Japanese-style spinach and mushroom salad
A side dish of blanched spinach and sliced shiitake mushrooms tossed with ground roasted sesame seeds, dashi, Japanese soy sauce, mirin, sugar and sesame oil.
Vegetables
Although we're admittedly more carnivorous than herbivorous, we do try to include vegetables in every meal. It's not that difficult, really, considering that many Asian dishes — from soups to main courses — include vegetables among the ingredients. If we're having a no-vegetable main dish for lunch or dinner, we supplement it with at least one vegetable side dish.
Gising-gising with crispy pork belly
Wake up! Wake up! is what gising-gising translates to. With the addition of chilies in this variant of guinataan (the catch-all term for Filipino dishes cooked with …
Sukiyaki
Sukiyaki is traditionally cooked on the table. Each diner is given a bowl of raw egg; beef, tofu and vegetables are slow cooked in boiling sauce in a pot at the center of …
Kabayaki-style eggplants
Eggplants softened in the microwave are butterflied and braised in sweet-salty teriyaki sauce.
Tuna poke bowl
Inspired by a meal we enjoyed in Hanoi, our home version of poke bowl has sushi rice, tuna, lettuce, cucumber, shiitake, egg, eggplant and sweet ripe mango.
Cheese-stuffed and bacon-wrapped okra
Young and tender okra are slit, stuffed with cheese, wrapped with bacon then fried slowly. The bacon browns and the okra absorbs the flavorful fat as the cheese inside …
Gingered chicken, shiitake and bok choy soup
Oh, the utter simplicity of making this Japanese-style chicken, mushroom and vegetable soup… No sauteing, no spice base. This soup is about clean flavor.