Fiona’s Food & Travel Adventures

10 Essential Ingredients for Japanese Cooking and Where to Buy Them

When I returned to Ireland over 10 years ago, after living in Japan for several years, it was quite difficult and expensive to get Japanese ingredients. You’ll be glad to know this isn’t the case anymore. Nowadays, these ingredients are widely available and less expensive. Stock up on the ten essential ingredients I’ve listed below and begin your Japanese home-cooking journey, cooking lots of tasty and time friendly Japanese dishes.

Soy Sauce 醤油

Soy sauce is a key ingredient in any Japanese kitchen. A good quality Japanese soy sauce has a delicate taste allowing it to blend easily with other ingredients bringing out the natural umami in food. It’s a versatile ingredient to have in your kitchen for a simple stir-fry, to add to a casserole or one pot dish. The options are endless! My family’s favourite way to use soy sauce is mixed with honey to make a tasty teriyaki sauce.

When buying soy sauce be really careful and read the list of ingredients as there are many variations of soy sauce on the market which are loaded with sugar and nasty ingredients. Check out my range of flavoured soy sauces Fused range of real soy sauces which have a light flavour, use non GMO soy beans, no added sugar and are naturally fermented.

FUSED supported by Eatokyo Dublin restaurant

Articles, Fiona's Cooking Adventures

I wanted to mark a little success here on my blog. This month I was so grateful to receive support from one of Dublin’s popular Japanese Noodle & Sushi bars “Eatokyo”. “Fused by Fiona Uyema” soy sauces are now available as a condiment on all the tables in Eatokyo. I think it’s so powerful when restaurants support local food start-ups and appreciate the quality and taste of the products they use in their kitchens and serve to their customers.

Eatokyo has recently received positive reviews from restaurant critics such as Lucinda O’Sullivan and Tom Doorley. I popped over to Eatokyo last week to thank them for their support and to deliver my first soy sauce order to them. Woohoo!! I met Jay the restaurant manager and enjoyed a beautiful lunch with him (everything was so fresh and delicious). You can see the photos I took of my lunch below.

Sushi platter

Eatokyo Dublin Sushi Bar Fused by Fiona Uyema soy sauce tempura

Ebi (prawn) Tempura

Gyoza

To see more about Eatokyo go to www.eatokyo.ie

Bia Rebel’s Ramen Noodle Shop

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I often get asked to recommend Japanese restaurants in Ireland. Well I think I may have found a little gem and I’m so excited to share it here with all of you. I came across Bia Rebel when they ordered “Fused by Fiona Uyema” soy sauce for their ramen noodle shop. After chatting to co-founder Jenny Holland I was eager to share this story with you.

Bia Rebel Ramen Noodle Shop is a relevantly new venture. At weekends, they sell ramen at St George’s Market in Belfast. The have plans to expand and I’ve no doubt there will be an appetite for it. Bia Rebel’s ramen noodles are hand-made and use high quality local ingredients. It’s a delicious, wholesome meal, in a bowl.

Bia Rebel is driven by the culinary skills of Brian Donnelly, who worked for Gordon Ramsey, Gary Rhodes and Michel Roux, Jr. in London, and who later was head chef at Thornton’s in Dublin when the restaurant received its second Michelin star.

Brian believes that “the way we have been growing, selling and consuming food for the last 30 years has done a lot of harm, many folks have forgotten what real food tastes like. It’s my job to put the good stuff in front of as many people as possible, so hopefully they’ll start expecting better all round”. I hope you can see me nodding in agreement!

So how did B

ia Rebel Ramen Noodle Shop come about?

Brian was inspired by Tokyo’s ramen culture, and by the similarities between traditional Japanese ingredients and traditional Irish ones: seaweed, fish, pork and mushrooms. So he looked for a good local noodle supplier, and not finding one anywhere in the UK or Ireland, decided to make his own! According to Brian, ramen is great because it allows you to create something completely unique, in a single taste.

I’m already planning a trip to try Bia Rebel ramen. I’ll keep you posted!