Japan
Matcha goes global as trendy ingredient
By Debra Samuels GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JUNE 23, 2015 Much is being made about matcha. From lattes and shakes to ice cream and baked confections, the bitter, mossy green powder, a specially processed tea, is turning up everywhere. Matcha is being treated as the perk-me-up of the moment in themed matcha bars from Brooklyn to Berlin. Today’s …
Read moreOnigirazu
By Debra Samuels GLOBE CORRESPONDENT APRIL 07, 2015 In Japan, food fads come and go. They can be as fleeting as the cherry blossom petals that bloom and fall to the ground just days later. The latest is a stuffed, roasted seaweed and rice sandwich called onigirazu. It is actually an old fad enjoying a …
Read moreBoston Ballet’s Nissinen cooks a Japanese dinner
By Debra Samuels GLOBE CORRESPONDENT DECEMBER 02, 2014 Dressed in black, with a black apron, Mikko Nissinen is stylish and cheflike standing over an outdoor grill on the deck of his South End home on a chilly November evening. He is roasting a meaty tuna collar for a Japanese-inspired menu. The Finnish-born Nissinen, artistic director of …
Read moreLife’s a bowl of cherry…blossoms
The 3 amigas have been at it again! My friend and assistant, Chie Ehara, invited me and Elsa Tian over to her home in Arlington, Massachusetts to pick cherry blossoms from the huge tree in her yard. The plan was to preserve them in salt to use throughout the year in tea, mochi (sweet rice cakes) and to …
Read moreBento Bash for the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
How do you prepare bento for 150 people? With a lot of help! Make twenty tamagoyaki (Japanese egg omelet) rolls cut each into 8 pieces! With a sakura shaped vegetable cutter, stamp out 150 cherry blossom daikon flowers! Take 40 pounds of soy sauce braised chicken thighs made for us by Ben Lin of B.Lin …
Read moreIt’s a pit-ty…..
My favorite winter citrus in Japan is yuzu. The deep yellowy-orange sour fruit almost defies description. Shaped like a mandarin orange, it has the piquancy of a lemon and a staggering number of pits. There were over 20 pits in each of my 8 yuzu, each larger than any of 8 pits in the lemon …
Read more“Tadaima!” – “I’m home!”
Happy Year of the Horse from Tokyo, Japan. My husband, Dick and I are on our annual (well almost, we skipped last year) January visit this time only for less than 2 weeks instead of our usual 1 month stay making it is really difficult to see all of our friends this time. January is usually …
Read moreGetting a taste of Japanese comfort food
COOKBOOK REVIEW By Debra Samuels GLOBE CORRESPONDENT DECEMBER 31, 2013 Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat take on home cooking in “Japanese Soul Cooking: Ramen, Tonkatsu, Tempura, and More From the Streets and Kitchens of Tokyo and Beyond” Ten Speed Press Number of pages:256 pp. Book price:$27.50 Harris Salat, owner of Ganso, a Japanese comfort food …
Read moreSpam goes glam
By Debra Samuels, Globe Correspondent WELLESLEY — Those who know Susumu “Sus” Ito, 93, know that he is a Nisei (second-generation Japanese-American), a Congressional Gold Medal recipient from World War II’s legendary all-Japanese-American 442d Regimental Combat Team, an emeritus professor at Harvard Medical School, a furniture maker, photographer, dad, and grandfather. (Sus is second …
Read moreWhat’s a Sox game without dried squid and beer?
TOKYO – Peanuts! Popcorn! Squid jerky, anyone? The Boston Red Sox play their season opener nine days from now at the Tokyo Dome, once home field to their relief pitcher Hideki Okajima, a former member of the Yomiuri Giants. And instead of those sausage and onion subs on Yawkey Way, fans will be munching dried …
Read moreBento:Build a Better Lunch
Debra Samuels, bestselling author, food writer and cooking instructor, wants to give the American lunchbox a makeover. In the chapter on “bento,” the traditional Japanese lunch box, in her upcoming book, My Japanese Table, Debra encourages the use of color, texture and taste to create healthier and more visually appealing meals.
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