Brussels sprouts are one of my most favorite vegetables, if they’re cooked perfectly. I like the crunchy texture and the combination of bitter and sweet taste. But they are also really easy to overcook and become mushy. Let’s avoid that!

I’m going to introduce to how I cook brussels sprouts full of flavor, nice and crunchy, super easy and quick!

Chicken nanban is a dish famous from the Southern part of Japan, in Miyazaki Prefecture. Deep fried chicken, dipped in a savory, sour, and slightly sweet sauce, with tartar sauce on top.

Literally, Nanban means barbarian (ban, 蛮) southerner (nan, 南). Originally it mainly referred to the Portuguese and their culture. It sounds really mean (of course we don’t refer to the Portuguese like that at all now!) but there are some reasons why they were named like that.

Burdock root is a really long root vegetable used for many dishes in Japan. It can be served chopped into julienne and seasoned with savory or sweet spices, cut into chunks and simmered with other veggies and meat, cooked with rice, deep fried for chips, and many more ways. Known as Gobo in Japanese, it has a crunchy texture and earthy aroma. As for health benefits, gobo has tons of fiber, contains antioxidants and purifies blood among other things.

Shiso is a herb used widely for Japanese cooking. Some describe this as mint or basil but I think they are very different. We chop shiso julienne style and sprinkle on top of tofu with ginger and soy sauce, or combine it with salad greens to give some aroma. We also make dressing out from shiso, fry into tempura, and there are many other ways to prepare.

We went grocery shopping last week for the second time after the shelter-in-place order. There are more ingredients available than the first time, but some ingredients like chicken and individual portions of pork were all sold out. I was happy to find there were 2 vacuum sealed oxtail meat packages still left so I decided to use them for something (I like this vacuum sealed meat when you can’t go grocery shopping often.)

In my last post, I cooked fish. Today, I’m going to show you how to break down a giant squid and how to grill it. And if you want to try a Japanese delicacy, we’ll be making squid liver sauce for dipping. The recipe follows.

There are lot of different way to cook fish but i think the best way is grilled fish with only salt. Grilling fish sounds easy. And yes, it is easy. But in order to cook perfectly

In Japan, there are a lot of different breakfast variations. Toast, ham and eggs, Western style cereal with milk and fruit , miso soup, grilled salted salmon, nori seaweed, or Japanese style raw egg over hot rice. Some people also just skip breakfast. For me, breakfast is important. I wake up hungry so I like to eat something quickly prepared and full of nutrition.

The first day for the shelter-in-place order was a day before St. Patrick’s Day and there were so many packages of corned beef and cabbage left at the grocery store even though many other meats and vegetables were sold out. I decided to buy one huge cabbage and to use for several different dishes. I already used some for Japanese curry (which I posted the other day), Japanese gyoza dumplings, miso soup… but still had a lot left over so I used the rest of the cabbage for coleslaw with Japanese seasoning. I think many people wonder what to do with a whole cabbage

Many Japanese kids love this dish and of course I did too. When I was small, I was always super happy when my mom cooked this for our dinner at home, And I still love it! This dish is hard to translate to English since

In Japan, we eat Japanese curry at restaurants and also cook it at home. Each family has their own curry recipes. Some people blend spices and make curry roux from scratch, but most people use pre-made curry roux. You can get Japanese curry roux at many grocery stores in the US these days. If you follow the directions on the box, it’s very easy, and you will successfully make delicious Japanese curry at home. Although, if you add a few extra steps, it will taste even better! Below I will share my curry cooking tips with you.

When we went grocery shopping people were buying stuff like crazy. Although we found there were still many pineapples left. I grabbed one without hesitation since pineapple is one of my most favorite fruits! Some people might not know how to correctly cut them, and just buy already cut pineapple. But if you buy a whole one and cut it at home, it’s cheaper and tastier! Today I’ll show you how to pick and how to cut a pineapple.

When you pick a pineapple keep these things in mind:

Today’s dish will take some time but you won’t have to work too hard - you’ll just have to leave the pot on the stove for a while.

When we went grocery shopping on Monday, we were able to get meat but didn’t have many choices. I found a rack of pork ribs so decided to cook them in Japanese style. We’re going to simmer the ribs for a long time and make the meat super soft and it will fall off the bone easily. Also, I’ll show how to cook flavored soft boiled eggs that matches this ribs dish. You’ll often see this type of egg on top of ramen.