Shiitake Kushiyaki (椎茸串焼き, grilled shiitake skewers)

A good shiitake cap is already a small bowl. Turn it gill-side up over the fire and it fills with its own broth, dark and shining, as if the mushroom were quietly making soup for itself. This is not a trick dish. It is an ingredient dish, which means sourcing is most of the work.

Choose fresh shiitake with thick caps, pale firm gills, and no sour smell. If they feel tired or wet, don't ask the grill to rescue them. Kushiyaki means skewered and grilled, and here the skewer's job is simple: hold the caps steady so the juice doesn't spill. Cap-up is the detail that decides it. Turn them over and the best part drops into the fire, a small tragedy, but a real one.

We salt at the end because salt pulls water. Add it too early and the mushroom gives up its broth before the cap has tightened and sweetened over the heat. Grill until the edges soften, the surface glistens, and the gills hold a little pool. Then salt, lift the skewer carefully, and drink that juice first. Nothing hidden. Just shiitake at its shun, its prime, and a little fire.