Hi, I’m Connie!
Welcome to Umami Days, a blog that advocates innovative home cooking for pleasurable everyday dining. No trendy diets, no food fads and definitely no ludicrous recipe names like crustless quiche, noodleless pho or chocolate lasagna.
one bowl meals
Beef pares
In its earliest form, Filipino beef pares was just boiled beef and rice, with complimentary broth on the side. The plain …
Mushroom pilaf
A meatless one-bowl meal, this mushroom pilaf can also be served as a side dish to meat or seafood. Fast, easy and tasty. …
Soboro don
Minced chicken cooked in soy sauce, sugar, sake and mirin served over rice with egg and greens. The chicken is seasoned like …
Popular categories
A Cook’s Diary
Easy tasty risotto for home cooks
My Mac’s dictionary defines risotto as “an Italian dish of rice cooked in stock with other ingredients such as meat and …
Food bowls: Asian versus non-Asian
Food bowls are traditionally Asian. Bibimbap, donburi, gaifan, bun cha — all of which are about harmony of ingredients. …
How to cook rice
Does rice need to be rinsed? Is soaking required? How much water should the rice cook in? The answers to all these and more …
100% home cooked
Sweet spicy shrimps and edamame rice bowl
Fresh edamame pods are cooked in the microwave then popped open to get the beans. The beans are tossed with whole shrimps and …
Salmon curry rice bowl
When you don’t have time to cook an old-fashioned curry, there’s a way to enjoy all the curry goodness by using a …
Melty cheese beef rice bowl
A heap of shredded cheese on top of gyudon is torched until melted. It’s our home version of a beef rice bowl preparation …
Soy sauce, lime and garlic chicken rice bowl
Skin-on chicken thigh fillets are lightly seared, sprinkled with garlic, and braised in soy sauce. Lime juice is added toward …
Bacon and wakame onigiri
Cook Japanese rice the usual way, season a la sushi rice, stir in chopped rehydrated wakame, crispy bacon and toasted sesame …
Smoked salmon and furikake onigiri
Chopped smoked salmon, black fungus, furikake and toasted sesame seeds were mixed with Japanese rice to make onigiri.