I FIRST FELL IN LOVE with the puckery-tart flavor of ume plums at the sushi bar. Frugality led me to it: A vegetarian roll made with salty plum paste and grassy shiso leaves was a very pleasant way to ...

My dad, Takatoshi, used to make onigiri whenever we would go camping or on a bushwalk. He would make two kinds - umeboshi (Japanese sour plum) and miso tuna. He taught me how to make onigiri with my ...

The small, high-ceilinged dining room at Beacon has the unmistakable buzz of the restaurant of the moment. The staff is in constant motion, delivering little plates piled with skewers of grilled ...

The chefs of Otowasan Kannonji Temple teach us two ways to enjoy umeboshi pickles. The first is to make ume paste by grinding the pickles and mixing with sugar and mirin, before adding ubayuri lily ...

Stubbornly unripe stone fruit are common in UK supermarkets, but it turns out they’re just the thing to turn into a classic, Japanese-style ferment Umeboshi is a puckeringly sour and umami-rich ...

Continuing on with our tahini theme, today we combine this rich sesame paste with umeboshi. Described as the least sweet fruit, I consider ume a best-kept culinary secret. Tangy, salty, with a deep ...

Ayako Iino grew up in Nagoya, Japan, the largest city in the Chūbu region. Like many kids, she watched her mom make umeboshi, a traditional salt-cured plum pickle (and alkalizing dietary staple that’s ...