site news

Some links and random thoughts

maki — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:46:01 +0200

Here are a bunch of unrelated-to-each-other links and thoughts that have accumulated recently.

Product linkage, edible

For UK and Europe readers: Japan Centre has a sale on this week for Yamamotoyama Soy Rappu, colorful soy based wrappers that are an interesting substitute for nori seaweed when making sushi rolls. I haven’t really tried them myself yet, so I placed and order and will see how they work.

And speaking of Japan Centre, they now stock Grape and Orange flavored Calpis! Ah, Calpis, the guilty pleasure of my youth. I’ll be writing up an unnecessarily long and rhapsodical ode to this most curious fermented milk beverage sometime soon, before summer runs out.

Allez Cuisine into the deep

For U.S. cable TV viewers, Fine Living is going to be running a Sea Monster Week of Iron Chef episodes starting on Monday the 18th, starting off with Battle Octopus, then on to Battle King Crab on Tuesday, Battle Giant Eel on Wednesday, Battle Squid on Thursday, and ending with Battle Ashura Oyster. Sounds like good slimy fun.

Not edible, but still so sweet

Recently it’s become very popular in Japan to decorate various things including cellphones and iPods, mirrors, bags, even your car’s rearview mirror, with fake confectionery made of clay that look just like the real thing. They are made with various air-drying clays. Take a look at this Google image search for some amazing examples. Remember, none of what you see there is edible!

If this intrigues you or your kids, J-List/JBox has an exceedingly kawaii paper clay cake making kit aimed at children. It comes with lightweight air-drying paper clay.

Update on what’s up with me and stuff

And finally, some personal notes… As I’ve written about here previously, I’m in the middle of the process of selling a house (actually two houses, since this is a Doppelfamilienhaus), finding a new place to live, and then eventually moving from here to there. I’ve tried not to let the two food sites slip into non-updated oblivion, but I haven’t been able to spend as much time on them as I’d like, not to mention any kind of time consuming cooking. (My two other blogs have already gone rather quiet). Anyway, if you see a lack of answers to questions, or note the fact that most recently posted recipes are very, very simple, you know what the reason is! In the next few weeks I may be absent for some stretches so that I can go do some serious house hunting, and when we do find a new place to live it’s likely things will be quite hectic for some time after, but I hope you bear with me!

In Shojo Beat Magazine

maki — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:13:07 +0200

I was interviewed recently for Shojo Beat Magazine, an English magazine published in the U.S. dedicated to shojo manga (manga for girls), and the results of whatever I said are in the most recent issue. Unfortunately the articles isn’t online, so I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but the whole issue is dedicated to Japanese food and manga - sounds like fun!

Update: Here is the link to the article (an excerpt I think). (Thanks heatherbug!)

Incidentally, I am periodically asked 1. if I read manga, and 2. what manga I like. The answers are 1. yes, sometimes, and 2. I’m a bit of a classicist (or you could say, jidai okure or ‘behind the times’ old fogie). I am not fond of most recent manga really, though if I were pushed to name some I did like I guess Nodame Cantabile is pretty good - the idea of a whole manga series based on a love of classical music is just awesome. It does bug me a bit that the heroine is some sort of idiot savant, who is frequently (and willingly?) thrown and bashed about to get sense into her! Karekano (or kare to kanojo no jijou) went from awesome and funny to more serious then WTF to a sort-of-satisfying ending (I have the whole manga series).

My favorite manga are from a select group of authors who are considered to be masters of the shojo manga genre. No. 1 by far for me is Moto Hagio (萩尾望都), who writes everything from fantasy/SF to extremely gritty drama to sweet romances. No. 2 is Yumiko Ohshima (大島弓子）, who writes almost ethereal, delicate manga with a bite. (Many of her most popular works feature cats.) No. 3 is probably Ryoko Yamagishi (山岸涼子; her forté is ballet drama manga, but she’s also written historical dramas and more. All three of these authors (all women) made their debuts in the　late 1960s to early 1970s, and are still turning out top notch manga. If you want to know more about them, American manga scholar Matt Thorn has written extensively about them, especially Moto Hagio, with whom he conducted an extensive interview.

Early on in her career, Moto Hagio wrote a sort of novella-length manga called “Cake Cake Cake” (ケーキ　ケーキ　ケーキ). It was about a girl who had no special talents to speak of, not even cooking, but loved sweets and cakes more than anything in the world, and could turn out terrific pancakes. Her love of cakes leads her to Paris, where she becomes the apprentice of a downtrodden patissier. I read this manga when I was about 10, and while it’s not the best work by the author by any measure, it’s one of my favorites because it’s so full of life. I think it even started me on the road to somehow end up living in Europe as an adult!

How to get rid of craft and cooking books?

maki — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:52:45 +0200

This is a mostly non-food related question. I have hinted around about this a bit, but I’m in the process of moving (not sure where yet, but that’s another story!) and I’m taking this as a good opportunity to seriously declutter. I have a bunch of cookbooks and craft books in Japanese and English that I want to part with.

Most of the books I want to find homes for are in new or very good condition. No splattered books with stuck-together pages! There are a few that are a bit worn, but are out of print so may have a rarity value.

The question is, what’s the best way to do it? eBay? Etsy? Amazon Marketplace? Something else? Put up a list here and see who wants something?

Anything left over will go to a local used book store, but I wouldn’t mind making a little moving-cost money from them.

Your suggestions?

[Update:] Thank you for your suggestions so far! I think I will start with a list here, and then move onto the other options. Given that for most people the shipping will be overseas, I’ll put a very small price on the books themselves, since my primary goal is to find good homes for them. (Thinking about donating the proceeds to a charity like the World Food Programme too.) Stay tuned :)

Finding me on Twitter

maki — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:24:08 +0200

I’ve noticed that some people have been following makiwi on Twitter. Thanks for adding me, but I don’t really use that account for public twitters (I use it mainly for Sandy reminders and such). Publicly I twitter on bentotips. If you miss my daily links and such, which I stopped posting here because of clutter, follow me there, where I tend to post them nowadays in addition to other aimless things.

And incidentally, I am also on other social media sites but I never use them. I don’t have the time to use them. How do other people find the time? So if you happen to find me on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc…just pass by, it’s an empty void.

April will be lighter around here

maki — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:59:58 +0200

Incidentally, I plan to do a lot more vegetable-oriented/lighter cooking, so you’ll most likely see the results of that on Just Hungry and Just Bento. This means I’m going to give the yohshoku series a rest for awhile (breaded and deep fried hamburgers tend to stick to the waistline and all.) Besides, we’re finally starting to see reasonably locally grown vegetables that aren’t cabbage or broccoli! This kind of thing over on Just Bento is what I’ll be eating more of. I lost a bunch of weight when I couldn’t eat after my surgery, but almost all of it has come right back since my appetite returned! Must. Stem. Belly rebound.

Hi, still alive

maki — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:03:50 +0100

Hi everyone. I am alive and getting better. I actually had a tonsillectomy (hi Yoko I got it done finally); this winter I had two very bad bouts with tonsillitis and thought those things best be gone. At the moment I am feeling quite blah (probably the meds), and somehow quite depressed for some reason I can’t put a finger on. I’m not supposed to be doing anything too stressful for a while, and surfing the internets right now really gets me down even more - can’t explain that either. My throat is too uncomfortable yet to eat anything (even ice cream is sort of irritating, so I’m mainly drinking fluids…) - I don’t have much of an appetite, though I keep on thinking about the smell of butter melting in a hot pan. And bacon. But not bacon in butter. Weird.

Anyway, I’ll return to duty around here when I’m back to my own self. Thank you for all your good wishes!

Break down on two fronts

maki — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:40:37 +0100

I love my Macs in a way that is hard to explain, unless you’re like me and have been using Macs since the ’80s. Well, my trusty 12 inch Powerbook suddenly decided to die. Thank god for backups. So the last 36 hours or so have been spent transferring, backing up and other things to a brand new Macbook Pro. It’s a bittersweet feeling; while a new Mac is always nice, that little Powerbook was a true workhorse, a perfect fit for me in so many ways. I’d resisted upgrading it for a while, but all good Macs must go to heaven some time.

At the same time that the Powerbook decided to die, it was decided that I would be going through with some elective surgery that I needed to get but was holding off on too. So, updates here and on Just Bento will be a bit slower. I have some things already written up which I hope will be postable by me or a helpful elf, but replying to comments and things will have to wait.

I didn’t know I had so much synergy with my Powerbook! I hope I can revive her as a media server or something, and I hope I can revive my body parts too.

Taking a little inventory

maki — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:51:31 +0100

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.

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 (thin omelette)
Nikujaga
Chicken teriyaki (a lot of people ask me where my chicken teriyaki recipe is. I guess they can’t find this one!)
Inarizushi
Chicken karaage

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.

Help me to assemble a comprehensive Japanese grocery store list!

maki — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:32:12 +0100

I should have done this a long time ago, but hey, better late than ever. I’m going to try to assemble a list of Japanese grocery stores worldwide, that people can refer to. Obviously I cannot do this without your help! I can list info for places I’ve lived, and there have been some great comment posts in the past here that have included such info, but I’ll try to put it all in one place.

So, please head on over to to this constantly updated page and add any information you have about in the comments!

I’ve added the categories Food related shopping places you shouldn’t miss in Japan and Places that ship Japanese food-related things worldwide.

[Update:] Of course this turned out to be a way bigger job than I thought :) But I’ll try to add as much as possible over the weekend. I’ve found that there are quite a lot of Japanese pages that list stores and so on, for expats obviously. I’m collecting those and adding them, together with your suggestions in the comments.

Japanese grocery store list top page

Some admin stuff

maki — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:40:52 +0100

You may have noticed that you can now comment here and on Just Bento without moderation. I’m seeing if it works out - so far the anti-spam measures seem to be holding up. (You do still have to pass at terribly difficult math test…) I hate comment spam - to me it’s the interweb equivalent of someone walking their dog on your lawn and leaving a poop. But on the other hand I know it can be a bit frustrating to see your comment not be displayed immediately. So, we’ll see how it goes…if problems arise I’ll turn moderation back on. And by the way I will not tolerate any attempts to spam using humans either. It’s ok to contact me to mention your new site or whatever, but do not leave comments pimping it. It’s absolutely fine to include your URL when you are leaving a viable comment, or link to something that is relevant, but otherwise…no. (Occasionally I do a ‘tell me about your new site’ kind of post, and that’s the only time the pimpin’ is ok.)

(And yes I know the site was down this afternoon. The server had a bit of a conniption. Always happens when I’m not in to take care of it, of course.)