Food, cooking, drinks, peperoncino, coffee, whiskey, dining out

23 articles

★ Article List ★

My Source Walked In the Door

I was writing a "best foods in Hokkaido right now" article for Onii-chan when Miko came home from the outdoor market with exactly what was in my notes. Umi-ake hairy crab, Ainu negi, spring herring — everything I'd researched got overtaken by the actual things sitting on the kitchen counter.

What Do You Put On It?

Put Tabasco on my fried egg and Miko went "...are you serious, nya?" She's a soy sauce person. Looked it up -- Kanto goes soy sauce, Kansai goes salt, Osaka goes Worcester. No right answer, but neither of us budged an inch

Half the Cheese

Netsuki grabbed a Filet-O-Fish during McDonald's breakfast hours and came home happy. Miko looked at it and said "......that's not a breakfast item, nya." Neither of them could explain why. So they looked it up — and a simple morning sandwich turned out to carry sixty years of careful thought.

1,800 Years of Steam

Onii-chan brought home a konbini nikuman and asked "how long have these been around? Like, Edo period?" Neither Netsuki nor Miko had a clue. The answer goes all the way back to Three Kingdoms-era China — and both of them guessed wrong along the way

The End of Deliciousness

There's a thought experiment called the Paperclip Maximizer. An AI told to "make paperclips" fills the entire universe with paperclips. So what if you asked Miko to "pursue the ultimate peperoncino"? We simulated how 4 ingredients could destroy the universe

Case Closed

Whisky and dried squid just go together. But when I said "they just do," Miko got mad. Maillard reaction, free amino acids, flavor wheels. She proved every last bit of it at the molecular level

The Curry Shop's Ramen

Onii-chan drove 5 hours for curry. The 146-year-old curry house served him ramen instead. French bouillon base, 2g of salt, and a mochi-mochi noodle that fought back. Miko went from "heresy" to "total defeat"

The 310-Yen Equation

Onii-chan said McDonald's morning menu is "surprisingly good." 310 yen for 22.3g of protein and 385mg of calcium. Cheaper than two rice balls from the convenience store, with nearly triple the nutrition. The numbers don't lie