A Novel Way to Survive Hosting a Dinner Party – Easy Dinner Party Ideas

Hosting a dinner party for the first time can be so stressful for the host or hostess, that actually enjoying the event could be considered a totally alien concept. It can though, be different, if we use a bit of guile and imagination. Even if the method I’m going to describe is not suitable for your idea of a dinner party, it works just as well for more informal gatherings. Either way, what follows is a way to entertain without having frazzled nerves.

The formal dinner party has been around for goodness knows how long, centuries probably. Let’s have a look at a modern take on the dinner party idea, make it less formal and more enjoyable.

A typical dinner party involves the host or hostess disappearing at various times to take care of cooking a meal. This in itself seems to me to be somewhat anti social – it being a social event. Of course, in years past, if you were wealthy you would have servants to cook and serve. A bit of a rarity these days. However, there is a way to enjoy and take part in my sort of dinner party, have a good time and your guests will leave admiring your somewhat laid back efforts. Continue reading “A Novel Way to Survive Hosting a Dinner Party – Easy Dinner Party Ideas”

Natural Food Sources of Hyaluronic Acid and Collagen – Try This

So you are looking for natural food sources of hyaluronic Acid and collagen?

I understand how you feel – infact not too long ago I too was in search for a diet rich in food that could help rejuvenate the look and feel of my skin.

On my search, I stumbled upon many sources of both collagen and hyaluronic.

The only problem is that almost all of the recommended natural food sources of Hyaluronic Acid and Collagen were not sufficient enough to the extent where I could rely on them to reduce the wrinkles and fine lines that made me look much older than I actually was.

What I really needed and wanted was a natural anti-aging solution that I could rely on to easily rejuvenate my skin. Continue reading “Natural Food Sources of Hyaluronic Acid and Collagen – Try This”

Discover the Health Benefits of Fermented Foods

If you’re like most Americans, you don’t eat a lot of fermented foods. Fermented foods are more popular in the Chinese, Korean and Japanese culture where fermented soy products like tempeh and kimchee are a dietary staple. In fact, the only exposure many Americans get to fermented foods is when they eat a container of yogurt with active cultures – but that’s rapidly changing.

Fermented products are growing in popularity including fermented beverages like kombucha, a beverage prepared from fermented mushrooms, and kefir, a fermented milk drink. More natural food stores are carrying fermented foods and beverages because of the health benefits they offer.

What Are the Health Benefits of Fermented Foods?

One reason fermented foods and beverages are good for you is because of the natural probiotics they contain. Probiotics are “good bacteria” that keep disease-causing bacteria in check by competing for the same resources. There’s only so much room available in your gut for bacteria and when the good guys move in, they push the bad ones out. Unfortunately, most people who eat Westernized diets don’t get many natural probiotics in their diet. That’s changing as yogurt and other fermented foods grow in popularity. Continue reading “Discover the Health Benefits of Fermented Foods”

6 Reasons to Eat Home-Cooked Food More Often

Read on to Find out Why You should Eat Home-Cooked Food

Thanks to our increasingly hectic lifestyle, eating has become one of the lesser priorities in life. For example, we eat only when we are meeting someone in a lavish restaurant or snack mindlessly while watching a movie. When was the last time you took out a couple of hours only to prepare food and to relish it leisurely? When was the last time you put “LUNCH” on your daily to-do list? However, eating home-cooked food is one of the healthiest habits one can cultivate. It has multiple positive effects on the body as well as on the mind.

Nutritious:- Restaurant and other commercially prepared foods are notoriously high in fat, salt and sugar. Home-cooked meals, on the other hand, are free from these and also have the option of replacing certain items with their healthier alternatives. Eating home-cooked meals regularly prepares our palate for simpler and more wholesome foods in the long run, which eventually start reflecting in our trimming waistlines and overall health.

Continue reading “6 Reasons to Eat Home-Cooked Food More Often”

Some Advantages Of Bento Lunch Boxes

Now most of us reading this have grown up with the old classic lunch box that was metallic, and probably has their favorite television show characters on them. Including the thermos that our parents would put milk or some kind of juice in the box. The lunches were delicious, sometimes they were healthy, sometimes not so much. However, as kids we did not care about that of course. We just wanted to eat. However, as things always do times have changed, and a more portable and covenant type of lunch box has come in to the mainstream market. This is a concept and design from the famous Japanese bento box, and if you have kids, once you see one of these lunch boxes you will never want to use anything else ever again.

Continue reading “Some Advantages Of Bento Lunch Boxes”

How To Use The Right Japanese Words For Cooking

Japanese has many kinds of cooking style and each method has it’s own unique way of cooking the food. Learn how to distinguish the differences between these cooking methods in Japanese can be very useful for learning Japanese cooking recipes.

Let’s start with the most basic way of cooking and that’s to boil. The Japanese verb for boiling something in Japanese is waku. Waku means to cook something using water.

Ane wa ima oyu wo waite imasu.

My sister is boiling hot water now.

Kono niku wo sanjikan waku to, yawaraku narimasu. Continue reading “How To Use The Right Japanese Words For Cooking”

Why Am I Still Hungry? Discover Japanese ‘s Acupuncture Weight Loss Method

The most difficult part about weight loss is how to control your cravings for food. I believe many people would agree with me. You attended slimming courses, do a lot of exercises everyday, tried yoga, lemon diet, tried varies kind of diet food etc etc etc. But, you would ask yourself the same question in front of the mirror everyday: “Why am I still looking fat?”

The answer to this question is, because you are still always eating! You want to always be in control about your appetite for food because you want to slim down, however you would think of all kinds of excuses when the food is served right in front of you, right? Being overweight = liking the taste of food. Chocolate is your friend, right? Continue reading “Why Am I Still Hungry? Discover Japanese ‘s Acupuncture Weight Loss Method”

Are You Drinking Sake With Your Sushi and Committing a Serious Sushi Etiquette Sin?

It has been interesting to see how sushi etiquette customs and traditions loosen up here in the United States compared to when I lived in Japan.

If you have read any of the rantings and ravings on my website on some of the debatable sushi etiquette rules, you know that I can get quite passionate about them and the appropriateness of some of them in different social situations, geographic locations and settings.

What the Experts say and What Actually is, Sometimes Differs…

It seems to me that the “experts” seem to think that these rules always apply to all situations; or better yet that “one size fits all”. This observation is based mainly on the fact that they don’t ever mention any scenarios that state otherwise.

To me, the rules can vary depending on the situation.

Let’s take an example. Continue reading “Are You Drinking Sake With Your Sushi and Committing a Serious Sushi Etiquette Sin?”

Japanese Garden of Monaco

Have you ever seen an authentic Japanese garden? Well, I had the chance of seeing the one in Monaco and was really impressed too. Wanna taste a little Japanese culture? Stepping on this ground is escaping from the real world into a fantasy land. You suddenly find yourself in a typical Japanese natural setting like the ones you see in marvelous paintings. The only thing that’s missing is the fog. Instead, the Mediterranean sun reveals all minute details in a warm light.

With Japanese gardens, what you see is not all; the surface of things is the mere reflection of the psyche of an ancient culture. One really needs to be literally “cultured” in this direction to best appreciate the value of this art. (which I myself was not at the time of my visit! And it was a pity as I did not know what to look for and what to analyze better!) One can speak of a philosophy of gardening coming from the ancient Japan. Japanese gardening is an art fetched beyond the arrangements of vegetation, water and stone but is full of symbols:

* Koko – the veneration of timeless age;

* Shizen – the avoidance of the artificial;

* Yugen, or darkness – imply the mysterious or subtle;

* Miegakure – the avoidance of full expression Continue reading “Japanese Garden of Monaco”

The Conscious Cook – First Vegan Cookbook With Mainstream Appeal

Being vegan in Tokyo can often make one feel isolated in the world’s most populous city, but last weekend my partner and I counted ourselves a very lucky minority to meet acclaimed vegan chef and author of the “The Conscious Cook” cookbook, Tal Ronnen.

While Japan is known for originating the predominantly vegetarian macrobiotic diet, and “macrobi” restaurants are ubiquitous here, veganism is extremely rare in Japan. As a result, our vegan cooking school and vegan recipe website came up near the top of the web search Chef Tal did before his recent visit to Tokyo.

We were aware Tal had cooked for Oprah Winfrey’s 21-day vegan cleanse and catered Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi’s wedding, but not of his fondness for Japan, inherited from his Australian father who had lived in Japan 3 years. Tal said Japanese food was his favorite, and asked our recommendation for Shojin Ryoori (traditional Buddhist temple food). Continue reading “The Conscious Cook – First Vegan Cookbook With Mainstream Appeal”