My Life In Food: Shuko Oda
The restaurant from my childhood that will always stay with me one in San Francisco I visited with my family when I was about ten years old. I remember very vividly eating a whole grilled crab, covered in pepper and it was the first time I really appreciated the use of pepper in food. The shellfish was grilled whole, keeping all the goodness of the sea inside until you cracked it open. The whole experience was sensational.
The first dish I learned to cook was miso soup and onigiri rice balls. I wasn’t into sweet snacks growing up and would often ask for a lighter meal instead. As my requests started to get a little too fussy for my mother’s liking, she decided to teach me how to make them, and that’s how I started cooking.
The restaurant I’ve been to the most is probably Koumi-bo – we always go on the first night we arrive in Tokyo. My favourite dishes are its juicy xiao long bao (steamed dumpling), fried rice and simple stir fry of yellow chives and mushrooms.
My favourite chef is the Japanese cookbook writer Yoshiko Tatsumi. One of her famous books, and one I cook from all the time, is For You – A Soup To Hold Your Life. She writes about familiar recipes like simple consommé, but you can tell everything is made with so much care. Honestly, it makes me rethink cooking every time I read her book. I also recommend Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji. It’ll help you understand the basics and get an overview of what Japanese cooking is all about – and I love the illustrations. Plus, Japan: The Cookbook by Nancy Singleton Hachisu, which introduces a range of everyday Japanese recipes.
Brixton-based West African restaurant Chishuru really hits the spot for me. I’ve eaten there a few times since it opened a couple of years ago. There is something strangely familiar and exciting at the same time, about the flavours founder and head chef Adejoké Bakare creates. Last time, the ekuru cake with scotch bonnet sauce was an excellent way to start a meal. A spicy bite really gets your appetite going and reminded me of a yakitori bar I used to go to with my father. They used to start a meal with a chicken breast and a big lump of freshly ground wasabi. The main course I ordered came with perfectly grilled mackerel, plantain, pickles and rice – the format is very similar to how we eat in Japan.
Another restaurant I love is Sessions Arts Club. It’s a beautiful setting, but I go for the food. I have a huge respect for Florence Knight’s way of looking at a dish, flavour and every single detail.
My most memorable meal was while I was fishing with my grandfather – we cooked a river fish called ayu in Japan. Ayu fish’s tender meat is best eaten right on the riverbed, grilled with just a bit of salt and lemon juice. It’s incredible.
I love going to the martini bar at DUKES for special occasions. My husband and I start with the bar’s famous elegant vodka martinis and then go out for karaoke, before finishing the night with a meal at Golden Dragon in Chinatown.
My idea of a perfect date would be a train ride to Rye with a cycle ride to Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage in Dungeness. There’s nothing like eating fish and chips on the English coast.
My most-used ingredient is rice vinegar, probably because I love pickles so much. It works with everything and has a softness and sweetness that’s perfect in salad dressings. It’s also brilliant for braising meats such as pork, breaking down the meat and helping to tenderise the fat.
My go-to shops in London to stock up on Asian ingredients are the Japan Centre off Leicester Square and Rice Wine on Brewer Street.
The secret to hosting a good dinner party is doing most of the prep beforehand (or with a few glasses of wine the night before) so you can make sure you can have a great time too.
The best party I’ve ever thrown was for my birthday the year we had our daughter. It was before I gave birth, so we invited quite a few people for a BBQ, dug a hole in the garden and roasted a whole lamb on a spit.
I recently went to Kaieteur Kitchen, a Guyanese restaurant in Elephant & Castle. We picked up a takeaway dinner for the family after a long day out. We ordered a selection of fish and vegetable curries along with fried plantain and its famous spinach rice, and the whole meal did not disappoint. It was hearty, spicy and full of flavour.
My drink of choice is either a crisp white wine when in London or a lager when in Tokyo. I’ve always been a Kirin girl.
If I’m after a quick midweek meal, I’ll usually make vegetables (usually just raw or grilled) served with dip, a good drizzle of quality olive oil and dukkah. Recently, I’ve been making a quick dip using the leftover carrot tops in our Riverford box. I often make quick noodles (any kind will do) just boiled and drained, and served them with garnish and chilli oil. I always have jars of pickles, filled with soy pickled chilli, salted greens and shoyu-koji paste, which gets thrown into the mix.
My death-row dinner has to be nigiri rice balls, made with freshly cooked rice, still steaming and hot, wrapped in crispy nori sheets. Or ones in a lunch box made that morning – cold with the nori damp and stuck to the rice. Both work just as well as the other for me. I suppose the latter may not sound so appealing, but there is a strong connection with memory and food, and onigiri carries many happy feelings for me.
We often make a Japanese brunch on a weekend. This usually consists of a bowl of rice, miso soup and grilled fish (usually smoked mackerel/kippers or salmon) with additional extras such as natto (fermented soya beans), tofu with garnish or pickles.
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