No Recipes – Techniques, inspiration and cooking tips from my Japanese kitchen

Adobe Lightroom Tutorial (a.k.a. my dirty little secret)

I’ve published a new Lightroom 4 Tutorial that covers all the new features in their latest release. I have a confession to make… I’m actually a terrible photographer. I honestly can’t be bothered fiddling with stuff like manual focus, white balance and even a proper exposure, especially when photographing my dinner which is getting cold [...]

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Arare Cream Cocktail

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Arare (pronounced ah-rah-reh) is the Japanese word for tiny rice crackers (you know, the kind they put in snack mixes along with wasabi peas). It’s basically made by toasting mochi until it puffs up like popcorn and takes on the fantastic toasty flavor of caramelized rice. The kind in the snack mixes are are salted, [...]

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Curry Crusted Lamb Breasts with Thai Basil Raita

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The other day, I was restocking my fridge with an order at FreshDirect. I’m not a huge fan of their produce, but they are convenient and they have a surprisingly well stocked selection of meat. I love browsing through the different cuts of meat and on this visit I came across something I’d never seen [...]

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Pho Tai Ve Don (Vietnamese noodle soup)

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My love affair with Pho (pronounced “FUH” not “FOH”) began in my fourth or fifth year in college (yes I was one of those 5 year people). At first I thought it would be a fleeting thing, but as time passed and I moved to the mecca of Pho in Northern CA it grew all [...]

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No Recipes vol. 7 (christmas edition)

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My mom has the misfortune of having her birthday fall on Christmas day. While it’s not much fun for her (one year we even resolved to moving her birthday to June), this is particularly fortuitous for me since I only need to make one trip back to celebrate both occasions. Despite my dislike for cooking [...]

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Pomegranate Poached Pears

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Pomegranate poached pears with vanilla ice cream. I’m back from my whirlwind trip to Japan and Korea and am bursting at the seams (it could also have something to do with the 5+ daily meals I consumed) to try out over a dozen dishes I came up with while away from the kitchen and this [...]

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Osechi Ryori (Traditional Japanese New Years Meal)

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Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu! Happy New Year! Japanese culture is steeped in over a thousand years of tradition and protocol and food is no exception. Ingredients, preparations and even colors each have their own story, symbolism and seasonal importance. It’s no surprise then that oshogatsu (New Years), has its own set of foods that are specially [...]

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No Recipes Top 10 (2008)

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It’s been a great year filled with cooking adventures (and misadventures). I started this blog as a way to motivate myself to cook outside my comfort zone and to serve as a record of my successes and failures. It’s turned into much more than that though, I’ve made friends and I’ve even had the fortune [...]

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