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

Crustless milk and cardamom “pumpkin pie”

I’ve never been a big fan of pumpkin pie. To me they’re chalky and mushy in texture and overly spiced in flavour and yet they lack any depth or richness. This year I had a gluten intolerant guest coming to Thanksgiving, so I wanted to create something he could eat too. This dessert is impressive [...]

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Fiery Cinnamon Cranberry Sauce

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Cranberry sauce has become an obligatory part of any Thanksgiving dinner, and yet I’ve never been a huge fan. My family would always end up with a huge bowl of leftover cranberry sauce and then the only person who actually liked the stuff would have to eat the rest. It’s not so much that I [...]

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Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: A West Asian Thanksgiving

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West Asia, a region comprised of the Near East and Middle East includes countries like Turkey and Syria which were at the center of the spice trade for centuries. It’s no surprise then that West Asian cuisine makes extensive use of spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, and sumac. For Thanksgiving this year, my family flew [...]

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No Recipes vol. 3

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Sopa de Ajo con Huevo

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While it’s not much to look at, this is a fantastically warming, simple soup that makes for a great meal when you’re short on time or ingredients. Popular in the Castilla region of Spain, Sopa de Ajo literally means “garlic soup”. It’s made with lots of garlic, jamón serrano, smoked paprika, large pieces of stale [...]

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Gyudon (beef rice bowl)

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For those of you that are familiar with Japanese fast food, you’ve probably heard of Yoshinoya. It’s a fast food chain that specializes in rice bowls and they’re particularly well known for their gyudon (Japanese beef and rice bowl). This popularity was elevated to cult status when the Japanese government banned American beef imports due [...]

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Garlic chive shrimp fried rice with garlic chips

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One of the best things about fried rice is that it can be made with just about anything and can be seasoned with an almost infinite combination of flavours. It’s one of those dishes that I like to make when I’m really not in the mood to think too much and I happen to have [...]

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Salmon Oyako Wappa Meshi

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One of my favourite Japanese restaurants in San Francisco is Maki. It’s a little hole in the wall in Japan Center next to a bookstore and while it would be hard to go wrong with anything on the menu, their specialty is Wappa Meshi. It’s a steamed rice dish that’s a specialty of the Fukishima [...]

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