i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
Sometimes I fall down the rabbit hole of making things traditionally in order to experience and understand the work and history that goes into food (and subsequently culture.) Mei gan cai kou rou (梅乾菜燜肉) is a dish my mom and grandma used to make–soft fatty …
Everyone hates garlic mustard, generally. I know I wasn’t a big fan even after turning it into pesto because there really is only so much you can eat of it before you can’t. It’s considered a noxious and invasive weed, crowding out everything in it’s …
Myoga ginger (Zingiber Mioga) is a Japanese species of ginger prized for its edible shoots and flower buds. I first had it on my honeymoon to Japan over chilled tofu as a garnish, and must admit the flavor was a bit strange to me–like ginger …
Mugwort—just the name drives gardeners into a fearful frenzy because of how insanely invasive it is. From just a small root grows a dense, waist high perennial that covers the ground in a span of a season. It’s difficult to get rid of once established, …
This actually isn’t my recipe (nor much of a recipe at all, more of a narrated process)—it’s my mom’s and it’s definitely not from around these parts, but from Costa Rica! Speaking of that gorgeous Central American country that my parents fell in love with …
If you find yourself with an abundance of leftover, semi-stale shokupan and wondering what to do with it, I highly recommend an Italian bread salad. This east meets west fusion recipe is a perfect breakfast if you crack an egg over it, or for a …
Fall is here and with it comes sweet and crisp vegetables and a huge bumper crop of my shiso! What better way to showcase seasonal cool crop veggies and herald the arrival of the Autumn salmon than kakiage ikura don? Kaki-age is a type of …
Every year, inevitably, all sorts of plants emerge from my compost pile from the seeds of the stuff I throw into it. Squash and pumpkin most commonly, especially since much of the Halloween decorations get tossed in at the end of the season. This year …
First, let me just say yes, chickweed (Stellaria media) tastes good—like if butter lettuce and alfalfa sprouts had a baby… but it’s a pain to harvest and harvest enough of it to justify making a salad. However, if you have nothing to do and are …
As I scour the internet for recipes on Akebia shoots, the thin, curling new vines that sprout each spring from last year’s now woody growth, the only thing that I can find is anecdotal evidence of the Japanese eating it as fresh greens, especially in …