Yesterday Vic Cherikoff and I filmed an episode for Mai Yu which is an evening TV program aired from 5:25 pm – 5:50 pm on weekdays on TV Aichi. Our episode will broadcast air on Monday the 11th July.

For the episode we visited the Toyo Market in Nagoya which has a wide range of fresh seafood, meats, vegetables, plus other Japanese delicacies. During the filming the shows host Michikyo asked us to try two famous Japanese ingredients umeboshi plum and Natto. The umeboshi plum was very sour with strong dark plum flavours. The plum is traditionally served with rice and is considered a safe guard against food poisoning.

We also tried natto which is fermented soya beans and is traditionally served for breakfast. Its smells like a really strong yeast and not that appealing to say the least but has beneficial effects in prevention of heart attacks, strokes, cancer, osteoporosis and obesity. Apparently there are many companies in Japan trying to manufacture natto without the strong smell.

We selected a number of ingredients from the markets and took these back to the Hilton Nagoya, where we cooked these up for the cameras. The two dishes we cooked were;

Paperbark smoked medley of Japanese seafood with mixed seaweed salad and a rosella wasabi dressing.

Kangaroo Fillet rolled with enoki mushrooms, asparagus and aniseed myrtle with a quandong ginger flower confit.

If you visit Nagoya and have time make sure you drop by the Toyo Market at;

24 Sakae-5 Chome
Nagoya, Aichi
052-241-9066