Wa to World: A Third Culture Cookbook

“Wa” (和) means both Japan and harmony. It reflects the balance I try to find in my cooking – between old and new, East and West, the familiar and the foreign.

Wa to World is my journey in recipes: from Japan’s quiet kitchens to the vibrant ever changing tastes I have met across the world. Each dish here fuses cultures, ingredients, and memories.

About me:

Hello! I am Kuranosuke Sakamoto, a Japanese high school student who grew up between Japan, France, the U.S., and Türkiye. Cooking became my way of adapting to new places – a way to connect cultures through something as universal as food.

This cookbook brings together traditional Japanese dishes I love, local ingredients I have reimagined, and fusion recipes that reflect the “third culture” I have lived in. Please enjoy my life in full; Each dish is a story, and I promise every recipe will taste as good as it sounds.

Prologue: Kintoki Fusion Carrot Soup

The essay that inspired Wa to Word.

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Kintoki Fusion Carrot Soup – Serves 4 (Average Japanese family size = 2.1)

Ingredients:

• 5 kintoki carrots (price-gouged by Japan Agricultural Cooperative)
• Sri Lankan coconut oil (produced from exploitation of land and labor)
• Chile ancho and guajillo (traded across borders, potent and unpredictable)

Step 1 – Replacing chile with habanero powder 

When I first tried making this soup last year, I could not find the right ingredients. I clung to the recipe, afraid to improvise, until I accepted I had no choice but to substitute what I could—replacing the chile ancho and guajillo with habanero powder—which worked surprisingly well. 

In fact, my understanding of adaptation began a few years earlier after moving from the U.S. to Türkiye, where everything—from language to bread—felt unfamiliar. I once tried to make a simple hot dog in Istanbul, only to realize I couldn’t find a proper bun, sausage, or even ketchup. So I was forced to improvise, using bazlama (bread), sucuk (sausage), and beyaz peynir (cheese), and ended up with a sandwich far better than what I had originally planned.

Step 2: Lightly toast cumin, fennel, and curry powder

As I toasted the spices, I remembered how difficult it was to find the right balance: the heat, the ratio, the timing. I have struggled with that same balance in my life. After I moved from France to the U.S., and I was placed into an ESL class to boost my English, I lost most of my French. 

Returning to Japan after years abroad to reconnect with my roots, I refused to let one part of myself fade for another. This meant constantly adjusting, keeping up my English, relearning Japanese, as well as managing other studies, including my newfound passion for economics until I found a balance that worked.  

Step 3: Pan-fry carrots

The first time I made this soup, I burnt the carrots. I cursed under my breath, face flushed, ready to give up, until the char—though slightly bitter—released a rich smokiness. On my second batch, I roasted them lightly before pan-frying, and then cooked them to perfection, allowing them to burn just a little. I learned that mistakes can lead to new discoveries. 

Recently, during a debate at my internship, I went red again. This time from shame, not heat. I was arguing that the reason CEOs earn huge salaries is because they take huge risks, unlike “normal” workers—which seemed obvious to me—until someone interjected: “Do you actually know how hard ‘normal people’ work?” I immediately saw that I had spoken without thinking, explained without understanding. 

From then on, I promised myself to listen more and do my research like how I approach cooking: thoughtfully and patiently. Just as I burnt carrots, mistakes are not failures, they are hidden flavors that guide me towards understanding. Sometimes the most important lessons come from moments of error, helping me uncover truths I have overlooked. 

Step 4: Serve with a spoon of salsa verde

As I carefully spooned the salsa across the soup, I felt an unfamiliar mix of pride and unease. This dish only existed because of global systems that move ingredients, labor, and people. The same economic forces that let me blend these flavors also concealed the labor behind them: the hands that pick the coconuts, and the farmers who earn too little for their kintoki carrots. 

Step 5: Serving

Now, every meal is economics on a plate, and Kintoki Fusion Carrot Soup is a reminder that everything we consume is part of an enormously complex system that I am only just beginning to understand. I may not have the answers yet, but I know that critical awareness is where understanding must begin.

As I served the soup to my family, I understood that economics, like food, is ultimately about people—about connection, love, and survival. Economics must serve humanity, because the systems we build are what enable us to put food on the table.

Part I – Comfort From Home

Home cooking is something many people remember fondly – a mother or father’s dish, a familiar warmth – but it is also a quiet privilege. Not everyone grows up with a kitchen full of care; some have to make do with whatever is available, or nothing at all. I was fortunate enough to find comfort in Japanese dishes my mother adapted to whatever ingredients we could find abroad. Her cooking remind me that food’s meaning is not found in perfection or tradition, but in the effort to nourish, even when nothing feels familiar.

Tamagoyaki with Daikon oroshi

Tamagoyaki is one of the first dishes many Japanese children learn to love. It is packed in every bento and carries a distinct flavor unique to each home. This dish, paired with daikon oroshi, is the epitome of comfort from home – Japan.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 70ml kelp & bonito dashi
• 1.5g salt
• Neutral oil (just to coat pan)
• Daikon (as much as you want)
• Soy sauce (as much as you want)
• A square frying pan will make things easier

Steps:

1. Crack the eggs into a bowl and add salt and dashi
2. Whisk thoroughly until the mixture is smooth and well combined
3. Heat a small pan over medium low to medium heat. Once hot coat the surface with oil and let it warm for about 20 seconds
4. Pour in just enough egg mixture to thinly coat the pan
5. When the layer is half cooked, tilt the pan opposite to the side you will fold from and begin rolling the egg gently in small, even folds. (you have creative liberty here, see what works for your pan!)
6. Move the rolled egg back to the starting side of the pan, re-oil lightly, and pour in more of the mixture to coat again
7. Repeat steps 4-6 until all the egg is used.
8. Transfer the finished tamagoyaki to a plate and serve it alongside the tamagoyaki
9. Grate daikon radish and grate them and put them next to your finished tamagoyaki
10. Add a small dizzle of soy sauce on the daiko oroshi, or let each person adjust to their liking

Voila! soft, savory, and comforting – ready to be enjoyed warm or packed into tomorrow’s bento. This technique requires practice, so don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t come out perfect the first time. Keep trying, and you’ll taste your progress with every fold!

Japanese Potato Salad

Potato salad may not have originated in Japan, but it’s become a staple of Japanese home cooking. Every family makes it differently, adjusting texture, seasoning, and crunch. This is my version – simple, creamy, and rich.

Ingredients:

• 4 medium potatoes
• 1/2 onion
• 1 cucumber
• 1/2 carrot
• 35g bacon
• Kewpie mayonnaise (Add to taste)
• 15g mustard
• Cracked black pepper
• 12g salt

Steps:

1. Fill a pot with water, add salt, and bring it to a gentle boil over medium heat
2. While waiting, peel the potatoes, cut bacon into small pieces, brunoise the carrots and onions, and slice the cucumbers on a mandoline
3. Heat a separate pan over medium low and add the bacon. Let it slowly render its fat and turn crispy. Turn off heat when fully rendered
4. Once the water reaches a low boil, add the potatoes and cook until fork tender
5. Soak the brunoised onion in a bowl of water to reduce their pungency
6. In a pan over medium heat, add a little oil and sauté the carrots for about one minute to soften slightly
7. Once the potatoes are ready, drain and mash them in a bowl
8. Add the cooked bacon with its grease, carrots, onions, and sliced cucumber
9. Stir in mayonnaise, mustard and a dash of black pepper. Adjust seasoning to taste

That’s it! As easy as that. Just let it cool and you have yourself a super easy Japanese potato salad. You can even make it in bulk for an easy side dish for the week.

Simple Japanese Soup

Sometimes the best dishes are the simplest. After a long cold day at school this is what I long for. Its quick, warm and rejuvenating.

Ingredients:

• 1 piece of kombu
• 1 handful bonito flakes
• 15g soy sauce
• 1/2 umeboshi
• 1 shiso leaf
• any small leftover fish trimmings
• 400ml water

Steps:

1. Add kombu to a pot of cold water and slowly bring to a near boil over medium heat
2. Just before it boils, remove the kombu and add bonito flakes. ket them steep for about a minute and a half, then strain
3. Return the clear broth to the pot and season lightly with soy sauce
4. Add any small piece of leftover fish to gently warm through. Do not boil or broth will turn murky
5. Add umeboshi for tang and top with shiso before serving

It could not get any simpler. It’s not about extravagance – it’s about attention, and the comfort that comes from using every flavor to its fullest. The clean broth, brightened by the acidity of the umeboshi and the hebiness of shiso is just absolutely elegant.