado una beca para la Universidad de La Habana!!! A ver en que acaba la cosa!!Ayss!!

Kisses de la chirla!!

Anónimo dijo...

Ay! se me olvidaba!!, que recuerdos me traen a mi tambien esas galletas, o mas bien la caja, que por lo que he leido, es costurero nacional, y yo que pensaba que esas cosas solo eran Gomez...

Anónimo dijo...

Estaba enganchada a tu blog pero no me atravía a hacer comentarios, pero me voy a atrever a mandarte ARROZ CON LECHE de la abuela, para que lo cates y comercialices en Japón.
Pili Papelitos

Anónimo dijo...

Si algun dia voy, preparate que te llevo queso canario, gofio y papas junto con mojo picon. Veras lo que es un atracon. Jajajaja...si algun dia voy...

aDrIaN dijo...

Carmen, ¿como es eso de que te han dado una beca para Cuba? Oleee que crack!! :D A ver si sale, y yo que lo vea pero en directo que una visita allí cae fijo! Te llevaré té verde japonés y meron panes (pan con sabor a melon típico de aquí que está muy bueno).

A Nuria le aconsejaría que lo metiese entre la ropa y cuando le preguntn si lleva algo de comida diga que no. Se fian y no miran la maleta. Pero si les dices que sí, se lo quedan y lo "queman". Nosotros lo hicimos así y pasó sin problemas.

Lo del control de cata de Jacobo, no te procupes que creo que me arriesgaré a comerlo directamente jaja :P

Y el arroz con leche de la abuela... el postre más rico que existee, y cómo lo echo de menos :/
Y lo del mojo picón, yo creo que por aquí triunfaría ;) Un abraazo, y gracias a todos por los comentarios!

Anónimo dijo...

De Sobestrana:

Making Perfect Rice
The Japanese Way
Can Cost Big Bucks
Secret Involves a Vacuum,
Pressure and a Sprinkling
Of Toshiba's Diamond Dust
By YUKARI IWATANI KANE
June 4, 2007

More than four years ago, Japan's Toshiba Corp. began working on a top-secret electronic device. The $830 machine -- which some say resembles a tiny spaceship -- had a powerful vacuum pump to suck all the air out. It was designed to withstand 264 pounds of pressure, and it made use of silver and powdered diamonds. Production of the contraption, which takes about 30 people to assemble, started last year.

Toshiba's creation is the "Vacuum Pressure Cooker," the company's most expensive rice cooker ever. The pressure makes it possible to boil the water in the cooker at a higher temperature, thus making for fatter, shinier and sweeter grains of rice. The air-sucking filter creates a vacuum causing the rice to absorb water more quickly while it soaks. The silver and diamond dust are used to coat the cooking vessel so as to distribute heat evenly, so every grain of rice has the same texture.
[Photo]
Toshiba's vacuum-pressure rice cooker

"It was a lot of work," says Noriko Saito, one of Toshiba's chief rice-cooker developers. She test-cooked as much as 330 pounds of rice a week to determine the best cooking process, using both the vacuum and pressure technologies.

Such an all-out effort might seem bizarre for something as mundane as cooking rice, which is easy to do in a pot on the stove or in a $10 electric rice cooker of the sort used throughout the world.

But many Japanese, who are fiercely proud to be obsessed with rice, wouldn't dream of anything so simple. After all, they're connoisseurs. While Japan imports a small percentage of rice from countries such as the U.S. and China, most of it is processed into foods like rice crackers and soybean paste for soup. The vast majority of the rice that is eaten is grown in Japan, which has about 300 different varieties of rice, some with romantic names like "Dream of Stars" and "Love at First Sight." Rice aficionados subscribe to rice-of-the-month clubs and are willing to pay about $5.50 a pound for premium rice. Japanese consumers spend an average of $150 for their rice cookers, the highest price in the world.
RELATED STORY

• Rice Expert Judges High-End Cookers


To many Japanese, who consume nearly five times as much rice as Americans do and who consider it the most important part of a meal, it makes sense to go to great lengths to bring out the flavor of rice. Good rice cooked properly, is sweet, shiny and fragrant, experts say, and has just the right amount of stickiness to clump together between chopsticks.

"The ideal rice can be enjoyed first with the eyes, then with the nose and finally with the tongue as the sweetness spreads upon chewing," says Toyozou Nishijima, a certified rice expert in Japan.

Now, as Japan's economy improves and a boom in health-consciousness draws more favorable attention to traditional rice-centered meals, more Japanese consumers are willing to pay as much as $1,000 for ultra high-end rice cookers. In a $100 million a year market that has remained mostly flat for years, high-end rice cookers helped increase total rice-cooker sales by 12% last year, according to the Japan Electrical Manufacturers' Association. Manufacturers make these rice cookers only for the Japanese market because they say very few people outside of Japan appreciate the taste of plain, white rice enough to pay such high prices.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Japan's largest rice-cooker maker in revenue, touts a $600 rice cooker that promises to give rice exactly 2.4 times as much oligosaccharide -- a kind of sugar -- as its previous models. It uses a two-step soaking process and a steam function. Hitachi Ltd.'s $600 model has a Teflon-coated stainless bowl with gold flecks on the inside to seal in the heat and make extra-sweet rice. Zojirushi Corp. put artificial-intelligence technology into its rice cooker, to adjust the cooking process automatically according to seasonal differences in air and water temperature.

Toshiba's high-end rice cooker, which is available in two sizes, has sold more than 70,000 since its launch in September, making it the best-seller in the super-expensive category, according to an estimate by GfK Marketing Services Ltd., which tracks such data.

One recent convert is Yuki Ando, a 33-year-old housewife in western Japan. Ms. Ando bought Toshiba's vacuum-pressure device in December, after her husband complained that her old rice cooker -- which itself had cost $320 -- made the rice taste dry. Even a discounted price of $490 gave Ms. Ando pause, but she took the plunge because she knew she would be using the cooker every day. One favorite feature: the ability to keep rice warm in the pot for 32 hours in a vacuum that preserves flavor.

"I'm not exaggerating. The rice was shiny, standing upright and fluffy," says Ms. Ando. "My husband, who is particularly picky about rice, has never complained."

The latest rash of technology is a bit much for Mr. Nishijima, the rice expert. "Just because you pay 70,000 yen [about $575] or 110,000 yen doesn't mean that there's a drastic change in taste," says Mr. Nishijima, who adds that good rice can be made with the simplest of rice cookers if it is to be eaten right away. He thinks consumers might be too susceptible to hype. "It almost seems like anything is OK as long as it's expensive," he says.

Still, the race for incremental improvements in rice cooking is a serious business for companies like Toshiba. The company struggled with making the combination of pressure and vacuum technologies work because the two opposing forces put such a strain on the rice cooker that the lid would warp or crack. It wasn't until six months before launch that the company came up with a solution -- a heavy steel frame for the lid.

For the past 13 years, Ms. Saito, the rice-cooker developer, has been devoted to rice cookers and testing batches of rice. The 37-year-old sniffs each batch she makes for sweetness, checks its appearance for shine and fluffiness, and then cuts into it with a scoop to make sure the texture is the same all the way down to the bottom of the bowl. "If the rice is cooked badly," Ms. Saito says, "you might feel resistance or mushiness when you insert the rice scoop, but if it's cooked well, it goes in very smoothly."

The latest rice cookers have come a long way since Toshiba in 1955 sold the world's first automatic electric rice cooker and freed Japanese housewives from having to cook their rice in heavy pots on wood-fire stoves. The first machine simply had a heating element beneath the bowl in which the rice cooked. Since then, rice-cooker manufacturers have improved the cooking process, employing everything from a computer chip, induction heating coils around the bowl to make the rice cook evenly, and most recently pressure technology to make the rice more moist and fluffy.

While Toshiba's rice cooker has been the best-selling in the high-end category, it was actually one persistent developer at Mitsubishi Electric Corp. who triggered the race for upscale rice cookers with a $1,000 model with an inner cooking bowl made of graphite, which heats up quickly and evenly -- ideal qualities for making rice uniformly fluffy. But it was also fragile and porous. It took Mitsubishi two years to develop a bowl that was sturdy enough, and the bowl is still so difficult to make that the company can only make 50 of them a day.

Mitsubishi has sold more than 20,000 of the rice cookers since they went on sale in March 2006, twice as many as it had expected.

Toshiba's Ms. Saito says Mitsubishi's initial success was encouraging for the entire industry. "We only put so much money into research and development if rice cookers can't sell for more than 30,000 yen," or about $245, says Ms. Saito, who believes there's still room for improvements. "But if we know that consumers will pay 100,000 yen [$820], it changes the picture."

--Miho Inada contributed to this article.

Write to Yukari Iwatani Kane at yukari.iwatani@wsj.com

Anónimo dijo...

De Sobestrana:
Siento el tochazo anterior pero lo publica hasta el WSJ:


Dirección del aparato antes mencionado:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/P1-AI077_JRICE_20070603195624.jpg

Anónimo dijo...

High-End Cookers
In Blind Taste Test
By YUKARI IWATANI KANE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 4, 2007

TOKYO -- To find out whether high-end rice cookers truly make a difference in the taste of rice, The Wall Street Journal conducted a blind taste test under the guidance of ricemeister Toyozou Nishijima. Mr. Nishijima is one of about 4,000 rice experts in Japan who have passed a rigorous exam by the rice retailers' association Japan Rice Retailers' Association, testing their knowledge as well as their abilities to blend, store and polish rice correctly and identify rice varietals in a taste test.
[Toyozou Nishijima]
Toyozou Nishijima

Using four different rice cookers -- flagship models by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric as well as a three-year-old, less expensive Matsushita rice cooker I use at home for comparison -- we made two cups of rice, each with standard rice from a grocery store and soft water that was bottled domestically. A Mitsubishi Electric spokesman had warned us against using expensive European mineral water because its high mineral content gives a flavor that gets in the way of the taste of the rice.

When Mr. Nishijima arrived at our Tokyo office, we put four bowls of rice in front of him. At his request, we provided bottled soft water so he could cleanse his palate between tastings. We served the rice in bowls made of porcelain, a material that's free of any smells that could interfere with the scent of the rice.
RELATED STORY

• Making Perfect Rice the Japanese Way Can Cost Big Bucks


For each bowl, Mr. Nishijima first took a close look at the rice, smelled it, and then took a bite, chewing slowly. We didn't tell him which rice cooker brands we used, but he guessed the manufacturers of three of them correctly.

"The taste preferences of the developer that created the original concept for the rice cookers often translate directly into the manufacturers' characteristic," said Mr. Nishijima. Rice cooker developers agree that the traits are distinct enough for anyone who works with rice to discern.
[Rice cookers]
the companies; Yukari Iwatani Kane (old Matsushita)
Beginning lower left and moving clockwise: New rice cookers from Mitsubishi, Toshiba and Matsushita. At lower right, our reporter's three-year-old Matsushita.

The old Matsushita machine, for example, is a quintessential Matsushita rice cooker, he said. The rice was softer and increased sweetness with chewing, which was a characteristic that women tended to appreciate more because they tend to chew their rice for a longer time than men. Mr. Nishijima was impressed with the latest high-end Matsushita model because it made very sticky rice with a sweetness that could be tasted right away.

Mr. Nishijima said the rice made by Hitachi's high-end rice cooker was a little too sticky and lacked sweetness. "The rice has absorbed too much water, but it could be preferred by older people, who want softer rice," he said.

As for the Mitsubishi rice cooker, Mr. Nishijima said it made a harder rice that seemed a little dry. While it was difficult to taste the sweetness of the rice right after it cooked, the sweetness normally increases after several hours, he said.

Mr. Nishijima declined to say which rice he liked best because he felt taste was subjective, but he admitted to a preference for big grains that were cooked on the hard side. In Journal reporters' and editors' own taste test, opinions were split between a preference for the Mitsubishi and Hitachi models, although one person picked the old Matsushita rice cooker as his favorite.

Mr. Nishijima says there isn't a big difference in taste between a very expensive rice cooker and a moderately priced one. He says even rice made with a cheap $20 rice cooker will taste good rice if it's eaten right away.

Write to Yukari Iwatani Kane at yukari.iwatani@wsj.com
Direccion de imagenes:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/OB-AL032_JRICE_20070522163155.jpg

aDrIaN dijo...

O_o Estas cosas mándamelas al mail please, no las pongas en los comentarios pondioss. Estoy acabando otra entrada de Nueva Zelanda :D

Anónimo dijo...

Me ha parecido muy interesante tu web la verdad es que la he puesto de las primeras junto con ajapon o kirai :).

Me gustaría saber se puede contactar con el dueño del blog por mail?

un saludo a todos :)

aDrIaN dijo...

de que te guste :) Me puedes escribir a adri[punto]nv[arroba] gmail punto com. Saludos!

LuisJa dijo...

ya se que hará siglos de esta entrada... pero no podía dejar de decir... ¡De nada!

Anónimo dijo...

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