News Letter Winter (2008) Happy New Year!!! Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu!!! Last year Michelin's first Tokyo hotel and restaurant guide awarded 191 stars to 150 restaurants in Tokyo, making it by far the most Michelin-starred city in the world, followed by Paris with 94 stars, and New York, 54 stars. Sixty percent of star-awarded restaurants are of Japanese cuisine - specialized eateries such as sushi, kaiseki, tempura, and eel restaurant. Even though this was a stunning culinary triumph for Japanese cuisine, much controversy has been built up since then over these ratings: How the same criteria could have been used to assess and give the same one star to a small counter bar sushi restaurant in Tokyo and a full service, white table cloth, silverware restaurant in Paris. Furthermore, the excellent qualities of French and Italian restaurants in Tokyo have been totally ignored. I recently experienced another such controversy in Spain. At the time of an important news release I was in Barcelona doing my book tour-event at Hotel Arts Barcelona. Spanish chefs and the media were all grumbling or mystified how Michelin could fail to recognize great Spanish restaurants, many of which have been inspiring chefs in the rest of the world. Only six Spanish restaurants were awarded the maximum three Michelin stars - Arzak, Martin Berasategui, El Bulli, Akelarre, Can Fabes and Sant Pau, while 26 restaurants were awarded the same number of stars in France. The story became even worse. Germany was studded with at least twice as many stars as Spain! I personally do not care about Spanish recent cooking innovations such as foam or chemistry and science in food preparation, but I have eaten many delicious, traditional meals in Spain over the past decade. Spain deserves more stars! You can check out additional opinions on stars awarded in Tokyo at www.japantoday.com. Let us give a positive interpretation to Michelin's Tokyo hotel and restaurant guide evaluations. I would like to encourage you to experience authentic, delicious and healthy Japanese meals both at restaurants and, especially, at your home this year. Cooking Japanese meals at your home? This might still seem a little intimidating. So, let me assist to get into this new, perhaps unfamiliar territory. Quarterly I will come up with two selected basic staples of Japanese cuisine. I will offer you detailed tips on which product to choose, where to purchase them and how to store them. In addition to ordinary easily obtained product line information, I will introduce you some of the finest quality Japanese staples, often artisan-quality, which have now become available in America. These excellent quality products have true flavor, aroma and nutritional value, so they are very much worth trying in your new venture - preparing Japanese meals at home. In the Recipe section you will find easy-to-prepare, delicious and nourishing Japanese dishes. Further, you will find tips and recipes on how to use healthy Japanese staples - most of them are the products of fermentation - in your American-style preparations for the creation of new flavors and lighter meals everyday at your kitchen. Here is the quarterly schedule for your Japanese cooking adventure: 1st quarter: Japanese soy sauce, shoyu, and rice vinegar; 2nd quarter: soybean paste, miso and light color soy sauce 3rd quarter: sea salt and kelp, kombu 4th quarter: sweet cooking wine, mirin and sake. Now let me introduce the 1st quarter staples, Japanese soy sauce, shoyu, and rice vinegar. Shoyu (Japanese soy sauce): My pick for an ordinary, every day soy sauce, shoyu, is Kikkoman or Yamasa soy sauce in a plastic bottle with "gold" cap. This grade shoyu is produced using whole soybeans and often organic materials, so the flavor, aroma and quality are far better than other shoyu produced by the same companies. If your local store does not carry this type, go on line at www.maruwa.com (click "Basic Seasonings" and find gold cap Yamasa and Kikkoman Shoyu under Soy Sauce) - select product number BYM06. My pick for an excellent very high quality, special soy sauce is kishibori shoyu - 1½ years cedar barrel fermented, artisan-made with whole soybeans. You can purchase it at www.amazon.com or find it at your local stores such as Sur La Table (nationwide), Dean & Deluca (Soho, NY) and Whole Food (Austin, TX) across the country. Kishibori shoyu has lots of umami (good taste) and can do miracles for your everyday cooking, not just in Japanese food preparation. Refrigerate the opened bottle for preserving the quality. Consume it in 6 months or so for the best flavor, aroma and nutritional value. Komezu (rice vinegar) I recommend Mitsukan Jun'komezu (pure rice vinegar). This is made in Japan by Mitskan Company, and is far better quality compared to other products made by the same company in America. You can find this product at www.maruwa.com (click "Basic Seasonings" and find Mitsukan Junmaisu under Rice Vinegar. Junmaisu and Jun'komezu are the same product.) - select product number BMK03. Other recommended rice vinegars are: Jun'komezu (pure rice vinegar) by Uchibori Company (www.tazakifoods.com - type "rice vinegar" in the blank box and click "Enter") and Jun'komezu (pure rice vinegar) by Otafuku Company (www.maruwa.com - click "Basic Seasonings" and find Otafuku rice vinegar under Rice Vinegar). Refrigerate the opened bottle for preserving the quality. Consume in 6 months or so for the best flavor, aroma and nutritional value. Click the Recipe pages and find some wonderful cooking idea: Beef short ribs braised with good quality shoyu Rice cooked with mushrooms Tips: how to enjoy good quality shoyu daily in your, non-Japanese preparations Finally I have a wonderful cocktail idea for you to celebrate special occasions many of which I hope will occur for you throughout this year. The name of cocktail is Benimosu Twilight Cocktail. Benimosu, honey sweetened is a newly-available marvelous vinegar! It made from organic purple sweet potatoes and is sweetened with organic honey. This sweet vinegar has a stunning raspberry color and pleasantly mellowed acidity. It may somewhat resemble an aged balsamic vinegar, but it has a fresher lighter tastes because it is not aged for many years like balsamic vinegar. Its sexy bright strawberry color suggests high polyphenol - antioxidant - content like red wine. Seen from any angle, this is a perfect cocktail mixer. Here is the recipe for the Benimosu Twighlight Cocktail: 2 ounce Japanese shochu or vodka, 1 ounce sparkling water, 1 ounce freshly squeezed blood orange juice, 1 ounce lime juice (lime juice moderates the vinegar flavor) 1 ounce Benimosu, honey sweetened; Place all ingredients and some ice cubes in a glass or plastic jar and stir it until all are blended. Serve in Champaign glasses to show the beautiful color. Cheers!!! You can find Benimosu, honey sweetened at www.amazon.com or at local stores such as Dean & Deluca (Soho, NY), Spice Island Store at CIA Greystone (CA), Sur La Table (nationwide) and Whole Food (Austin, TX). Refrigerate the opened bottle and consume as soon as possible for the best quality.