(Update, posted January 3, 2015: I understand some people have questions about Cookpad's changed interface, but since I'm not directly associated with Cookpad at the moment (the translation phase ended some time ago) I'm unable to answer you questions about it. I suggest that you contact Cookpad directly via their Feedback email address at help at cookpad dot com. Or, try contacting them via their Facebook page.)

Cookpad is the largest recipe site and cooking community in Japan, with millions of contributed recipes. It just launched an English version of the site today. About 1600 recipes have been translated from the Japanese site already, with many more promised.

All the recipes are translated by humans, not machine-translated, so they're human-readable too! As with the original Japanese site most steps are illustrated with little photos, which are very handy. If you're interested in everyday Japanese home cooking, it promises to be a valuable resource.

The vast majority of the recipes are of the quick and easy type, made by busy moms and other women, and a few men too. The recipes are not limited to stereotypically Japanese ones - they cover the whole gamut of home cooking in Japan, and many types of cuisines. Some ingredients may be strange and unfamiliar to you - after all they are everyday ingredients in Japan, perhaps not elsewhere (although you can find descriptions for many of them right here on this site). But at the very least, they offer a fascinating look into what Japanese people eat at home, and you'll probably find some interesting recipes to try out too.

I hope to have a more in-depth look at the launch of English version of Cookpad soon, but in the meantime, go over and take a look!

(Disclosure: I've been involved in the English Cookpad site for some time, and participated in a small way in its launch, but I am not a Cookpad employee. This is not a paid endorsement or post.)

ETA: I've noticed a few typos and such here and there. I've corrected what I can, but with so many recipes already I can't see them all. As I mentioned above, all the recipes are human-translated, which means that a few mistakes will sneak through. If you spot any, use the Feedback box at the bottom of each page and they should be corrected - by humans - eventually.

Submitted by maki on 2013-08-05 13:23.

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Filed under: japan