During a recent trip to Japan, I spent half a day at the Akahori Cooking School with Hiromi and her daughter Umeka. Their specialty is yoshoku, Japanese interpretations of western dishes such as Ducky Croquettes (breaded shrimp with the tails imitating duck beaks) and Hamburg Steak which is exactly what it sounds like.

Yes, some of these adaptations sound playful, almost frivolous, but Japanese Potato Salad is a yoshoku dish that deserves to be taken seriously—in my opinion, it’s better than the original.

In Tokyo, Japanese Potato Salad is studded with sweet garlic cloves and topped with smoked tuna shavings. In Nagoya, flakes of roasted seaweed were scattered over top. At a whiskey whisky bar in Fukuoka, an extra-creamy version came topped with an onsen-style egg and briny salmon roe. In a corner izakaya in Osaka, it was topped with brittle pink peppercorns. For our recipe, we went with a simple dusting of shichimi togarashi, a common seaweed-sesame seasoning mix, but feel free to put your own spin on it.


Japanese potato salad is halfway mashed, so the potatoes absorb the flavorings and develop a creamy texture. While it looks heavy, the potatoes are lightened by chopped soft-cooked egg white; the yolks disappear into the dressing. Instead of watery celery or pepper pieces, crisp shreds of salted cucumber and carrot add flavor without diluting the dressing. Tiny bites of ham or bacon are almost but not always included, adding a meaty, smoky depth and a hint of chew.

The biggest difference lies in the dressing. Japanese mayonnaise is made with just egg yolks not the whites, a touch of sugar and MSG (please don’t get me started on MSG – it’s an ingredient that half the world uses). In the best versions, the rich mayonnaise is cut by and balanced with rice vinegar, dry mustard powder and aromatic white pepper.

Matthew Card

Matthew Card is Milk Street’s Creative Director for Recipes and Products, resident coffee geek, knife collector and equipment junkie. He has 25-plus years of professional cooking, recipe development, food writing and teaching under his belt. When he’s not in the Milk Street kitchen or on the road hunting for new recipes and ideas, Matthew lives with his family in Canberra, Australia, where he does his best to dodge kangaroos on his mountain bike and is learning to love Vegemite.