By Kenji Miura

I celebrated Christmas in Japan by making wagashi, or traditional Japanese sweets.

Santa is shaped out of shiro-an (white bean paste).

The holly is made out of ogura tsubu-an (red beans boiled with sugar, skin-on).

The tree is comprised of shiro-an and kanten (agar agar). The kinton (mashed substance, in this case the shiro-an and kanten) was then pressed through
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There’s a big financial crisis pillaging through the poor, run down viking villages of Denmark. It’s the revisiting ghost from 2008.

Even though we’re still doing better than many of the South European countries, a lot of people are being laid off work and therefore no one’s shopping. At all.

All my self-employed friends who own stores are
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Brownies come many a kind — I like these particular ones because they’re very light and discrete in flavour which means you can eat the whole cake and not feel overstuffed (even though you most certainly will be).

To me, brownies should be heavy, soggy, small bricks of chocolate. This is a recipe I’ve been playing around
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As I’ve written in a post some years ago, Iceland is a nation of candy addicts. Especially if the candy is chocolate mixed with liquorice. It’s crazy how much candy the Icelandic people eat – but since there’s no fresh ice cream tradition like in Italy or warm, salty pretzels like in Germany – I
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Before I start this week’s post, let’s congratulate Kayoko and the crew for revamping the Umamimart site to a whole new level. Orange is my favorite color, so this is cool, and soon enough, we will be FAMOUS bloggers!! Hooray.

As you’ve seen from my past posts, I’ve made cakes for basically all of my friends birthdays
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Last week, NYC pastry chef extraordinaire Pichet Ong was a guest judge on Top Chef Just Desserts (aired September 22).  As he was introduced, some of my photos of his desserts were shown on the episode: Foie Gras Taco and Warm Date Cake (see below). I shot the desserts in his restaurants
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Although we don’t see many kudzu vines taking over large patches of land in the west, it is often referred to as the “mile-a-minute-vine” in the South. It all started in 1876 when someone thought it would be a good idea to introduce the kudzu plant from Japan
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Japanese snacks are wacky. From matcha-flavored Kit Kats, to dried squid covered in chocolate, to using beans for desserts, the country is filled with surprises in the sweet tooth department.

I’ve seen a DIY sushi-making video, and it was very intriguing. I think the idea is very educational, scientific, and simply fun. Apparently though, the sushi-making
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Let’s start this post by trying to pronounce its title. Easy, no? The Danish language is in a league of its own.

Imagine a gurgling sound, the deep noise of a drunk blond viking with too much mead in his mouth. While Americans speak with the front of their mouth, Danes create the words way
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Corn season has arrived. Every Greenmarket vendor is selling them for 50 cents an ear. [Speaking of, why do we count corn in such a way? Don't you think it's a bit odd to think of ears growing on trees? Imagine that.]

Anyhow, I like corn, but it’s always annoying when they get stuck in between
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