Learning "Summer Vegetable Jibuni" from the Head Chef in Kure: The Chicken Dish That Made Bitter-Melon-Hating Ryuji Say "Delicious" for the First Time

The main ingredients are chicken thigh and plenty of vegetables. Knowing that Ryuji isn't very fond of vegetables, the head chef wanted to make a dish that pairs them with chicken so that the vegetables, too, are delicious. Looking over the lineup of vegetables, Ryuji immediately notices that it includes bitter melon, which they particularly dislike. Ryuji's channel has a recipe for goya champuru, and they say they made it with the aim of thoroughly eliminating the bitterness. The head chef is deliberately trying to get Ryuji to eat bitter melon.

The head chef says "this dish is super easy" and that they really want viewers to make it. When asked what kind of dish jibuni is, they answered, searching their memory, that it is a regional dish from some prefecture — Ishikawa Prefecture, if they remember correctly.

The approach to prep is clear. All the vegetables are cut into large pieces to make the most of their shape. The daikon radish is used with the skin on, since peeling it would be wasteful. Ryuji took this from the perspective of a home cook: "Large cuts mean fewer cuts, so it's easy."

Ryuji was surprised that cucumber goes into a simmered dish. The bitter melon is sliced into rounds and the pith is cleanly removed. According to the head chef, carefully removing the pith also softens the bitterness somewhat. Ryuji remarks that they had never used bitter melon sliced into rounds before.

Other ingredients prepared include bell pepper, fresh wood ear mushrooms (which the head chef says have an interesting texture), myoga ginger split lengthwise, shishito peppers, and cherry tomatoes. The shishito peppers just get a light slit, which reportedly helps the flavor soak in faster. The tomatoes are included on the reasoning that it's good to have one acidic vegetable among the summer vegetables.

This time the dish was built around summer vegetables, but the head chef says the vegetables can be changed with the seasons: plenty of root vegetables in winter, heaps of mountain vegetables in spring, extra mushrooms in autumn, and so on. "I'm not particular about it," they said. "It's totally fine to put in whatever vegetables you like from the supermarket" — showing that this is a dish that doesn't insist on fixed ingredients.

In between cooking steps, Ryuji talked about the night before. They had apparently drunk glass after glass of 50–53 proof-percent liquor with some people from China. Ryuji's reasoning: "It's their country's liquor, so it would be rude not to drink when it's offered." The head chef, meanwhile, holds their liquor extremely well, and Ryuji has never seen them drunk. According to locals, however, they are occasionally spotted walking around Kure drunk.

The chicken thigh is sliced on the bias. At home, bite-sized pieces are fine, but if they're too thick, they won't cook through easily once coated in potato starch at the end. So the thicker parts are sliced thin to even them out. The head chef stated flatly, "Today's star is the vegetables."

Ryuji laughs that this is "a dish that will never go viral." Jibuni isn't very well known, so the video is unlikely to get many views. Even so, Ryuji's take is that putting the head chef in the thumbnail will bring in views.

Pour a generous amount of sesame oil into the pot, then add the daikon first and brown it. According to the head chef, the daikon is the only thing that gets seared well, and from there the dish comes together quickly. Next, add the wood ear mushrooms and coat them with the sesame oil, then add the cucumber and bitter melon.

Partway through this step, a soy-sauce-flavored seasoned nori supervised by the head chef was introduced. It's made by a nori shop in Hiroshima and sold at the hotel, and the head chef explains that it's a nori everyone in Hiroshima has eaten. Ryuji tried it on the spot and reacted, "So good," "I want to put it on rice."

The ratio for the simmering liquid is simple. As the head chef explains, it's 8 parts dashi made from kombu and katsuobushi to 1 part mirin and 1 part soy sauce. No salt, pepper, or sugar. Ryuji worried about viewers' reactions — "People are going to say they can't make ichiban dashi" — and the head chef replied that at home, the quickest substitute is mentsuyu. After tasting the liquid, Ryuji's impression was that it tasted "kind of like ready-to-use straight tsuyu."

While the dish simmered, the head chef demonstrated how to make dashi.

For ichiban dashi, use 5 g of kombu per 1 liter of water. It's best to soak the kombu in water from the day before, which lets the kombu's umami come out from the water stage. Warm it slowly over medium heat, and when small bubbles start to appear, remove the kombu before it boils. Leaving the kombu in boiling water brings out off-flavors and makes the ichiban dashi cloudy. Once the kombu is out, bring the water to a full boil once, then turn off the heat. Add 30 g of katsuobushi (per 1 liter) all at once and let it sit for about 2 minutes. Finally, line a strainer with a paper towel and strain gently. The head chef said they always use ichiban dashi for clear soups.

From the kombu and katsuobushi left after making ichiban dashi, niban dashi is made and turned into waridashi. According to the head chef, this is what's used for soba and udon broth and for simmered dishes.

Return the leftover kombu and katsuobushi to the pot, add four 180 cc measures of water (720 cc), 90 cc of mirin, and 90 cc of soy sauce, and set over medium heat. Unlike ichiban dashi, which is not boiled once the katsuobushi goes in, niban dashi can be brought to a full boil. The kombu can stay in, too. As the head chef explains, even if off-flavors come out of the kombu and katsuobushi, the mirin and soy sauce combine with them and turn them into umami. Boiling it thoroughly cooks off the alcohol in the mirin, and combined with the soy sauce, it becomes a mellow waridashi with the sharp edges rounded off. It's said to be better to strain it after the dashi has cooled.

At the tasting, the head chef described the ichiban dashi as "nothing catches in your throat" and urged Ryuji to drink some too. Of the still-unstrained waridashi, they confidently said, "With this dashi, you can make anything."

For home cooks, Ryuji put together a substitute dashi on the spot. They diluted 200 cc of their own company's "Kore! Uma!! Tsuyu" with water — ending up with 600 cc of water — and added about 2 pinches of salt. After tasting it, they said, "I think this dashi can probably work as a substitute."

In Ryuji's view, since the vegetables and chicken also release sweetness, the result will be quite close to the head chef's simmering liquid. Regular mentsuyu might be too sweet, so it's better to hold back on the sweetness and adjust with salt. This is Ryuji's own estimate; they didn't compare it side by side with the head chef's dashi.

Once the simmering liquid comes to a boil, add the chicken coated in potato starch. The amount is about 1½ tablespoons. The head chef cautioned that using too much starch will overpower the flavor of the vegetables. When Ryuji asked why the chicken is coated in starch, the head chef answered that as it cooks, the starch coating gives it a silky, smooth texture, and that this is a characteristic of jibuni. Three seeded dried red chilies are also added as an accent.

After that, add the bell pepper, myoga, shishito peppers, and tomatoes. These shouldn't be simmered long, to preserve their texture. Ryuji was concerned about how the bitter melon's flavor would come through, but also said that bitter melon doesn't taste that bitter when eaten together with umami.

At the finishing stage, the head chef admitted the initial starch hadn't been enough and the sauce was too thin, so they added a potato starch slurry. The target is about the thickness of ankake ramen. Faced with the finished "Head Chef's Special Summer Vegetable Jibuni," Ryuji remarked, "Easy and quick."

The tasting began, paired with an extra-dry sake. The head chef said, "Don't push yourself," but Ryuji deliberately started with the bitter melon they dislike.

Their reaction to the first bite was "Delicious." Ryuji was surprised that the bitterness hadn't come out into the liquid, and puzzling over why, said, "So bitter melon is actually good," and "Probably the first time in my life (I've found it tasty)." The daikon had soaked up the flavor. Of the large-cut cucumber, they said with surprise, "So you can simmer it," and called it "shockingly delicious." The myoga retained its crisp texture, and Ryuji said they understood well why it was added later. They said the tomato also worked, and summed up that everything was in harmony.

Ryuji also looked back on the previous pasta. Partway through cooking, it had looked overcooked, and they had assumed it wouldn't taste good. Yet even though it wasn't made the Italian way, it was extremely delicious when they ate it. Ryuji's genuine feeling is that the head chef's cooking overturns their expectations every time. The head chef said they had noticed Ryuji looking skeptical back then. During the conversation, the idea came up that baby corn would probably be good in it too.

To finish, microwave-warmed soft noodles were tossed in the leftover simmering liquid. Ryuji says they often ate soft noodles in school lunches as a child. The head chef added that udon works too.

After eating, Ryuji said, "So nostalgic," adding that the liquid was ridiculously good and that a lot of umami from the vegetables had come out. They said it's the same feeling as adding udon to sukiyaki the next day.

At the end, Ryuji said this is a flavor they wouldn't make themselves, and that they want to learn how to make it. They asked the staff to let them film the method for making ichiban dashi, saying, "I definitely want to make it with this." The head chef's nori can be purchased at the hotel. The video ends with a preview that next time, Ryuji will teach the manager how to make omurice.