Features (articles)

Believe it or not, a sequel to The Just Bento Cookbook will be here soon.

What is "noodle harassment" and is it real?

A friend was wondering out loud on Facebook, why the kanji characters for fugu (pufferfish) are 河豚. She was pondering the use of 豚, the second character, which means "pig", but the first character 河 is a mystery too, since it means river - and the fugu that we know and eat today (or get all het up about how dangerous it is, depending on where you are from) is an ocean fish.

Valentine's Day in Japan is rather different.

ChefCuisine is a new method of delivering top restaurant quality meals to the home. It's intriguing...but will it succeed?

There's a rather extensive interview of me on Culinary Exchange. It has quite a lot of photos that are pretty nostalgic for me from the archives of JustHungry and JustBento, chosen by the interviewer, Matthew. I hope you enjoy it reading it. ^_^

And it's about time too! The site has been totally redone from the bones up. It should finally look and work like a mid-2015 site rather than a mid-2005 one!

Here are some highlights:

Weight loss shows on TV show cultural differences.

Yesterday I spent New Years Day with my mother, stepfather, middle sister, her husband and kids. It's the first time in years that I've spent New Years with my mother. It's still hard to get all my family into one place - my husband had to stay back home in France, and my other sister is in Ohio - but it was still a lovely day.

Our osechi (New Years feast) was a mix of Japan, France, England and America - besides traditional food like nishime (simmered winter vegetables), namasu, ozouni and a whole roasted tai (sea bream), we had chicken karaage, meatloaf, brownies, galettes bretonnes (butter cookies) and a Christmas pudding! Whew. It's fun to enjoy tiny morsels of so many different dishes though.

Butter shortages in post-modern Japan.