I'd heard of tori paitan for years before anyone shared an actual recipe for it. My guiding star turned out to be a 1969 cookbook — Chinese Gastronomy — and its Cream Stock, a labor-intensive Chinese stock I consider the ancestor of tonkotsu. No seasoning, no shortcuts: just cracked bones, gelatinized collagen, and a hard boil that emulsifies fat into a broth with real body. Here's how that method, applied to chicken, becomes tori paitan — and where you can improvise.

These two dinners stayed with me in a way very few meals have in recent years. Not because they were perfect. But because they did something much more valuable: they made me want to go back to my own kitchen and try again. Try differently. Reopen things I thought were already finished topics for me. For someone like me, that’s the highest compliment a restaurant can receive.

Chawanmushi is a deceptively simple Japanese savory egg custard—but in the right hands, it becomes something much more. After two very different experiences at Kappo Kappo, I found myself revisiting this dish and discovering its depth: dashi, texture, technique, and a touch of luxury with uni and ikura. A simple custard, made complicated—and worth every step.

Warm, adaptable, and deeply practical, okayu is having a moment — and for good reason. This essay explores Japanese rice porridge, its barley cousin mugi-gayu, and how one simple method becomes a nourishing breakfast that changes with you.

Yuzu kosho is often described as a fermented Japanese condiment — but that’s only part of the story. This post explores how kosho really works, why ingredient choice and ratios matter, and how a Texas-made kosho can mature into something balanced, expressive, and deeply useful in the kitchen.

A bit of history about Okonomiyaki, what makes the Osaka style special, and my favorite recipe so you can enjoy it at home.