Where did the shiitake mushrooms go? The last time I saw them, they were happily waiting for their time in a brown bag on the counter top. They were now nowhere to be seen. Did I throw them away by mistake? I didn't remember doing that, but since I know my formidable power of forgetfulness, I figured I tossed out the brown bag without thinking much about it.

"I think I threw out the shiitake mushrooms by mistake," I told Patrick, who was reading something about the Mac's developer conference on Monday. "It's so stupid; I don't even remember doing that, but the bag isn't here, so I think I did it."

"Was that in a paper bag, on the counter?" asked Patrick. He sounded a little anxious. Yeah, I said. "I think I tossed it in the trash," he confessed. "I thought that was the bag of the muffins we ate for breakfast."

He shook the brown bag before tossing it, but the slightly dry, rustling noises of the shiitake mushrooms convinced him that they were the paper muffin cups. Ouch.

So, there went the main ingredient for our Spaghetti Giapponese con Fungi--the easy dinner I planned for the evening. This flavor loss was significant, but I still had some oyster mushrooms and normal white mushrooms, so I decided to stick with the plan, with a bit of alteration.

Originally, I was going to sautée the mushrooms in butter and shallots, add salt and some turning sake, and mix with the pasta. Now that the most significant flavor agent is gone, I had to find something to patch the gap with. What I decided upon is "kobucha," a sort of instant drink made from kelp*. Kobucha usually comes in an airtight can with a tiny plastic spoon, and you dissolve a spoonful of the powdered stuff in hot water and drink it. The drink has a slight green tint, just like green tea. Since its basic ingredients are powdered kelp (kobu, or kombu), salt, sugar and flavoring amino acids, kobucha is widely used to enhance the umami (one of the five basic tastes; the sensation of the full richness of flavors) in Japanese home cooking. I don't like kobucha as a drink, but I'm quite fond of the oceany flavor that it adds to the otherwise straightforward dishes.

So, here is what I did with the pasta with one missing mushroom:

Ingredients (approximation, as usual):

• spaghetti for 2 people
• 1 cup various mushrooms
• 1/2 shallot
• olive oil and butter
• 8 chive stalks, cut into 2-inch sections
• 1/3 tablespoon of kobucha
• 1/5 cup sake (cooking sake or one that's started to turn sour)

Method for Spaghetti Giapponese con Fungi:

1. Boil the spaghetti in a large pot of water with a generous pinch of salt.
2. Sautée chopped shallots in a mixture of butter and olive oil, and add mushrooms when shallots start to emit their characteristic flagrance.
3. Fry the mushrooms until they're slightly browned on both sides, then turn the heat down, and cover the pan to let the mushrooms "sweat" out their flavor.
4. When the spaghetti is a minute from done, turn up the heat for the mushrooms and add sake and kobucha. When the sake boils in the pan, it picks up the slightly burnt flavor of mushrooms from the surface of the pan, and becomes the base of the sauce. Stir.
5. Once the spaghetti is al dente (very important!), transfer them directly to the pan. Quickly mix the sauce and the spaghetti. If there isn't enough moisture, add a bit of the water you used to boil the pasta into the pan.
6. Sprinkle with chives and serve.

I used just enough olive oil and butter to sautée the mushrooms without getting them burnt, and there's no cream or cheese involved (although you could add them and make it a richer dish). Most of the flavor comes from the mushrooms and shallot, enhanced by the powdered kelp in kobucha. It's a rather simple pasta, but it's chock full of flavor. Although its ingredients are rather oriental (especially if you manage to protect shiitake mushrooms from the evil hands of your significant other :P), but the simplicity is (I think) similar to that of real Italian pasta dishes we enjoyed while in Italy. This went quite well with the light rose, a leftover wine from a few days before.

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* In the U.S. and in Europe, the word "kombucha" is used to refer to a Chinese-origin fermented tea that is drunk for health purposes. I don't know how this confusion started, but the these are two different drinks.