site news

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.)

April is Frugal Food Month on Just Hungry

maki — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:08:03 +0200

As I have noted over on Just Bento, April will be Frugal Food Month here on Just Hungry (and Frugal Bento Month over on Just Bento).

Personally, saving money has been on my mind a lot these days, as I realize that we need every penny we can scrape together to buy a house that we really like, in an area we really want to be in. While Just Bento will be concentrating on the money saving benefits of making your own lunch, here on Just Hungry I will be talking about a wider range of topics related to frugality and food. Some will be related to this site’s main topic, Japanese cooking (and culture), but not all.

Above all though, I hope to keep things fun and not too heavy.

So…stay tuned! :)

My Japanese language blog and Twitter

maki — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:35:40 +0100

I know that quite a lot of people who follow Just Bento and/or Just Hungry are interested in Japanese culture in general. So, this is a very-infrequent plug for my Japanese language mini-lesson blog and Twitter account. The Twitter account is separate from my main chatty Twitter (@bentotips, where I actually rarely tweet any bento tips…); it’s at @mainichinihongo. There is also a companion blog, Hungry For Words, which has longer lessons on occasion. The lessons are not very structured or anything - I just talk about words or phrases that pop into my mind.

So, if you are studying Japanese, or just interested in nihongo, take a look! It’s all part of my mission to spread Japanese culture over the world, like gomashio on rice ^_^.

(Cross-posted to Just Hungry and Just Bento. I have plugged it here before, but I hope you don’t mind another one - I try not to do it that often. )

Name That Food! Mystery food identification flickr group

maki — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:14:34 +0100

I have a house to pack and vacate by the end of February, the forum has launched successfully, I have tons of work to do, and I’m also trying to lose weight with the Bento Challenge. Which means…procrastination time! Well not really, but this idea has been brewing in my head for a while so I thought I might as well get it out there. I’m often asked questions of the ‘What is this food I saw at an Asian/Japanese grocery store?” nature. Often, without pictures I have not a clue. So…I’ve made a flickr group called Name That Food. The idea is that you take pictures of food that is a mystery to you, and other people try to identify it. Or you could post pics of food you do know the identity of, and have other people try to guess.

Sound like fun? Go over and join up!