Japanese

Ginger pork ramen

Sweet salty meat with a little heat, broth made richer with ground toasted sesame seeds, lightly chewy shiitake bursting with umami, and a touch of tang from pickled ginger. All that in a bowl of instant ramen.

Cook time: 10

Servings: 2 people

Sweet soy sauce beef ramen

Salty sweet broth, greens, beef, noodles, kamaboko and raw egg. Think sukiyaki but simpler because this instant ramen hack has fewer ingredients. Mushrooms (shimeji and enoki, especially) are good additions.

Cook time: 10

Servings: 2 people

Cheese and pork curry harumaki

Japanese-style fried spring rolls with pork curry in sticky sauce, and strips of mozzarella for the filling. Inspired by Ippudo’s (Philippines) curry cheese harumaki.

Cook time: 30

Servings: 18 spring rolls

Yaki onigiri

If you think that rice can’t be a stand-alone dish, yaki onigiri will change your mind.

And, get this, adding butter to yaki onigiri during the last stage of cooking adds a lovely layer of richess to the rice.

Cook time: 5

Servings: 4 people

Fish katsu

Inspired by the fried pond smelt in Izakaya Bottakuri, the bread coating of this fish katsu is mixed with aonori (dried green seaweed) which gives the dish a whiff of fresh sea breeze.

Cook time: 10

Servings: 4 people