秋: Fall

The heat has finally broken a bit and we've officially hit the fall season as far as ingredients are concerned. Fall is when Japanese cuisine really comes into it's own. You've got 秋刀魚 (Pacific saury), 栗 (chestnuts), 銀杏 (ginko nuts), 梨 (Japanese pears, my favorite fruit), and a variety of 茸 (mushrooms), the king of which is 松茸 (matsutake; pine mushroom). Matsutake have an incredible aroma when grilled lightly, and one of the more spectacular meals I saw served was when the owner broke out some charcoal and grilled slices of matsutake right at the counter, then shaped the piping hot 'shrooms into sushi. The smoky aroma of dashi is brought out by the cold too, and soups are especially good at this time. People really interested in Japanese cuisine should get out at least once in the next 6-8 weeks.

Note: The worldwide climate change is real. We've been serving 秋刀魚, a fish which has the character for 'fall' in it's name, since mid-summer. Everything is coming out earlier and earlier and the food seasons are ending more quickly. In a cuisine that is based as firmly on tradition as Japanese, you are supposed to eat certain types of food at certain times of the year or on certain days, but gradually this is becoming obsolete as the Earth warms up.