Kitchen Culture Cooking Club
EXPLORE and PRACTICE Japanese cooking in your own kitchenAbout Kitchen Culture Cooking Club
Welcome to the Kitchen Culture Cooking Club, a community space providing encouragement to those who want to EXPLORE and PRACTICE Japan’s washoku wisdom in their own kitchens.
To facilitate this, themed projects will be posted to this page periodically. Project Assignments and links to relevant reference material stored on this site will be posted to this page. Anyone, anywhere in the world, with a sincere interest in Japanese food culture is welcome to browse the contents of this page and then replicate the themed project in their own kitchen.
For those who wish to display-and-discuss their projects with like-minded people, I invite you to join the KITCHEN CULTURE Cooking Club Facebook Group (formerly the TSUDOI Project), an interactive community space.
PROJECT: Ika Yaki
PROJECT Ika Yaki
Gingery griddle-seared squid, IKA YAKI イカ焼き is a favorite summer festival food sold thoughout Japan at yatai food stalls.
Visit the Summer Festival Food: YATAI post for more information about summer festivals and the food sold at yatai stalls.
This Kitchen PROJECT is about making ika yaki in YOUR kitchen.
Making Ika Yaki
Searing squid over high heat then dousing it with gingery soy sauce sends inviting aromas wafting throughout the kitchen. Once you find your own local source for fresh squid, I am hoping this recipe will become a regular at your dinner table.
Cleaning Squid
If you’ve never tried cleaning whole squid before, let me show you how. Download full instructions here.
With a bit of practice you’ll soon be able to clean and griddle-sear squid in no time.
Download a copy of the AUGUST, 2025 newsletter, about Summer Festival Food YATAI
Recipes and Resources
Stock (Dashi)
Dashi stock is essential to making soups and simmered or stewed dishes. Dashi is also used when making many egg dishes and all sorts of sauces, dips and dressings. Using good dashi will make a noticeable difference in the outcome of so many dishes you prepare.
Click to download recipes for (vegan) Kelp Alone Stock or Standard Sea Stock + Smoky Sea Stock
How to Cook Rice
In Japanese, the word for cooked rice, ご飯 GOHAN, is the same as the word for a meal, ご飯 GOHAN. Indeed rice is central to the meal. Download the Rice with Mixed Grains recipe.
How to Prepare Sushi Rice
Sushi dishes are made with rice that has been seasoned (with sweetened vinegar) AFTER being cooked. Download the Classic Sushi Rice recipe.
Quick Pickles
The Japanese enjoy a wide variety of tsukémono pickles, many can be assembled quickly and are ready to eat within a short time.
Download a recipe for Quick-Fix Hakusai Cabbage.
An Edible Ode to Winter: Sleet & Snow
Winter weather reports predicting SLEET (mizoré), are rarely welcome news. After all, the bone-chilling mixture of rain and snow is messy under foot and creates hazerdous road conditions. But when mizoré appears on a menu, it conjurs up tasty fare. Snowy white daikon...
PROJECT Noodle-Slurping
NOODLE-SLURPING Anyone who has ever spent time in Japan, or regularly eats at Japanese restaurants, knows (all too well) the sound of slurping. Noodles, for sure, but soup, tea and other liquids, too. Although noodles, soup and beverages are part of every food...
PROJECT Kayaku Gohan
Vegetables cooked into RiceKayaku (Takikomi) Gohan加薬 (炊き込み) ご飯 In different parts of Japan, rice that is cooked in a flavored liquid with a variety of ingredients (that went to flavoring that liquid) goes by various names. The most generic is takikomi because it...
Thanksgiving Rituals in Japan
In Japan, rice is more than just sustenance. It holds symbolic and sacred significance. Rice yield was also a measurement of wealth during the Edo Period (1603-1868). Early records of rituals celebrating the harvest and entreating future prosperity, called nii namé...