A long weekend in Spain looms so I'm powering through store cupboard dregs, veg ends and freezer gems in preparation for cold cervezas and crispy croquettas.
It sounds a bit dismal but it is some of my favourite kind of cooking, recipes will be sparse, but only because the concoctions are unhinged and not photogenic.
Tasty though and, really, isn't that all that matters.
Overnight oats with protein shake and coffee.
A fish finger wrap, the staple when a salad isn't possible.
Right lads. Now were on to the good stuff. Perhaps one day I'll write about the must-have staples to be able to whip up something interesting out of not-very-much-ness. But for now a singular recipe will do the talking.
Although a steady diet of Gundam Wing, Dragon Ball Z, Japanese punk rock and occasional packets of instant ramen as a child had already laid the foundation, it was university life that cemented my obsession with Japanese food. Most people will recognise sushi or ramen as the haute nippon cuisine, but there is more to it. I don't think many Japanese people would be chuffed about it but it is a land not too dissimilar to the UK. An Island that exports an awful lot of it's natural food resources. A culture born out centuries long colonisation, the oldest probably Chinese, the most recent American.
Those two leaving their fingerprints in the same way that Chicken Tikka Masala is undoubtedly British and spaghetti bolognese remains a family favourite in most households. That isn't to say that Japan is void of it's own food identity, just that inspiration has been taken from visitors and twisted into something new and exciting. Weird for what we see as one of the most insular countries in the modern world.
One of the things Japan shares with it's cultural neighbours is the noodle. And tonight's dinner is one of my favourites of those doughy strands of joy. The Udon noodle. Specifically yakiudon. Which, if anyone cares, just means fried udon. Yaki being the fried bit. I think it actually just means cooked. Maybe it's one of those words that means a few things. Teriyaki? Yakisoba? Teppanyaki? Okonomiyaki?
What was I on about again?
A project of love and passion Made by Sheppard.