Seaweed Salad (with the stuff washed up on the shore)

It’s a ubiquitous side on the sushi restaurant menu, but “seaweed salad” is just weeds from the sea, tossed with dressing. Often, it’s made from dried and reconstituted seaweed sheets, shred into ribbons. You can get packages of the dried stuff at any Japanese grocery. Or, if you’re at the beach, you’ll come across it, fresh, for sure.

Celeriac Miso Soup

I do love a good fool. Not the kind that walks on two legs (or tries to), but a gag, a practical joke, and especially when it has to do with food. Like translucent off-white cubes of soft-cooked celeriac instead of tofu bobbing in an otherwise traditional miso soup. It’s a culinary deception, and I think it’s in good faith because the soup is still delicious, despite it all.