#mochi

#mochi

This intimate 8 person hands-on masterclass will see a guided 90 minute session in making four daifuku: two matcha strawberry daifuku and two classic daifuku, filled with fresh strawberries and grapes.

It's kind of like a pseudo-cheesecake - more so than other no-bake varieties. Our own two-ingredient version of it doesn't even require cream cheese. Instead, shortbread cookies are set into a vat of Greek yogurt and allowed to sit overnight so that they can soften. The result is a creamy, cheesecake-like dessert packed with protein and endless customization options.

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.

Whether you believe it's cheesecake or not, you can't argue that it's not a terrific (and super easy!) breakfast, snack, or dessert on its own merits. For something so easy to make, this two-ingredient Japanese cheesecake sure did come out delicious.

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.

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.

If you were a frequent coffee shop-goer and Instagram scroller in the mid-2010s, chances are you remember when a certain grassy green beverage started to pop up on café menus, grid posts, and Tumblr feeds. (Of course, we're talking about matcha.) Now, some ten years later, another type of Japanese green tea has made the jump over to the U.S. market: hojicha.

Some chefs pride themselves on blurring the lines between food and art. For Executive Chef Andrew Oh, Momoya SoHo has become revered for putting beauty on plates, such is the case for the restaurant's beautiful wine glass parfaits. However, Oh is known for sushi creations that are equally impressive. We asked the chef for tips on sushi-making (known as one of the most difficult culinary techniques to master) so that our next batch of caterpillar rolls look more professional than problematic.

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.

Clear counter or table space for everyone to cook together, and be sure to get enough ingredients for each person to eat at least a dozen dumplings. Then, set up your assembly line in a circle: Place a bowl of filling in the middle of every three to five cooks, along with wrappers and a floured sheet tray or plate. (Cooks can chat more easily if they face one another when wrapping dumplings.)

That said, there's an excellent alternative to lengthy pro-level sushi creation: A no-roll version called inari, or commonly, inarizushi. It's named after the Shinto deity Inari Okami, the god of rice, agriculture, and prosperity. Traditional inari bypasses the usual seaweed and raw fish, opting instead for seasoned sushi rice tucked inside a sweet and savory "aburaage" pouch made from fried tofu.