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Chanko nabe
Chanko nabe is what makes sumo wrestlers fat. Last night, too tired to cook at home, we had dinner at Kushikyu, a chain of restaurants that focuses on food to eat while swilling beer and whiskey. (I think of Kushikyu as the Denny’s of the drinking set) They were having a special on chanko nabe,…
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Bento
Bento, Japanese box lunches, come in a hundred varieties. Every convenience store competes on the quality and variety of its bento. And it works, I always get my bento lunch at the Family Mart; the 7-11’s bento aren’t nearly as good. But conbini bento, even the best of them are prepared in advance, trucked around…
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Plums
I can understand why plums are often included in still life paintings. They are very beautiful. For the next few weeks, plums will grace the tables of our local fruit store and our dining table. These plums are not the shiny, tight-skinned, full-to-bursting black globes I used to eat in the US. These are yellow-green…
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Substitution of ingredients
Substitution of ingredients is a fine art. My collection of cookbooks contains a number of books purchased at the source. Thai cookbooks from Thailand; Singaporean food information direct from Singapore. The recipes they contain are completely authentic, down to odd local measures, seasonal vegetables with unpronouncable names, and spices that exist only in a two…
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