Last year, my husband Johnny and I took his mom on her first trip to Japan. We had been talking about it for years and we were finally able to make it happen! When planning for the trip, we thought about going on the usual tour of Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto, but I wanted...
Ochazuke, or "tea rice," is usually as humble as its name sounds, but at a random izakaya in Kushiro, it was taken to the next level.
Some of the best, freshest seafood in Japan comes from Hokkaido. Many of the stalls at Washo Ichiba sell shoyu-cured ikura from locally-caught fish.
Furo-chan visits Hokkaido, Japan and eats fried chicken at Naruto-ya and grilled seafood (uni, tsubu, and scallops) at Sawazaki Suisan.
I may have missed the recent LA Ramen Yokocho Fest due to an unavoidable trip to Ohio, but I lucked out into finding out about Mitsuwa Market's Hokkaido Festival in Torrance. It was this past weekend and the next best thing to actually being in...
“I hate Tokyo.” S’s face was perfectly serious. “Sapporo is so much better -- less people, nice weather, great seafood, lots of snow… and Tokyo sucks during the summer.” I’ll never hate Tokyo but you can’t argue with a Sapporo boy on that last point....
This squid was swimming around, minding its own business just a couple minutes before this photo was taken. Its tentacles were still moving and all those black spots were flashing on and off while we ate it sashimi style. Then they fried...
Los Angeles to San Francisco. San Francisco to Tokyo. Tokyo to Sapporo. Plane to train to subway to foot. 33 straight hours of travel and my first meal in Japan made it all worthwhile. Welcome to すみれ (Sumire). My couch-surfing hosts...
There was an egg festival in my bowl of rice the other day. I placed a raw egg yolk on a mound of ikura (salmon roe) on top of my steaming hot bowl of rice. The orange hues are sexy and appetizing, glimmering in my...
