My family was super excited to see New Belgium Brewing (Ft. Collins, CO) has finally made it all the way out to Cincinnati. Conversely, I’ve actually been really excited about the Cincinnati (and Ohio!) beer Renaissance, so I tried three very different local winter ales while in town this year.
Category: Winter
Vegetarian Curry Nabe
Curry nabe is combination of two of Japan’s great comfort foods: curry-rice (karê raisu, カレーライス) and nabe (鍋). Curry-rice is a Japanized version of Indian curries via Britain: served with rice, this dish is a thick, brown sauce, more sweet than spicy, combined with onions, carrots, potatoes, and chicken or beef, which are sauteed before…
Kitchen Library: What I Ate on New Year’s Break, Part 1
We stayed local with friends for the New Year, and after we exhausted our list of our favorite cafes one by one as they closed for the holidays, we holed up in the apartment and cooked up a storm.
Curried Cauliflower with Tuna
I used to refer to cauliflower as “broccoli’s sad cousin.” Years of veggie trays at family functions taught me that dip does not make raw cauliflower taste good. A month of a “let’s try new vegetables” experiment in high school taught me that no amount of cheese will make me touch boiled cauliflower. (Seriously. There…
Whole-Wheat Ginger-Squash Muffins with Chocolate Chips
One last(?) squash purée recipe for the season! I live in a country where the only cold cereals available at regular grocery stores (Tokyo Metro, you don’t count) are frosted flakes and cocoa puffs.* As a result, I’ve learned to make a variety of breakfast foods. I’m actually not sure how I only ended up…
Thanksgiving Recipe Round-up
On my first Thanksgiving in Japan as an exchange student, I had cold tofu for lunch and felt exceptionally sad. After two years of not celebrating the holiday while I was in rural Japan, I decided to host a Thanksgiving potluck for my friends last year, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve…
Kabocha Hummus
On the themes of both autumn and non-chickpea hummus-adjacent spreads, I present kabocha hummus, one of the many fine uses for kabocha purée. As I stated in my baba ghanoush recipe, chickpeas/garbanzo beans (Japanese: hiyokomame, ひよこ豆) are relatively expensive in Japan, so I’ve been trying to less expensive chickpea alternatives. If chickpeas are cheap where…
Kabocha Squash Purée (Pumpkin Purée Substitute)
Have your pie and eat it, too
Roasted Vegetables and My Obsession with 安納芋
Orange sweet potatoes, ubiquitous in the US, are often nowhere to be found in Ishikawa. Depending on where you are in the prefecture, you can usually locate some in one brief part of late winter in the local-vegetable section of the grocery store with the Noto- and Kaga Yasai (heirloom vegetables from Noto [northern Ishikawa]…
Japanese Street Food and Foodpia Land 2012 (フードピアランド2012)
I’ve noticed an increased interest by foreign bloggers and media regarding Japan’s (read: Tokyo, Kyoto) street food culture in the last month, and as I was at a large food fair in Kanazawa, I figured it was time to add my comments and photos to the table.
The Wrath of the Kitchen God
While working on a translation about osechi ryôri, the Japanese New Year’s meal, today, I came across a passage about how the meal is prepared in advance of the holidays to avoid using the cooking fire. From a practical standpoint, not having to cook while one’s extended family is visiting gives the primary household cook…
Cookie Exchange
Although my friends and I all seem to be pretty adamant about making very specific Thanksgiving dishes, I’m much more flexible about my Christmas meal as long as it’s good. Last year, my friend from Wakayama visited me, and we made a small Christmas dinner at my place: stuffed chicken breast, canned chunky cranberry sauce…
I'll Make It Myself! 
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