Vivian and...a cookbook

Unfortunately there's no alliteration between my name and『基本の和食』(lit. "basic Japanese cuisine"), so I can't exactly copy Julie Powell's Julie and Julia. But anyway, I bought this thin, magazine-looking cookbook last week. The layout and instructions are very simple and clear, so it should be a good start to learning how to cook Japanese dishes. By "Japanese dishes" I mean family cooking, and the food that we usually get from the university's cafeteria. The stereotype of sushi and sashimi as the Japanese cuisine is of course another story, which I shall not venture into unless necessary.

I wanted to do this mainly because of the fact that I've only made okonomiyaki and miso soup in these four months. Obviously I've cooked other stuff but they were not Japanese. Plus I've seen Felix's photos of the cooking he's been doing and it looks fun!

Lacking Julie Powell's motivation and discipline, I'm not going to set a timeline for this little activity. I'm just going to try to cook all the dishes in the book (there aren't that many), starting tonight with 卵入り豚の角煮 (a quick stew of pork with leek and ginger and eggs).

P.S. For those of you who live in proximity of the dormitory, you're very welcomed to bring a plate/bowl and your own cutlery if you want to try the products of my little experiments.