DUMPLING SOUP

I posted about edible chrysanthemum leaves a while ago. Here's a picture of gyouza soup made with chrysanthemum leaves. Gyouza are Chinese dumplings. In Japan they are usually fried then steamed, but they're great in soup too. The soup is flavored with soy sauce and has a dash of lemon juice or rice vinegar, and a dash of sesame oil... or even better, rayuu -chili flavored sesame oil. Delicious!

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• Shungiku (cathysfoodadventures.blogspot.com)

EDIBLE CHRYSANTHEMUMS

Image via WikipediaI've encountered a lot of completely new vegetables in Japan, and shungiku instantly became one of my favorites. This dark green leafy member of the chrysanthemum family looks a bit like spinach when it has been cooked, but had a delicate flavor unlike anything else. It's really good in nabe, delicious tossed with lettuce in salad, and wonderful steamed with a light dressing of soy sauce or ponzu. But my favorite way to eat shungiku is in clear soup with mini gyouza (a kind of small Chinese dumpling.) I always add the gyouza dressing (made of soy sauce, sesame oil, a touch of chili, and lemon juice or rice vinegar) to the soup.

INSTANT SOUP

Japan has all sorts of wonderful instant stuff, and I'm still surprised by something new from time to time. One of my friends gave me two different kinds of instant soup to try. I think she said the first one was from China. It looked like a rice puff cracker. You were supposed to put it in a bowl, sprinkle the powder sachet over, and pour on hot water. It was quite nice.

The other came beautifully presented in a gift box with four different flavors, small wafer containers with kanji written on them. You were supposed to break the wafer container open, place it in the bowl and pour hot water over. It was good, and even had chunks of dried vegetable in it.