Recipes By Region

Purple Sweet Potato Mont Blanc Pudding

Vanilla pudding topped with a whipped cream layer and finished off with a sweetened purple sweet potato puree makes me weak in the knees. But let me back up a bit. A few months ago I received a surprise box of purple sweet potatoes from my friends at Frieda’s. I was literally jumping up and down […]

Whole wheat angel hair pasta, baby arugula, and burdock root in a yuzu kosho cream sauce is enough to get me daydreaming. When I was typing up the recipe to share this fabulous dish with you, it got me to thinking.

あけましておめでとうございます! Happy New Year! This morning as I watched hatsuhinode (the first sunrise of the new year) through clouds and softly falling snowflakes, I marveled that another year had passed so quickly. It seems it was just yesterday that we were welcoming 2012!

Tamagoyaki (卵焼き), which translates literally to mean “grilled egg,” is a Japanese omelette made by rolling up many thin layers of cooked seasoned egg. Tamagoyaki is sweet and savory and is served for breakfast, as nigirizushi, and is very popular in bento lunches—so it is the perfect dish for my Bento Buddy series!

I love a good potato salad, but I’m also quite picky about how I like it prepared. I have three favorites—my mother-in-law’s potato salad, Japanese-style potato salad, and kartoffelsalat (German potato salad). I love the sharp vinegary marinade of German potato salad, and the creamy tart flavor always reminds me of visits to Siegfried’s deli […]

Dark leafy greens stir-fried in a smoky, sweet and spicy sauce make a wonderful addition to a fall or winter meal, and a fun way to explore the flavors of Southeast Asia. I wrote recently about different ways to add more fruits and vegetables into your diet. One idea I talked about was trying something […]

A match made in comfort food heaven: roasted potato wedges sprinkled with fragrant nutty gomashio—Japanese sesame salt, one of my all-time favorite condiments.

Making tofu is just like making a simple cheese—you heat soy milk, then add a coagulant to separate the milk into curds and whey. You then ladle the curds into a mold to press them into a block of cheese, or in this case, tofu! I’ve written about making tofu before here on LFM, but […]

I’ve never met a taco I didn’t like. So when I discovered takoraisu (i.e., “taco rice”), a Japanese twist on the taco, while living in Japan, you can imagine that I was just a little excited to add another favorite to my taco family. In taco rice, rice takes the place of the taco shell, and […]

The first time Mr. Fuji and I moved to Japan I was quick to notice the sandwich bread, known as shokupan, in our local supermarket: cellophane bags filled with thick square slices of white bread, and no heels in sight—and when I say thick, I’m talking one and half inches thick! Mr. Fuji told me […]

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