Sukiyaki

Spring is just around the corner here in Japan! Man, I'll miss the cold weather. Though it seems like winter isn't that ready to leave just yet, as my weather app forecasts a fair amount of precipitation this week:

That said, I'm in for a cold week in the coming days. Not that I mind; I do love cold weather, as I hail from a country where cold weather doesn't exist (what is snow?). But with the rain I'm likely to end up in house arrest for a good amount of time, as the rainy weather tends to make me so lazy to even leave the sharehouse. For weather this cold, a good ol' soup does the trick keeping me warm, and for today I turn to a favorite traditional Japanese dish to bring me all the warmth I need.

Sukiyaki (すき焼き) is a sweet and salty beef and veggie stew that falls under the line of what Japanese call nabemono (鍋物), which are essentially stews cooked in a pot called a nabe (鍋). Most people know these as hotpots wherein you take beef strips, dip it in the soup for a few seconds, then eat it as it is with rice, and sometimes dipped in a raw egg, or a sauce like ponzu (ポン酢).

This recipe doesn't have you gathered up with your friends around a butane gas stove heating up a pot of stew, but it does have you all gathered around a rice cooker, which is even cooler anyway in my opinion. Hope you've got your rice cooker ready!

This recipe should be good for 3-4 people.

Cheese Cauliflower

Been a busy February and March for me, traveling around Japan, finding run-of-the-mill culinary wonders in the least likely of places, learning the language, and just living the dream by merely living here. It's been an amazing six months and it's still so surreal to me. That said, my wallet's taken a sizable blow due to all the times I've been eating out instead of cooking at home. So today, I've decided to stay home for once and settle for some homemade cooking, especially now that my finals for the term are all over. But I'm sick and tired of the curry that I've been eating since Monday, and if I have to see it again I'm gonna barf.

I was running through some ideas as to what I can make this time, and interestingly, I found one from a recent PC Gamer article about the people making Stardew Valley's recipes a reality. In particular, I went to Stardew Kitchen, and what caught my attention most out of Helena's remake of SV's recipes was her Cheese Cauliflower. Her version involves the addition of macaroni and a béchamel with reduced pale ale in tribute to Pam, whom players can learn the recipe from. I was not only impressed by the result, but I also felt a genuine desire to do a version of my own… Using only an induction and a rice cooker.

This recipe is enough for four.