
“Gyoza and Har Gow” Cedar Park, 2026
Tonight we had two kinds of dumplings: Har Gow and Gyoza. And to go with that, yummy fried rice! 🥟 This a truly a comfort meal for Asian families.

“Har Gow, Gyoza, and Fried Rice” Cedar Park, 2026
daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad

Tonight we had two kinds of dumplings: Har Gow and Gyoza. And to go with that, yummy fried rice! 🥟 This a truly a comfort meal for Asian families.


One of my small goals for this year was to make tamagoyaki. Surprisingly, I’d never actually made it on my own before, even though it’s a pretty simple way to cook eggs. Mariko gave it a thumbs-up, so I’m counting that as a win. 😄🥚

Here are a couple of recent dinners worth sharing. Tonight was all deep-fried goodness: korokke and aji-furai, with two carrot dishes and a fresh salad on the side. A perfect combination.
Last night was pan-seared salmon, baked gratin, salad, and rice. It was so filling. I was happily stuffed. 😋


I’ve been slowly working my way through the candy and snacks we picked up at Ohmachi Shop. The actual candy inside is pretty basic, just sweet pressed sugar powder, and not particularly good. But I feel a sense of obligation to finish every one. The packaging though is really fun, very retro Japanese, and each wrapper is getting glued into the daily pages of my Hobonichi. 😄🍬

We got a new rice cooker, the Toshiba 5.5-Cup, and it’s been great so far. I’ve already made a couple batches of jook using both short-grain and long-grain rice, and both turned out really well.
The old Tiger model in the second photo served us faithfully for about 15 years. It was still working fine, but the inner pot coating had started to peel, so it felt like the right time to move on. It also had a fully Japanese menu, which meant I was never using it to its full potential. We found a Japanese family to pass it along to, which felt like a good ending. I hope it gives them another 15 years. 😊🍚
