Archive for November, 2007

I think that those uninitiated to Japanese food often suspect that the whole cuisine is going to be filled with unpronounceable and unimaginable products with unspeakable tastes. I never found this to be the case. There is very little in the Japanese repertoire that I have tasted so far that I found really really challenging. In fact, I can only think of one thing, and it is by no means an unspeakable, unpronounceable or unimaginable ingredient. In fact, it is an ingredient I have used ever since I first learned to cook, and which you can find in every convenience store, let alone supermarket: the raw egg.

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Last month, I was lucky enough to attend the Eat-Japan Sushi Awards 2007. Needless to say, it was a veritable feast for the senses, what with all the amazing sushi on offer and connoisseurs in attendance, not to mention the free Asahi beer, but the thing that really got me thinking were the words of the competition champion, Masashi Ogata, when I interviewed him after the event. “There’s sushi especially suited to children,” he said, “and sushi beloved by grandmothers. For this competition I wanted to make a piece of sushi that would appeal to the palate of the people over here.”

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