Vegetables

For our dinner with Atsushi, Kyoto native that he is, Chef Ono found a Kyoto variety of eggplant called kamo nasu. Kamo nasu are squat and round, about four inches or so long, eggplant that traditionally were native to Kyoto, which is a city that's also its own agricultural district.

For our dinner with Chef Ono's family, Atsushi and I picked up beautiful shishito pepper at the farmers market, a bright green Japanese pepper about an inch to two inches long that looks like a hot green chili but has a mild flavor (except for every once in a while, when you bite into a fiery one!). Chef Ono evidently also heard the shishito siren call, and picked up a bunch, too.

When Atsushi and I visited New York's Union Square farmers market together we found lovely okra as well as fresh carrots and white Japanese turnips (kabu). I asked Atsushi to prepare a simple dish to bring out their natural, peak-of-season flavors, so he decided to simmer them in dashi, and add a touch of usukuchi shoyu to give the vegetables a little saltiness.

As he cooked, Atsushi often repeated a central tenant of traditional Japanese cooking: motai nai -- don't waste. He demonstrated this philosophy by preparing tsukemono, pickled vegetables, from the leaves of turnips, daikon and radish, leaves that are often cut off their edible roots and thrown in the garbage. The leaves taste quite sharp fresh, but the pickling mellows them out. As Atsushi prepared the pickles, I noticed him automatically picking up every stray bit of ingredient. A force of habit -- a force of motai nai.