Japanese Vegetable Stew with Miso Broth

Vegetarian Japanese vegetable stew with miso

When you’re looking for something hearty and warming as days become shorter and colder, consider the Japanese dishes called nabemono. These “simmered dishes” are often cooked in one pot (called a “nabe”), sometimes in the middle of the dining table over a portable burner.  In the West, the most famous nabemono is probably sukiyaki — beef and vegetables […]

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Okara, tofu’s humble relative, lends its name to high-end hair-care products

(Updated, 11/26/16: fixed broken links) During my last haircut, the conversation turned to chocolate (a regular topic), and so I told my sad story of scheduling stupidity, chocolate and soy. As part of their “Taste Project,” Recchuiti Confections’ collaborated with Hodo Soy Beanery to explore the pairing of chocolate with the many incarnations of the […]

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The Black Eggs of Owakudani in Japan

Hello Kitty characters help sell black eggs at Owakudani in the Hakone region of Japan

Two of the highlights of the Hakone region of Japan — an area about 1 1/2 hours south of Tokyo by train with beautiful mountains, lakes, and all sorts of attractions — are black eggs and a wooden handicraft technique called Yosegi-zaiku. The black eggs of Owakudani are chicken eggs that have been hard-boiled in […]

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