There’s grain bowls and then there’s grain bowls. Donburi is a Japanese rice bowl that can be topped with various ingredients, from fish to meat to vegetables. It was the original grain bowl, before grain bowls became trendy. For this version I used a combo of Japanese six grain rice that I mixed with sushi … Continue Reading

Oatmeal and sweet porridges have never really appealed to me. Am more of a savory than a sweet type of person. I’ve had a savory porridge on my to-do list for quite some time. Most renditions I’ve encountered out and about utilized only one type of grain, two at most. I wanted to experiment with … Continue Reading

I love spicy. Crave spicy. Every few weeks I whip up a batch of chile oil and drizzle it on just about everything and anything. Sometimes, I simply heat up some oil and then pour the hot, sizzling, bubbly oil over a bowl of chile flakes. The hot oil gives the chile flakes a pleasing … Continue Reading

As a big fan of sea vegetables, I’m quite excited about the latest addition to my cookbook collection — Ocean Greens: Explore the World of Edible Seaweed and Sea Vegetables (published in October 2016). I’ve thumbed through it and bookmarked several recipes that piqued my interest — among others, a tiramisu thickened with agar agar (a type of … Continue Reading

I like an al dente noodle. One with a lot of chew. When I was in Chicago a few weeks back, I had a delicious plate of chestnut noodles with mushrooms at Bad Hunter (Randolph Avenue in the West Loop). The chestnut noodles were pleasantly  chewy. As well, the dish just happened to be vegan. … Continue Reading