Umami Mart

One of my tasks as a wee lass in the early 90s was to wash the rice for dinner while my single mom did the rest of the preparation and cooking. She told me that the ultimate goal in rice-washing is to get the water clear. With my tiny hands, I would grind the rice […]

Rice has come up in conversation more than a few times since I have been back in the US. Mainly questions like “What kind of rice do you eat?” “Where do you buy your rice?” and “How does rice in the US compare to the rice in Japan?” True, nothing compares to rice in Japan […]

One of my most recent discoveries in Tokyo is Mangetsu, a tiny place that has a maximum occupancy of eight, one-minute from Hatagaya station that specializes in gyu-tan, or beef tongue. I will post on their many beef tongue dishes in the near future, but this post concerns Mugi-toro meshi – a barley rice bowl […]

My new thing is to mix two kinds of rice, hakumai (short-grain white rice) and genmai (brown rice). I used to alternate between brown and white depending on the day, but found brown rice alone to be too heavy sometimes. For example, eating a delicate condiment such as tai-chazuke (white fish condiment with tea poured […]

Mentaiko and sesame oil are meant to be together forever. I realized this when I first tried Mentaiko Gohan (Rice) at one of the izakayas I frequent. Luckily, the ingredients were so simple that I could recreate the dish to a T at home. It has since become my ultimate comfort food. Ingredients: 1 generous […]