Spherical Ice, Etc.
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Whenever I get out of town for a weekend, I do some minor shopping. Not at designer stores. Not for clothing, usually. Not for toys or even omiyage. Lately, it’s been for ingredients. And food prep stuff. When I went to Hiroshima to see Beauty & the Beast (the Broadway Musical) in Japanese, I had foodstuffs on my mind too.
I was originally hunting for tortillas, cilantro, and any kind of foreign candy that drew my eye. I came away with 24 flour tortillas, some taco seasoning, a big bag of shredded coconut, some tandoori chicken seasoning, lima beans, and 2 ice sphere trays. I bought the ice trays at the Tokyu Hands I passed by on the way to the Promart grocery store, where I picked up the other stuff. They’re cool - they imitate something I’ve seen in a restaurant or two. Instead of a bunch of cubes, you put one sphere in your glass, just smaller than the diameter of the glass. When there’s liquid poured in, the ice melts more or less evenly, keeping the spherical effect all nice until you’re done. It’s a gimmick, I know, but it’s cool!
Suffice it to say, I am still hunting for cilantro (which is called coriander here - just specify that you want the leaves / herbs, not the part that we call coriander / spice in the U.S.). I’ll be checking Imabari shortly. Now I’ve added a skillet or griddle to my list of things I want to grab. Why? I’m tired of running to Okayama or Hiroshima to buy my flipping tortillas! And now that my favorite Mexipan restaurant is closing, I am determined to learn how to make them from scratch myself. If I can get it down, I promise to share the knowledge. 
(If I get my friend at the Mexipan place to teach me the recipe for pumpkin tacos, on the other hand, I’ll be selling it to you…mwa ha ha ha. I kid. Maybe.)
Anyhoo, in celebration, I made myself a nice quick dinner of a lemon pepper coconut chicken sandwich, sweet corn, and cinnamon apples. Mmmm. I knew that ground chicken meat could be good for something. And more experimentation is called for!
on May 20th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Hang on. Is that place in Imabari closing? Or do you have another favorite Mexican place that I don’t know about?
I have been scratching my head recently wondering WHY for the love of PETE Combinis and supermarkets seem to have all these wrap and tortilla things recently, but you can’t find a simple bag of tortillas on sale anywhere. At least not anywhere in Niihama :[
Nics last blog post was: Tuk tuk? Tuk tuk! Tuk tuk. TUK TUK.
on May 21st, 2008 at 8:25 am
Yes, indeed. It is closing at the end of the month. So I have 3 days of Mexican lunches left. Sigh. Uncool. But I will learn to make tortillas. No worries.
on May 21st, 2008 at 9:41 am
Can I send cilantro to you, or is that banned? Also, I would love a spherical ice tray. Can I get one here, or do I need to wish for one from you for Christmas or my birthday?
If you perfect the flour tortilla, teach me how. Although, it may be less expensive here to buy them since we don’t have a shortage.
Miss you! Glad you are doing well. How did Kathy like the musical?
Love,
Mom
on May 21st, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Sure, you can send cilantro. And sure, I’ll teach you tortillas if I get it figured out.
Ha ha. Kathy loved the musical, too, Mom. She bought the Japanese soundtrack and everything.
on May 24th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Woah, hold the presses! It’s like a single, huge sphere of ice that sits in the glass? I want one.
If I send you the money for it, can you send me one the next time you find yourself in the position to acquire one?
Also, I want one that makes those ice “cones”, the ones you can often see in soju advertisements, but I’ll put that on hold for later.
Alexs last blog post was: Knee-deep in terms
on May 24th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Alex - if I make it to the store first, I’ll get ‘em for you. Ha ha. But I don’t know when that’ll be…
on July 17th, 2008 at 10:05 am
One big ice cube vs many smaller cubes. The smaller ice cubes would present more surface area, so I would expect they would cool the drink better. They would also melt quicker.
Advantage - My scotch is not watery
Disadvantage - My iced tea is a bit on the warm side.
Is glacier ice no longer a fad?
on July 17th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Tudza - you can still buy the glacier ice cube trays at lots of stores. I just like the sphere. Besides, if you pour less liquid in at a time, it does a great job of cooling things down. But you’re right - the smaller cubes have a greater surface area (especially the machine-made ones with dimples in one face), so they cool faster. But of course, as you noted, that means they dilute the drink faster too…since that’s how ice works and all. Ha ha. I’m curious to try frozen cubes of juice to use with my juice. Frozen spheres of juice would be cool too, though. No dilution, just cooling. Hmmm…but I bet the sugar would concentrate out of its suspension during freezing, like salt does. Or does sugar not do that so much?