Eringi エリンギ (king trumpet, king oyster or saesongi) is my favourite Asian mushroom. I love its meaty texture, its delicate flavours and its incredible versatility. It is…
I grew up barely knowing the taste of aubergine. Later I started to associate it with fried, extremely oily, mushy stuff I disliked. When I discovered moussaka I realised the aubergine…
August is the only time in the whole year where I am lucky to find shiso at my farmers’ market and I always find myself with…
I did have salt-pickled aubergine in Japan several times, but I have never prepared it and, most of all, I have never suspected that salting it for ten minutes…
As you might have noticed, I am regularly drying fruits and vegetables. Thus, not only do I save slightly withered produce from the bin, but above all I…
The weather during my first two September trips to Japan was surprisingly hot and the humidity level unusually high, especially for a European. I soon discovered the best…
I must have seen this dish dozens or maybe hundreds of times in the past years but never tried making it. I haven’t had any…
On Sunday, a week ago, I felt an urgent need to preserve something and since it was too early to pickle my staple yearly batch of peppers,…
I prepare Japanese egg custards (chawan mushi) and modify them so often, I was sure I had posted one of the versions earlier this month. Luckily, it was in March,…
I have deep-fried whitebait and fillets many times, but doing it with a big whole fish was a new surprising experience. In spite of its unappealing look, the result was…