I was eating at a Japanese restaurant which had some great recipes. The first was an Asian fruit salad made of boiled seaweed, apricot and Granny Smith apples. It was an unexpected blend of textures with its crunchy apple, slick, chewy seaweed and soft apricot. I also tried tomatoes stewed in plum wine, a mildly sweet mango cake and a seafood soup with stewed crab, chicken, shiitake mushroom and clams.

Generally there is an anticipation of what a dish will taste like, but these dishes were unexpected in flavor and texture. That is what the experience of all food should be. Anything less and food is mundane. After eating at the restaurant, I felt the urge to concoct some recipes of my own. I broke down recipes into a template from which new recipes can be generated.

Many foods use the same template. The resulting range of flavors and textures is limited. The flour is used as the neutral base other flavors build on, but there are many other neutral food bases that can be used in desserts as well.

Foods

• Neutral – Cucumber, seaweed, spinach, cabbage, lettuce, carrot, peanuts, almonds, etc.
• Sweet – Strawberry, blueberry, orange, etc.
• Sour – Lemon, lime, etc.
• Umami – Meat, etc.
• Salty – Sardines, mackeral, etc.
• Bitter – Bitter melon, etc.

Flavors

• Sugar, salt, spices, stimulant (pepper), fragrant (cinnamon, cloves, etc.), oils

Presentation

• Textures – Smooth, crumbly, chewy, crunchy, stringy, etc.
• Temperature – Hot, everything in between, cold
• State – Solid, liquid, gas