In the past few years, there have been an explosion of "bowl" meals at different fast food restaurants.

History of the California Roll at Tokyo Kaikan
Memories of Tokyo Kaikan at Chow

There are a lot of good recipes out there. This is a faker, because it uses fake fish. Here's the gist of it. First, defrost the fake fish filets. Then take a cup or more of flour, add to it a teaspoon of pepper, a teaspoon of garlic powder, and optionally, salt. The salt is optional because the fake fish is already pretty salty.

I was going to post this at SparkRecipes, but that's a healthy recipes site. Here's the nasty details.

So I'm mostly clueless about what's popular with health nuts, but have noticed enormous amounts of kale at some expensive markets, and kale is mentioned in a lot of recipes. I got some information for you all: kale and collards are almost the same thing. You trendy people are driving the price of kale up. The stuff used to be less than a dollar a bunch, and now it's almost two. Collards use to be more expensive, but it's the other way around now. The main difference between the two is that kale is crinkly, and collards are flat. The Brazilian style of collards, couve, is to roll them up and slice them thin, like strings, and then cook them in butter, garlic, and onions.

Recipe 1

Recipe 2

Umeboshi is a pickeld apricot that's popular in Japan and increasingly in America. Most people have seen a tiny red thing in their bento-box that's extremely salty. That's umeboshi. However, the kind you make for yourself is different. For one, there's no red food coloring, and it's larger and more fleshy and gooey.

This article at livestrong reminded me of when I had tapeworms as a child.

This was a map I created on the now defunct Platial. It maps places where I ate a bean and cheese burrito. It's kind of pre-yelp.

This was posted to Wise Bread, and reposted here:

Pick around a dozen key purchases of (relatively) nonperishable items like canned goods, dried pasta, some grains, sauces, frozen items, etc. Know the prices. When you see a price drop, stock up.

Then, over the course of the next few months, eat through the stock.

These are used to make a scorched rice. Here's how I seasoned mine. First, wash and scrub with warm water, but no soap. Stone is porous and will take in the soap flavor, according to some sites. Some sites say to cook salt water in the bowl.

There are so many recipes out there calling for the cleverly named Soyrizo, but the flavor king is Reynaldo's Soy Chorizo. RSC's dominant flavor is cumin and mild chile, and it tastes a lot like the real thing. If you search for both soyrizo and reynaldo's, you'll find that when people compare the two brands, Reynaldo's wins each time, kicking ass on both Soyrizo and Trader Joe's.

rmfood.com

The above is a picture of a small jar full of turkey fat (mixed with other fats). It was collected from the top layer of a pot of turkey broth. It's a thrifty/frugal way to get the most from your holiday dinner. The fat can be used instead of oil or butter.

In L.A., when people go out for Japanese food, they think of sushi, and sometimes go to Little Tokyo to eat it.

Brown one package of sausage. (That's the not quite vegetarian part. Omit it for a vegetarian recipe, and add 3tbsp of oil and a dash of salt instead.) Add 6 stalks celery, minced, 1 large white onion, minced, 2 - 3 cloves garlic, 1 bell pepper, chopped. Chip 2 or 3 carrots into the mix. Aim to get around 10 cups of raw vegetables. Sautee until the onion goes clear. if you want, add another chopped onion, and sautee a bit more.

Add 1 stick of butter, and cook over low heat until melted. Add 1 to 2 tsp of sage, thyme, gumbo file, parseley, pepper, or other herbs. Add chopped nuts if you want. Adjust to your own taste. Add your seasoned bread stuffing mix. One or two bags, whiciever works.

Stir it up, making sure to get everything damp. Lower heat to the lowest possible flame, or a "low" setting. Cover the pot and cook, stirring every 5 minutes or so. Eventually, everything will get steamed and the flavors will mix.

If the mix is too dry, add some water or broth and let it steam the stuffing.

You can also add mushrooms for some meat-like texture. Wash, cut into quarters, and add to the vegetables as they sautee.

This is a simple rice cooker with two modes: rice and soup. Soup is a basic simmering mode, which keeps the pot at a rapid simmer when the switch is "on".