Jasmine rice is the staple of my childhood As a little girl, one of my very first tasks in the kitchen was cooking rice. Imitating my mum's every move, I'd scoop 4 cups of rice into the steel rice bowl--purists may balk but when I was growing...
It's amazing what you discover just by plugging words into Google. Do you know what manju is? Well, in my books, it's a Japanese confection that has myriad guises. It can be baked or steamed and filled with anything from azuki beans, lima beans to kabocha. According...
The beautiful table setting of a cha kaiseki meal The moment I arrive, Hiroko Sugiyama starts to make tea. She pours water into her cast-iron teapot and sets it over her center stove to boil. So begins our chakaiseki (tea kaiseki) class. Sugiyama has been teaching...
Every time Lisa Nakamura makes dango jiru, she is transported back to her late grandmother's kitchen in Kapoho, Hawaii. Dango refers to dumplings and most recipes call for dumplings made with mochi (sweet rice flour). Grandma Miyoshi's version is extra special--and very Hawaiian; not only...
After a week filled with gunmetal skies, blustery winds and neverending drizzle, the sun decided to pop up and give us a couple of Indian summer days in Seattle. Inspired by the warm(er) weather--it hit 68F in the shade!--I decided to make a refreshing, cold somen salad. Somen is a...
