Taking a little inventory

Just like it’s a good idea to take inventory of your pantry sometimes, I find it useful to take a look back at my sites occasionally and take stock of what I’m doing.

Re-doing

Since Just Hungry is more than 4 years old now, there are hundreds of back entries and more than 200 recipes. I refer back a lot to them in newer entries, both here and on Just Bento [1].

It’s become clear to me that most people come here for the Japanese recipes. I’ll continue to post non-Japanese recipes I like, because hey it’s my site, but I am going to concentrate most of my efforts on explaining both traditional and newer Japanese home recipes (yohshoku and chuuka, as well as washoku) for an English speaking audience.

Now, when I look back at some of my older entries, it’s pretty clear that some of them, especially those that were posted in the early days, aren’t that good. They have no photos, or really bad photos, or inadequate explanations. So I’ll be totally redoing some of them with clearer pictures and instructions.

Some of the candidates for revised versions include:

• Usuyaki tamago [2] (thin omelette)
• Nikujaga [3]
• Chicken teriyaki [4] (a lot of people ask me where my chicken teriyaki recipe is. I guess they can’t find this one!)
• Inarizushi [5]
• Chicken karaage [6]

Should be here but isn’t

There are also a number of recipes that are requested over and over. I can’t do every single recipe that you’ve ever had in Japan or a Japanese restaurant, obviously! But here are some favorites that have never appeared here, and probably will so eventually.

• Japanese style hamburger steak. I make this a lot at home, and don’t know why I’ve never posted it here. I guess it’s too familiar or something. I will post it…soon.
• Tempura. OMG why is there no tempura here?? Well…mainly because it’s deep-fried, and I don’t do much deep-frying these days. (The Just Hungry Test Kitchen production has to be consumed by the staff, not thrown away.) I may divide the subject of tempura into several spread out entries.
• Korokke. See tempura re: deep-fried.
• Nishime, or traditional stews. I’m partly hampered by the fact that not all traditioinal nishime ingredients are available to me (especially burdock).
• I’d also like to explore and present a lot more vegetarian and vegan Japanese dishes. Japanese cooking in itself is not really vegetarian, but I think there are a lot of vegetarian-friendly dishes.

Are there any other Japanese recipes that you think should be here, or you want to see? I can’t promise to satisfy everyone, but I’m all ears.