One of the great things about living in Southern California is that we have a number of Japanese take-out bento restaurants that are within our reach. On Saturday morning we woke up and decided to take a quick trip to the beach and pick-up bento at a Japanese take-out restaurant that we like to visit occasionally, Betoss. Every month they usually have a special on a different bento, or Japanese lunch box. Our favorite is the $4.99 chicken...

At a Memorial Day BBQ a few years ago, I was asked if I knew the difference between Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day. While somewhat uncertain of my answer, I replied (with conviction) that Memorial Day was a day to honor military men and women who died while serving their country, whereas Veteran’s Day celebrated living military veterans for their past service to our country. After being “quizzed” at that BBQ a few years...

My husband makes three types of Chinese soup when any of us are sick. One of them is Chinese Winter Melon Soup or tung qwa soup, which I’ve shared in the past, the second is Moqua Soup or Fuzzy Melon Soup (post forthcoming), and the third, which is my absolute favorite, is Wonton Soup. While it seems seasonally inappropriate to share a hot soup recipe amidst our warmer and sunny Southern California weather, last week when I was feeling...

For as long as I can remember, my Mom used to keep a re-used glass jam jar filled with little orange candied kumquats or kinkan kanro-ni in the back of our refrigerator. It never looked appealing to me, and as a child, I recall trying several of these kinkan kanro-ni over the years, but I never found the sweet, sour, and slightly bitter flavor of the candied kumquats to my liking. (Photo Credit: Hideki Ueha) As I got older, the little glass jar...

  The Good News: ≠ Lakers finally won a game in Round 2 of the Western series against Oklahoma. It’s about time! The series is now 2 – 1. After a total whooping in Game 1 by over 20 points (a complete embarrassment), and yet another loss in Game 2 by one lousy basket, the Lakers finally, although barely, beat Oklahoma by 3 points, 99 – 96 during last night’s Game 3. I was so crazy nervous the last 10 minutes of...

There’s something about fried wontons that are addicting. Inherently, we all know fried foods aren’t necessarily the healthiest of foods, yet you can’t stop at just one wonton. You eat one, and then you want another, eat another, and then you want yet another, and another! Perhaps it’s the light, crunchy fried wonton skin. Or perhaps it’s that tasty wonton center of succulent ground pork mixed with subtle bursts of...

Happy Mother’s Day! As it turns out, we are spending our Mother’s Day weekend at home, but I have no complaints about this. My little one is still recovering from her cold, and as feared, I came down with a sore throat yesterday. I should have known I was coming down with a cold when I slept through both Round One Lakers games #5 and #6 this past week. I barely watched last night’s game #7, but thank goodness I stayed awake...

On Saturday, May 5th we celebrated Japanese Children’s Day | Boy’s Day. Our family got together for a grand potluck to celebrate with, none other than, food. When we pulled into the driveway of my parent’s home, we saw that my Dad raised my brother’s koi nobori on a traditional bamboo stick and the colorful carp were flying in the wind. Koi nobori are wind streamers in the shape of carp that are traditionally displayed...