Alright, I am whiter than white, but my earliest cooking lessons were from a Korean gal who taught me to make amazing dumplings, which have since evolved into my own potsticker recipe and which led to my fascination with Asian cooking, creating new recipes from Far East standards, getting a federal grant to study Japanese food with a nutritional anthropologist, throwing ridiculous Lunar New Year dinner parties, and so on.

A friend who was at that last dinner party recently commented on my penchant for Asian cuisine and I realized that I have been making mostly American comfort food for at least the last year, as evidenced by the roasted chicken,  meatballs, brisket, Brussels sprouts and mac & cheese on this site of late.

So, it’s time to get back to where I’ve never been. I’m scouring cookbooks for Asian classics to adapt and I am thinking that my next will be Japanese-style croquettes that came to mind while reading a short story by Haruki Murakami last night, and perhaps while I am back east for the holidays, I can put on a whole (or partial) kaiseki ryōri for family and friends in Vermont.

What else should I make?