Tim Anderson's 'JapanEasy Bowls & Bento'

Two recipes and a book giveaway

This week I have a cluster of recipes to share from Tim Anderson's new book, JapanEasy Bowls & Bento.

Anderson is a chef from Wisconsin who now lives in London, where he opened two Japanese restaurants, Nanban Brixton and Nanban Central. He was the winner of the BBC’s MasterChef competition in 2011 and the author of 5 previous books, Nanban: Japanese Soul Food (2015), Japaneasy: Classic and Modern Japanese Recipes to Cook at Home (2017), Tokyo Stories: A Japanese Cookbook (2019), Vegan Japaneasy: Classic and Modern Vegan Japanese Recipes to Cook at Home (2020), and Your Home Izakaya: Fun and Simple Recipes Inspired by the Drinking-and-Dining Dens of Japan (2021).

The focus of JapanEasy: Bowls & Bento is make-ahead Japanese recipes, the sorts of things that hold up well in the fridge for days and make for great takeaway breakfasts or lunches, served cold or reheated. Things like milk bread sandos, bento boxes, rice and noodle bowls, curries and soups.

It’s also a love letter to Japanese convenience stores, or ‘konbini’, and the foods they serve, which are a few steps above the sorts of things you might find on offer in your average American 7-11. Like the gooey egg curry breads pictured above, for which I have a recipe to share (actually several recipes: the dough, which can be used for other rolls and buns, the eggs, and the curry breads themselves):

Book Excerpt: Gooey Egg Curry Breads

And I have a copy of the book to give away to one subscriber—just leave a comment below with your favorite Japanese dishes (konbini or otherwise). I’ll select one name at random next Wednesday morning, 11/16.

—Andrew