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Kurama Mixed Rice

The amazing chestnut rice I cooked in the last post must have put me in a serious rice kind of mood, because here's another incredible rice dish, this one mixed with soy sauce-infused chirimen jako (dried, tiny fish, a fantastic ingredient we'll get to in a minute) and sansho (intensely aromatic, seductive accent, ditto about getting into in a minute).

December 10, 2009

japan's far north

May 13, 2007

Chef Yamada's Dashi

The first thing we did during my cooking session with Yamada-san was the most fundamental: Prepare a dashi. Dashi is the foundation of Japanese cuisine, the basic stock that infuses Japanese dishes with its distinctive, savory, umami-flavor.

February 21, 2010

farmers markets

After completing our four day trek along Shikoku's pilgrimage trail (see posts below), my girlfriend and I gave our aching feet a rest and rented a car to explore the island. Shikoku was a revelation: A rugged, breathtaking region with dramatic rocky coastline and towering mountains in the interior. I fell in love with this place, my first time there. We drove along the Pacific from Tokushima City to Kochi City over two days, then headed inland to the remote Iya Valley, where we relaxed at the fantastic Kazurabashi Onsen. Along the way we discovered (or at least I discovered, my girlfriend knew all about them) Japan's amazing network of local markets.

March 2, 2008

akita sake

When I sat down with my friends Chizuko Niikawa and Akiko Ito today, both Akita natives, both sake experts, I posed a simple question: What makes Akita sake so special?

April 4, 2008

Salt-Cured Bonito Sashimi

Atsushi and I hit the Union Square farmers market a few times during his stay. On Saturday and Wednesdays fishermen from Long Island's North Fork sell pristine seafood. On one of those mornings we spotted a majestic whole bonito on ice. We quickly snapped it up.

August 6, 2008

freestyle hotpot

After I wrote about nabe, or home-style hotpot cooking, last month, I asked a friend in Japan to research the many regional varieties of this social and comforting soul food. She just sent me a list of twenty styles of nabe, dishes prepared with salmon, tuna, octopus, pork, chicken, root vegetables, even wild boar and snapping turtle. These hotpots all reflect local foods, customs and geography, and their histories and lore are absolutely fascinating: One traces back to the cooking of Japanese pirates, another originated with bear hunters. There's a nabe invented by sake makers living inside breweries during production season and one that's supposed to be eaten in the dark (yikes!). There's even a nabe invented in 2005 to commemorate the merger of three cities. Like I said, fascinating.

January 28, 2008

New Class! Register for Workshop and Tasting at Saveur Magazine

The Japanese way of expressing raw fish is, of course, unparalleled. But doing raw right -- that is, sushi and sashimi -- is a function of deft knife skills, which is a function of years of chef training. So what about the rest of us?

November 10, 2009

EN's Japanese Cocktails (Plus Recipe)

I knew I was in for a treat when my pals at Manhattan's EN Japanese Brasserie invited me to sample cocktails up whipped up by their new mixologist, Gen Yamamoto.

March 26, 2010

Saving Traditional Japanese Farmhouses, Or In Praise of Thatched Roofs

As I've traveled through the Japanese countryside I've occasionally come across magnificent old farmhouses with roofs made not of clay tile, but of thatch. I say occasionally, because, as I learned recently, these old buildings are quickly disappearing from the landscape here.

June 20, 2009

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

seaweed of the forest

May 13, 2007

hotpot 101, or window into japanese cuisine

"There are no rules for making nabe," said Chef Ono, as we got to talking about Japanese hotpot cooking to me the other night at Matsuri restaurant. I've been fascinated by this homey soul food, as readers of the Report know (see posts here and here), and wanted to learn more -- and understand what hotpots say about Japanese cuisine as a whole.

February 4, 2008