I am steaming the beaten egg right now to make the zousui for breakfast this morning!

I’m Kanako’s husband. She’s been real busy with other stuff, but I’ll pitch in.

She almost killed me when I said you could substitute Tahina for Goma (sesame) paste. Tahina usually comes mixed with salt, spices, olive oil: all kinds of odd mediterranean tastes that don’t work with Japanese food at all. If you can find a kind of tahina that lists ONLY sesame as ingredients, you’ll do ok with it. Otherwise, you’re better off buying the Japanese stuff, or buying roasted sesame seeds and putting them in a coffee grinder until you obtain a kind of paste.

In some cities, you can find sesame-based Shabu Shabu sauce ready-made at the asian store. You’re better off using that that some lebanized version of goma dare.

Cheers, good to know you’re liking the recipes.

For sesame paste, I have mostly been using tahini. In your recipe for the sesame sauce, you mention about using chinese or Japanese sesame paste, but not tahini. Was wondering why that is the case? Is the taste very different? Thanks for clarifying for me.

Good day!