Japanese-style daikon soup (和風大根スープ)

Its interesting how many cuisines are ‘branded’ as it were with a dish that isn’t commonly eaten in the home country. Sushi is a case in point, having become such an everyday affair here in the west, especially in cities like New York. That is not at all the case in Japan where people (obviously) eat sushi but much more rarely. In fact, having spent quite some time there I have learned that it tends to be reserved for special occasions and generally eaten at restaurants that serve only sushi (sushi-ya/寿司屋). (In my experience, that sort of specialization seems much more common in Japan than over here.) Nor is it all that common to make it at home. If one wanted to eat sushi at home in Japan you’d just order a platter from a sushi-ya.

My first post

This is it. After weeks (months?) of subjecting friends and family to talk of starting a food blog this is my first post. And I seem to be at a loss for words. After all, what could I possibly add to the tens of thousands of well written blogs out there, the vast majority of which (so it seems) featuring drool-inducing pictures and professionally-developed recipes? But, a blog seemed like a great outlet for someone as obsessed about food as I and, fortunately, my goals are far more modest. This one is basically a chronicle of, to use a cliche, my culinary adventures and a reference, of sorts, for my favorite recipes. (You can read more here.)

What can you expect to find here? The name of this blog provides a clue: “Oishii” (美味しい) means tasty in Japanese, and “rasoi” (રસોઈ) is cooking in Gujarati (and other Indian languages). It combines words from the two cultures I have a connection to (more on that in a future post), and it embodies the fact that I like to eat and cook food from all parts of the world (easy when one lives in New York). Not that my cooking is completely random. It tends toward “Asian”and “Mediterranean” flavors. And anything involving anchovies!

And that’s all I have to say today. While I cook practically everyday (New Yorkers do cook, you know), I probably won’t get around to posting everyday (having a day job and all that boring stuff). But I’ll try to keep to a weekly update schedule. So stay tuned!