KUALA LUMPUR, April 6 -- Known as nasu dengaku in Japanese, the miso glazed eggplant is one of those dishes where you might have never eaten before but once you have, you wonder where it's been all your life.

It's a dish that makes complete sense... at least to my often jaded palate.

Perhaps it's the pleasurable dance of tastes and textures.

The salty-sweetness of the miso is rounded out by the gentle, tempering nature of mirin. (Fermented soybean paste, meet fermented rice wine. Be good friends.)

Even the eggplant has two faces: the tender morsels of its creamy flesh, scored into ready cubes; the crisp, caramelised surface, kissed by fermented manna.

To achieve this twinning of textures, the eggplant is first grilled, pan fried or r...