Before I get into specifics of the dish I first want to give a little bit of background info as this dish is particularly special to me.

Before I moved to Japan my then roommate and I love to cook and watch culinary shows together. In particular, our favourite show was “Parts Unknown” with Anthony Bourdain. This show featured Mr. Bourdain travelling from country to country all while discussing politics, cultural points of interest, and most importantly:Β local food. I have to say that the episode on Tokyo in particular actually somewhat played a cementing role in my decision to go work in Japan. I’d always thought that it was somewhere I wanted to go, but after watching the vibrant nature of the culture and food in his episode: I knew my what I had to do.

Because of my fond memories of spending countless evenings watching this show and discussing it with my roommate, I was absolutely devastated when I heard of Bourdain’s passing in 2018. For what I believe is the first time in my life, I felt like the passing of a celebrity actually impacted my emotional state and filled me with nostalgia and sadness.

So how does this relate to meatloaf? Because my roommate and I enjoyed his show so much, I decided to buy him one of Bourdain’s cookbooks for his birthday (or Christmas, I don’t remember…). But after looking at it sit in our kitchen for a while, of course I had to try out some of the recipes for myself!

As someone who grew up vegetarian, I’d never actually had meatloaf before this point so I had absolutely zero preconceived notion of its flavour profile and may I say, this meatloaf ABSOLUTELY blew me away. The meatloaf itself was perfectly savoury and juicy, but when the simply and delicate mushroom gravy was added to it the dish was taken to a whole new level!

So thank you Anthony Bourdain. Thank you for the delicious meatloaf, thank you for inspiring me to go to Japan, and thank you for the wonderful time I spent with my roommate.

Nutrition information:

  • Meatloaf and Gravy (per big slide and scoop or two of gravy): ~10g carbs

Total: ~10g carbs