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Which Cup Noodle do you like best? When asked this question, I've always said Seafood Noodle, and if I could only eat one, I think I'd still choose Seafood Noodle.

I decided to consider which of the four types always sold at convenience stores—Cup Noodle, Curry, Seafood, and Chili Tomato—was the most delicious. But as I thought about it, a completely different idea popped into my head.

"When you think about it, none of them taste like actual ramen!"

Thinking about it again, Cup Noodle might be soy sauce flavored, but it feels like Cup Noodle doesn't have a specific flavor; it just tastes like Cup Noodle.

I've never heard of seafood ramen, and while I might have seen curry ramen at some ramen shop, it's definitely not mainstream. There's no such thing as tomato chili ramen. When I consider that they created ramen with flavors that didn't exist and made them popular, I'm truly impressed by how amazing Cup Noodle is.

Thinking about all that, I tried Chili Tomato, the one I'd eaten the least. It was incredibly delicious! Nissin is amazing.

There’s a Teochew cuisine restaurant called "Xin Ji" that's always been a favorite of mine. Teochew cuisine isn't very well-known, but it often features light dishes, and for me, the flavors are just right.

My absolute favorite dish there is "Steamed Clams with Garlic Sauce." It's loaded with so much garlic that if you compare it to the "can't go on a date after eating gyoza" situation, then after eating these steamed clams, I think you'd say, "you shouldn't interact with people for several days."

Despite the immense amount of garlic, for a garlic lover like me, it's an incredibly delicious dish. For several years, I've tried to recreate this dish repeatedly. While I've gotten close, it never quite matched the original, and I thought it was a difficult dish to reproduce.

However, I've finally created a highly reproducible version of it. I've always used the same visible ingredients like clams, garlic, and green onions, but the final seasoning that I just couldn't figure out was Shaoxing wine. Once I added Shaoxing wine, it came very close to that rich, flavorful taste I had imagined.

Before, I had been using sake or white wine, making it a typical sake-steamed clam dish. But when I switched to Shaoxing wine, it instantly became that familiar flavor, and I was so impressed. I've always thought of Shaoxing wine as a strong liquor and rarely used it, so I had never bought it. I was surprised at how much a cooking wine could change the taste. This experience made me realize, once again, that to cook regional dishes authentically, it's essential to use seasonings from that region – something that, in hindsight, is quite obvious.

If I had to pick a food I'm currently obsessed with, it would be shiso.

When I was a kid, shiso was just some mysterious leaf and a food I disliked. Now, I find it incredibly delicious, with its great aroma, low cost, and ease of use. Of course, it's perfect with sashimi and hand-rolled sushi, but I also use it in a variety of Japanese dishes, starting with aemono (dressed salads). Lately, I've even been using it a lot in pasta.

I tried to remember what started it, and I think it began when I used it as a substitute for Italian parsley.

I often add Italian parsley to pasta, but it's not always available at the supermarket. One time, when Italian parsley wasn't in stock, I tried adding shiso, and it turned out to be a fantastic match for oil-based pasta. I liked it so much that lately, I've been using shiso more often than Italian parsley.

Shiso with tarako pasta, shiso with oil sardine pasta, shiso with bottarga pasta—they're all amazing! It pairs perfectly with seafood. It's incredibly delicious.

While filming for YouTube, Konegi, who was in charge of the filming, told me I was "skillful."

It was when I was mixing ground meat in a bowl, sprinkling salt and pepper with my right hand, and kneading with my left.

Since I always do it that way, I asked, "Huh? How else would you do it?" And Konegi said, "You sprinkle salt and pepper with your right hand, and then knead with your right hand." I thought that would be inconvenient if you wanted to add more later, but Konegi said they couldn't use their left hand well, so they had to use their right.

I'm naturally left-handed, but when I was little, I was taught to use my right hand for chopsticks and pencils, so in everyday life, people rarely realize I'm left-handed. Learning to use my right hand for chopsticks and pencils made me use my right hand more, but since I'm left-handed, I primarily use my left. As a result, I often don't even know which hand to use myself. This time, I was kneading with my left hand, but if the salt and pepper had been placed on the other side, I think I would have been kneading with my right.

Something similar happens with forks and knives; I can use either hand, so I just use whichever hand I pick them up with first.

Because of this, I can't immediately tell which is the "correct" way to hold them. So, when I'm holding a knife and fork during filming, I end up thinking about which is the right way, which sometimes makes my movements awkward and is a bit troublesome.

Wait, which hand is actually the correct one for holding a knife and fork, anyway?

I remember a time when I was working at my previous job, and I just felt off and irritable.

It turned out I was just hungry. After I ate, I felt much better, and I was surprised that it was really just hunger.

It's true that I usually get irritable when I'm busy, so there are other factors besides hunger. But if eating can give me more emotional leeway, and it's something I can definitely solve myself, then I figured I should make sure to eat properly. And ever since then, I have.

Lack of sleep and hunger narrow your perspective and make your decisions waver, so I try my best to avoid both.

Since starting kikkake, I've been cooking a lot more, so now I'm probably more concerned about dieting than hunger...

The drama "Fune wo Amu" (The Great Passage) is really interesting.

It's a story about people who compile dictionaries, and it focuses on words and how to convey them. As I watch it, I'm struck by how fluid and subjective words are.

Since it's about dictionary compilers, the main goal is to "convey the meaning of words" in a way that "everyone can understand." However, I find that words are inherently uncertain, people perceive them differently, and they constantly change with the times. It makes me think that communicating something to someone using words is incredibly difficult.

Considering the person you're speaking to, the setting, the intimacy of the interaction, what you want to say, and the feelings you want to convey—after thinking all of that through and putting it into words, it's highly unlikely that the other person will understand everything exactly as you intended.

Words are important, but perhaps the shared time spent communicating itself holds meaning. Oh, and along those lines, I realized that serving food has a similar element.

Considering the other person's likes and dislikes, your own likes and dislikes, the environment, the time, their hunger level, the ingredients in the fridge, your specialties—you cook while considering all these factors. You'd be happy if the other person thinks it's delicious, you want to think it's delicious too, and if it's not, you'd want to make excuses. All these feelings get mixed up, and the act of sharing that space itself becomes meaningful. I wonder if it's something like that.

Wanting to eat with close friends and wanting to talk a lot with close friends—both involve sharing time and wanting to express yourselves to each other.

...I ended up overthinking a lot after watching the drama.

It's not a drama that's meant to make you think that hard; it's very enjoyable to watch. It's on NHK every Tuesday at 10 PM, so if you'd like, please check it out. There's also a novel, and it seems like it's been made into a movie as well.