Adventures in Mika's Kitchen
With Thanksgiving coming up, I thought I’d share one of my favorite Thanksgiving side dishes. I know, fried rice seems like a weird thing to serve with Thanksgiving… but it’s a family tradition for us! It all started one year… after my dad spent all day making the Thanksgiving turkey and trimmings, my teenaged brother [...]
Here’s one of my basic stand-by side dishes: Asian style coleslaw with a sweet sesame dressing (no mayo!). It’s pretty easy to prepare, and works well as a quick salad or side to accompany your meal! For best results, use Savoy cabbage (it’s the round head of cabbage with wrinkly looking leaves). If you can’t [...]
Sekihan 赤飯 (Japanese red beans with sticky rice) was one of those savory dishes that I didn’t get to eat often as a child… but was a favorite! Usually, we would only get sekihan on those special once in awhile trips downtown to Little Tokyo – which wasn’t that often since my mother would always [...]
I think that I’ve mentioned before one of my favorite restaurants is Roy’s (a Hawaiian fusion restaurant opened by chef Roy Yamaguchi). At Roy’s, they have a dish called “Misoyaki Butterfish” – it’s a very soft white fish marinated in a salty/sweet miso teriyaki, served with a tangy citrus vinaigrette. If you ever have a chance [...]
Now that it’s winter time, Japanese Fuyu Persimmons (a.k.a. “Fuyu Kaki“) are in season! (Fuyu persimmons are the non-astringent [sweet] short/flattened ones that you eat when semi-firm… not the astringent acorn/sphere shaped ones that can only be eaten when soft and squishy.) I found three of the largest Fuyu kaki that I’ve ever seen… put [...]
“Hambāgu“ (ハンバーグ) is a Japanese style Salisbury Steak. It is a ground meat patty made with onions, egg, panko breadcrumbs – pan fried and served with a gravy, typically over rice. (In Hawaii, add a fried egg and this dish becomes loco moco!) My favorite way to make Japanese Hamburger Steak is with Asian style fried [...]
Cold soba noodles are a Japanese summer staple… when the weather gets really hot, these buckwheat noodles make a very refreshing and light meal (especially when you don’t feel like eating anything too hot or heavy). This type of soba is served with various toppings (usually nori and chopped green onion), along with a side [...]
Here’s an easy weeknight dinner idea – a one pot recipe for chicken drumsticks or thighs. For appetizers, this recipe also works well with chicken wings or drumettes. You could substitute with chicken breast for a leaner meal – but I like using dark meat for the best flavor (and because dark meat doesn’t dry [...]
If you have ever been to a Hawaiian luau, one of the main attractions is the preparation/serving of “Kālua pig” – a whole pig that is roasted using the “Kālua” method. Kālua is a traditional cooking method in Hawaiian cuisine that uses a specially prepared underground oven, called an “imu“. To make an “imu“, a large [...]
Today’s high (temperature) was 90 Degrees (F)! (32.33 Degrees C). That’s pretty hot for San Diego in April! Growing up in “The Valley*”, a high of 90 Degrees wasn’t really a big deal… I mean we had days over 100 degrees pretty often. Back then, we didn’t have “snow days”. We had “heat days”. But [...]
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