I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
Katsudon (tonkatsu donburi)
Heather H. on Facebook asked me about this when she was reading A Dangerous Stage, and she suggested I blog about it, so this post is all because of her. :)
Katsudon is a pork cutlet with a Japanese style "gravy" over rice. It's not what you'd think of as traditional Southern gravy, it's more like a lighter teriyaki sauce, which has eggs in it. Captain Caffeine loves this dish, which is one of the reasons it's in A Dangerous Stage. When I was writing the scene, I was trying to think of food for them to eat and this was the first thing to come to mind.
This recipe is closest to what I envisioned when I wrote that scene in Nez's restaurant. Instead of dashi, I usually use beef or chicken stock, and for the cutlets, I usually use regular breadcrumbs, but if you have panko, then totally use that. If you ever get a chance to order this in a Japanese restaurant, it'll probably be a little more fancy, but it'll taste essentially like this recipe.
This is totally Asian style comfort food. :)
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