I’ve been obsessed with making this dish for a few months now — it is really satisfying when you are craving noodles, and so ridiculously easy to make. You can usually find nabeyaki udon on the menus at Japanese restaurants, for $12+. This is so easy to make at home, and cheap!

INGREDIENTS 1 pack of frozen udon noodles
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If you can get your hands on sake kasu (sake lees, a yeast by-product of sake making) a subculture of cooking opens up to you. Most commonly used for marinating fish and pickling, sake kasu looks like pizza dough with the consistency of wet clay and aroma of nama (unpasteurized) sake. It’s usually available for cheap,
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To celebrate the new year, I hosted a last-minute dinner last night with a few close friends. What was on the menu? Okonomiyaki! It was a mellow evening of cocktails and sour beers to accompany the famous Japanese savory pancake.

It was the first time I would be making okonomiyaki, but I figured it would
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As 2011 draws to a close, I am not thinking about the Mayans. Rather, I am trying to decide what I will be eating over the weekend. PRIORITIES, people!

I’ll be working on Saturday evening (apocalypse be damned!), but I’ll have all the accouterments ready to ring in the new year with Johnny and a bowl of toshikoshi
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Chestnuts signify the presence of winter in many cultures. Although I’ve never actually tried chestnuts roasted by an open fire, I have tried the Japanese version of chestnuts simmered in simple syrup, or kuri no kanroni. However, I had never taken the initiative to prepare a chestnut dish because the task of peeling always seemed so
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I have missed writing this column, so I’m bringing it back! I can not pretend that I have abandoned my lazy ways, or that I’ve stopped cutting corners when cooking. My kitchen may be much bigger than what I had in Brooklyn, but this only means that I can spread out my laziness over more
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I usually make a vat of potato salad before I leave for a trip, leaving my husband poor and defenseless against the elements of bachelorhood. But this time I didn’t have time before the trip and figured he’d be able to fend for himself…

It turns out that while I was gone for
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Enjoying the early winter so far? I know I am.

I’m a cave bear and enjoy spending the long Scandinavian winter evenings in my studio or couch, working, crafting or watching Daria. In fact, since it is so windy, wet and utterly, depressively dark, I feel less bad about not hanging out on the beach, not
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PREFACE The Ume Project: Foraging The Ume Project: Pickling for Umeboshi The Ume Project: Umeshu (Plum Liqueur) The Ume Project: The Aka-Shiso Edition

Since July, Yoko and I have been working on umeboshi (pickled plums) with Sylvan of Peko Peko, a Japanese catering company based in Oakland. From picking our own ume
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Whenever I take a test, I always make associations between certain things in my life so that I will memorize keywords. Sometimes the explanations get really long but sometimes they come to me very quickly and concisely. Sometimes associated words come to me when I am not studying a test, which is
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