Autumn Palate

Salty and sweet. Earthy and fermented. The bitterness of tea and the clarity of fresh fruit after a meal. These are the tastes of autumn in Japan.

Seasoning tends, to my taste, more to the sweet and salty than I'd prefer, but always delicious. I do find myself missing sour and hot (though there's always the pucker of umeboshi (pickled plum) and the heat of shichimi (seven-spice powder) to bring those elements in.

The base note is of course the grain. Rice, slightly sticky and chewy, soft or with something of a bite to it. Or noodles, the same way. Thin buckwheat soba, fat wheat udon, or thin Chinese-derived ramen. Noodles in broth or noodles served cold with a sauce to dip them in, livened with wasabi heat and fresh chopped negi (Japanese leek). Thick rich ramen broth (yes ok there's pork in it), lighter fish and seaweed based dashi for soba and udon. Chewy strips of menma (bamboo shoot), sprouts, nori and more negi.

Then there are the toppings. Clean fish tastes in sushi and sashimi. Rich curry and crisp tempura. Salty or sour tsukemono (pickles) to complement each bite - ginger, daikon, eggplant, tiny red sprouts and astringent shiso leaf. More richness in the griddled delights of takoyaki and okonomiyaki, a mingling of all tastes and textures in one bite.

And how could I not mention the smoky smell of the grill? Yakitori, yes, but the predominant autumn grill smell for me is mochi, especially everywhere in Kyoto. Sticky rice cooked and ground into a paste, then formed into little cakes, sometimes wrapped around a red bean filling, sometimes itself alone. Then skewered and placed over a real wood fire to take on a crisp outer coating, and to send out a smoky, toasty rice flavour dancing through the air crying out come, eat the mochi!

And how I do - smothered in a rich and fruity miso sauce, so soft and chewy with that hint of burning like the leaf-smell, bright red against a blue blue sky.

Pictured: Top - Herb-flavoured onigiri from Fukushima; lunch on the train.

Below - Jambo (special grilled mochi) from Kagoshima, eaten in a little teahouse in the garden of the Shimadzu family, daimyo and leaders in the modernisation of the Meiji era. The thicker sauce on the left is miso and the one on the right is shoyu (soy sauce).