The good fortune of eating your vegetables I was first introduced to lotus root when I was a child, when I’d fly back to Japan to visit my grandmother in the summer. Adamant that I get more exposure to Japanese foods, she would always bring home and cook with whatever she felt I couldn’t get […]
kids
Why You Should Love a Japanese Breakfast
What is breakfast food? I was born in the U.S. and spent my formative years there, so, naturally, I developed the sense that a normal breakfast should look something like pancakes, cereal, buttered toast, bacon, or sausages. It’s what was served to me when I went to friends’ houses for sleepovers and it’s what was […]
Lessons from Ghibli: What I Learned From a Cartoon Cucumber
Japanese vegetables helped me pick better ones in the U.S. When I was young and lived in the U.S., I really disliked vegetables. I thought they were either bitter, sour, or bland, and compared their consumption to taking medicine. I would always force them down by covering them in ranch, or refusing them unless they […]
