site news

Menu For Hope winner, please get in touch!

maki — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:46:52 +0100

Just a quick note here: If you are the Kristina Johnson who won the Just Hungry Menu For Hope prize EU25 (check the winners' list) please get in touch via the contact form :)

In Japan!

maki — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:32:21 +0100

I’m in Japan! I’ll be here for the next three months. I am here primarily for two reasons: My mother is in hospital; and the bento cookbook photoshoot will commence next month. But of course I’ll be filing plenty of reports on what I’ve done, not to mention eaten, here! I’ll be taking and uploading photos every day, which you can follow here on flickr.

The photo above is of dinner last night with family - a seafood nabe and a sashimi assortment. Delicious and so simple, and not at all easy (or inexpensive) to recreate properly outside of Japan!

Menu For Hope VI: Just Hungry Offers a Taste of Japan Plus

maki — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:15:00 +0100

Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising campaign in which food bloggers and their friends around the world participate, that takes place around this time of year. It was originated and is still hosted by Pim of Chez Pim, and this year’s host for the Europe region is David Lebovitz (you can check out the complete list of Menu For Hope offerings from European bloggers here). Just Hungry has contributed a raffle item for Menu For Hope for the past 3 years, and I’m happy to do so again this year.

Once again, this year’s Menu For Hope will raise funds for the United Nations World Food Programme, an organization that is close to my heart (as you can see from the link on every single page of this site). You can read more about Menu For Hope itself on Chez Pim’s Menu For Hope VI page.

Just Hungry offers a box of Japanese goodies

Bid Item Number: EU-25 (note that down!)

Early next year, I’ll be spending several months in Japan. So you get to take full advantage of this! If you bid on item no. EU-25, you will have a chance to win a box of Japanese delicacies personally selected by me, with a monetary value of at least US $100. You can tell me what you want — whether you want a lot of wacky Japanese candy, or you want to try out some top notch konbu for your dashi. Or you could just leave it up to me.

In other words, if you come to Just Hungry for the Japanese recipes, this is your chance to get a box full of the best Japanese edibles!

Plus: The winner will also get a signed copy of my upcoming book, The Just Bento Cookbook, when it comes out in mid-2010, hot off the presses! Read more about the book here.

A few caveats and so on

The package will be sent to you by the beginning of April 2010. The book will be sent separately, when it’s published.
Nothing perishable can be sent - no raw fish, pickles, miso, namagashi, and so on.
I’ll pay the shipping costs of course, but any customs charges must be paid by the recipient.
If the package is very heavy (e.g. has a whole bag of rice or something) it may be shipped via sea mail. If it’s normally light, it will be shipped by air.
The package can be shipped worldwide, but if your country has any specific restrictions it is up to you to tell me in advance. I cannot be responsible if anything gets confiscated by customs or stolen by neighbors!

How to bid

Please note the bid item number for this package: EU-25. (You can of course bid on other items offered - check the list on the Menu For Hope main page. If you’re interested in an equally great box of bento box and bento accessories, consider the offering from Just Bento (item no. EU-26)!)
Go to the Firstgiving Menu For Hope page. (Update: If for some reason you are having trouble with the Firstgiving site, there is also a Menu For Hope donation form.)
Please specify which bid item you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write in how many tickets per bid item. Please use the bid item code!
Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a bid item of your choice. For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU-25 and 3 tickets for EU-26, or 1 ticket each for EU-04, EU-10, and so on.
If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so that the corporate match can be claimed.
Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that you can be contacted if you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Note that the bidding takes place between December 14th and December 25th. The winner will be announced on Chez Pim on January 18th. I’ll also announce the winner here on this site, at which time he or she should contact me.

So, there you go! Donate to a great cause, for a chance to win a box of great goodies, plus a book to help you use some of it! How can you go wrong?

More on the new theme

maki — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:41:03 +0100

Thank you for all of your comments about the new theme/event! I have been mulling over it, and I while I still haven’t decided on the name yet, I have more or less decided on what it will be:

It will concentrate on a particular ingredient, or in some cases a set/pair of ingredients, that are an integral part of Japanese cooking.
We’ll stay away from anything that is wildly expensive (e.g. tuna ootoro, wagyuu) since after all, those things are not really a part of home cooking. Most things should be obtainable by mail order, but perhaps not all - I haven’t nailed down the list yet.
There will be no substitutions. I suggest substitutions all the time, but for this particular theme I want people to not only learn how to cook something, but also how it should taste, look and so on. I think that variations and substitutions are most successful when you know how the original thing you are varying from should be like.

I hope it will be interesting to follow along with. As I said before, I plan to start the first round in January or so.

An idea for a new theme/event

maki — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:16:44 +0100

I know that I have sadly neglected this blog for some weeks now, as I struggle with completing the first draft of my book. (My main problem is I keep revising the recipes…but that’s another story.) I know that digging up things from the archives does not really constitute true updating! Anyway, I do have an idea for a regular theme or event of sorts, to commence probably in the new year (or when the book is further along in the birthing process).

The tentative title of the theme/event is Japanese Ingredient Focus Seminar (too formal?). I know that many Japanese ingredients are unfamiliar to non-Japanese readers. So the goal will be to become as familiar as possible with it, in a specific time period, say 2-3 weeks. I’ll announce the ingredient beforehand, so people have time to get a hold of it. Then we will try various recipes using that ingredient, from simple to not-so-simple.

How does this sound? Let me know if this sounds interesting to you. I’ll also accept suggestions for ingredients to tackle.

ETA: To start with the idea is to tackle some very Japanese ingredients, which may not necessarily be available at regular supermarkets, but should be available at Japanese or Asian grocery stores or by mailorder. I’ll list where to get the specified ingredient well in advance. (Some ingredients might include konbu seaweed, umeboshi, bonito flakes, lotus root, daikon radish, and so on.)

A problem with logging in on Just Hungry and Just Bento

maki — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:59:15 +0200

A problem has cropped up in the last couple of days with login on Just Hungry and Just Bento. Previously, you were able to log into either site, and you’d be logged in on the other. This is not working as it should at the moment.

The workaround for now is to log in separately to either site. If you have a problem logging in, please let me know (via the contact form for the offending site) and I’ll try to fix it manually. Sorry for the inconvenience!

(Note: If you are new here and want to participate in the forums, please register on Just Bento for now (not via Just Hungry) to avoid problems. Thanks!)

And the winner of the Izakaya book is....(and a small update)

maki — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:28:29 +0200

The winner of the Izakaya Cookbook is… Mireia! (Ironically Mireia can’t consume alchohol that hasn’t been cooked, but hopefully she’ll enjoy the recipes and writing in the book anyway.) Congratulations to Mireia, and thank you to everyone who entered. Look for more great giveaways on Just Hungry in the future!

A small update

I’m in the throes of frantic ‘must-meet-deadline’ mode for my own book. If I meet my first deadline (in less than 2 weeks!!!), I should at least be able to take a shower…I mean, pull my head above water for a bit and update here. Until then, please bear with me!

(Incidentally, doesn’t it bug you when people say ‘please bare with me’? No I don’t want to take my clothes off with you. Geez.

I’m going off on a tangent. Back to work.)

Yep I'm working on a book

maki — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:39:59 +0200

A few of you picked on the vague hinting I was doing about this in my last couple of posts and Twittered/emailed me about it. I’ve been holding off on saying anything publicly because, as with my house hunt situation, I tend to be irrationally fearful of somehow jinxing things before they come to fruition, or something. But I am going to have to cut down my posting frequency drastically here for the next few weeks because a big deadline is looming in October.

So, here is the news: I am working on a book, tentatively titled The Just Bento Cookbook (subject to and very likely to change). It is due out sometime in 2010, date to be determined. It will be pubished by Kodansha International, the International/English language division of Kodansha Limited, the largest publisher in Japan. Kodansha International has previously published titles like Nobu, The Cookbook and Kaiseki. I scared shi…I mean, you know, very honored, to be in such company.

I’m in the throes of working on the first draft, which is due in October. So I am going to have to concentrate all of my writing efforts in that direction. Posts here will be sparse for a while, but I’ll try to point you to some goodies from the archives and such. Please be patient with me, as I try to make this baby as good as I can make it.

Since it is a bento cookbook, I’ve posted some details about it over there.

(The last two books I’ve reviewed and given away here, Izakaya and The Enlightened Kitchen are also from Kodansha International. They were sent over by my wonderful editor Cathy so that I could see what kind of quality to expect. I was blown away. If my book comes out half as good as those books in terms of the layout and photos and everything, I will be very very happy. By the way, my positive reviews were not influenced by my desire to get a book contract, since I had that in the bag way before I got to see the books!)

The book giveaway winner is announced, plus some more news

maki — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:49:53 +0200

The winner of The Enlightened Kitchen book is… emalie from Australia!

If you didn’t win this time, stay tuned, because I have a couple more books to give away in the next couple of weeks which I am sure will be of interest to Just Hungry readers.

In other news: A while ago, I was interviewed by The Japan Times, the leading English language newspaper in Japan. That interview is now up on their web site, with a goofy picture of me (guess what’s in that bowl over my head…)

In other, more personal news: After looking at hundreds of places online, and dozens in person, we’ve finally put in an offer for a house, which has been accepted! I’m very excited, but that doesn’t mean that we are going to be moving in that soon, because of the way things work in France when you do buy a house. (There’s quite a lot of red tape to work through.)

The house that we did finally pick and will hopefully be buying also needs quite a lot of work done to it - for one thing, it doesn’t really have a kitchen! - so we are still going to be nomads for a while. I’m getting used to that though; while it is a bother to have to live out of suitcases and cartons, and work in unfamiliar kitchens, it’s also a great opportunity to see how other peoples’ kitchens are set up, and make notes on what works and what doesn’t.

A kitchen really is the heart of a home, especially for someone who loves to cook as I do, and I would like mine to be efficient, workable and welcoming. I’ll have some more thoughts about kitchens in general, and the one I will build (hopefully), in the upcoming months.

There’s some more exciting news I’m bursting to share, but that has to wait for a bit… :)

Maki on the radio!

maki — Fri, 15 May 2009 07:49:40 +0200

I was interviewed on WRS Geneva, an English-language radio station in Geneva (Genève), Switzerland, this past Tuesday, on their food programme called Stir It Up. The MP3 is up now for download (link now corrected!), so if you want to know how I sound, with a stuffed nose (from allergies...agh!) complete with my totally mixed up accent, my segment starts after the rhubarb at around 9:45. It might be of interest to people who want to know why I started blogging about Japanese food after moving to Switzerland of all places. (Cross-posted to Just Hungry and Just Bento.)