From Just Hungry:

Ochazuke is rice, tea and a lot of very Japanese stuff.

Ochazuke combines two quintessentially Japanese ingredients, plain white rice and green tea. Ochazuke is commonly served at the very end of an elaborate Japanese full course meal. It’s also favored as a midnight snack, a hangover cure, or just when you want something hot and filling. It’s commonly made with leftover rice, though ideally the rice should be heated up if it’s cold.

The stuff that goes on top makes it flavorful. Nowadays most people use ready-made ochazuke packets, from companies like Yamamotoyama. These come in flavors such as pickled plum, salmon, wasabi and sea urchin. If you can’t get a hold of such packets, here is a recipe of sorts. It’s basically about rice, tea and “stuff” on top. Despite the fact that this is a make-in-a-minute kind of thing, the very Japanese-ness of the “stuff” that goes on top makes authentic ochazuke a rather difficult dish to assemble outside of Japan, unless you have a Japanese food store nearby.

Great — another excuse to consume tea! There’s a recipe for Ochazuke at Just Hungry.

Similarly of interest: Brown rice and green tea porridge or ‘genmai chagayu‘.

The Kitchn recently posted a few cool articles.

I’m fascinated by their recipe for hot, boiled peanuts — apparently a delicacy of the American state of Georgia.

One of my cherished past times is driving along winding country roads and stopping at “HOT BOILED P-NUT” stands along the way, and purchasing a paper bag full of addictive, salty, soft peanut snacks. But when I am not in Georgia, I make these tasty treats at home.

Also intriguing is their super simple method for making iced tea…

We simply fill our 4-cup bottle with cold water, add a tea bag, and put it in the fridge overnight. By the time we get thirsty the next day, the tea is ready. When using loose-leaf tea, Bill Waddington of TeaSource suggests using two large tablespoons of tea per quart of water, and then letting the mixture steep at least 8 hours.

No matter what kind of tea we brew, the flavor has been delicate and well-balanced without any of the astringency or bitterness we sometimes get when brewing hot tea. So far we’ve tried a jasmine green tea, a spicy black chai, and a peach white tea, and all have been delicious. We prefer it plain, straight from the fridge, and without any ice to dilute it.

And if I had an apartment I’d surely be all over their strategy for creating and stocking a home bar.