Country kitchen

Before I fell ill, I posed the following question to a trio of colleagues:

If you could only eat one nationality of cuisine for the rest of your life, which would it be?

Without hesitation, they all answered - Italian.

(OK, their exact responses were "Italian", "Italian or Greek" and "If I can't cheat and say 'Australian', then Italian", but I think we can call that unanimous.)

Part of me could appreciate where they were coming from, since my fave dinner is red wine, garlic bread, green salad, spaghetti bolognese, tiramisu and coffee.

However, I'd choose differently.

Assuming excellent ingredients and expert preparation, I would pick Japanese cuisine.

For the taste, for the health benefits, for the seasonality and for the martial art-like dedication to achieving perfectly balanced combinations.

But that's just me. How about you?

Italian? Japanese? Something else?