Oh, my little blog… how I’ve missed you so!!! I had nothing but good intentions last week to share a winning onigiri post after the Lakers closed out Round 1 of the 2011 NBA Western Conference Finals against New Orleans. I even started a draft, but of course, the weekend arrived bearing much fun (a trip to LA, a pool party and birthday celebrations) and ultimately resulted in my being too tired to blog. Sadly, it doesn’t...

Read More

  I originally planned to post this on Friday, March 11th, but it turned out to be the morning after the 9.0 earthquake that hit Sendai, Japan on March 10, 2011. It seemed inappropriate to immediately post a celebratory chirashi sushi dish that I made for a festive Japanese holiday, Girl’s Day. Featured Above: Photo Credit Hideki Ueha (chirashi that I made in 2012). Our thoughts, prayers and condolences are with all of those who...

Read More

Summer is finally coming to an end as Big Onechan returns to school and we celebrate our last three-day weekend of the season with a family BBQ or two. It seems as though summer break only just began and yet over two months have flown by since school let out in June. This week we had a variety of things going on and I still managed to write a post! Crazy, huh? We went to the Zoomar’s Petting Zoo in San Juan Capistrano, the Mission Viejo...

Read More

Oyakodon is a common donburi dish often found at Japanese restaurants or the deli section of Japanese supermarkets.  It’s chicken, delicately cooked egg, and thin slices of onion all resting over a bed of rice, and covered with a delicate sweet and savory sauce. Long ago, my Mom taught me why oyakodon is called “oyakodon” and tanindon (beef and egg donburi) is called “tanindon”.  Oyako in Japanese means...

Read More

  A quick meal made with leftovers is kakiage donburi or kakiagedon.  Mixed tempura rests over a bed of brown rice and is served in a donburi.  When possible, I like to use leftovers in a new dish because it’s usually easy to prepare and keeps the dinner menu exciting. Earlier this week I made kakiage tempura and wrapped each leftover kakiage individually in plastic wrap and then placed them all in a ziplock bag.  I like storing them...

Read More

Donburi sauce is the foundation of my Mom’s “-don” dishes, such as oyakodon (follow link for recipe), a chicken and egg donburi; tendon, a tempura donburi; and kakiagedon (follow link for recipe), a mixed vegetable and shrimp tempura donburi; and tanindon, a beef and egg donburi. Because of the many uses of donburi sauce, I felt this savory and sweet sauce deserved a post all to itself.  Eventually, I’ll get to each...

Read More

Karashi Mentaiko is one of those foods that I refused to eat as a child.  Why?  You guessed it – It’s because of the way it looks.  It’s not pretty. It wasn’t until some time post-college when my Auntie Tree Village (our closest family friends) went back to her hometown in Kyushu, Japan and brought back fresh frozen mentaiko for our family. After some encouragement from my mom, I tried a bite, and it was so...

Read More

Although I’m not a fan of plain ol’ white rice, I love my mom’s takikomi gohan or seasoned mixed rice. The primary ingredients my mom uses for her takikomi gohan are chicken, carrots,  konnyaku, gobo, and shiitake mushrooms.  In Japanese, this type of mixed rice using 5 ingredients is called gomoku gohan. If she has renkon she will add this too, or sometimes use this in place of gobo.  There are also times when she...

Read More