These are not really pickles, but rather a Japanese cucumber salad. This dish received its name of Lazy Pickles from one of my lunch buddies at work, who moved to Toronto from Ukraine a couple of years ago. The food she brings for lunch are amazing treats that seem to come from a time forgotten by most […]
Japanese
Japanese Canadian Chow Mein
This chow mein is not really a Japanese dish – it is strictly Japanese Canadian. Japanese food generally doesn’t use onions (other than green onions) or celery. Our dad’s side of the family is Japanese Canadian – our great grandparents came to Canada in the early 1900s and our grandparents were born in BC. They […]
Okonomiyaki – Japanese Cabbage Pancake
Okonomiyaki is a specialty of Osaka, the second largest city in Japan and also it’s foodie capital. Tomiko and I first tried it at an okonomiyaki restaurant when our aunt took us to Osaka in 2006. The word ‘okomiyaki’ means ‘grilled as you like it’ and is a cabbage pancake, but it tastes so much better […]
Kabocha no Nimono – Japanese Simmered Pumpkin
Homemade Japanese dishes are often variations on a few cooking styles – one of the simplest and tastiest is the simmered dish. Here, I made Japanese simmered pumpkin with dense, buttery kabocha squash, which is not only tasty, but the cooked peel is edible! You can use the basic broth to cook potato, sweet potato, daikon, […]
Sekihan – Celebration Red Rice
Foods that are only served on special occasions are often fondly remembered for more than just taste alone. Sekihan is glutinous, or sweet, rice coloured red with adzuki beans and will get anyone from our dad’s generation on the Japanese side of our family exclaiming with gusto. I don’t remember eating this as a kid, […]