Recipes & Articles
256 entries from the Japanese Food Report archive
I became interested in sakekasu (or sake kasu) at Matsuri, the restaurant where I volunteer as a cook. Chef Ono prepares his delicious version of glazed black cod by first marinating the fish for several days in a mixture that includes sakekasu. I wondered about the effect of this ingredient. But before I get into this, let me pause for a quick definition:
On my trip to Japan last month I was invited to three homes for three wonderful home-cooked meals -- and each was one a different kind of nabe, or hotpot. Nabe...
After visiting nori seaweed farmers along the Ariake Sea, I wondered, naturally, about the final product. What is it exactly that makes good nori good? To find...
At 3 a.m., across a valley of dark and hushed rice fields, bright yellow lights suddenly appear on the horizon. I'm in a car with two friends, Yuki and...
Mr. Iwamitsu has worked a wood carver in the rural Western Honshu area of Japan for over three decades. I first came across his breathtaking work several years...
I was in small country town called Fuchu, a couple of hours outside of Hiroshima, and getting hungry. I spent the morning visiting the area's remaining...
I'm learning that to a Japanese chef, the humble act of preparing a bowl of rice the traditional way tells you everything you need to know about this cuisine...
Before I left New York, Chef Tadashi Ono, my sensei at Matsuri Restaurant, gave me my marching orders: "Bring me back a donabe, man." At one time you could...
At last month's terrific Japanese food symposium at New York (please see my post), I met one of the guest chefs from Kyoto, a man named Tetsuo Takenaka. He...
During a remarkable meal at Chef Nakahigashi's revered restaurant in Kyoto a couple of years ago (read my post about the chef), he served me a cup of steaming...
Wandering Kyoto's narrow lanes at seven in the morning, I passed a row of machiya -- the city's centuries-old traditional wooden merchants houses. Lights shone...
Seiji Yamamoto is a classically trained Japanese chef who prepares astonishing Japanese cooking that is nothing like the Japanese cuisine I've encountered. I...