Miso soup, awase dashi, avocado, jalapeño, Napa cabbage, tofu

* Kombu is a large dried seaweed, usually black and brittle similar to thin cardboard sheets. It is the origin of MSG. In fact MSG crystals form on the seaweed from drying. They have to be wiped off or else the kombu is too strong.

* Bonito is skipjack tuna that is dried severely to the density of brick and smoked, sometimes for months. It is shaved on a device like a wood plane. The flakes are intensely smoked tuna. The flakes are thinner than wood shavings. A large package of shaved bonito is light as a balloon.

A patch of kombu is steeped in hot water like tea and swells in size and thickness. It turns dark green and can be sliced to chewy noodles with the texture of cooked octopus, but usually discarded.

Bonito flakes are used by the handful and steeped in water for excellent seafood broth. The flakes are also sprinkled on solid food such as rice.

Dashi is broth like a seafood tea made by steeping either or both kombu and bonito. The solids are discarded for a clear broth although the soaked solids can be eaten. The essence of these elements are used for broth very much like tea.

Although easy as making tea, it's still a bit of a production and the solids are discarded. 

This time a small amount of the brittle kombu is processed in the coffee mill to fine powder. Kombu is added in handfuls to fill the coffee mill and the flakes are processed with the kombu powder. 

A tiny amount of this powder is used to flavor broth. This violates Japanese tradition but not Japanese modern ways. They have instant dashi too. This is my version of instant dashi. The result is very much the same. But it would get me kicked out of Japanese cooking school. 

All chiles originate in Central America and spread across the world changing world cuisines because they're so awesome. Each geographic area hybridized their own types by preferences and terroir as they have with all fruits and vegetables discovered in the Americas; potatoes, tomatoes, squashes, corn, chocolate and vanilla to name only a few of very many such plants.  

Japanese hybridized their own chiles. Jalapeños are not a common Japanese ingredient. And neither is avocado. 

But who cares? World trade innit. They adopt and change our stuff and we change theirs.