#first ever shimeji perhaps

[hemlockgraves]

I do miss them a lot. Decided to try new stuff with my style and I’m enjoying it. Also I’m back to college again so I’m gonna be very slow with posting art!

Close ups under cut as usual.

[alldayieat]

This Japanese style pasta is made with 3 types of mushrooms and the magical combination of bacon, butter, soy sauce. Throw on some freshly cracked pepper and green onions and you have a pasta that is sure to impress even those with the dullest sense of taste. Why? Because this pasta is packed with tons of umami and flavor!!  Read on for 9 tips on making this pasta a success! 

Japanese style pasta

Have you had it yet?

If not, let me tell you a little about it.

It has been, and always will be my favorite ways to satiate my carb cravings.

I love the fusion of flavors.

And yes, most times (to me) fusion is a dirty word, but not in this case.

Japanese style pasta takes Italian pasta (the noodles) and uses Japanese ingredients for the sauce.

Hence, the “Japanese style”.

In Japan, you can find restaurants that specialize in ‘Japanese style’ pasta and true Italian pasta/food.

If you’re ever in the country you should make an effort to try both.

The Italian restaurants in Japan rival some of the best Italian I’ve eaten in Italy.

And the Japanese style Italian foods are delicious in their own unique way.

  My favorite Japanese style pastas

This kinoko pasta (きのこパスタ) or Japanese style mushroom pasta is probably my favorite.

With mentaiko pasta coming in at a close second (see my recipes below)

Creamy Mentaiko Pasta with Fresh Spaghetti

Mentaiko Pasta with Olive Oil and Shiso

Mentaiko Pasta with Cream, Shiso, and Nori

This particular mushroom pasta is my go to and the one I make most frequently.

Just thinking about this makes my mouth water.

And no I didn’t watch anyone bite into a lemon.

Oh and by the way, if you’ve never bitten into a lemon… you should try it sometime.

It really does make your mouth water.

Sound unappetizing?

Well, I don’t think I’d do it without flavor tripping.

That’s the smart and fun way to do it. Magic berries.

It really does make everything magically sweet.

Perhaps, I’ll host a flavor tripping party on my youtube channel sometime.

Let me know if you wanna come.

Meanwhile, have a close up look at the ingredients I used for the pasta –

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thick bacon

green onions

mushrroms x 3 types

all the ingredients

How to make this kinoko pasta a success

I’ll tell you.

Use plenty of thick cut bacon, a good serving of butter, and lots and lots of mushrooms.

You can mess around a little with the mushrooms, as in, use what you can find, but!

My recommendation is to go with maitake, shittake, and shimeji mushrooms as they make a wonderfully earthy trio.

This is a great dish to have year round, but for some reason mushrooms always remind me of Fall.

Could be because Fall is mushroom picking season? hmmmm

Anyways, while I’d love to go and pick mushrooms myself with the added excitement I could kill myself.

I got my mushrooms at the local market, where I’m sure they were grown on a commercial mushroom farm.

One day I’ll get around to growing my own, but for now the market will suffice.

If you’ve never made Japanese style mushroom pasta before, I promise you’ll not be disappointed.

**Disclaimer- you must like Japanese mushrooms + bacon and the magical combination of butter and soy sauce. I mean why else would you make this!? …. 

  Other tips for making Japanese mushroom pasta-

One of the dominant flavors in this pasta is the bacon. Crisp the bacon so you get a nice crunchy texture with each bite

Make sure to brown your mushrooms, the browning adds a lot of flavor thanks to the Maillard reaction

The mushrooms may seem like a lot, but don’t worry, they’ll cook down!

Never cook your pasta until al dente in salted water. The best tasting pasta IMO is pasta that’s finished in it’s sauce. That means draining the pasta just before it’s about al dente. Finish cooking this pasta in the mushroom, soy sauce, butter mixture.

Reserve pasta water and add a little with the pasta into the mushroom pan if you like your sauce to be ‘saucy’

Use low sodium soy sauce (which is what I generally use) if you’re trying to watch your salt intake

Use a good quality pasta, one of my favorites is Rustichella. Reminds me of the pastas I ate in Italy. Thick with good flavor and made with bronze dies which makes an uneven texture on the pasta so the sauce will adhere better~! If you’ve found an even better pasta I’d love to hear about it!! 

Top this with fresh black pepper to add kick

Add green onions to get some aromatics and a slight onion flavor to add contrast the rich butter, bacon and mushrooms notes

  And if you’re a visual learned here’s a video I made to show you how I made this exact kinoko pasta!

  Have you made a kinoko or mushroom pasta before? If so, what did you put in it?

Share your tips and techniques in a comment below, perhaps there’s something I could incorporate on my next mushroom pasta eating adventure!

   [wpurp-searchable-recipe]Kinoko pasta | Japanese style pasta with shiitake, shimeji and maitake mushrooms – – butter, soy sauce, thick bacon (chopped ~1 cup), garlic crushed, Green onion (chopped), shiitake mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, maitake mushrooms, salt, extra-virgin olive oil, Spaghetti (cooked until just before al dente, pasta water reserved), pasta water reserved, , First, add about 1 Tbsp olive oil to pan on medium high heat and saute bacon until crispy.; Add all the mushrooms with a dash of salt and cook until reduced in volume by at least half. Allow mushrooms to brown and stir occasionally to prevent burning.; Add crushed garlic and cook for about a minute.; Next add in pasta (do in 2 batches if your pot/pan is small) + 1/4 cup of pasta water, soy sauce. Mix to distribute sauce evenly.; Mix in green onions and cook for another minute.; Remove from heat and serve with freshly cracked black pepper and more green onions!; ; – – Main Dish – Japanese – Food – japanese[/wpurp-searchable-recipe]

Kinoko pasta | Japanese style pasta with shiitake, shimeji and maitake mushrooms This Japanese style pasta is made with 3 types of mushrooms and the magical combination of bacon, butter, soy sauce.

[iddyfoodieforthought]

Foley’s - Fitzrovia 

After a successful six week pop-up (Foley’s Tasting Kitchen) in Shepherds Bush, Foley’s found a permanent home on Foley Street in Fitzrovia. How apt. 

Before visiting, we were told by a colleague that we would be going on a ‘journey of spice’. And from looking up the menu pre-visit, it’s filled with a diverse range of dishes inspired by the spice trail with flavours from the Middle East and Asia. 

Disclaimer. This place really isn’t the one for you if you like bland food or can’t handle various concoctions of spice in one dish and/or meal. 

Walking in for the first time back in August, the restaurant is stylishly bright and airy with deep blue leather banquettes - I’m glad we nabbed one of these. If you’re popping in for a quick bar snack and a cocktail, on a warm summer’s day I’d highly recommend sitting on the bar stools outside propped up against the window ledge. Aperol Spritz for one please. I revisited only last week and it also serves as a warm and welcoming escape from the wind chill of London. Well done Foley’s. 

Looking back, we successfully ordered 90% of the menu between four people. Even I’m impressed with that. Captured below are the highlights:

Tuna endive tacos, complete with octopus, cucumber, coconut miso leche and peanuts. On my first visit, I was expecting this dish to be far more vibrant and a delight on the tastebuds. For me, it was lacking something citrusy to enhance the flavour of the tuna, and seemed a little muddled to me. Having retried the dish on my second visit, that much needed citrus tang was added, but it still won’t be up there with my favourites of the menu. 

For the Indian lovers out there, definitely try the spiced sweet potato fritters with grilled pineapple and cured red onions in a saffron coconut curry. Heaps of spices here to confuse your tastebuds.  

Some of the stand out dishes for me were vegetarian. Firstly, the baked aubergine with pomegranate, dates, chilli lime yogurt, puffed quinoa and feta. I love it when vegetables are made the star of the dish, and all the accompaniments simply enhanced this beautiful vegetable, adding in texture and spice. The other was the roasted cauliflower with tzatziki, tomato, and smoked peanuts for texture. Cauliflower is right up there with one of my favourite vegetables, and I love picking up new tips on how to cook it. I’ll be stealing this one. On the second visit, the cauliflower has been given new life as the filling for the truffle agnolotti, easily the table’s star dish. 

You’ve got to try the cornflake crusted popcorn chicken, with pickled shimeji (a slightly nutty mushroom native to east Asia), corn, endive and chorizo. It’s a dish I had read about in the reviews, and I’m glad it lived up to the hype. The crunchy texture of the cornflakes paired with the juicy, moist chicken was a winning combination. 

We also dined on the incredibly sticky beef with daikon cucumber som tam, avocado & kaffir lime purée, crispy shallots and peanuts. Can you tell that peanuts are a bit of a theme in this menu? 

Another meaty winner was the pork belly in tamarind BBQ glaze, with apple (pork’s best friend), green papaya, buttermilk, cured red onions and toasted cashews. 

My fellow diners still rave about the grilled octopus with black sesame mayo, spicy pork mince, bok choy, and housemade sriracha (hot sauce to us laymans). My only request is that there be more octopus on the plate, it’s far too easy to eat the whole thing yourself instead of sharing with others. You have to make sure this is on your order sheet. And lots of it. 

I never thought I’d say this about food, but perhaps less might just be more. On my first trip, at times there were too many spices contesting for my tastebuds (and this is coming from the girl that adds tobasco to everything). That’s not to deny the gutsy spice and flavour combinations, but I can see how just one spice too far can easily go wrong, and agree with Jay Rayner that this menu is full of ‘shouty flavours’. Saying this, on the second visit the flavours had been toned down ever so slightly, and the dishes were more delicious than the first time round, and my overall experience therefore a much more positive one. 

Oh, they make a pretty sweet pineapple mocktail served in a giant gold pineapple vase if you needed any more convincing to visit.