Our guest is Elizabeth Andoh, who already joined us 11 times and shared her truly deep insight into traditional Japanese food culture. 

Elizabeth is a food writer and Japanese cooking instructor based in Tokyo, and she has lived in Japan for over 50 years. She runs the culinary arts program called A Taste of Culture, which offers a great opportunity for non-Japanese people to explore Japanese culture through its food. 

She is also the author of 6 cookbooks, including the award-winning “Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Kitchen”, “Kibo: Recipes and Stories from Japan's Tohoku”, and “Kansha: Celebrating Japan's Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions”.

Today’s topic is Yakumi. You may have never heard of this word, but yakumi plays a very important role in Japanese food. Yakumi means herbs and spices but the idea goes far beyond your palate. They not only offer delicious flavors and tastes but also plenty of health benefits. 

There are various types of yakumi from uniquely Japanese plants like wasabi, sansho, Japanese myoga ginger and mitsuba leaves to more commonly available ginger, garlic and radishes. And yakumi is very easy to use in your own kitchen. 

In this episode, we will discuss what yakumi is, the diverse flavors of yakumi, the health benefits of yakumi, easy recipes for yakumi-rich dishes, good substitutes for Japanese yakumi if you live outside of Japan, and much, much more!!! 

Photo Courtesy of Robin Scanlon.

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