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Sushi Rice

It may not be the most exciting part of sushi, but the vinegared rice or sushimeshi (鮨飯) is what makes sushi sushi. By some accounts, the word sushi is a contraction of the words su which means “vinegar” and meshi which means “rice”. Another creation legend is that the kanji character for sushi “鮨” resembles [...]

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Chicken Chashu

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Chashu is the Japanese version of Chinese Char Siu. Unlike its grilled Chinese counterpart, the Japanese version is typically made by rolling pork belly into a log and braising it until tender. It’s then unbound and sliced before being used to garnish bowls of ramen. When served on hot rice, or over a bowl of [...]

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Perfect Pavlova

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With a crispy meringue shell surrounding a sweet marshmallow center, a rich cream filling and a mountain of fresh seasonal fruit, Pavlovas are graceful, yet utterly intoxicating. Fitting, if you consider the fact that the eponymous dessert was named after the famed Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova during a visit to Australia or New Zealand. I [...]

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Tebasaki (Japanese Fried Chicken)

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Tebasaki(手羽先) literally translates to “wing tips” and refers to the cut of chicken as well as to a dish popular in izakayas around the city of Nagoya. Unlike the other Japanese fried chicken, Tebasaki is always made with bone-in chicken wings, has little to no breading, and is seasoned after it’s fried. Despite the absence [...]

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Fish Tacos

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It wasn’t long ago that beef cheeks and pork cheeks went from being a throw-away cut of meat to a highly sought-after delicacy served in some of the priciest restaurants. I’m willing to wager that fish cheeks will be next in line for this trend. So why do cheeks taste so good? Whether it’s a [...]

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Chicken Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken)

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Fried chicken, whether it’s Southern, Japanese, or Korean, is one of my favourite foods of all time. Put simply, it would be on the menu for my last meal. It’s one of those dishes that strikes the perfect balance between flavor, texture and richness. The only downside about a really great fried chicken (calories aside), [...]

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Spring Roll

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Like their thicker skinned cousin the egg roll, spring rolls are a popular staple at Chinese-American restaurants. As a kid, I never much cared for either variety because there was often more wrapper than filling and what meager filling they held tasted more like tired fryer oil than anything else. All that changed while I [...]

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Hamburg Steak (Hambāgu)

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Chicken teriyaki aside, Hamburg Steak or Hambāgu (ハンバーグ) as the Japanese like to call it, is probably the most popular entrée to stick in a bento lunch in Japan. Although it’s unclear exactly when this dish was introduced to Japan, it presumably comes from the American Salisbury steak, which is named after its inventor Dr. [...]

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