On Dec 12, 9:21*am, George > wrote:
> On 12/11/2009 16:39, phaeton wrote:
>
> > Today I was browsing Vietnamese cookbooks at the Half Price
> > Bookstore. *I've recently decided that I need to return to my "I'm
> > going to adopt a more Asian diet" initiative. *The one I abandoned
> > last spring when I discovered that the Japanese pretty much don't cook
> > anything. There were exactly four* books. *In one of the books
> > (actually three, see below) mentioned marinating strips of beef, then
> > storing them uncovered on a wire rack in the refrigerator for 2 days
> > to dry them out. *In hotter seasons, you can do the same in the sun.
> > The result is like beef jerky, except you still have to cook it first.
>
> There are definitely lots of cooked Japanese dishes. This time of year
> "nabe" dishes are quite common. That would include sukiyaki, oden,
> mizutaki, shinjaga and tons of permutations of miso shiro.
>
> Then of course there are all of the things cooked as tempura, other
> dishes include saba misoni. Then various yakimono (pan friend or grilled
> dishes) such as yakitoti, okonomiyaki, yaki onigiri, gyoza etc.
>

You are correct George. I was being semi-facetious. Nonetheless, i
think you were one of the first to suggest the two books that I did
purchase about a year ago. Both of which are very nice and I do like
them. I haven't tried cooking anything out of them yet, but I intend
to pick them up for another look today.

-J