This was my lunch today – lovely store cupboard ramen. The soup stock was from a packet, but with all the other toppings it doesn’t make a lot of difference. (Who makes their own stock every time anyway?) At the top is preserved bamboo shoots, then to the right is pickled ginger, under that is dried spring onions, then under that is simmered konbu tsukudani style (with mirin, sugar and soy sauce), then sliced boiled egg, and in the middle is some wakame. I always have dried spring onions and wakame around anyway because I add it to miso soup sometimes, but the tsukidani and the other pickles are new ingredients I was sent by Japan Centre for a feature in the magazine. I absolutely love the tsukudani – you can make it yourself at home. The package calls it konbu and kelp, but I actually think it’s hijiki – which is worrying considering that the FSA has advised against eating it due to the presence of inorganic arsenic. I eat very little so I’m not too worried! But eating large quantities daily is probably a pretty bad idea…

I decided to create this blog in order to chronicle my kitchen based exploits, which are admittedly slapdash, hodgepodge, but never half hearted! I enjoy Asian cooking, particularly Japanese, and have another website with a blog at www.bentobusiness.co.uk, where I write about the Japanese lunch boxes I have made, shared recipes and try to act as a resource for UK bento fans. Obviously though I eat more than lunch, and I don’t just cook Japanese food, so I thought I’d give this a whirl and see where it goes…