I’m looking for a nice Japanese Restaurant in North Kansas City near the Harrah’s Hotel. Never been to KC, but want to take my wife to a Japanese restaurant.

Tokyo Japanese Steak House
79 NW Barry Rd
Kansas City, MO 64155

It is the best Japanese restraurant in Kansas City North and is around 6 miles from Harrah’s. Across the street from the Metro North Shopping Mall.

Please be specific and to the point.

Shun Classic 8-Piece Knife Set with Bamboo Block
Price: $499.99

http://www.amazon.com/Shun-Classic-8-Piece-Knife-Bamboo/dp/B000ASHWRG

Shun knives are beautiful creations period. Since I’m Asian, I love the tradition look and feel of this Japanese knife. I love the beauty of the blade and the dark, polished, Pakkawood handle. The unique "D"-shaped, Wood handles are preferable. The shape fits my hand perfectly, and the wood does not get slippery when wet – providing a very secure hold. The steel is of utmost quality and sharpness. Do not put this blade into any old electric knife sharpener! Electric knife sharpeners are made to put one angle on any blade. These blades come with a 16 degree angle and you don’t want to be changing that angle. There are electric knife sharpeners that can sharpen these knives, but you’ll have to do some research and find out which ones can be a fit with these knives. I prefer to hone with a sharpening steel and manually sharpen with a stone if necessary (and I don’t see it being necessary to touch it to a stone any time soon). The blade is sharp straight off the factory and as Alton Brown says – it’s the sharpest straight out of the factory edge as he’s ever seen.

These knives are more expensive than most, but I think it’s definitely worth it. To have the sharpest, most beautiful knife around – it’s no contest. If you are on a budget, build your collection slowly. It’s been said that there are only 3 knives that are the absolute basics for any kitchen: A 8" Chef’s Knife (or some kind of similar, large-ish chef’s knife), a Paring Knife, and a Long Serrated blade for cutting bread and larger items. I would add a thin utility knife and a boning knife to that list next. Then I would add those "in-between" sizes as I get more money flow in. Now if you’re buying a whole set like this, you’ll get it all in one shot and it becomes a better deal than pieceing your collection together, one-by-one.

If you plan on spending any time in the kitchen, good kitchen knives are a definite must. Preparation is the bulk of cooking and when you have good knives, it cuts down on the danger of cutting yourself, it adds pleasure to the work, and it cuts down on prep time. Knives are also a very personal choice and it’s best to at least go to a store and try it out for yourself first. Shun Knives are designed by the Japanese, so remember – it’s designed for small hands. This makes it fit most women’s hands perfectly, but I’ve heard of guys with larger hands not like it so much and going back to the German knives. So definitely try it out. It’s a personal thing, it needs to fit you.

Why spend so much money on a knife? Well, if you spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and you almost always have to bust out a knife to prep a meal from scratch – why not use the best? Why spend that time with items that you love and brings you pleasure to use? Many times, it’s the small things that brings us the most pleasure in life, and I consider my Shun knives as one of those things. Having something so beautiful and yet so sharp and perfect – it makes my time cooking just that much more enjoyable.

Another good thing to know is that although the Shun Knives are usually offered for right-handers, you can get these knives for left-handers. You just need to find the guys who stock and sell those ones as they are less known, and less common.

I’m trying to compile a helpful list for Japanese students, so that they can do an easy conversion when working with American recipes, but I’m not sure how everything is measured . . . grams, I think, for solids, and mm for liquids . . . but if someone could give more detailed information in simple terms, I’d be much obliged.

Mostly I’m looking for the conversions and measurements necessary for a Japanese-speaking person using an American recipe.

Oh, boy, you’re in trouble. The Japanese often cook by weight, not volume. So while an American recipe would say "use 1 cup of flour" a Japanese recipe would say "1?? grams of flour."

When I’m re-working my recipes for Japanese students, I use my American measuring cups, and just weigh the ingredients on a metric scale. Then I make the notes right there on the recipe. This is probably the simplest way of doing things, although you’ll get weird weights this way.

I am an anime-obsession fangirl, and I’ve been looking for Japanese recipes. Does anyone know any or know where I can get some easily? And don’t say "allrecipes", I tried that.

Main Dishes:
Gyoza – Japanese style dumplings
Korokke – Japanese croquettes
Yakitori – Grilled chicken
Tempura – Deep fried seafood and vegetables
Udon – Japanese noodles
Soba – Japanese noodles
Okonomiyaki – Japanese pancake-pizza
Nikujaga – Meat and potatoes

Side Dishes:

Gomaae – Spinach with sesame dressing
Jakopi Tofu – Tofu with jakopi topping

I’m talking stuff like authentic Japanese bento boxes, sushi knives, clay pots and takoyaki pans basically. Here in Toronto, as much as possible, not in B.C. or anywhere else.

T & T super store.

Just the basic ingredients that could get me started with asian cooking. Like rice, frozen veggies, etc.

Glutinous rice (if you go to an asian market, feel free to get a chinese, korean, or japanese brand. They are slightly different, but would all meet your needs at this point. buy one that’s on sale)

Light soy sauce (as opposed to dark soy sauce. Light soy sauce is your regular, everyday soy sauce)
Fish Sauce
Sriracha (that famous chili garlic sauce)
Rice Vinegar
Sesame Oil
udon, soba, rice stick, and rice noodles (like vermicelli)
Bonito flakes
Ginger
Dried black mushrooms
scallions/green onions
Konbu seaweed
tofu
sesame seeds

Now, I strongly strongly suggest you find an asian market to get these ingredients from (or most of them). Just go to google and type in "asian market" and where you live (ex: asian market new york city). If the store owner speaks english (which he/she should, but you never know, haha), they might be able to help you. It might not seem like the brightest, neatest, busiest, most americanized store around, but that’s because it isn’t. You’ll probably see more freshly frozen fish than you ever have before, and of course, lots of yummy asian snacks. I know this wasn’t really the point, but going to an asian market is an amazing experience.

Also- you might want to invest in a small bag of miso paste (any color, I personally like red miso)- it lasts forever, you can make soup whenever you want by just stirring a tablespoon of it into boiling water, and it’s -semi- helpful for asian cooking. Plus, it lasts FOREVER. Haha, but really..

Also– if you ever want to get green tea, get it at the asian market. It’s far cheaper (try matcha), there are more choices/forms of it, and you can use it in some recipes.

Also—Buy some furikake at the asian store too. XD If you don’t like plain rice (or even if you do..heh), try it with some furikake sprinkled on top. It’s sooo good. Any flavor. I like the tamago one, but that might just be me. It usually comes in little glass jars.

specifically in San Francisco California… just looking for short courses. I’m really interested to learn, but i have no plans on being a chef. I just want to learn so that i can cook japanese food for my family and friends.

I know of a book that’s been getting really great reviews for the authentic style Japanese cooking. It’s so good that the Japanese population in the US couldn’t wait for the release of the book in the US. But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean it’s hard to get, because a lot of people don’t know about it.

The book is called "Harumi’s Japanese Cooking: More Than 75 Authentic and Contemporary Recipes from Japan’s Most Popular Cooking Expert"

The link is here: http://www.amazon.com/Harumis-Japanese-Cooking-Contemporary-PopularCooking/dp/1557884862

My mom and her whole network of friends all have a copy, some of them multiple copies (a backup?, yea I know strange).

I know you were looking for a course, so I apologize if my answer is not applicable. I still thought I would pass on the information. Goodluck!