Project OBON is about eggplant and cucumber cookery. Why eggplants and cucumbers? These vegetables reach their peak of flavor during the summer when Obon is celebrated. And, the vegetables are fashioned into transportation for departed spirits.

Eager to begin their annual visit, departed souls travel swiftly back to this world on cucumbers (galloping horses). But when it comes time to return to the spirit world, they are reluctant to go… favoring transport on slower oxen (eggplants).

Various eggplant and cucumber dishes appear on summer menus throughout Japan. Try your hand at making one (or better yet, all) of these eggplant and/or cucumber dishes. Then share your kitchen activity with us by posting to the KCCC Facebook group.

Most supermarkets in Japan set up a small table at the back of their produce section with slightly bruised or blemished (and therefore deeply-discounted) fruits and vegetables. Here, too, you can find day-old, but still fine-flavored and perfectly safe to consume, items. Whenever I see less-than-gorgeous-looking, odd-shaped cucumbers I grab them to make this salad. Find out more, and download a recipe for Smashed Cukes.

Late in summer eggplant skins begin to toughen a bit. That is when yaki nasu (roasted eggplant with the skin peeled away) is especially good. Served chilled and showered with smoky katsuo-bushi flakes and chives, it is a refreshing

Find out more, and download a recipe for Roasted Eggplant.