Masterclass

Japanese green tea is having a moment in the UK, but most of what's sold here as "green tea" is a single generic bag. Real Japanese green tea comes in...

Furikake is the everyday Japanese rice seasoning, a dry sprinkle of seaweed, sesame, bonito or pickled plum that turns a plain bowl of steamed rice into something worth eating on...

The best dashi to buy in the UK in 2026: instant powders, a bonito catering pack, a fish-free kombu stock and a scallop luxury pick, compared and ranked.

Soy sauce is not one thing. What you pour over sushi rice at home is rarely what a professional kitchen cooks and marinades with, and the two rarely swap well....

Miso is a fermented soybean paste made with kōji, a rice-, barley- or soybean-malt culture that drives the fermentation, plus salt. Rice-malt miso (kome-miso) dominates the Japanese market at around...

What Is the Difference Between a Maki Roll and a Hand Roll? A maki roll is rice and fillings rolled inside a full nori sheet with a bamboo mat and...

Can I Use Arborio Rice for Sushi? Arborio rice can be used for sushi in an emergency, but it will not behave like real sushi rice: it is a medium-grain...

Most of what's sold as "teriyaki sauce" in the UK is a sweetened soy glaze that has almost nothing to do with the technique the word originally described. Kabayaki is...

Squeeze a line of Kewpie next to a squeeze of Hellmann's and the difference is obvious before you even taste it — one is pale and stiff, the other is...

Buying sake as a gift is easy once you know three things: what to avoid, what says "I thought about this," and what actually looks good on a table. Here's...

Umeshu and sake are both Japanese drinks made with rice — but that's where the similarity ends. If you've ever wondered whether umeshu counts as a sake, or which one...

Wine is unique among the major fermented drinks: the grape already carries its own sugar, so there is no saccharification step the way there is with sake, beer or whisky....