For Japan I made only 2 recipes as I wanted to use simple ingredients, mostly because I didn’t have time to search for speciality shops around me. It was fun and challenging to cook Japanese using simple ingredients that most of us have in the fridge.

The main course was Okonomiyaki. It’s a type of Japanese pancakes made with cabbage as main ingredient. As a sauce I prepared my own take on a Japanese yogurt sauce. They were delicious, I really enjoyed the pancakes.

The dessert was easy, fast and amazingly delicious: Coffee jelly. I used agar agar, a Japanese algae used to make jellies. I bought it from my local Lakeland store and it’s very good. With agar it takes less time to set and the desserts are ready faster. Also, it’s vegetarian unlike most types of gelatin.