Category: Summer

Baba Ghanoush (Roasted Eggplant and Sesame Spread)

All systems are go on the new hosting! Or they seem to be–let me know if there are any links or pages that don’t load properly. I’ve covered bread here, so let’s move on to sandwich fillings, specifically pita. Hummus or falafel seem like obvious choices and are very easy to make at home if…

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Spaghetti-Squash Okonomiyaki

Updated April 2, 2016. While on my squash spree last month, I picked up a spaghetti squash, which has a great name in Japanese, too: soumen kabocha (そうめんかぼちゃ), like soumen noodles, or kinshiuri (金糸瓜), “golden thread squash.” This was my first time cooking this type of squash, and I had no idea what to do…

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Korinky Squash Chijimi

When I mentioned eating all that squash, you didn’t think I’d leave you hanging, did you? Korinky (konrinkî, コリンキー) is a strange little squash. I bought it without recognizing the name, since many orange squashes are more or less interchangeable, and to my horror, I found no information on it in English other than this…

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Hot Weather, Cool Kitchen: Overnight Oats

There are two import foods I can’t live without: peanut butter and oats. Let’s talk about oats–I’ll get to the peanut butter later. Sometimes I buy Quaker Oats in bulk from online import stores; sometimes I buy Alishan or Alara jumbo organic oats at Diamond in Omicho Market; sometimes I get Nisshoku oatmeal from the…

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Pasta Pomodoro: The Easiest Pasta

Perhaps “The Easiest Pasta” is a misnomer. Perhaps boiled soba in dipping sauce is actually easier, but when you want a new flavor profile on easy summer pasta–i.e., when you spend all summer eating cold Japanese noodles–this is your recipe. The ingredients are easy to find in Japan: fresh basil was in the produce section of…

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Tomato Challenge: ALL the Tomato Recipes

I couldn’t resist buying a box of 10 large (230 g), gorgeous tomatoes for only 598 yen at the grocery store a few weeks ago. Tomatoes in Japan can be quite expensive, and although the price drops in the summer when they are in season, 600 yen might get you 5 if you are lucky….

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Broiled Sawara with Paprika

While at Omicho Market a couple weeks ago, I spied a fish-seller with sashimi-grade sawara (サワラ, 鰆), Japanese Spanish mackerel, on sale–for 250 yen, I could get a plate of huge filets much bigger than the ones I usually get at the store–about 500 grams’ worth.* “Two, please,” I told the clerk (the fish monger?)….

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Broiled Sawara with Paprika

While at Omicho Market a couple weeks ago, I spied a fish-seller with sashimi-grade sawara (サワラ, 鰆), Japanese Spanish mackerel, on sale–for 250 yen, I could get a plate of huge filets much bigger than the ones I usually get at the store–about 500 grams’ worth.* “Two, please,” I told the clerk (the fish monger?)….

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Okara Ice Cream, Healthy Lab, Kanazawa

Featured in the August 2011 Japan Blog Matsuri “Summer Lovin’.” I pass by or through Kanazawa’s bustling Ômicho Market (近江町市場) at least once a day on my commute. I love looking at all the fruit for sale, shopping at the import store, and traveling underground to the M’Za デパ地下 (depachika, basement-level department store grocery and…

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