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kyoto's soul food

I was thrilled that Saveur included my item about Mrs. Sachiyo Imai in their latest "Saveur 100" list. Scholar, educator, TV host, and most importantly, accomplished cook, Mrs. Imai has worked tirelessly for the past quarter century to preserve Kyoto's traditional food culture. She is amazing. I wanted to share this piece I wrote about her efforts to save Kyoto's obanzai cooking:

March 17, 2008

Grilled Kyoto-style Eggplant

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.

August 6, 2008

Dining in Kyoto

I've been in Kyoto for almost a month now, and while most of my dining has been <i>makani</i> -- restaurant staff meals -- I've had a couple of chances to squeeze in some great dinners (details on my restaurant training soon).

June 27, 2010

Kyoto Tempura Kaiseki

A few years ago I got a glimpse at the high art of tempura cooking while visiting Kyoto at an elegant restaurant called Tenyu, and I never forgot it.

June 6, 2010

Grilled Kyoto-style Peppers with Tomato Puree

On Mondays and Fridays at the Union Square farmers market, a farmer of Korean descent named Yuno sells lovingly grown Asian vegetables, the only one there who offers these varieties. Atsushi was thrilled to find at her stand fushimi togarashi, heirloom Kyoto peppers, and snapped up a bunch.

August 22, 2008

kyoto tea

November 16, 2007

kyoto fish market

November 17, 2007

kyoto tofu maker

November 16, 2007

Kyoto Chopsticks

October 10, 2009

Kyoto Foodie

May 11, 2008

Cooking with Atsushi

For the past two weeks, I've had a visitor from Japan stay over at my apartment here in New York, a terrific guy named Atsushi Nakahigashi. All of 22-years-old, he's already an accomplished professional bass fisherman -- and an accomplished chef. Since the age of 14 or so, Atsushi's been working at his father's legendary restaurant in Kyoto, Sojiki Nakahigashi. His dad, Mr. Hisao Nakahigashi, is one of my absolute culinary heroes, a wonderful man who I've had the privilege to get to know and write about. Atsushi's his dad's talented protégé, and since he was here in New York... I put him to work in my kitchen! Actually, Atsushi, wise, thoughtful and mature way, way beyond his years, graciously offered to teach me a few things about Japanese cooking. It's been a seminal couple of weeks.

August 4, 2008

Dine At This Restaurant: Kajitsu

A few months ago, I mentioned the opening of Kajitsu, a Kyoto-style vegetarian restaurant in the East Village of Manhattan. On Sunday night my wife and I pulled up seats along the lovely wood counter there for dinner. What a magnificent meal.

June 30, 2009

How To Eat Rice Porridge (And Cook It, Too)

Visiting Kyoto last week, Tadashi and I rendezvoused with Chef Hisao Nakahigashi at 7 a.m., hopping in his van and setting off for the valleys and mountains north of the city, where he heads every day to forage for wild greens and collect vegetables from family farmers.

November 27, 2008

Cooking at Hyotei: The Photos

An extraordinary invitation prompted my trip to Japan this past June: A chance to spend a month training in the kitchen of Hyotei, the hallowed 400-year-old ryotei in Kyoto. Hyotei is no ordinary restaurant.

August 9, 2010

Making Tofu

There's nothing like fresh, handmade Japanese "silken" tofu (called kinugoshi in Japanese). Coaxed from just soybeans, water, and nigari, a coagulant derived from seawater, it's a quintessential expression of Japanese cuisine -- the idea of finessing something so sublime from a few simple elements. I first tasted the real deal at the workshop of a traditional tofu maker in Kyoto I visited one morning before sunrise. With a lovely custard-like texture, delicate natural sweetness and seductive fresh soybean flavor, their tofu had as much to do with the stuff sold in supermarkets as a beautiful farmstead ricotta does with a tub of Polly-O.

March 16, 2009

Japanese Mushroom Ohitashi

Chef Honma of En Japanese Brasserie features this dish on his seasonal obanzai menu, which evokes the traditional home cooking of Kyoto.

September 29, 2008

Shojin Ryori Arrives to New York

March 22, 2009

masa's soul brother

June 1, 2006

cooking rice in a donabe

November 17, 2007

how to cook rice, or the essence of japanese cuisine

October 26, 2007

kyushu style fried chicken

Takako Kuratani is a prodigious chef who designs menus for Japanese restaurants around the world, styles food for Japanese movies and TV commercials, develops recipes, teaches Japanese cuisine -- and never stops cooking and experimenting. I was fortunate to meet her last year at her test kitchen in Tokyo where she and her team treated me to a fantastic dinner. (Ah, the joys of writing... :)) Besides being incredibly talented, Takako is utterly gracious and kind, and thorough emails has been teaching me about Japanese ingredients and cooking. She just visited New York and one of the things she brought with her was a slender red notebook -- her own personal cookbook, where she records her recipes and cooking inspiration. While she was here, Takako planted herself in a kitchen, cracked opened that little red book and prepared a wonderful homey dinner for a bunch of friends. Her theme: the down-home cooking of Kyushu, Japan's own Deep South.

May 5, 2008

let's cook with the world's best vegetables

May 13, 2007

Notes from Tokyo Taste

Hollywood has its paparazzi. So, apparently, does food. I took the shot above at last week's Tokyo Taste event in Japan, where a ruck of photographers rushed to snap dishes prepared by famous chefs. What a sight.

February 13, 2009

Grilled Mackerel

Melissa Clark's excellent article on cooking bluefish that appeared recently in the N.Y. Times got me thinking about preparing oily fish, Japanese-style.

August 19, 2009

Review -- Village Voice

September 25, 2009

Ippodo Tea Class in NYC

September 19, 2010

Atsushi's Class and Miso Soup

It's always a pleasure to hang out in the kitchen with Atsushi and watch him in action--and you can see what I mean for yourself on May 16th, when Atsushi will teach a Japanese breakfast class at the Brooklyn Kitchen. It's going to be an amazing evening. I hope you can make it.

May 9, 2011

Konbu-Kasuobushi Dashi & Silken Tofu Miso Soup

Let's talk about how to make a dashi before we get to this simple, delicious soup. Everything I've read about preparing konbu-katsuobushi dashi (kelp and dried, shaved bonito) says to first add the konbu to a pot of water and bring it to just a boil, then to remove the konbu before the water starts to really boil. Atsushi took a totally different approach.

August 6, 2008

About the JFR and Harris Salat

October 2, 2007

old school sake

August 18, 2007