Not since the Texas Double Whopper has Burger King had a sandwich that was down right irresistible. The Western Whopper and the Steakhouse burgers were mediocre at best. (go ahead, flame me) But this new Indy Double Whopper is the stuff of legend. Two beef patties, four strips of bacon, lettuce, tomato and a cajun mayo for kick make this sandwich a creamy web dream of the burger world. Photo below… Read the rest of this entry »

Hey guys it’s been fun, but some things are changing in my life I will no longer be able to do a new recipe each day. I have a back log of recipes to post from this week which I will get to soon. However, I’ll probably only be doing a few new recipes a week or even per month. The fact is, I have no time for friends (unless they come over for dinner), exercise, or any free lance work. Don’t fret though! Instead of posting new recipes, I’ll still be posting some of my tried and true foods as I make them so there will still be some fun content to keep an eye out for. It’s going to be quality over quantity as these are recipes I’ve made many times in the past. Thanks for the support from all who’ve been regulars of my site and you’ve gotta admit, a month and a half of new recipes is certainly a lot to be proud of.

-Oji Chef

One thing I haven’t had the chance to do in a while is eat out at a good restaurant. I figure since I’ve already made several *more* recipes than one per day, I deserved a day to myself to do some research at Buca di Beppo. My friend Paul told me about a wonderful dish they had which we will be attempting to reproduce soon. Photos below. Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone loves tentacles! …well…probably not. But I certainly enjoy octopus. Recently on a trip to one of the local Asian grocers I picked up a bag of frozen little octopus legs. (it’s way more fun to say frozen tentacles) So I was looking for an excuse to use them and udon seemed the perfect testing ground since I make it often. (or at least I used to before I started the project) Anyway, the results was surprisingly tasty. The tentacles were every bit as chewy and flavorful as fresh ones. Photo and recipe below… Read the rest of this entry »

This recipe is two days in the making. I saw it a while back on The Fresh Loaf and I’ve been itching to make it ever since. I absolutely love sweetened cream cheese. A good cream cheese danish is my weakness and can be used to subvert my will. I’m also a fan of blueberries, so I figured this would be a wonderful recipe to try as I’ve yet to break into the world of pastries. This turned out very well, but it was two days in the making. Photo and recipe (sort of) below… Read the rest of this entry »

Another Japanese dish! I wanted to make a Chinese dish in order to celebrate Chinese New Year but I couldn’t find a dinner guest so I had to go smaller scale. Tonight’s recipe is another one from the highly recommended book 100 Recipes from Japanese Cooking. As many of you already know, Japan has several types of noodles. The biggest and chewiest one they have is the udon noodle, which is my favorite. I took some liberties with the recipe in this one, but I’ll post the original recipe instead of mine because I honestly did way too much “adding this and that to taste” to remember. Photo and recipe below… Read the rest of this entry »

Recently my mother gave me a batch of house warming gifts ranging from tasty sauces and cooking ingredients to table wear. One of the gifts that she included was a bottle of sake. The sake came from Aldi, so my expectations weren’t very high. Ultimately, the sake met my expectations but had an unexpected surprise. Photo and details below… Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone loves egg drop soup! Here’s the Japanese version, called kakitama jiru. This recipe calls for some interesting things that you may not have heard of. Fear not! I’ll help you. I have a few tips and tricks to offer with this one. This recipe came from an excellent bi-lingual book of Japanese recipes called 100 Recipes from Japanese Cooking. Photo and recipe below… Read the rest of this entry »

I love mashing potatoes and I love playing with various things in them. Today’s recipe combines mashed potatoes with the spiciness of green chilies, the slightly tart bite of parmesan, and the smoothness of cream cheese. This is a little spicy, but it’s quite tasty and stands alone without gravy very well. Photo and recipe below… Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s recipe is inspired from a recipe from southernfood.about.com. The original title is Tex-Mex Mac, but I’ve never really liked the term “tex-mex.” Call it a personal prejudice similar to my distaste of the word “chowder” but I just don’t like it. I harbor no distaste for Texas or Mexico, just the mash up of “Tex-Mex.” I also severely dislike the word “blog” but this really isn’t the point of this site now is it? Anyway, I made several substitutions to the recipe which you can see below, as well as a photo… Read the rest of this entry »