Seafood+Meat


March 30, 2015

Japanify: Tuna Toast

by Yoko Kumano

It’s no secret that I don’t like any breakfast/lunch egg dishes. So whenever I go out for brunch, I have to scour the menu for non-egg items. I usually have to order a hodge-podge of side dishes: two breakfast sausages, toast and hash browns. It’s the same in Japan – omelettes and egg-dishes dominate coffee shop […]

June 18, 2014

Japanify: How to Make Japanese Curry from SCRATCH

by Yoko Kumano

(Don’t have time to make Japanese curry from scratch? Check out Yoko’s Easy Japanese Curry recipe.) For two months, Kayoko and I at curry for dinner almost every night. As our “How to Make Japanese” curry event in San Francisco’s 18 Reasons approached, we stewed our way to a curry that was rich and full […]

May 7, 2014

Lazyass Cookin’: How to Boil a Dumpling

by Kayoko Akabori

Have I seriously never posted anything about frozen dumplings? That’s crazy! Frozen dumplings have been my #1 go-to lazyass meal for years now. I used to buy the bags in the frozen food aisle at Chinese super markets, with their bright color-coded bags for bitter melon or chive and shrimp varieties (usually made in Thailand). […]

April 25, 2014

The Vin Vivant: Spin the Bottle

by Audrey Luk

My #1 tip for how to learn more about wine: spin the bottle around and look at the back label. See the name of the importer? If you liked the wine, you’ll probably like the importer. Find more wines brought into the U.S. (or whatever country you’re in) by the name on the back, and […]

March 14, 2014

The Vin Vivant: Celebrating Pi Day With Bstilla

by Audrey Luk

My first encounter with phyllo roll — Wow. Cinnamon-spiced chicken with raisins, chickpeas and almonds were listed to describe Chicken Cilicia, my favorite on La Méditeranée‘s four-roll platter. My taste buds wondered what I’d been doing all my life before I discovered that poultry, nuts and baking spices compose a stellar trio. It would take […]

February 7, 2014

Japanify: Salmon Avocado Donburi

by Yoko Kumano

Shopping for the freshest seafood just got easier with another fish market that opened in the People’s Republic of Berkeley. Fish is still my favorite thing to eat for dinner because it’s easy and so, so delicious. Grilled, simmered or baked, fish will let you do anything to it and it’ll adapt. But, by far, […]

January 27, 2014

The Vin Vivant: Tripel Happiness with Loh Bak Goh

by Audrey Luk

All day to do as I pleased, all night to gorge on cheese: this was my MLK weekend mantra. It was the start of the Winter Fancy Food Show at the Moscone Center, so Chris was away meeting luminaries of the gourmet world while I puttered about at home, varying my errands with cooking projects […]

January 17, 2014

Japanify: Take-It-Easy Takikomi

by Yoko Kumano

If there’s one thing 6 days in paradise (Kauai) reminded me about life, it’s that cooking rice on the stove top (and not in a rice cooker) is so easy! I used to do it all the time when I worked as a server at a restaurant called Konohana in Tokyo. That was the only […]

December 31, 2013

The Vin Vivant: Fat Belly, Tiny Bubbles

by Audrey Luk

When Old Man Winter’s icy digit stops mercury from rising, I am reminded of a traveler I met in Argentina, a Canadian middle-school teacher who once ran sled dogs. It was so cold in Saskatchewan that when he and the dogs returned to their cabin after a day of skittering across the tundra, he dropped […]

December 27, 2013

Casa de Kei: Kampachi Kama Soup

by Keisuke Akabori

INGREDIENTS 1 kampachi kama (or any other desired fish collar like yellowtail, red snapper, or salmon) make sure to clean it thoroughly for scales and grit, it is not pleasant to eat 1 bunch komatsuna (or spinich) 5 small matsutake mushrooms (or any other mushroom like enoki, maitake, shiitake, bunshimeji, etc.), sliced thin 1 Tokyo […]