Happy Donabe in San Francisco

Thai-style lunch with donabe rice

After the final photo shoot, the next day, we worked together to go over some of the photos from previous photoshoots.


We decided to have a lunch break. Eric and Kyle prepared dishes for us. Kyle is a professional chef, and Eric was also trained as a chef and baker in the professional kitchen. So, they just looked what they have in the kitchen and decided the menu immediately. They made two Thai-style dishes...grilled whole snapper with chili sauce, and beef salad. They made everything from scratch, and in a short time, the dishes were miraculously ready. Amazing chefs' magic! And of course, the dishes were super delicious. To enjoy with these dishes, I prepared plain rice with double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san". Nothing is more satisfying than serving with freshly-made donabe rice. It was such a lovely lunch.


For dinner, we went to Chef Stuart Brioza's State Bird Provisions on Fillmore Street. Stuart and Nicole came to Kyle's donabe beach party back in July. It was my first time to diner at State Bird Provisions, that is one of the hardest restaurants to make a reservation in San Francisco. I was excited to see Stuart again. Then, as soon as we entered the restaurant, I found our Kamado-san sitting in front of the chef! How exciting!


After so many incredible dishes we kept enjoying, Chef Stuart came to our table to bring a donabe dish, he made especially for us. It was a beautiful beef and oyster dish, made in Kamado-san! He said the beef was marinated in sake-kasu (sake lees) before it was grilled and added to a donabe stew. The dish was really fantastic and so as the entire dinner. I was so honored to taste his donabe dish!!

It was a short stay in San Francisco but truly meaningful and fun.
Happy donabe life.

Guest Chefs' Donabe Photoshoot in San Francisco

Some of the donabe dishes from the final photoshoot

Just a week after I returned to LA from Japan, I had another travel to San Francisco last week. We had the final photoshoot for the upcoming DONABE Cookbook (to be published in Fall 2015 by Ten Speed Press) with my co-author Kyle Connaughton and photographer Eric Wolfinger at Eric's studio. This time, it was for the remaining of the guest chefs' donabe recipes. In the cookbook, we also feature recipes by several internationally renowned chefs.

Chef David Kinch (Manresa) and Chefs Courtney Burns & Nick Balla (Bar Tartine) came to cook their original donabe dishes. It was a great pleasure and honor to have them!

I made plain rice with double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san", to serve with the other donabe dishes. Kamado-san always makes shiny and delicious rice.


Chef David Kinch made steamed abalone and matsutake rice dish with donabe steamer, "Mushi Nabe".


Chef Courtney Burns and Chef Nick Balla made shio-koji marinated chicken, roasted in tagine-style donabe, Fukkura-san.


Once the individual shots are taken, we did a shot of all the dishes at a table.


After the shooting, we got to eat everything, of course! I was happy that Jason (my husband) could come with me this time because he had a week off from work. He enjoyed the chefs' donabe dishes with us. Those donabe dishes made by the California chefs were so delicious and they also paired wonderfully with special sake I brought back from Japan.

What a happy donabe meal with chefs!
Happy donabe life.

More donabe dishes in Japan

My donabe chestnuts and shimeji mushroom rice, made in Kamado-san

Hello donabe friends...I'm back!
It's been two months since my last post. Meanwhile, I've been traveling a lot and also have been working very hard for the upcoming donabe cookbook.

Hopefully, I can start to post blog entries on a regular basis again. So, please stay tuned.

This time, I would like to post some autumn delicious dishes from my trip back in Japan last month. Yes, I had many delicious donabe dishes!


Kamo Nanban (duck soba) from a local handmade soba restaurant in Urawa is always nice. I took shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagoya to visit a friend. I had a bento (lunch box) of grilled salmon, seasoned ground chicken, and vegetables over rice.


At my friend's house in Nagoya, she made gorgeous dinner, including kurakake beans rice, cooked in double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san". It was delicious.


We had a weekend getaway travel together. On the way, we stopped by in Tajimi to have lunch at a famous udon restaurant there. They are known for thick udon with a large shrimp tempura and raw egg on top. It's called "tenkoro", and I requested it with an extra topping of grated mountain yam. So good and so filling.


After a few hours of drive from Nagoya, we arrived in Gero, a famous town for onsen (hot springs). We stayed at a historic ryokan (Japanese-style inn) there and enjoyed local sake and dishes including Hida beef shabu shabu.


The next day, we stopped by at a seasonal outdoor ayu (sweet fish) restaurant by the river. They cook freshly caught ayu from the river right below the restaurant. The grilled ayu and ayu rice were so tasty.


As we drove back to Nagoya, we enjoyed the scenery of the autumn season. Rice field was almost ready for harvest. We also stopped by at a chestnuts farm to pick up freshly harvested chestnuts from there.


So, after we got back to Nagoya, I made chestnuts and mushroom rice dish with double-lid donabe rice cooker, Kamado-san! It was such a delicious seasonal treat. (The first picture is before, and the second picture is after the dish is cooked.) I will post my chestnuts rice recipe in toiro kitchen's website soon.


In Nagoya, my friend took me to nice local places. We waited in line to taste at a famous "hitsumabushi" (Nagoya-style unagi over rice dish) restaurant.
To eat "hitsumabushi", you serve a small portion into a separate bowl at a time and enjoy in 3 ways in the following orders.
1. With no other condiments.
2. With sansho (ground Japanese mountain pepper).
3. With a dashi broth poured over it.
Then, for the any remaining eel and rice, you can enjoy with your favorite way from these three. The dish was so dynamic and delicious. It was a real power lunch.
On another day, she took me to an old house that is turned into a restaurant. We had lunch overlooking their garden. Such an elegant time.


Back in Tokyo, I went back to Ichirin to taste Chef Mikizo Hashimoto's specially elegant meal. His dishes were truly amazing! His donabe rice dish was matsutake mushroom rice. I loved the every detail of it.


Right near the high school and university I graduated from in Aoyama, I met a friend of mine at a hidden place for lunch. The restaurant is called, Ame Nochi Hare. They serve various donabe dishes there.


They use double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san", for their rice dish there! The donabe dish of the day was sanma (mackerel pike) fish and gingko rice...what a beautiful seasonal treat!


It was a short stay of less than two weeks, but I did a lot of eating, drinking, and shopping as always. I had so much fun with my family, too. Also as always, I came back to LA with tons of stuff...what's on the photo was not everything. I had one more box of goodies but they couldn't fit the table!

Happy donabe life.