#miso-umami

#miso-umami

Endo Kazutoshi was on the train to Paris when he heard about the fire that had destroyed his restaurant, Endo at the Rotunda, located on the eighth floor of the Helios building. The fire had started on a terrace and quickly spread, affecting the dining room and kitchen, built mostly from 200-year-old hinoki wood.

The word 'allium' is the name of a group of vegetables including garlic, onions, chives, leeks and others that are botanically related. Because of the myriad ways they influence flavor, in states ranging from raw to cooked (even burnt), they're culinarily related too.

When the students or workers don't have money, it is easy to grab it and go. It's cheap, that's how we started it. When people don't want to spend a lot of money for lunch, it's five bucks, and you're satisfied.

Living in Japan in the early 2000s, Fralick fell in love with an Italian restaurant in the city of Shizuoka, where he ate Italian food, but with Japanese influences, like pastas made with uni and the fermented soybeans known as natto. "It really reminded me of home," says Fralick, who grew up in upstate New York and started his cooking career in Italian fine dining.

Fall's scarlet and gold was fading from the mountains around Sapporo as I sat with a small group around a heavy wood table with a charcoal grill in the center. We watched a chef cook channel rockfish over the coals. This northern Japanese delicacy is cherished for its meltingly sweet flesh, which takes on a light pink color because of the species' shrimp-heavy diet.

There are numerous types of mushrooms, each with unique flavor and texture characteristics. Shiitake mushrooms are from Asia, featuring a classic bulbous brown cap and a thinner, edible stem. Their meaty chew and deep umami flavor is a boon to many recipes you're sure to love, whether it's a conventional Asian stir fry or a creamy risotto. Of course, a successful shiitake recipe starts with the freshest mushrooms.

Keep this red gomashio on your kitchen counter and sprinkle it with abandon on eggs, rice, potatoes, soups, and noodles. Made with toasted sesame seeds, crushed cardamom, chile powder and dried onion it's a fast way to season all your favorite staples. Gomashio is a simple Japanese seasoning made from toasted sesame seeds and salt. It adds crunch, nuttiness, and added nutrients from the sesame seeds.

The most flavorful part of a pig has got to be bacon, which typically comes from the pork belly. Nothing activates those salivary glands quite like that perfect ratio of fat and lean meat, especially when it's sizzling in a skillet. It can enhance the flavor of everything from burgers and baked potatoes to soups and salads, but you might wonder how this meaty morsel itself could be made even tastier. The answer - give it a Korean twist.

Sour like lemon, bitter like grapefruit, sweet like mandarins and tangy like oranges, yuzu might be the consummate citrus and it brings all of that complex magic to this light, clean noodle broth. Yuzu-miso soba noodle soup. Yuzu is a citrus, but it's not very common to find it outside of Japan. So mostly we can use yuzu juice. Add five cups of vegetable stock or vegetarian dashi.

Ramen, as well as instant ramen, holds a universal appeal, which is thanks to its ability to be both familiar and versatile. Some of the best ramen noodle recipes are the ones you know by heart, while others you come up with on the spur of the moment with whatever's in the kitchen. Unconventional as it may sound, even marinara sauce can be used to put together a bowl of ramen, and a good one at that.

Don't be intimidated by fresh mushrooms. They are prized for their flavor and versatility. Look for firm mushrooms that are free of soft spots or mold. Wash them just before using them but be sure to store them unwashed. Never submerge in water to wash them because mushrooms absorb like a sponge and become mushy. Wipe with moist paper towels. Some prefer to clean them with a soft-bristled mushroom brush. If extremely dirty, they can be very briefly dunked into cold water and wiped dry.

These citron noodles were inspired by the Buddha's hand citron I bought at the farmers' market last week. I find it near impossible to pass them up, and love their ability to perfume my entire kitchen while I dream up their citrusy fate. The fava beans came from the next stall, and everything else you see here was already on hand at home - furikake, chili crisp, butter, and miso.

Pizza toast is a throwback snack popularized in Japan's classic kissaten coffee shops. The first kissaten to serve pizza toast - milk bread topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella and pizza toppings, toasted until the cheese is melted and bubbling - is reportedly Cafe Benisica in Tokyo, in 1964, which is still operating. The key to this version is to first make toasty garlic bread, and I use marinara instead of the yoshoku ("Western-style food") tradition of making a ketchup-based tomato sauce.