Haraguchi used to eat Chinese food in Japan. Most of those dishesbelonged to Shanghai or Guangzhou cuisine， more or less Japanized to suit local tastes and deprived much of their Chinese flavors. Shehas found so many “authentic delicacies” in Beijing that she neverhad in Japan. Her favorites are crispy potato shreds and other vegetables，which have strong temptations to her with their simple tastes andbright green color. To Haraguchi， the finest food should be cookedwith the freshest ingredients and the simplest method， like fried shreddedpotatoes. At the time when she first came to Beijing， many Japanesepeople never heard of fried shredded potatoes. So starting fromshredded potatoes， she has introduced many home-made dishes to herJapanese readers， such as stewed eggplant and shredded pork withthick soy sauce. Many readers tried her recipes and fell in love withBeijing cuisine.
With a good palate for food， Haraguchi has tasted almost allBeijing’s delicacies， even Madoufu， Beijing’s most typical Muslimsnack with a very strong lamb smell. It is prepared with lamb tallowand green beans. I have never dared touched it， myself， but Haraguchiloves it. I find that really amazing. She is a frequent guest at many specializedrestaurants which even natives have never heard of.
What has made me mostenvious is that she nevergains weight no matter whatshe eats or how much of it.
During her work as areviser for People’s China，she found that most of the articlescarried in the magazinewere related to economy.
There were very few on Beijing’sdaily life. So she starteda special column called“China’s Grocery Store” andwrote about many commonplacethings， like thermosflasks and old style tea pots.
204 These items， much ignored by the Chinese themselves， have arousedkeen interest among the Japanese readers. Her Chinese colleagueswere really blown away and of course admired her unique observations.
Haraguchi didn’t pay much attention to these small items at first.
Since she started the column， she has developed the habit of carefullyobserving everything around her. She always finds somethingnew when she browses along the streetsides. “Beijing is a place worthexploring.” As she puts it， usually she doesn’t have anything specialin mind and just finds something new “unintentionally”。 She worksand plays， leading a routine life the same as everyone else. It is in thecourse of this routine life that she finds some interesting stuff and thendescribes them in her articles.
In the spring of 2002， her article “Discoveries in the Hutongs was published in FIGARO JAPAN， a widely-known fashion magazinein Japan. She told the readers about her discoveries， such as specialrestaurants and hotels， in Beijing’s hutongs， which are narrow alleysvery characteristic of the capital. The concept of the hutong made itsfirst appearance in Japanese fashion magazines thanks to Haraguchi，and it’s now not uncommon to find articles on hutongs in Japan. Particularlyamazing is that a restaurant in Tokyo is named after hutongs.