BY KIRSTEN ADACHI It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go. Let’s be honest, it has looked like Christmas here since the day after Halloween. I am OK with that for the most part, but the Christmas carols get to me. I like them in the context of December but I can [...]
BY KIRSTEN ADACHI When I am asked what my favourite Japanese food is, I always surprise the asker with the answer “miso soup.” I don’t think most people expect my answer to be something they have eaten pretty much every day of their lives. I love miso soup. Nothing can beat a bowl of hearty [...]
BY KIRSTEN ADACHI Canadian Thanksgiving is in early October and I roast a turkey every year. It’s not as hard as you might imagine to find a turkey in Japan, despite it not being a common food. The first time I wanted to buy a turkey I had no idea where to get one. I [...]
BY KIRSTEN ADACHI When I had a small (read average-sized in Japan) oven, I thought cooking baking was both a waste of time and electricity. It shouldn’t take one hour to bake a batch of cookies because your oven only fits six cookies at a time. Thinking of Christmas time caused shivers. Gingerbread cookies, shortbread [...]
BY KIRSTEN ADACHI Hiyashi chuuka is my favourite summer food and a great summer lunch to take to work or school. Hiyashi chuuka (冷やし中華 or ひやしちゅうか) is basically cold ramen noodles topped with fresh veggies, meat, and sauce. The noodles are egg based so if you have allergies, be careful. These ingredients are my favourite [...]
Several nights a week I enjoy a hot bowl of miso soup along with a wide variety of Japanese food. And while I love my Japanese food as much as the next gaikokujin I inevitably end up craving, no, desperately craving, food and other products from home. Years ago my Sunday routine consisted of a [...]
BY KIRSTIN ADACHI One of my earliest blog posts was about brewing tea in the refrigerator and last year Life Hacker picked up on it and used my post as the source for their article. What is a fairly common practice here in Japan is fairly unknown in the English speaking world. When I was [...]
BY KIRSTEN ADACHI There were a lot of great picnic days in April and May and here’s hoping there will be a few more this summer! The first rainy season I was here it rained almost every day for a month and then got hot. Subsequent rainy seasons have had more sporadic rain patterns with [...]
BY KIRSTEN ADACHI I really like rice cooker lentil recipes. I have two others on my blog, Thymely Rice Cooker Lentils and Spicy Rice Cooker Lentils. I use the brown lentils in the rice cooker because the red ones turn to mush as they cook more quickly. This means you might be able to make a red lentil curry [...]
BY KIRSTEN ADACHI I have always liked granola but am not really satisfied with the granola I find in my local supermarket. Maybe it is the puffed rice crisps and cornflakes in the mix? Sometimes the import shops have good granola but living in Japan, and not having a big sweet tooth when it comes [...]
