If you haven’t tried the making of shiso juice at home, let join me this year. Last Friday I bought terrific-looking shiso leaves again from Two Guys from Woodbridge, Hamden, CT, at Union Square Greenmarket, NYC. Some of the leaves were as large as my palm. The beauty of making shiso juice at home is that 1) you can control the sugar in your drink, 2) no store is selling shiso juice and 3) you can make shiso salt from the used shiso leaves. Here is the recipe. Last...
Read MoreNew Herring and Albert Cuyp Market
Unexpected encounter to the delicious pickled herring from Netherlands at the Oyster Bar (https://www.oysterbarny.com/event/nieuwe-herring/) in New York City this Monday evening brought me back to my memory of the first bite of Nieuwe Haring (new herring) at Albert Cuyp Market, Amsterdam. Buzz worked and lived in Amsterdam for two years 17 years ago. I had an opportunity to visit him and stay at this charming city several times a year. We biked every place in the city....
Read MoreJohn Harney
John Harney John just disappeared from this world, in which he was loved and enjoyed his life very much. I am a big fan of John and this news was terrible to me. I me John Harney at IACP Conference in Philadelphia almost 14 years ago. It was when I just settled in my newly adopted country and began my culinary career. I had no idea how to do business in this new country, nor speak English properly. John sat next to me at the cookbook signing event. His first sentence thrown...
Read MoreTry A Peruvian Ceviche Recipe With A Japanese Twist
Five years ago, I visited Peru and tasted ceviche, the national dish of raw fish cured in citrus juice, for the first time. I am a trained sushi chef and the author of a definitive book on Japanese sushi, but this meal was a revelation. The combination of lime juice and chile pepper with firm-tender cubes of a local white fish was strange, but utterly refreshing. Ever since that meal in Peru, I have wondered again and again whether ceviche could...
Read MoreNiga-tama, Bitter Gallbladder
Don’t break the gallbladder. I was repeatedly warned by an instructor-sushi chef when I was trained as a sushi chef in Japan years ago. In Japan we call fish gallbladder niga-tama, which literally means bitter ball. Niga-tama is full of extremely bitter bile juice secreted from the liver. Once we break the gallbladder and its juice spread over the surface of the inner belly part of the fish nor matter how thoroughly we rinse it the stained flesh tastes unpleasantly...
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