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November 22, 2024
 

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Makiko Itoh

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Makiko Itoh
Makiko Itoh writes the Japanese Kitchen column, and is the author of the bestselling "The Just Bento Cookbook" and its sequel, "The Just Bento Cookbook 2." A Tokyo native, she runs two Japanese cooking blogs, JustHungry.com and JustBento.com.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Dec 16, 2014
Ring in the new year with refinement
The quintessential washoku, or traditional Japanese cuisine dish, is nimono — vegetables and other ingredients simmered in a broth of dashi stock, sake, mirin, sugar and soy sauce or miso. Nimono can be made in advance and served warm or cold, saving the cook some effort.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Nov 18, 2014
Warm up over a shared hot pot
What comes to mind when you think of convivial home-cooked family meals? In Japan, the answer is usually nabe, or hot-pot cooking.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Oct 14, 2014
Japan's take on the humble burger
There are two dishes that can be translated as "hamburger" in Japan. One is the all-American favorite, a beef patty sandwiched in a bun, which in Japanese is called hanbāgā. The other kind is similar to a Hamburg steak or Salisbury steak, made with chopped onions, breadcrumbs and egg mixed with the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Sep 16, 2014
The raw appeal of eggs
The average Japanese person eats around 320 eggs (tamago) per year, according to the International Egg Commission, placing it in the Top 3 worldwide. (In comparison, the average American eats around 250 eggs per year.) Eggs are enjoyed in many sweet and savory dishes, such as the famous (or infamous)...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / 'SUMMER DAVOS' SPECIAL 2014
Sep 10, 2014
Ranking restaurants, food a centuries-old tradition
When it was announced some years ago that the Michelin Guide had awarded more stars to restaurants in Tokyo than any other city it covered, it made international headlines. But rating and ranking restaurants in Japan is nothing new. In Tokyo and in Japan in general, people have been writing about and...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / 'SUMMER DAVOS' SPECIAL 2014
Sep 10, 2014
Blazing a trail for Japanese sake in China
Masato Nakatani is the sixth-generation head of Nakatani Brewing Co. in Nara Prefecture, and one of the most outstanding figures involved in developing the worldwide sake market. Nineteen years ago, Nakatani began brewing sake in Tianjin, China, and the high-quality "Asaka" sake enjoys nearly the top...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / 'SUMMER DAVOS' SPECIAL 2014
Sep 10, 2014
Nihonbashi: Historic and modern
Nihonbashi is a business district in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, which grew around the bridge of the same name which has linked the sides of the Nihonbashi River since the 17th century. It is an area where people can experience the fusion of both historic and modern Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Aug 19, 2014
Japan's historic love of corn
The fact that corn or maize has a Japanese name — tōmorokoshi — indicates that it entered the country centuries ago, before it was the norm to import the name of a food as-is and spell it out phonetically (as with tomatoes or asparagus, for instance).
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jul 15, 2014
Japanese summer garnishes invigorate the taste buds
In Japanese cooking, garnish is not just added to a dish to make it look pretty. The word to describe the herbs and vegetables that accompany a dish is yakumi, which means "medicinal flavor," and originally referred to the concoctions that practitioners of Chinese medicine made using various ingredients...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jun 17, 2014
Traditional jelly noodles are cooling as well as healthy
Summertime is the season for cooling jellies, and one of the most popular kinds in Japan is kanten. Overseas, this is known as agar-agar, but here kanten and agar are confusingly considered to be two distinctly different substances.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
May 20, 2014
Why not add a little booze?
Mirin is a staple of Japanese kitchens, yet few people know what it actually is.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Apr 15, 2014
Springtime for bamboo
Few plants are as useful as bamboo. A member of the grass family, it is fast growing and very prolific given the right growing conditions, which makes it eco-friendly too.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Mar 18, 2014
Feed their tummies and minds with a back-to-school bentō
April marks the start of the school year in Japan. If you're a parent, this may mean that you're faced with the task of making bentō (boxed lunches) for the first time. While bentō are virtually a national institution that come in many formats and are enjoyed by almost everyone, making them for small...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Feb 18, 2014
You'll either love or hate those stinky, sticky beans
Soybeans have long been an important part of the Japanese diet. They are enjoyed in many forms — as edamame, tofu or yuba; boiled or roasted; ground up as flour; and so on. Soybeans also have religious significance, as we've seen this month during Setsubun, when roasted soybeans are thrown to signify...
Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2014
Jan 23, 2014
Japan's traditional washoku cuisine feeds body and soul
Whenever I am away from my homeland for too long, there is one meal that fills my dreams. At the center is a bowl of plain steamed rice, white and glistening. On the side, a steaming bowl of fragrant miso soup. There's fish, perhaps sanma (Pacific saury), so hot from the grill that its skin sizzles when...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jan 14, 2014
Juiced for a citrus winter
One of my favorite winter pastimes growing up was to snuggle under the futon covering a kotatsu (heated table), doing my homework or watching TV, as I methodically worked my way through a big bowl of Satsuma mikan, the little oval-shaped oranges that are known as clementines or tangerines in the West....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Dec 26, 2013
Start a tasty new kitchen tradition this New Year's
We're entering the most traditional time of year in Japan in food terms, starting on New Year's Eve and through the New Year's holiday period, when families gather to dine on osechi delicacies and bowls of symbolic soba noodles. That doesn't mean that there's no room for other kinds of foods, though....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Nov 21, 2013
Demand booming for artisanal rice
Rice farmers in Japan are under siege. Heavily protected on various levels by the central government for decades, they've seen the market for their precious crop eroded by cheaper imported rice, and the administration of Shinzo Abe is proposing ending production-rationing and subsidies. It will be interesting...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Oct 24, 2013
Food tradition with a long shelf life
A type of speciality food store that has almost disappeared from the streets of Japan is the kanbutsu-ya (dried-foods store). These days we can get fresh produce all year round, but that wasn't the case before canning and refrigeration became widespread.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Sep 26, 2013
Japan's secret love of a breakfast loaf
Japan is generally regarded as being a rice-based food culture. However, bread — or pan in Japanese, derived from the Portuguese word pu00e3o — is eaten almost as widely.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
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