I have been living alone for seven years now. I love living alone. There is no one to be passive aggressive towards, plus everything in your fridge is still there when you get home. But the longer I live alone, the more I become oblivious to potentially unattractive behaviors (leaving used tissues everywhere) and fashions […]
Author Archives: Yoko Kumano
February 6, 2009
Half-Price Sashimi (Wasabi Faux Pas)
Although my stomach was feeling weird, it didn’t stop me from my Friday night Half-Price Sushi ritual. I got to the store around 20:00, which is well after the markdown at 19:00. But there were still some varieties of sushi left. Something drew me to the beautiful cubes of maguro. Mmm. Marked down from 580 […]
February 5, 2009
Mom’s Simple Salmon Pate
Moms have the best recipes. This one for salmon pate has been a hit (gone in under an hour) at both parties I’ve brought them to. I have only made it twice but it’s so simple and reliable that it’ll become a regular in my limited recipe repertoire. Ingredients: A)2 green onions chopped1/2 cup of […]
February 3, 2009
Japan Loves Beer!
It’s trash day in my neighborhood and I snapped some photos with my cell phone on my way to work – reminded that Japan loves beer. And what’s funny is that for every household’s aluminum can bin, there’s usually only one or two brands in it. Beer brand loyalty is huge in Japan. Like the […]
January 31, 2009
Ukon no Chikara
The marketing concept of drinking an ukon extract drink like Ukon no Chikara (rough translation: Tumeric’s Power) is to get over a wild night with fellow salarymen. The tagline on the bottle says “Let’s drink to everyday vitality!” (very ironic). I had one sitting on my desk at work for about 6 months, as a […]
January 29, 2009
Homemade Yogurt: My Bulgarian Babe
I start every weekday with a serving of homemade yogurt over seasonal fruit. Ever since my boss gave me some cultures in a little plastic baggy over two years ago, I have been hooked. I have kept the cultures alive and well. It’s funny, I’ve found that the cultures have become a part of me. […]
January 23, 2009
Half-Price Sushi at 19:00:00 (7pm)
One of my favorites ways to unwind after a long five-day week in salaryman hell is to gorge on supermarket sushi on a Friday night. If I am lucky enough to be done at work at 6pm, I rush out of Ginza to make it back to my neighborhood supermarket in Shimokitazawa just before 7:00:00pm. […]
January 14, 2009
California Love: Modesto Squab
My first dinner of 2009 will go down in the books. On the menu was roasted squab (one squab for every member), wild rice with soaked dried cherries, herb stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, and an avocado and grapefruit salad. Everything was purchased at the my favorite grocery store in the world, the […]
January 13, 2009
You Know What’s Fresh…
…when Tsukiji is bubbling over with them. To check out what’s in season, or to simply when I feel like salivating profusely, I walk around Tsukiji on my lunch break. Today I found crabs: short-legged ones, long-legged ones, hairy-legged ones, white ones, red ones, ones in a tank, and buggy-eyed ones. Unfortunately, I can not […]
January 11, 2009
Hinabe: The Best of Both Worlds
On the first day of the season forecasted for snow in Tokyo, I knew I wanted something warm and spicy. I thought Korean would suffice, but I couldn’t shake off my hankering for nabe. So I decided to do a search for hinabe on google. Hinabe is a style of nabe (hi meaning fire, and […]