site news

Finding me on Twitter

maki — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:24:08 +0200

I’ve noticed that some people have been following makiwi on Twitter. Thanks for adding me, but I don’t really use that account for public twitters (I use it mainly for Sandy reminders and such). Publicly I twitter on bentotips. If you miss my daily links and such, which I stopped posting here because of clutter, follow me there, where I tend to post them nowadays in addition to other aimless things.

And incidentally, I am also on other social media sites but I never use them. I don’t have the time to use them. How do other people find the time? So if you happen to find me on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc…just pass by, it’s an empty void.

April will be lighter around here

maki — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:59:58 +0200

Incidentally, I plan to do a lot more vegetable-oriented/lighter cooking, so you’ll most likely see the results of that on Just Hungry and Just Bento. This means I’m going to give the yohshoku series a rest for awhile (breaded and deep fried hamburgers tend to stick to the waistline and all.) Besides, we’re finally starting to see reasonably locally grown vegetables that aren’t cabbage or broccoli! This kind of thing over on Just Bento is what I’ll be eating more of. I lost a bunch of weight when I couldn’t eat after my surgery, but almost all of it has come right back since my appetite returned! Must. Stem. Belly rebound.

Hi, still alive

maki — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:03:50 +0100

Hi everyone. I am alive and getting better. I actually had a tonsillectomy (hi Yoko I got it done finally); this winter I had two very bad bouts with tonsillitis and thought those things best be gone. At the moment I am feeling quite blah (probably the meds), and somehow quite depressed for some reason I can’t put a finger on. I’m not supposed to be doing anything too stressful for a while, and surfing the internets right now really gets me down even more - can’t explain that either. My throat is too uncomfortable yet to eat anything (even ice cream is sort of irritating, so I’m mainly drinking fluids…) - I don’t have much of an appetite, though I keep on thinking about the smell of butter melting in a hot pan. And bacon. But not bacon in butter. Weird.

Anyway, I’ll return to duty around here when I’m back to my own self. Thank you for all your good wishes!

Break down on two fronts

maki — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:40:37 +0100

I love my Macs in a way that is hard to explain, unless you’re like me and have been using Macs since the ’80s. Well, my trusty 12 inch Powerbook suddenly decided to die. Thank god for backups. So the last 36 hours or so have been spent transferring, backing up and other things to a brand new Macbook Pro. It’s a bittersweet feeling; while a new Mac is always nice, that little Powerbook was a true workhorse, a perfect fit for me in so many ways. I’d resisted upgrading it for a while, but all good Macs must go to heaven some time.

At the same time that the Powerbook decided to die, it was decided that I would be going through with some elective surgery that I needed to get but was holding off on too. So, updates here and on Just Bento will be a bit slower. I have some things already written up which I hope will be postable by me or a helpful elf, but replying to comments and things will have to wait.

I didn’t know I had so much synergy with my Powerbook! I hope I can revive her as a media server or something, and I hope I can revive my body parts too.

Taking a little inventory

maki — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:51:31 +0100

Just like it’s a good idea to take inventory of your pantry sometimes, I find it useful to take a look back at my sites occasionally and take stock of what I’m doing.

Re-doing

Since Just Hungry is more than 4 years old now, there are hundreds of back entries and more than 200 recipes. I refer back a lot to them in newer entries, both here and on Just Bento.

It’s become clear to me that most people come here for the Japanese recipes. I’ll continue to post non-Japanese recipes I like, because hey it’s my site, but I am going to concentrate most of my efforts on explaining both traditional and newer Japanese home recipes (yohshoku and chuuka, as well as washoku) for an English speaking audience.

Now, when I look back at some of my older entries, it’s pretty clear that some of them, especially those that were posted in the early days, aren’t that good. They have no photos, or really bad photos, or inadequate explanations. So I’ll be totally redoing some of them with clearer pictures and instructions.

Some of the candidates for revised versions include:

Usuyaki tamago (thin omelette)
Nikujaga
Chicken teriyaki (a lot of people ask me where my chicken teriyaki recipe is. I guess they can’t find this one!)
Inarizushi
Chicken karaage

Should be here but isn’t

There are also a number of recipes that are requested over and over. I can’t do every single recipe that you’ve ever had in Japan or a Japanese restaurant, obviously! But here are some favorites that have never appeared here, and probably will so eventually.

Japanese style hamburger steak. I make this a lot at home, and don’t know why I’ve never posted it here. I guess it’s too familiar or something. I will post it…soon.
Tempura. OMG why is there no tempura here?? Well…mainly because it’s deep-fried, and I don’t do much deep-frying these days. (The Just Hungry Test Kitchen production has to be consumed by the staff, not thrown away.) I may divide the subject of tempura into several spread out entries.
Korokke. See tempura re: deep-fried.
Nishime, or traditional stews. I’m partly hampered by the fact that not all traditioinal nishime ingredients are available to me (especially burdock).
I’d also like to explore and present a lot more vegetarian and vegan Japanese dishes. Japanese cooking in itself is not really vegetarian, but I think there are a lot of vegetarian-friendly dishes.

Are there any other Japanese recipes that you think should be here, or you want to see? I can’t promise to satisfy everyone, but I’m all ears.

Help me to assemble a comprehensive Japanese grocery store list!

maki — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:32:12 +0100

I should have done this a long time ago, but hey, better late than ever. I’m going to try to assemble a list of Japanese grocery stores worldwide, that people can refer to. Obviously I cannot do this without your help! I can list info for places I’ve lived, and there have been some great comment posts in the past here that have included such info, but I’ll try to put it all in one place.

So, please head on over to to this constantly updated page and add any information you have about in the comments!

I’ve added the categories Food related shopping places you shouldn’t miss in Japan and Places that ship Japanese food-related things worldwide.

[Update:] Of course this turned out to be a way bigger job than I thought :) But I’ll try to add as much as possible over the weekend. I’ve found that there are quite a lot of Japanese pages that list stores and so on, for expats obviously. I’m collecting those and adding them, together with your suggestions in the comments.

Japanese grocery store list top page

Some admin stuff

maki — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:40:52 +0100

You may have noticed that you can now comment here and on Just Bento without moderation. I’m seeing if it works out - so far the anti-spam measures seem to be holding up. (You do still have to pass at terribly difficult math test…) I hate comment spam - to me it’s the interweb equivalent of someone walking their dog on your lawn and leaving a poop. But on the other hand I know it can be a bit frustrating to see your comment not be displayed immediately. So, we’ll see how it goes…if problems arise I’ll turn moderation back on. And by the way I will not tolerate any attempts to spam using humans either. It’s ok to contact me to mention your new site or whatever, but do not leave comments pimping it. It’s absolutely fine to include your URL when you are leaving a viable comment, or link to something that is relevant, but otherwise…no. (Occasionally I do a ‘tell me about your new site’ kind of post, and that’s the only time the pimpin’ is ok.)

(And yes I know the site was down this afternoon. The server had a bit of a conniption. Always happens when I’m not in to take care of it, of course.)

Ask Maki anything, well almost anything (or just say hi)

maki — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 08:42:34 +0100

Thanks to you (yes, I’m looking at you!) Just Hungry and Just Bento have really grown in popularity recently. This has also meant that I’m getting more emails. I do very much appreciate getting your emails, but there’s a couple of disadvantages to email.

It’s a one on one communication so your question will only benefit you. It might just benefit a lot of other readers. I do actually end up answering the same thing several times.
I may not know the answer but someone else might!
I’m really bad at email. Don’t ask me why. I try to answer things as fast as possible but sometimes emails languish in my inbox for days, or I forget about answering them. Then you get mad at me and think I’m ignoring you, etc.
Answering lots of individual emails takes time away from me writing new posts, not to mention spending time with my family/friends, exploring new foods, and all that kind of thing.

Hence, this is Ask Maki (almost) Anything. comments here will remain always open, to ask me anything that doesn’t fit into the context of a particular post. Unless it’s something that must remain private, please post here before emailing. Thank you!

But before you ask….

There’s nearly 5 years worth of content here. Chances are your question has already been answered. Please try the Search function, right at the top of the page, before asking something. Thanks!

[Edit:] Do not use this post to pimp your refrigerator parts, miracle diet, whatever site. Such comments will be deleted.

Best wishes for 2008

maki — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:23:54 +0100

Thank you so much for your kind words of condolence. 2007 has certainly been a year of ups and downs, but I feel that 2008 will be a big year somehow, and I’m feeling quite excited about it.

We were in the habit of toasting the arrival of the new year every year with Martha with a little champagne or local sparkling apple wine (Blauacher Chlöpfmoscht, with a few nibbles (apero) to go along. We’ll be keeping up that tradition by ourselves now. The blini batter is ready to go, and there’s a pot of caviar and a stack of smoked salmon slices waiting in the fridge. The diet restarts…next year, yep!

Best wishes for a healthy and happy new year to everyone reading this!

passing

maki — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:24:53 +0100

Martha, Max’s mother, passed away quietly in her sleep last night.

We were prepared for it, I suppose, but you can’t really be fully prepared for the passing of a parent either.

There are a few articles that I’ve already written, which will be posted here and on Just Bento over the next few days but replying to emails and comments etc. will be slow. Thanks for your understanding.