Rinshinomori

about me

Hi, I'm Nona and welcome to my page.

I was born in Tokyo, Japan - next to Rinshi no mori (a beautiful forested oasis in a middle of urban Tokyo). Lived in various places since leaving Tokyo in my teen years - Tucson AZ, Middletown/Marietta PA, Sacramento CA, Okinawa, Japan (yeah Kubasaki!), and most recently in Bay Area, CA. Will be calling Tokyo, Japan my second home soon as we plan to purchase an apartment there. I love to spend more time in Japan, but we have several senior four legged kids home in California and I want to be there for them.

I used a picture of my Mom and I above because she was my greatest influence and inspiration including my love of cooking. I can't think of another finer Japanese cook than my mother. She instinctively knew how to make Japanese food taste better. Since she was from Tokyo, her flavors were stronger tasting than Southern Japan or Kansai cooking and I inherited that taste as well. Now that she is gone and I can no longer share my recipes with her, I want to continue my Japanese cooking love affair by sharing some of my own creations and those that I gathered from various Japanese sources with anyone who is interested in authentic Japanese cooking both modern and traditional. Although my mom is no longer with us, I know she is always with me in spirit cooking and tasting every step of the way.

I am bilingual Japanese and English. Food intrigued me since I can remember - my culinary adventure started around age 6-7 when I crossed a path with a young man delivering stacks and stacks of hot noodle dishes on his bike. A crash (entirely my fault for not watching where I was going) and I was covered with noodles. The restaurant owner felt so bad he would deliver free of charge various noodle dishes to our home for years. My mother felt so bad that I ruined the young man's confidence she made me go help out at the restaurant for several weeks. But my helping out was no more than watching all the fabulous Japanese style noodle being made and tasting them! Started collecting recipes when I was about 16 (I still have all the magazine clippings from those days) and started cooking in earnest at about age 20.

Because of my background which is Japanese, Irish, and French, I collect both English language (450+ books) and Japanese language cookbooks (300+ books) and cook everything that catches my fancy. However, my roots are back in Japan and Japanese cooking is what I usually crave when I'm traveling for an extended period away from home or Japan. I make my own tofu and yuba regularly and on occasions (seasonally) make miso, soba (Japanese buckwheat noodle), udon (flour based noodle), and umeshu (ume liqueur).

Although I plan to post a fair number of recipes here, my main interest is to help those who are interested in making more basic recipes such as tofu, yuba, soba, pasta, udon, miso, wagashi, basic Japanese recipes, etc. These recipes are hit and miss on internet and I want to provide more reliable results for those who want to try them. I don't just make these once or twice, I make these often and it is my hope that these recipes will be successful for you. Am I 100% happy with my results? No, my recipes like me are work in progress and I am always looking for any pointers, better results, etc. Please let me know if you can give me some advice or you have better method of making these basic items.

When I travel, I look for local specialties and love shopping for local food in various locations. Most people go for sights and sounds, I go for tastes and sound of food!

A picture of Mom, my nephew and I at Atami, Japan. We were staying at a traditional inn known as ryokan/onsen in Japanese. This feast is for dinner time. Both breakfast and dinner are normally included in Japanese inns.


A typical Japanese inn or ryokan


My family members in Asakusa, Tokyo.


I'm happiest when surrounded with good food, good drinks, and good company (and animals, I love animals - have dogs, cats, and goldfish). My yard is also a home to 4 hummingbirds (they have their own feeders), mockingbirds, and doves.

Cheers - kanpai and good health to you all!


Peace.

Favorite Foods:

Japanese, Regional American especially Tex-Mex/New-Mex/Cal-Mex and Cajun/Creole, Italian, French, Mexican, Korean, Spanish, Pan-Asian, Eastern European, and German.......can you guess I like them all!

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