And speaking of artificial food, there’s currently an exhibition on at London’s Japan House titled “Ainu Stories: Contemporary Lives by the Saru River.” It’s about life and culture in Hokkaido, the island at the far northeastern end of Japan; and life and culture of course includes food.
So there are some representations of the local cuisine, including sito – that’s millet dumplings; irup - dried lily bulb cakes; and sipuskepmesi - millet and rice.
But far and away the most appealing, and something I might actually try doing myself, is ciporemo – that’s potato with salmon roe – how could you go wrong?
I’ve never been to Hokkaido but I have been to Tokyo where I ate some oysters from Hokkaido, the biggest and best I’ve ever tasted – they looked like this .
Since the visit to the Japan Centre coincided with my birthday, we also had some actual food. The inamorata (aka Caroline) took me to St John Bread and Wine in Spitalfields.
Naturally there were martinis to start
Then we ate Rollright cheese.
When it arrived I wasn’t quite sure about that spring onion, which was extremely strong, but the lads and lasses of St John know their business and it was great, as right as it was surprising.
There were also sardines:
And top of the bill, nestled under the salad, was pressed pig’s head terrine (at least I think that’s what it was – the menu just said pig’s head).
And because Caroline had clued in the restaurant to the fact that it was my birthday they delivered a doughnut with a candle on the side, which was only marginally embarrassing.
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