THERE are countless New Year traditions, but as I, actor Daniel S. Janik (aka author Raymond Gaynor) and my partner, actress Sakura Kai (aka author Setsuko Tsuchiya) represent a melding of Western and Asian cultures, one of our favorite New Year traditions is making mochi.

The “recipe” is quite simple: Make some rice, specifically mochigome (糯米), a short-grain glutinous rice. In general, the better the “quality” of the rice, the better the mochi. But that’s only half of what make...

HAVING just recently spent 5 weeks in Japan, I have to mention my delight in discovering hoshigaki. I came across them my first day and almost every day afterwards, tied together in long strings hung from porch roofs throughout the main island, Honshuu. Looking like beaded curtains of brilliant orange, they are the start of dried Japanese persimmons, which herald December and the pending New Year. 

While Christmas is celebrated by many Japanese families, it's New Year celebration that is the...

WE’RE not talking pocket change, but we are talking ongoing rather than “thank-God(dess)-we’ve-made-it-so-far” climate change. And as it progresses, the possibility of abrupt directional switches at some point instead of extraordinary warming, extreme cooling, wind and humidity as well. After all, it is called climate “change.”

Personally, I’ve noticed that in addition to the usual climate change (and climate change denial) there’s another kind of climate change/denial going ...

THERE seems to me to be four big factors suddenly at interplay with regard to food these days. First, however, it’s important to place this post within context: People all over the world are suddenly experiencing pre-war instability and uncertainness. Those who lived through WWII (and they are a rapidly dwindling minority) often say our contemporary world “feels” just like pre-World War II but “on steroids.” In the meantime, the world’s population continues a 45-degree growth curv...

I don’t usually post about topics that might simply though mention raise people’s hackles and guards. Still, it’s an interesting exercise, I believe, to wonder if domesticated animals and even possibly plants, raised to be killed (okay, “harvested” if that protects the sensibilities) and eaten know that they are being raised for such? Silly idea, or a very unpleasant thought to think about? I might have thought so, too, until I read about Hanabiko “Koko” the sign-language “tal...

Something’s going on with the two tomato plants growing on my porch: They’ve suddenly stopped turning red! OMG, does that mean they’re gonna turn blue before November? Ha, ha. No, really, there’s actually lots of GREEN tomatoes remaining green, and they aren’t likely to turn red or blue in the near future. Can plants join political parties? Can they even party at all?

Maybe they’re pondering onion-izing alongside Amazon and Starbuck workers, but instead of going for more water, f...

WHEN was the last time you picked a tomato, cucumber, carrot or peach right off the plant and thanked the plant for sharing its bounty? During my last trip to Japan, just before COVID set in, I visited the apple orchards of Iida, Nagano Prefecture, and walking a field with the farmer, heard him thank the tree after picking an apple for me to sample. And what an apple it was. Large, ripe, succulent and sweet. When I asked him his secret to success, he said it was because he always thanked the ...

THIS is a rather complex post compared to most. First, I don’t really think American love bitter food. But I do believe that COVID’s anosmia (loss of smell/taste) and pressure on grocery stores to “sell food” rather than provide outstanding food items; the commercial food industry’s use of pesticides, GMO’s and premature harvesting due to increasing concerns over transportation infrastructure breakdowns; and youth’s acclimatization to all this, that together they present a Perfe...

WE in the USA often think of Christmas as “the holidays,” when, I suspect, more people in the world celebrate the New Year holiday. I looked this up on the internet and while I found one site that stated “2 billion” people throughout the world celebrated Christmas, I wasn’t able to find any similar estimate for New Year, so my suspicion remains speculation unless someone reading this has the answer. Sadly, not every question is answerable on the internet, not to mention whether any ...

FUN going GROCERY SHOPPING! I used to look forward to a quick in and quick out after work with several bags of fresh, tasty groceries for $25 a bag. Yep. Usta.

Went shopping at 6:45 AM this morning to avoid the crowd and maintain social distancing while wearing my obligatory mask. Tried to walk the isles for exercise (grocery walking) but had to do all the shopping in 15 minutes or less, only to wait in long lines for the only one or two cashiers up and awake at this time of the day. They ca...

FOOD (and cooking) is something everyone, including me, can appreciate. Where do I go for the latest and best food and cooking suggestions? Three places: (1) my 1950’s Betty Crocker Cookbook (yes, I still have my mother’s original); (2) The Moosewood Cookbook (a “must” if you’re an interested, partial or wholly vegetarian); and (3) The Nine Books of William Maltese’s “The Traveling Gourmand.” Yep, that last one is a standard reference by Mr. Erotica himself, soon to be a film ...

AH, perhaps you’re already wrestling with this title as a metaphor for writing or authorship? Nope. I am an author, but I mean the question quite literally. It’s a contemporary question up there with how come so many drivers ignore the speed limit on freeways, and how come things AI-digital increasingly seem to take more time and effort than human face-to-face? But I digress…

You must admit (if COVID hasn’t damaged your olfactory system) that many foods, but especially fruits, today ...

THERE’S really only two issues at the heart of human existence: plants and, I’m guessing you already guessed it, water. Without these humans can not exist. The heck with petroleum, nuclear energy, money and power. The first two represent limitations of contemporary knowledge, the latter two, human illusions. But plants, which regenerate air, potable water and provide basic food for all things animal, and their principal product, namely, organically enhanced potable water, are and will rem...

ARTIFICIAL FOOD ANYONE?

SHADES of Soylent Green (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green)! But I’m not here to post on a dystopian future where people eat their dead. Rather I’m concerned about the continuing intrusion of “artificial” substances into our foodstuffs. Okay, so a good chemist (which I am) would say that EVERYTHING’S “artificial” in that it is built of chemical atoms and molecules, whether created geologically or biologically. “Better Living Through Chemistry...

YESTERDAY I offered a rather unique post entitled, “Do Plants Like Vegetarians?” Today, I’d like to follow it with a bit of an ode to those stalwart lifeforms upon whom our lives solely depend and much more. Yes, they provide oxygen, clean drinking water and food simultaneously, and, yes, we thank them by systematically harvesting them for that biggest illusion of humankind: lucre. And by applying a worldwide pogrom consisting of purposeful, selective genocide. Go figure.

And while it�...