This is how you make everything instantly Japanese

Miljuschka Witzenhausen traveled to Japan for 24Kitchen to get to know real Japanese food. We spoke to her about her discoveries. Is there, for example, an ingredient that makes everything taste Japanese?

“In the Netherlands we have pepper and salt; in Japan they often use soy sauce, ponzu and miso. Those ingredients give everything a ‘Japanese touch’. But that’s also the tricky part; they use these products so subtly and perfectly balanced that it’s not a matter of ‘just add a splash of soy sauce and you’re done’. It’s all about the perfection, freshness and experience of the product.”

“After my previous trips, I always wrote a cookbook related to dishes from that country, but I’m not even going to attempt that here. They use egg yolks so fresh that they stand up like a thirteen-year-old’s boobs. Or those fatty cuts of tuna, and the way they’re cooked. Oh man, that reminded me of Lindenhoff’s bavette. But those parts of the tuna—and that fresh—are simply impossible to get in the Netherlands.”

Miljuschka in Japan can be seen weekly on 24Kitchen from Monday, February 25, at 10:00 p.m.

Photo: Miljuschka’s Instagram