Have you ever heard of kaki?

I remember collecting buckets of persimmon fruit (also called sharon fruit) with the elementary

school children behind the local school where I worked in Japan. It reminded me of how we

pick apples here in Ireland. 

In the past few years I was delighted to see this beautifully coloured fruit in my local supermarket. It is best eaten ripe otherwise it will be hard and bitter. 

To check if it’s ripe just press on the skin and it should be soft to touch. A really ripe persimmon can be eaten by slicing the top off the fruit and scooping out the flesh with a spoon. 

You should try the "Persimmon and White Chocolate Cream" recipe in my cookbook Japanese Food Made Easy. It's so easy and really delicious!

NHK (Japan's National Broadcaster) to air programme on my return trip to Japan

I had to pinch myself when I got a call from NHK in Tokyo telling me that they want to air a programme on my return trip to Japan.

In my last blog post I talked about my return trip to Japan through JET called "satogaeri":
http://fionasjapanesecooking.blogspot.ie/2015/10/my-return-to-my-japanese-hometown-via.html

As part of NHK's feature programme on me and my Japanese food journey they wanted to get some footage of my family, home and work here in Ireland. So they came along to my Japanese Cooking Demonstration & Craft Beer Pairing with O'Hara's Brewery at Savour Kilkenny Food Festival. NHK's team said they were more than happy with the footage they captured for the programme. The sun was shining in Kilkenny, the atmosphere of the festival was amazing and with with the scenic view of Kilkenny Castle behind the demo tent everything was on our side for filming. 

After the demonstration we headed back to our home for more filming. They wanted to get footage of our family preparing a typical dinner and eating it. Our 4 year old slept through the whole thing but our baby was full of energy and managed to eat all his rice and miso soup!! 

In 4 days I'll fly to Japan and return to my Japanese hometown in Niigata called Nishiyama. NHK will follow my journey and then air a programme on NHK Niigata in Japanese and NHK World in English (channel 507 on the sky box).The airing date hasn't been confirmed yet but I'll let you know as soon as I find out! 

I'll also be keeping you updated on my foodie journey online through FB, twitter and instragram so stay tuned!!