Might be better phrased as "the building blocks of high-end Japanese cuisine" - as the article says, its recommendations for products are far fancier than even

Might be better phrased as "the building blocks of high-end Japanese cuisine" - as the article says, its recommendations for products are far fancier than even Japanese households use in their day-to-day cooking. But certainly an interesting read - I did not know that Japanese fish sauce other than dashi was even a thing, and the insight into the various varieties of soy sauce was pretty cool.