Why do you cook what you cook? + A Giveaway!

“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” — James Beard

I don’t think I tell you enough how grateful I am for my readers. Blogging can feel like writing in a vacuum, and sometimes I feel like I’m talking to myself, but then I get comments from you and the vacuum disappears! One of the big reasons I blog is YOU. You are a source of inspiration for me, whether it be a comment that helps me to find the most fabulous pumpkin scone recipe on the planet,
thinking about what makes a good slow cooker,
letting me know when you’ve tried out one of my recipes (I LOVE hearing that!), or just letting me know what you’re thinking. Sometimes one of your comments really gets me thinking. I got one of those comments on my last post early this morning from Kathy. She asked, “I know you obviously cook what is easier in the country that you happen to be in, but do you feel that you miss Japanese cooking, or do you just not ‘feel’ like cooking it so much?” Such a great question! The question started me down a path of thinking about what I cook and why, what my family eats, what ends up on this blog, and what my sources of inspiration are. So this morning, I’d like to share a few of those thoughts with you instead of what I had planned. Hopefully somewhere in there I’ll answer your question Kathy!

One thing that can be a good thing and a bad thing about food blogging is you only see a very small fraction of what we eat on a daily basis. I tend to share fun new things we’ve tried, new creations, or the biggest disasters. What you don’t see are the ho hum dishes, our favorite things that we eat on a reoccurring basis, or things that get replaced in the blogging queue by something I’m more excited about sharing. After reading Kathy’s comment I’ve realized that Japanese food has fallen into the categories of what you don’t see. Squirrel and I tend to eat quite a bit of Japanese food on a daily basis, but we are in a self-imposed rut. There are a few things that we both love that are quick and easy, so I tend to make them a lot. We eat a lot of onigiri and miso soup, for example.
So this explains part of the rut, but why has the variety of Japanese foods I cook dwindled? Do I miss Japanese cooking? YES! If anything I miss Japanese food more and more the longer we have been back in the US. So what’s the problem? I think the “problem” lies in where I draw my inspiration. What I cook tends to be inspired by a variety of sources: nostalgia, habit, other food blogs, newspaper/magazine articles, your comments, my moods/cravings, time (or the lack thereof), and what I see when I go to the grocery store. Although I am confronted with an overwhelming amount of variety when I go to the grocery store here in the US, it is all a bit “familiar.” Contrast this to my experience of doing my grocery shopping in Japan where each and every trip was an adventure, as I was constantly looking at things that were new and unfamiliar. Take for example the seafood section. Talk about variety! Tons of different fish and creatures that I had never seen in a grocery store before, let alone cooked. Trying new things and cooking new Japanese dishes was easy when there were so many new things that I couldn’t wait to put in my grocery basket and take home and experiment with. In addition, having two little Fujilings to constantly run after definitely keeps me busy and on my toes, so sometimes I admit, that I go with what is easy and what takes less planning and thought. Based on that fact, I’m extra excited about my new cooking project, which I expect will be a great source of inspiration and will give my family lots of variety in the Japanese cuisine arena.

Okay, now for the giveaway! I am going to give one of you a set of my all-time favorite measuring spoons (plus a few other surprise goodies).
What I want from you is a comment telling me about what inspires you in the kitchen and why you cook what you cook. After thinking about my own answers I’m very curious to hear yours! So talk to me! I will keep the comments open until this Friday, June 19th, 10 pm PST, and announce the winner (using a random number generator) on Monday (June 22nd). Make sure you leave me a way to contact you. This giveaway is open to all of my readers (international included). *Comments are now closed and the winner will be announced on Monday, June 22, 2009!

Coming Tomorrow: One Good (Meat)Loaf