Our guest is Massud Ghaussy who has a Japanese food and restaurant blog on instagram under TokyoManhattan. His posts not only describe restaurants he has visited, but also include many other elements behind the dishes, such as history, culture, cooking methods. He appeared on Episode 125, 136 and 152 and shared his favorite Japanese chefs and restaurants in Paris, NY and in Tokyo as well as sushi restaurants in NY and Tokyo. In this episode, we will continue our conversation with Massud, but the theme is not his favorite restaurants. In order to help you to understand Japanese food more deeply, we will discuss different genres of Japanese cuisine and how they were created. For example, what is honzen ryori? It is the mother of kaiseki cuisine created by samurais! Also, we will talk about various concept of taste and flavors that are unique to Japanese cuisine such as umami and kokumi.