meemalee

So for the Green & Black's 15:15 Challenge ("use a budget of £15 to make a dish in 15 minutes"), I decided on an old faithful - Japanese aka Wafu Pasuta . As I said this was for two reasons - it's easy as pie to throw together, and it captures all five of the tastes Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter and Umami aka Savoury. I had no set recipe in mind, and just wanted to find ingredients that complement and contrast each other - so before turning up to the challenge, I went to the Japan Centre on Lower Regent Street to see what appealed. I considered umeboshi , a type of pickled Japanese apricot, for the sour element; katsuobushi hanakatsuo, the flakes of bonito that dance about madly on top of okonimyaki pancakes, for the savoury; and strips of nori seaweed for the salt. Eventually, I went for buna-shimeji mushrooms, dashi , mirin wine, soy, ikura , shiso leaves and negi onion, and handed over my £15 (ikura particularly is a pricey treat, though worth every penny ....

It's the year 2000. Tandoori Palace on Histon Road. We've just had a rather nice curry, when my boyfriend turns to me and says, "These chocolate mints taste a bit odd". I try one and grimace, and I say to him, "They're orange, you idiot" ... Green & Black's are looking for an Assistant for their Head of Taste, Micah Carr-Hill. That's right - they're hiring a Chocolate Taster, possibly the BEST. JOB. IN. THE. WORLD. The recruitment site says the following: " Do you plan what you are going to cook and eat several meals in advance? Does the science and technology of food excite you? Can you discern between acceptable tastes and excellent ones? Do you love chocolate? Do you want the opportunity to build a career doing what you love? Green & Black's is looking for an assistant to the Head of Taste ". Successful applicants will be asked to undertake a series of tests, and some of us blogging folk have been invited to take pa...

Despite stuffing myself at Taste of London , by the time I got home I was famished again. Luckily, I'd returned with the fixings for an awesome supper. With the King Scallops bought off Taste Waitrose and the parsley pilfered from the French Flair Theatre , I was dying to make some seafood linguine. Sadly, said scallops had already made their presence known by deciding to leak into my rucksack, but hubby got rid of the stench by lobbing the rucksack into the garden, a quick if short-term solution. However, thankfully the scallops themselves were fat, juicy and fresh, with glossy orange corals intact. Gordon Ramsay suggests removing the corals (the scallop roe) and baking them on a low heat to then crumble over dishes as a savoury topping. This is a nice idea if you're stupid enough to remove the corals in the first place. Personally I think to do so is sacrilege because (a) they're beautiful and (b) they're delicious - creamy and intense, a little like ankimo (monkfi...

Wafu pasta or wafuu pasuta is the slightly bonkers, Japanese interpretation of Italian pasta dishes ( wafu meaning Japanese style). The first time we went to Harajuku , Japan (spiritual home of Gwen Stefani ), hubby and I stumbled across a restaurant called Yomenya Goemon specialising in the stuff. The spaghetti toppings would be familiar to those who love Japanese food, but might alarm those expecting tomatoes and basil, or pancetta and parmesan, eg there's a lot of uni aka sea urchin and tarako aka cod roe ( though we never came across "cram" ). The staff had so many orders on the go at once that they had little magnetic timers going off to let them know when the pasta was done (though apparently Japanese people don't like al dente ). Hubby plumped for pork, sesame and mizuna (see below), and I went for tarako and shimeji mushrooms (see pic at the top). It was really, really good, and we rather enjoyed using chopsticks instead of a fork to twirl the pasta st...