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The dinner rotation is an unspoken, yet essential schedule. Most of us have five or six reliable recipes tucked away in our back pockets, ready to be pulled out at a moment’s notice. Sometimes this means cooking the same dishes week in, week out. Venturing outside this routine should be an exciting prospect. Maybe you’ve been inspired by a travel documentary or a new cookbook caught your eye. It doesn’t look that hard, right? But hunting down the right ingredients can feel like a minefield when you don’t really know what you’re looking for or even where to find them. Shopping well is crucial for success in the kitchen. God only knows the number of times I’ve come home with the wrong thing or given up because I was overwhelmed by the supermarket aisles. What if I end up wasting money on a new meal that turns out catastrophic? Some cuisines are more daunting than others. Japanese food has such a reputation for perfection that the idea of making anything other than a katsu at home terrifies me. But it wouldn’t be so scary if I had a real-life expert to walk me through the supermarket shelves, show me what to look for and demonstrate that I could indeed be churning out beautiful sushi, delicious broths and other Japanese dishes from my humble kitchen. Enter: cookbook author and teacher, Atsuko Ikeda, who has offered to take me to an Asian cash and carry to teach me how to shop for Japanese ingredients. We meet at Tazaki, a major distributor of Asian ingredients in the UK that has a warehouse in North Greenwich. It was previously owned by SeeWoo but was acquired by Tazaki last year and is currently in the process of revamping stock. However, it still carries just about everything you need to get started on a Japanese culinary adventure. Ikeda, who has authored three cookbooks on Japanese small plates, comfort food and sushi, is a frequent visitor. We begin by perusing the fresh ingredients, like daikon (white winter radish), whole lotus root and mustard greens. The whole lotus root can be sliced thinly and fried to make crispy lotus chips, while the snow-white daikon can be grated into sauce or cubed and added to soups. But we’re starting simpler. Ikeda picks up shimeji mushrooms, small round cap fungi with medium-length stems that grow from a single base. These have an earthier flavour and are denser in texture than regular button or chestnut mushrooms, which means they retain their size and shape a little better. Spring onions, avocado and carrots also make it into the basket, common vegetables that can be found in any supermarket. We move onto carbs and delve into the rice section. As Ikeda is teaching me how to make sushi later, she explains that it is made with Japanese short-grain rice; it has a more glutinous, starchy texture than long-grain rice, which is more popular in the UK. This starchy quality of short-grain rice makes it stickier, an essential feature to make sure sushi rolls and nigiri bites don’t fall apart. A trusted brand for most Japanese ingredients, including sushi rice, is Yutaka, which can be found almost anywhere – I’ve seen it stocked in my local fishmonger. Plenty of other brands abound, with some supermarkets even providing their own brand products, but Ikeda’s recommendation goes straight into my basket. She points out a variety of noodles, and we’re talking much more than udon. There are bouncy shirataki noodles, almost transparent noodles made from konjac yam that can be eaten hot or cold. You can purchase frozen ramen noodles if you’re experimenting with making your own ramen, but Ikeda winks as she tells me she usually just goes to her favourite ramen shop when she’s craving it. Soba noodles, which can be bought dried, are perfect for the summer when tossed into a cold peanut sauce with an assortment of vegetables. The list goes on and on, but Ikeda reassures me that most noodles are versatile and it mainly depends on what type of texture you’re going for rather than flavour. Next is the condiments aisle, where miso resides (can miso be considered a condiment? I’m not so sure). Miso is, of course, a must-have staple. Ikeda points out three types: white miso, sweet rice miso and barley miso. Later, when we taste them, I’m surprised to learn how vastly different they taste from one another. The white miso, which is the most common type used in recipes, has a slight tang and a savouriness that makes your mouth water, while the barley has a deeper, maltier flavour that is mcuh more comforting. I highly recommend buying different types to taste for yourself. Ikeda also introduces me to yuzugosho, a spicy, tart condiment containing the yuzu fruit and fiery green chillies. It brought a tear to my eye, both from the heat and delicious flavour. Ikeda also teaches me that most commercial wasabi contains more horseradish than wasabi, so buyer beware: if you’re seeking the real deal, you may have to be prepared to shell out more money than you initially think. Some brands are 100 per cent horseradish, marketed as wasabi, so checking the label is essential. The same goes for mirin, a Japanese sweet rice wine which varies in alcohol content. A good rule of thumb is that the cheaper the mirin, the lower the alcohol content. Soy sauce is another staple for most Asian cuisines, but there are differences. Ikeda prefers to use tamari soy sauce, which is thicker and, I find, not as intensely salty as the soy sauce you usually get in tiny fish-shaped plastic bottles from takeaways. At home, I’m a Kikkoman soy sauce fan, but Ikeda recommends Yutaka’s organic tamari soy sauce for a more mellow, sweeter flavour. In terms of proteins, it depends on what dish you want. We’re focused on fish, particularly sushi-grade salmon, which you can buy from Tazaki or most fishmongers. This is where I’m especially nervous, because it’s easy to get the cut wrong. However, knowledgeable fishmongers are your best friends when it comes to choosing the cut, so ask plenty of questions. Ikeda shows me how to slice the salmon for different types of sushi rolls and nigiri, as well as how to steam the fish in a baking parchment parcel, slathered in miso and accompanied by the shimeji mushrooms we’d purchased earlier. You can also add fish roe or masago caviar to your Japanese dishes. The bright orange spheres add a unique saltiness and a satisfying texture to sushi, but can also be used to top rice dishes or stirred through Japanese-inspired pastas. A reliable brand is Elsinore, which can be found in Waitrose. I still find the idea of making sushi daunting, but the supermarket aisles no longer feel so intimidating now that I have a clearer idea of what to look for. 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Pep Guardiola lost back-to-back Premier League games for only the third time as Manchester City went down 1-0 to Arsenal on Sunday. It has happened only six times in all competitions for City under Guardiola and here, the PA news agency looks at the Spaniard’s overall managerial record. No points from six Gabriel Martinelli’s winner for Arsenal followed Hwang Hee-chan’s for Wolves against City last weekend. It was the first time City had taken no points from a pair of league games since losing to Crystal Palace and Leicester across Christmas 2018. Luka Milivojevic’s penalty proved decisive for Palace before Kevin De Bruyne cut the final margin to 3-2, and Leicester then overcame Bernardo Silva’s Boxing Day opener to win 2-1 through Marc Albrighton and Ricardo Pereira. The Foxes were also the team to inflict City’s second successive loss in December 2016, Jamie Vardy with a hat-trick as Claudio Ranieri’s side won 4-2. Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho were suspended after late red cards as City lost their previous game 3-1 to Chelsea. Long run at an end Before this weekend, City were out on their own in terms of time without back-to-back Premier League defeats. Ten teams had suffered that fate this season – Burnley, Sheffield United and Bournemouth most recently, plus West Ham, Brentford, Luton, Manchester United, Wolves, Newcastle and Everton. Eight more of the 20 current top-flight sides – Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, Aston Villa, Fulham, Nottingham Forest, Liverpool and Crystal Palace – lost back-to-back games earlier in 2023. The one other exception, Brighton, last did so in October of last year – almost four years more recently than City, whose run since Boxing Day 2018 stood at 178 games. City host Brighton in their next game after the international break. Three in a row Albion will be the team looking to inflict a first hat-trick of Premier League defeats on Guardiola, whose team are alone in losing no more than two in a row since his arrival in 2016. Arsenal and Spurs are closest with their longest run being three defeats. Fulham had the longest losing run overall, nine games, with eight for Sheffield United and Palace. Guardiola has twice lost three in a row across all competitions with City, first in April 2018 when a 3-2 league defeat to a Paul Pogba-inspired Manchester United was sandwiched between losses in both legs of the Champions League quarter-final against Liverpool. The other sequence spanned three competitions and two seasons – the 2021 Champions League final against Chelsea followed by the Community Shield against Leicester and the 2021-22 Premier League opener at Tottenham. The recent Wolves loss came on the back of a Carabao Cup exit against Newcastle, while the December 2018 Premier League defeats were uninterrupted by any other competition. The other pairs came in early 2020, to Manchester United in the League Cup and Tottenham in the league, and January of this year when Southampton knocked them out of the Carabao Cup – and denied them a shot at a quadruple – before the Red Devils beat them in the league. Long-term pattern for Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona side lost back-to-back LaLiga games only twice in four seasons, both in 2009 – first to Espanyol and Atletico Madrid, then Mallorca and Osasuna. They also lost Champions League and league games consecutively twice, to Wisla Krakow and Numancia in his second and third games in charge in 2008 and to Chelsea and Real Madrid in April 2012. With Bayern Munich in May 2015, he suffered consecutive defeats to Bayer Leverkusen and Augsburg domestically and Barca in the Champions League. They won the return leg of that tie but Freiburg then made it three straight league defeats. His only other consecutive Bundesliga losses came in April 2014 against Augsburg and Borussia Dortmund. Read More Beating Manchester City will only boost Arsenal’s belief – Gabriel Martinelli John Eustace sacked amid reports Birmingham keen to make Wayne Rooney manager Ireland wings Mack Hansen and James Lowe on mend ahead of New Zealand showdown Jos Buttler concerned by ‘poor’ outfield ahead of England clash with Bangladesh Football rumours: Wayne Rooney in the running for Birmingham job Quarterback Brock Purdy stars as San Francisco 49ers thrash the Dallas Cowboys

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