site news

I'm in Japan! I'll be here for the next three months. I am here primarily for two reasons: My mother is in hospital; and the bento cookbook photoshoot will commence next month. But of course I'll be filing plenty of reports on what I've done, not to mention eaten, here! I'll be taking and uploading photos every day, which you can follow here on flickr.

The photo above is of dinner last night with family - a seafood nabe and a sashimi assortment. Delicious and so simple, and not at all easy (or inexpensive) to recreate properly outside of Japan!

Once again, Just Hungry is proud to offer a great raffle item for the annual Menu For Hope fund raising event, which will benefit the United Nations World Food Programme.

This year it's personal: A hand-selected (by me, of course) box of Japanese goodies directly from Japan, plus...a signed copy of my upcoming book!

Thank you for all of your comments about the new theme/event! I have been mulling over it, and I while I still haven't decided on the name yet, I have more or less decided on what it will be:

I know that I have sadly neglected this blog for some weeks now, as I struggle with completing the first draft of my book. (My main problem is I keep revising the recipes...but that's another story.) I know that digging up things from the archives does not really constitute true updating! Anyway, I do have an idea for a regular theme or event of sorts, to commence probably in the new year (or when the book is further along in the birthing process).

The tentative title of the theme/event is Japanese Ingredient Focus Seminar (too formal?). I know that many Japanese ingredients are unfamiliar to non-Japanese readers. So the goal will be to become as familiar as possible with it, in a specific time period, say 2-3 weeks. I'll announce the ingredient beforehand, so people have time to get a hold of it. Then we will try various recipes using that ingredient, from simple to not-so-simple.

How does this sound? Let me know if this sounds interesting to you. I'll also accept suggestions for ingredients to tackle.

A problem has cropped up in the last couple of days with login on Just Hungry and Just Bento. Previously, you were able to log into either site, and you'd be logged in on the other. This is not working as it should at the moment.

The workaround for now is to log in separately to either site. If you have a problem logging in, please let me know (via the contact form for the offending site) and I'll try to fix it manually. Sorry for the inconvenience!

The winner of the Izakaya Cookbook is... Mireia! Congratulations to Mireia, and thank you to everyone who entered. Look for more great giveaways on Just Hungry in the future!

A small update

I'm in the throes of frantic 'must-meet-deadline' mode for my own book. If I meet my first deadline (in less than 2 weeks!!!), I should at least be able to take a shower...I mean, pull my head above water for a bit and update here. Until then, please bear with me!

(Incidentally, doesn't it bug you when people say 'please bare with me'? No I don't want to take my clothes off with you. Geez.

I'm going off on a tangent. Back to work.)

So, I'm writing a book, and a deadline looms.

The winner of The Enlightened Kitchen book is... emalie from Australia!

If you didn't win this time, stay tuned, because I have a couple more books to give away in the next couple of weeks which I am sure will be of interest to Just Hungry readers.

I was interviewed on WRS Geneva, an English-language radio station in Geneva (Genève), Switzerland, this past Tuesday, on their food programme called Stir It Up. The MP3 is up now for download (link now corrected!), so if you want to know how I sound, with a stuffed nose (from allergies...agh!) complete with my totally mixed up accent, my segment starts after the rhubarb at around 9:45. It might be of interest to people who want to know why I started blogging about Japanese food after moving to Switzerland of all places. (Cross-posted to Just Hungry and Just Bento.)