Last week I Co-hosted with Ezra Star, a Cognac Expert, “Roll with Cognac”, educational webinar, for journalists. Pairing Cognac and Sushi – how fun and cool it was! Both Cognac and Sushi are examples of highly refined culinary arts. Cognac and Sushi shares similar history and characteristics in many ways. Both are adopted from foreign culinary culture. Cognac’s origin lies in the 16th century with the arrival of Dutch in France. Preliminary forms of sushi arrived in...
Read MoreSummer Fancy Food Show, NYC, 2018
Snacks and snacks packed in fun and colorful packages, snacks on-the-go, candies, sauces for snacks….. Are we heading to a completely no-cooking wonderland? At the 2018 Summer Fancy Show I was amazed at how much the products scene has changed. Cooking sauces or basic cooking ingredients have shrunk to 10% of total products introduced at the Show. I enjoy cooking to nurture my body, health and soul as my 91 years old mother still does in Tokyo (well she cooks 3-4 days a week...
Read MoreWholesome Vegetables: Welcome Kohlarbi!
Are you looking for more vegetables to add to your diet? Forget about processed vegetable protein products or other similar items. To me they are just another form of processed foods. Today most people are getting rid of them from their diet. Why don’t we enjoy vegetables as wholesome ingredients, just as they are? Starting two weeks ago I began to notice at the Farmer’s Market here in Union Square that my favorite winter vegetable, kohlrabi is back. To tell the truth I did...
Read MoreBring Seasonal Change into Dining Room – Matsuba-yaki
I foraged for pine needles in upstate New York two weeks ago to try a delightful, traditional autumn dish: Matsuba-yaki. Matsuba-yaki is a dish in which seafood and/or mushrooms and vegetables such as Matsutake mushrooms are placed on fresh pine needles and cooked together in a stove-top pot or in the oven. It is a fundamental principle that Japanese cuisine respects and honors the seasonal changes in nature. Chefs and home cooks alike try to bridge nature and dining...
Read MoreGingko Nuts: Hard to Do, but Limit to Ten
When something is delicious it is hard for us to stop eating. When it comes to gingko nuts, we should limit consumption to about ten nuts at a sitting. Over-eating can bring a reaction to methyl pyridoxine, a chemical found in the nuts. This can cause a stomach ache and, in extreme, vomiting. On other hand, gingko nuts has been used as a constituent of Chinese medicine to cure some illness for centuries, so limiting to about ten nuts a day seems to be a good idea. This...
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