About Just Hungry

(日本語のプロフィールは こちらから)

Hi everyone. My name is Makiko Itoh, or Maki for short.

If you are new here, welcome! Just Hungry is a food blog, established in 2003. It has been featured numerous times by the press including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, Epicurious, Gourmet Magazine, Saveur, The Japan Times, Cooking Light and Food and Wine, and much more.

Just Hungry started out in 2003 as a place for me to write about my food obsessions. I am Japanese, born in Tokyo, but have led a very nomadic existence since childhood. I've lived so far in Japan (three places), England (three places), the U.S. twice (a total of 6 places), Switzerland, and now southern France. I am also a recent cancer patient (twice) This is reflected in what I write about here.

My primary focus here on Just Hungry is Japanese food and home cooking. As a Japanese person living abroad, I do miss the cuisine I grew up with a lot, and that is what I mostly cook at home regardless of where I live. I try to always present recipes and methods for people who do not live in Japan, and may not be familiar with Japanese cooking or have access to a wide selection of Japanese ingredients. I know through experience that it's not always easy to cook Japanese food outside of Japan, but my recipes are authentically Japanese enough to satisfy my harshest critic - me!

Other things I write about on occasion include:

• The food life of an expatriate - living away from ones home country and dealing with sourcing food and food-homesickness. This includes trying to replicate some recipes from my second home country, America - specifically the food of New York City.
• The cuisine of my current countries of residence, France and Switzerland, and neighboring countries.
• Healthy and casually ethical eating and cooking.
• Food-oriented travel, wherever my wandering feet take me.
• Various food and nutrition issues.

Just Hungry's sister site is Just Bento, a site dedicated to bento lunch how-tos and recipes. I'm the author of The Just Bento Cookbook and its sequel, The Just Bento Cookbook 2.

Contact

Please get in touch via Twitter, or via the Just Bento - Just Hungry Facebook Page. You can also email me at maki at my full name with no spaces dot com.

Advertising, promotion, product and restaurant reviews, and guest articles

For all advertising and promotional enquiries, including requests for product reviews and link backs, please consult the advertising and promotion policies page.

This site does not accept unsolicited guest articles. Requests to place guest articles will be ignored.

Terms of Service

Please consult the Terms of Service.

Copyright

All contents of Justhungry.com and Justbento.com, excluding comments written by others, are © Makiko Itoh, unless stated explicitly otherwise. All rights reserved. You may not republish the contents on either site without the express written permission of Makiko Itoh.

Please do not copy the recipes, photographs or any other contents without 1) linking back to the original recipe, and 2) giving the proper credit to Just Hungry. I know that recipes are always there to be used and adapted, but please have the basic courtesy to acknowledge the source. Adapting a recipe is fine, but copying a recipe verbatim is not. (Not only does it violate my copyright, it's lazy and rude too. Don't be That Guy/Girl.)

Please do not use any photographs without first asking permission, even if it's for non-profit purposes.

Please do not use my recipes or other content in any electronic or non-electronic publication, regardless of whether it's for a non-profit or for-profit purpose, without obtaining my express written permission first. Please contact me first about your project. (See Contact section above.)

Students: If you wish to use an image or other content on this site for your non-commercial classwork, you do not have to ask permission, but you must give credit to this site and the author, in this format: "Source: Makiko Itoh, justhungry.com".

You may not use the contents of this site within a frameset or iframe housed on another site without the express written permission of the copyright holder.

Disclaimers

Recipes

Unless a source is stated, the recipes are my creation, or else are traditional recipes with no traceable source.

I try to give very clear instructions, and test each recipe several times before posting it publicly. However, since following a recipe can depend on many things such as access to ingredients (and their quality) the skill of the cook, and whether he or she actually followed the recipe! I can't guarantee that your results will be to your taste, nor can I promise you good results, though I can say that if you do follow the recipe closely your chances are better.

Health and nutrition information

Since I am interested in the subject of healthy eating, I do occasionally insert some health and nutrition information in my posts. However, please keep in mind that I am not a health professional. I am just an interested lay person who seeks to educate herself on such matters as much as possible.

In a similar vein, I have a very low tolerance for dubious health or nutrition claims that are not backed up by reliable sources and/or sound scientific studies. Please do not try to use the commenting feature of this site as your platform for spreading your pet nutritional theory. Your comments in that vein will be deleted and you'll be banned from the site.

(Please check out this post for my general thoughts on health and medical information on the internet.)

Privacy policy

See this page.

Where else to find me

I am on Twitter at @justbento where I tweet JustBento and JustHungry site related things only, and @makiwi, where I tweet about many different topics, not just food.

Don't forget to check out our sister site Just Bento, all about bentos!

The Just Bento-Just Hungry Facebook Page.

The Just Bento Cookbook is now in its 11th or 12th printing (as of May 2019...I've lost count! ). Its sequel, The Just Bento Cookbook 2, was published in 2018. Read more about them on Just Bento!

My personal blog is makikoitoh.com. (Updated very sporadically.)

I write a monthly column for The Japan Times titled The Japanese Kitchen. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/author/int-makiko_itoh/. I've also written for several other publications.

The ever evolving FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

I've moved the FAQ to their own page.

(Last updated May 2019.)