Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2013

The crowd-sourced cooking website Cookpad gets over 20 million visits from Japanese users who live alone and don’t know their way around the kitchen and seasoned home chefs who want to try out something new. Now they have launched an English language site (en.cookpad.com). So far, only a fraction of the 1.5 million Japanese recipes have been translated, but the site is growing quickly to included dishes such as “My Ginger Pork with Plenty of Onions” and “Skin And All Kabocha Croquettes” and a host of bento items. Recipe categories include regions of Japan and dishes made with particular cookware such as tajine or silicone steamers. There are handy conversion charts and cooking instructions are given in text as well as user snaps, rather than the polished photos on other cooking portals that only make your attempt look bad. The site is smartphone compatible, so you can check it as you shop for ingredients.