freebies

5th Anniversary Giveway Day 5: It's Just Me

maki — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:33:06 +0100

This is the final day of the 5th Anniversay Giveaway week. I hope you’ve enjoyed it!

My final essay about the first 5 years of Just Hungry is about, well, me.

During the course of these years, I’ve sometimes worried about being too all over the place. I have, as I said earlier, tried to concentrate on Japanese food and cooking more or less. But then I do sometimes go off on a tangent and write about something completely different. After posting something like an in-depth comparison of Marmite, Vegemite and Cenovis, I used to wonder if going off course so much would be bad.

I’ve stopped worrying about that kind of thing now. I’ve come to realize that the site is born from who I am. I’ve had a rather complicated, nomadic life so far, and that is reflected in the type of food I’m drawn to. My roots are in Japan, but I also feel that American food, specifically the food in the New York/Long Island area, British food, and Swiss food are ‘home cooking’ for me too. I know my background is not that typical, so this mix of influences is not going to appeal to a huge audience. But that’s OK.

And conversely, I find that I am most drawn to blogs where I can see the person behind it, rather than ones who present some kind of façade that the author thinks will ‘sell’. Hopefully, that’s a reason for people to stick around and read my words too.

So, on to the final giveaway. You actually have a choice of two things!

Just Hungry 5th Anniversary Giveaway Item 5: Fanny and Johnnie Cradock vintage retro ’70s cookbook OR two English-language Japanese cookbooks

Please check the giveaway rules in the first post. Do try to remember to keep it to one comment per item/entry, thanks! (I’ve noticed that sometimes people seem to get impatient and post the same comment twice. I use a spam-preventing tool called Mollom, which sometimes can cause a short delay between the time your comment is entered and the time it appears. So please wait a bit before submitting another comment.)

Remember: You need to give me your email address (in the email entry area) where I can contact you if you win, your name (or nickname), and your location (country). In addition, for this giveaway only, you must tell me which lot you want, the Fanny Cradock cookbook or the Japanese cookbooks. Comments/entries that don’t indicate this will be eliminated from the draw.

Choice no. 1: Vintage Fanny and Johnnie Cradock Cookery Programme book

If you enjoyed my recaps of the BBC programme The Supersizers Go, especially of the 1970s episode, or just like retro food, you’ll really enjoy this one. Published in 1970, I gather that this book (which is a compilation of several magazine issues) was the companion to a TV series hosted by Fanny Cradock. I bought this book some years ago when I briefly became obsessed with tracking down Fanny Cradock cookbooks. It wasn’t too hard to find them on eBay or the used bookstores back then, but nowadays it’s become much more difficult to buy her old cookbooks now for some reason, especially the ones with photos. (You can still get her really awful historical novels fairly easily. I don’t recommend them.)

Some pictures from the book (there are more in the Supersizers ’70s recap):

Lemon pigs gather ominously around a pastry case trough filled with…poo? (It’s not specified what it is…maybe tapenade?)

Tiny dark green snail pots filled with mushroom paste and topped with individual deepfried croutons. I mean, the fiddliness!

Nothing says elegant table like aqua-green dyed mashed potato piped into swans made of hard boiled eggs and pipe cleaner necks.

A raw meat and boiled vegetable table decoration. Words fail me.

In all seriousness, the mostly francophile recipes are on the whole not bad; there some OMG moments, but also plenty in there that is actually tasty and not too artery-clogging.

The book is in ‘used’ condition, but is in pretty good condition for its age. It even has all the adverts and reply-postcard inserts and such.

Choice no. 2: Two Japanese cookbooks in English

If ’70s retro food is not your thing, perhaps these two cookbooks are. Both translated from Japanese, they are written by two of the most popular cookbook authors in Japan. I’ve written about Japanese Home Cooking by Tokiko Suzuki previously. She is one of the great teachers and I rely on her Japanese books all the time. Harumi’s Japanese Cooking by Harumi Kurihara is a modern take on Japanese home cooking. She’s popular enough in Japan to have her own Martha Stewart Living style lifestyle magazine called harum_mi (it’s a quarterly).

Again, please indicate whether you prefer Fanny Cradock OR the Japanese cookbooks.

This, and all the giveaways, are now closed. Thank you for participating! The winners will be announced later this week!

5th Anniversary Giveway Day 4: Regrets, I've had a few

maki — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:16:09 +0100

For a few months in 2006, I changed the banner graphic of the site every month to reflect the season.

There are a couple of things that I wish I had done differently during the last five years as far as Just Hungry was concerned. If you are a newish food blogger, or any kind of blogger, perhaps this will help you avoid these mistakes.

Don’t take long, unexplained absences

From about August 2004 to February 2005, I just got too busy with other things in my life and stopped posting on the site for more than six months without explanation. I even got some concerned emails asking if I was okay. This was particularly bad timing for a variety of reasons. When I did come back, I found that the site was almost forgotten, especially in the general food blogging community. My readership was way down of course, and it took a long time to get it back to pre-hiatus levels. I still think that if I hadn’t taken such a long time off, Just Hungry would be much better known than it is and so on, but there’s no taking that time back now. Anyway, if you plan to make your blog, any blog, grow as much as possible, don’t take very long and unexplained vacations from it or people will think it’s dead!

Don’t change the site design so much

I’m a web designer in my working life (or, used to be…nowadays I do more non-web work, but that’s another story). Partly because of that, I kept changing the design of the site drastically almost every few months. This was good for me, but it may have hurt the site a bit. When I changed the design the last time back in early 2007, I even got some emails asking if it was ‘the same site’! So the lesson to be learned here is that re-designing just on a whim is not necessarily a good idea! Plus, it takes a lot of time away from actually writing good things for your site. People come to your site for the content, not really for the site design (though I do think that having an attractive site doesn’t hurt.)

And also - not necessarily mistakes, but a subject that is not talked about much on food blogs (if they are at all):

The monetization issue, and the hard work of a food blogger

This subject includes some things I did do, some I didn’t do, and some things I occasionally get asked about. If you have already decided that you are not interested in making money from your blog, then you can skip this part.

Earning money from a blog is not as easy as some people will make you believe. There are lots of blogs out there that cover this subject in depth (Problogger is a good place to start), but here I’d like to talk about some things specific to food blogs.

First off, if your primary purpose for starting up a blog is to start earning money from it, it’s my humble opinion that food is one of the last categories you should be considering. Why, you ask? Well, one of the main ways any blog can start earning some revenue is to place Google Adsense, or other contextual, ads on it. The hard truth is, most food related Adwords (the words that trigger the appearance of contextual ads) are very cheap, and you, the site owner, earn very little off them in comparison to other categories. I have to laugh at those splogs that scrape content off other food blogs and expect to pick up some Adsense money really. They really should be scraping sites about car insurance or something :) (I’m kidding of course - scraping is very, very bad.)

Keep in mind also that maintaining a food blog is really a lot of work. Think about it: A typical food blogger spends lots of time and effort cooking things, photographing the results, and then finally writing up an interesting post about it including a recipe that has to work properly. Or, they go out to lots of restaurants - usually paying their own way, unless they are very lucky and have a sponsor somewhere. Most well known food bloggers invest in a good quality camera to take good photos, not to mention other gear like tripods, macro lenses and even studio setups. Some even go get special tableware and props to display their food to the best advantage. And usually, food bloggers have to do all of this by themselves, or with one partner.

So, you really have to love, love thinking and writing about food to maintain a food blog for an extended period so that its audience grows enough. But let’s say you’ve overcome that hurdle. How do you make money from this endeavor? Here are the revenue sources that a successful food blogger might have:

Contextual ads, such as Google Adsense
Joining an ad serving group that serves theme-targeted ads, such as BlogHerAds, BlogAds, etc.
Affliate links, such as Amazon, where you earn a commission on sales
Selling ad space directly to companies with related products or services - this is not easy but can be done, and is probably the ‘best’ kind of advertising
Do speaking, consulting or teaching that is related to your blog subject
Publishing a cookbook or other related book

I have done all but the last one. I don’t earn enough from either Just Hungry or Just Bento to quit my dayjob (and neither do I want to at this point really) but the revenue is non-negligible. It’s now definitely my second job - one that I enjoy a lot, but nevertheless a job. Other food bloggers I’m sure have also done a combination of the above. Quite a food bloggers have published books - the revenue generated this way of course depends on how well the book sells.

One more thing: Whenever you decide to monetize your site, I think it is very important to be sure that you are happy with what is being advertised. For example, I am very happy to have Japan Centre in London as an advertiser, because I was a happy customer before we even got into contact, and their store is a perfect fit for my sites. I would never carry an ad from a company or for a product I disliked, no matter how lucrative the offer may be. I also try to keep an eye on the kind of contextual ads that appear. You want to present content that you believe in to your readers at all times, and that includes the ads.

I’ve rambled on a bit today, but finally on to today’s giveaway!

Just Hungry 5th Anniversary Giveaway Item 4: An eclectic assortment of Japanese craft and knitting books

Today’s giveway is a bit off track maybe, so I am anticipating less interest in them than the other items (but hey, you never know.) I know that a lot of people who visit Just Hungry and Just Bento are interested in Japanese culture in general, and many are crafters and knitters. I love crafty things as much as I love cooking, and I could extend the day to about 32 hours instead of 24 I’d start up a crafty blog. Anyway, I have tons and tons of Japanese craft (手芸, shugei) books, and these come from my vast collection. (Please feel free to spread the word about this giveway to craft or knitting related sites and so on.) I apologize for the wonkiness of the photos below.

Book 1: Vintage lace knitting book (Lacy Handknits)

This is a book published by Ondori in 1982. The styles are sort of ‘80-ish but fairly timeless (and I hear ’80s fashion is coming back anyway!). A couple of examples:

It has both knitting and crocheting patterns. All are in chart form as with all Japanese knitting books. Sizing is small (e.g. bust circumference around 80cm) though I guess experience knitters/crocheters can adjust them. This is a vintage book, so there is some minor creasing and so on, but the photos are clear and unfaded and the pages are clean.

Book 2: Vintage unisex knitting book (I Love Sweaters! Sweaters For Me and My Boyfriend)

Another Ondori publication, published in 1983. This one is all knitting. Back in the ’80s, the “pair look” (where BF and GF would wear matching outfits) was big. So, half of the designs in this book have His and Her versions. Fortunately most of them are not matchy-matchy in an obvious way. The rest of the book has sweater and vest designs for women. Examples of contents:

Sizing is more generous than the lace knitting book - around 85cm chest for women and 100cm for men. All charted and/or with Japanese instructions. The designs are fairly timeless. Again, this is a vintage book, so some pages are a bit dog-eared and so on, but is otherwise in good shape.

Book 3: Clay Sweets book

A Lady Boutique publication, published this year. Deco sweets, or cakes and other sweeties made with clay and used as room decor, phone straps and so on, are very popular in Japan at the moment. This is a book that shows you how to make them! Some examples:

It uses air-drying resin clays (the standard in Japan) but you can adapt the methods to oven baked clays like Fimo. The book is in brand new condition.

Book 4: Beaded Dollhouse: 1/24 scale furniture made of beads

A Boutique Mook (no. 531), published in 2005. This one is rather unusual I think - furniture (chairs, desks, bureaus, potted plants, what have you) made out of beads!

It has beading charts for you to recreate these glittering tiny marvels. The book is in brand new condition.

Book 5: Amigurumi For Beginners

An Ondori booklet published in 2004. It’s a beginner’s guide to making amigurumi, tightly crocheted little critters. Everything is charted, and is crochet only.

The book is in brand new condition.

So there you have it. Even if you never make anything in these books, if you are as fond of handcrafts as I am you’ll enjoy just looking through them!

DEADLINE: Your comment/entry must be posted before Midnight Greenwich Mean Time on Sunday, December 7th.

This giveaway is now closed. Thank you for participating! The winner will be announced next week!

5th Anniversary Giveway Day 2, with some reminiscences

maki — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:16:25 +0100

The image that I used in my first page design banner. I still love it.

During this giveaway week, I thought I’d indulge myself by sharing some reminiscences about the past five years of Just Hungry. Today: Why I started the site.

I’ve always been obsessed with food on many levels, and I’ve also been blogging since about 1998 or so. This was back when blogs were still pretty obscure. One day I wrote a couple of things on my ‘weblog’; one about a visit to one of the first Apple Stores in New Jersey, one about a wierd/funny dinner experience. My ‘weblog’ post about the Apple Store somehow got discovered by an Apple fan forum. Many of the forum commenters disagreed with my opinion, and then proceeded to make vicious remarks about the rest of my site. I shouldn’t have bothered about these anonymous opinions, but they really stung me. I wasn’t used to it. So, soon after I deleted my whole site contents, dumped the homebrewed weblogging system I was using (that I really regret) and for a while my personal site was a stark Under Construction page.

Then in 2003, I installed a spanking new copy of Movable Type and started writing again. By this time of course blogs were much more mainstream, and there were far more self-indulgent, navel-gazing blogs out there than my ‘weblog’ ever had been. My intention with my personal site was to give myself freedom to write about whatever I liked. I’d written a book (about CSS and Javascript) a couple of years prior, which was extremely restricted in terms of everything from content to format; this had really drained me mentally and physically, and for a while robbed me of the desire to do any kind of writing. So my blog was going to get my writing mojo back.

But yet…I couldn’t seem to get out of the safe place of talking mostly about web-geeky stuff. I still loved to write, but I couldn’t get out of a box I’d built around myself. Then, I somehow got a discount coupon for a new hosted blogging service called Typepad. Somewhat on a whim, I decided to start up a blog there and make it all about food. I called it I Was Just Really Very Hungry, after the title of one of M.F.K. Fisher’s essays (more about my admiration for M.F.K.Fisher).

I dove into the food blog without any kind of planning. Designing the site was easy for me (since I did that for a living). Content wise…I just wrote about the food I loved. Most of my early posts had a less than stellar one or simply no photo at all. (Food blog photography was not nearly as sophisticated, not to mention competitive, as it is now.) I didn’t really plan to make it a blog mostly about Japanese food either. But, since I am Japanese and I love Japanese food, that aspect of it gradually evolved.

There have been ups and downs, but five years later…it’s still here!

And now finally, today’s giveaway!

Just Hungry 5th Anniversary Giveaway Item 2: Saisai Gohan by Yumiko Kano

Please check the giveaway rules in the first post. Do try to remember to keep it to one comment per item/entry, thanks! Remember: You need to give me your email address (in the email entry area) where I can contact you if you win, your name (or nickname), and your location (country).

Saisai Gohan (菜菜ごはん) is a vegan Japanese cookbook by one of my favorite cookbook authors in any language, Yumiko Kano. I’ve referred to her works several times (a listing of several of her books) and she is one of my biggest inspirations when I want to cook healthy, tasty vegan Japanese food. She’s published several books on the same theme, but Saisai Gohan (which means ‘vegetable meal’) is the starting point.

All the recipes in Saisai Gohan are dairy and egg free. They do not use traditional dashi, but rely on the natural flavors and sweetness of the vegetables she uses (she doesn’t always add things like mirin or sake either, unlike most other Japanese cookbooks). Maple syrup or amazake are used as sweeteners, especially in her dessert recipes. It is not gluten-free since she does use wheat flour, seitan and fu, though many of the recipes are gluten-free. It even has desserts!

Please note that this is in Japanese, and does not come with a translation, so some knowledge of Japanese is useful; although there’s a clear photograph for each recipe, there are no step-by-step photos.

DEADLINE: Your comment/entry must be posted before Midnight Greenwich Mean Time on Friday, December 5th.

This giveaway is now closed. Thank you for participating! Be sure to check out the front page for the giveaways still open. The winner will be announced next week!

Just Hungry 5th Anniversary / Just Bento 1st Anniversary Giveaway!

maki — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:50:50 +0100

What with all the traveling last month and all, I totally forgot the fact that, as of November 29, Just Hungry is 5 years old., or 35 in dog years…which pretty much corresponds to blog years I think. (I’d like to thank Ai Lu for reminding me, by commenting on my very first post!)

Back when I started, I was pretty much clueless about food blogging (even though I’ve been blogging off and on since the late ’90s). My early writing is not so good, and most of my early photos stink - or if they turned out good it was purely accidental. Nevertheless, all the content is still here, warts and all. Just Hungry (which started its life with the more cumbersome name of I Was Just Really Very Hungry) has changed quite a bit since the early years, and I like to think my writing and photography has improved some - but in the end, it’s always been about the food I love. So in essence, what I wrote back in my first post is still what this site is all about. And thankfully, it seems to agree with quite a lot of readers who have encouraged me over the years.

Also, and this is even more of an oversight, Just Hungry’s little sister Just Bento had its first birthday in October. Just Bento has been a lot more precocious than Just Hungry, and has grown in leaps and bounds, due in large part to the growth in popularity of bento meals all over the world.

To readers of either, or both, sites I would like to say a big

Thank You!!!!

And now the part you were waiting for: The Giveaway

To show my thanks to you, kind reader, I am giving away some goodies. This giveaway is open to everyone, regardless of where you live, as long as you can receive mail!

To make it interesting :) I’m going to announce 1 prize per day for the rest of the week, on both Just Hungry and Just Bento. That’s ten giveways! All you have to do to have a chance at getting one of these is to leave a comment under the giveaway listing you’re interested in.

Your comment must contain the following, or your entry will be disqualified:

Your email address - put this in the Email box so that spambots can’t see it. The email is necessary so I can contact you if you win!
Your name (a nickname is ok)
Your location (country)
You can enter/comment for all giveaways if you want, but one comment per please!
Your comment must be posted before the stated deadline.

Note: None of the following items is a review copy, advertising freebie, etc. They are all items that I have duplicates or similar of myself and have used and loved!

Delivery: I’ll airmail you the item if you win ASAP, but I cannot guarantee you’ll get in time for Christmas.

So here we go: the first item for Just Hungry!

Just Hungry Giveaway No. 1: Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson remains to be one of my favorite cookbook authors for everyday food. Nigella Express, which came out last year, is full of great ideas for quick yet great tasting meals.

You’ll get a U.S. edition if you’re in North America, and a U.K. edition with metric measurements if you’re in the rest of the world. Retail value is around $25.

DEADLINE: Your comment/entry must be posted before Midnight Greenwich Mean Time on Thursday, December 4th.

Good luck!

(The Just Bento giveaway for today is right here!)

This giveaway is now closed. Thank you for your comments! The winner will be announced mid-next week. You can still bid for the other giveaways - check out the front page!