“Today's main dish is cooked sardines," Kinoshita explained, "and the side dish is okara, soybean pulp, cooked using the broth from cooking these sardines. This combination appeared several times in her books. It was probably something she herself enjoyed. Plus there's a side dish of kenchinjiru, root vegetable soup. This also appears a few times in her essays and novels. The rice is yukari rice, rice mixed with dried pickled plums and red shiso flakes." "I've been meaning to ask you, Mr. Kinoshita, but were you a fan of Seiko Tanabe's works before you came here? She's the only author where you serve so many different dishes." "No, truthfully I'd never heard of her before. The owner gave me the book The Many Flavors of Seiko Tanabe, which came out while the author was still alive, and I planned to make a few of the dishes listed there. In that book they gave the sources for the recipes, and I went ahead and read those too. She wrote a lot about cooking and I really got into it.” InspiredSoupSardinesRecreatingJapanese Authors Book:Dinner at the Night Library Source: Dinner at the Night Library