Tokyofoodcast

Despite the unbearable heat, summer in Japan is the season for a lot of good stuff–including food. One thing I had wanted to do for sometime was to go to a small coastal city during the uni or sea urchin season and indulge myself. So, before going to Ichinoseki, I took a wide detour and rode a local train from Sendai to Kesennuma in Miyagi, at the border of Iwate, via Oya-kaigan. Besides, there was a sake brewery in Kesennuma I’d had my eye on for a while too.

Why Oya-kaigan? It’s a dinky little JR station, 2 hours away from Sendai and it’s right by the beach. I arrived with a few local old ladies on board. They weren’t surprised that there’s no station master, but for a Tokyoite, an unstaffed train station, or even an automated ticket machine, was quite change.

When I was searching for a good spot for uni on the internet, I saw they have an Uni Festival in July where they serve uni-don and sells whole uni shells. When I called their tourist promotion section at the city office, they said there’s no guarantee I would find uni there at this time of the year, early July, because it is still early in the season. I said fine and took the chance on stopping at this little sleepy beach town famous for uni and seafood.

I managed to have uni-don at the restaurant right at the station overlooking the beach at 11:00 a.m. “Locally caught uni!”, the lady said. I checked because I was on guard when she said uni-don was on the menu year around. I did not want to travel all the way to have Chilean sea urchin that I could buy in Tokyo. It was great, but I got really excited to find uni onigiri, uni bento, awabi onigiri, and awabi bento for anywhere 140 yen 350 yen in the small store next door to the station where they sell locally caught fish and local vegetables. The uni onigiri I got was a bit mushy, but smelled just like ocean and was good.

Then, I hopped back on the next train that runs like once an hour or two to Kesennuma, a big working port famous for sharks’ fin and other seafood. The big open market next to the wholesale seafood market was filled with fish and uni in season. Spiny dark purplish creatures were everywhere among whole katsuo, tuna, or piles of sharks’ hearts they called mouka-no-hoshi. All around the market, the sign said sharks’ hearts are sashimi grade, which I believe is one of their local specialties, but even for a generally curious mind, it did not sound too appealing. (If you dare to see some pictures of mouka-no-hoshi, please let me know.) I got two shells of uni to eat there. In the market, I spotted a shop with local sake, and was grabbed by the idea of having the urchin fresh out of the shell with nihonshu. I debated, and debated, and debated if I should wash down this salty and buttery yellowish lump of eggs that tasted like ocean with sake. In the end, I did not because I did not want to be smelling of alcohol on my visit Otokoyama Honten brewery, just 10 minutes walk from the market.

The old part of Kesennuma by the port was rebuilt around 1920 after a big fire and you still see some buildings from that era. Otokoyama Honten, the brewer of Fushimi Otokoyama and Soutenden, is one of those buildings with a classic storefront built in the beginning of the Showa Era. Sugawara-san took me around the brewery, which is 5 minutes away from the store. This was built around the turn of the century with three independent kura covered under one big roof for insulation. Being by the bay, their sake is a natural fit for seafood. Soutenden is really elegant, it does not have too much upfront aroma and settles in really well. As I was tasting Soutenden daiginjo, I was thinking about that uni from the market. I should have gone back to the market and had more uni with Soutenden! Oh, well, next time.

After this trip, I was ready to check off “uni” from my list, before I saw this blog from Kesennuma with uni-don pictures. Now, really, I have to go back to Kesennuma.

About Otokoyama Honten in English

When I heard that the Ichinoseki area is called “the home of mochi“, I thought of New Year’s Day. Or rather, I should say New Year’s Eve when my family geared up for massive production of mochi for the whole family and extended family at the holiday. We literally spent the entire day making so many huge batches of gooey, white rice dough, then forming them into round shapes of various sizes and big flat 2 cm thick sheets. If I try really hard and stretch my memory way back, I vaguely remember my family used to make green, pink, and white tri-color diamond shaped mochi for Hinamatsuri or Girls’ Day to display on a platform with dolls. Growing up, mochi to me was for special occasions, though, more associated with offerings for countless gods we believed we had all around the house or in the garden, for ancestors and for the family, not really for entertaining guests. Most of the time, we cooked mochi in either miso or soy sauce with katsuobushi bonito broth base as zōni or grilled it, again, with soy sauce. Other than that, I do not remember being too creative with the sauce or broth.

So, I know mochi is used to be for special occasions, but I thought “How can it be so special?” and “How can anyone claim it as their local specialty?”

Last week, I visited a restaurant run by Seiki-no-ichi Shuzo, sake and beer brewer in Ichinoseki, hoping to find the answer. Ichinoseki is located in the southern part of Iwate prefecture, a good base for visiting the Hiraizumi area. This part of Japan has been nominated as a World Heritage Site for historical places such as Chuson-ji, Motsu-ji and many others that flourished in the 12th century. Conveniently located only 10 minutes away from the JR Ichinoseki Station, the old brewing site of Seki-no-ichi Shuzo with kura and brick brewing facility from around the turn of the century, offers a lot to many people - something to enjoy for everyone. First, I visited their sake brewing historical museum with old tools, pictures, and a toji room showing how things looked a long time ago. Then, they took me around to their tasting room, restaurant, beer brewery, and beer pub. In the center of these historical buildings, there’s a very nice courtyard with tables. If you go there after August, you will see their almost completed standing sake bar in one of these buildings.

Their menu offers a wide range of choices from contemporary izakaya food to traditional local cuisine. I saw some interesting things on the menu: The Fujiwara zen- a course replicating some of the dishes from the Fujiwara clan, the lord who had the entire northern region around 12th century, various mochi dishes including zōni and nabe. At the restaurant, I ordered hatto & mochi set and sake. I got the mochi part, but I could not really picture hatto part.

“Hatto” in this area is nabe or hot pot dish with flat fresh pasta teared up by hands then cooked in a pot with simple broth and veggies. According to the restaurant, this type of flour based cooking is what people in the area used to eat everyday. This is very similar to what I learned about Senbei jiru from Hachinohe.

Hatto nabe
Mochi cuisine around Ichinoseki is for special occasions, such as weddings, funerals, or even over 60 occasions a year according to this Japanese site that lists a mochi calendar.

In the Hatto and mochi set I had, there were four kinds of mochi sauce; anko or sweet red bean paste, sweet kabocha or pumpkin paste, zunda or sweet green soy bean paste, and sweet starchy ginger flavored sauce with vegetables and soy sauce. The lady who brought out the meal told me specifically to follow that order. Other dishes came as set were grated daikon with vinegar, koya dofu cooked in broth, hijiki seaweed cocked in broth, grilled fish along with pickles and little salty dishes. Not being used to eating sweets before the meal and having sake with the meal, I asked the lady “before eating grilled fish and other dishes?” I am still puzzled by the order I was supposed to eat the entire meal, but I can imagine sugar was rather precious in the old days and people just had sweet mochi as the meal.

Mochi meals themselves may not sound so exciting as to entice people for a special trip to Ichinoseki. Though, combined with amazing historical sites of Hiraizumi, beautiful boat ride through the serene Geibikei Gorge, and a short distance to the quiet coast line with abundant seafood make this area very attractive destination to visit. No impact from the earthquake in this area other than the fact all the tourists are canceling the trip.

Restaurant Info
Seki-no-ichi Shuzo
5-42 Tamura-cho, Ichinoseki
TEL 0191-21-1144　

To view more pictures from the restaurant or from the sake museum, please visit tokyofoodcast on flickr.

Food
Sake Museum

I wish I could say that I had made this exquisite yōkan or jellied sweet that captured the underwater world so perfectly–fish are swimming through clear water over a mossy green riverbed paved with pebbles. This was a creation of students in the wagashi or Japanese sweets cooking class that meets next door to my kaiseki class.

You know what I am thinking…

One rainy afternoon in June, I was catching the Enoden near Fujisawa on the way back from a meeting. Looking at the beautiful posters saturated with colors all around the station promoting the ajisai or hydrangea season, I thought to stop by Kamakura rather than going straight back to Fujisawa. From Gokurakuji, I took a leisurely stroll to Hasedera, one of the temples in Kamakura famous for its beautiful ajisai garden during this season.

As I usually do when I go to Hasedera, I visited Benten-kutsu a cave where they have Benten statue and sixteen carved dōshi the messengers or followers of Benten on the rock wall. Only this time, I learned that each of the sixteen dōshi represented something, like clothes, wealth, food, or animals. As often seen at other temples or shrines, visitors buy a candle for 100 or 200 yen depending on the size, put their name on it, make a wish, then place the lighted candle in front of the statue related to their wish, hoping the dōshi will make it come true true. For example, I read a blog comment from a woman who wanted to find a very nice kimono, so she lit a candle for the kimono dōshi, then right after that she found the perfect one!

I normally do not do any of the candle stuff, plaque stuff, or fortune telling papers. So, I passed right through the entrance where they sell candles and walked by a statue in deeper shadow, when out of curiosity, I paused to take a look at what this poor god without any light represented. “Oh my god, this one is for sake!” I screamed, then quickly glanced at the next one with a few candle lights that was marked as the silk worm dōshi. Sake vs. silk worm? Without any hesitation, I definitely sided with sake guy and suddenly, I felt this urge to pay my proper respects to this shusen dōshi. I ran back to the entrance and paid 200 yen for a large-size candle.

There!
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Back in October 2007, I went to a Shimane Sake Tasting that featured 13 brewers from this part of San’in presenting their best in Tokyo. Melinda and I were both really impressed by what these Shimane brewers offered and I went home thinking about a trip to the source to visit some of the kura from that day. It seemed so far away then, but fast forward to March 2008. Finally, Te-chan and I were driving all over the Chūgoku and surrounding areas, starting from Ama-no-hashidate in Kyoto and ending at Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima. We had so much fun, learned so much, and ate and drank a lot at each stop we made at each brewery we visited.

Since I was so fascinated, especially, by Shimane with so much history, culture and myth along with its Shōwa like pace of life, I wanted to share my passion with other people by having a Tokyo Sake Meetup event featuring nihonshu from Shimane. With the help of the wonderful staff from the Shimane-kan in Tokyo, a tourism and commercial promotional shop, and the associated Shimane restaurant next door, Mondo, the group had such nice evening last Saturday where we experienced and enjoyed what Shimane hospitality is. Please visit Madam’s You, madam, are no Sei Shonagon for the nice snap shot of the evening with sake summary.

A bit about food in Shimane. Other than fresh fish, which is an obvious local delicacy all along the Japan Sea coast, famous shijimi or fresh water clam from Shinji-ko, soba from Izumo, and wagashi or Japanese sweets from Matsue, I was not too sure what is unique about Shimane food. So, I was curious what Mondo would serve the group to pair with Shimane sake, especially with a special dietary request: no chicken and no red meat.
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When I stopped at the Tokyu Foodshow in Shibuya last week, I spotted Kaiun’s crown jewel bottles, to-bin dori daiginjo that hold Toji’s name, Hase Shokichi label, wrapped in a thin white paper and carefully stocked in the refrigerator. Whenever I see this bottle in a shop, I can’t help myself but pause for a moment with respect that is more like with reverence with a big sigh, “Ahhhh, I wish I could get this bottle”. So, I did the usual thing; stood in front of the refrigerator at Tokyu for a few seconds in awe when I noticed a hand-written tag on the bottle, hardly noticeable since it is wrapped in a thin semi-opaque paper. At the May kikizake kai at Ichibe where Kaiun was the featured kura, the kanpai was to-bin dori Hase Shokichi daiginjo nama, my favorite of all sake. Just like as the bottles I was looking at in Tokyu last week, that had a blue hand-written label with three letters that read “Kubi 5 Ro”. Until I heard the explanation, the label was like a mysterious code to be decyphered.
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What would you say if someone asked you to try sake brewed on the Ginza? And, what if that sake had been made from rice grown in the heart of the Ginza, where people come from all over the world for high-end fashion, dining, and culture? I did not know exactly what I was getting into until I showed up at the Ginza showroom of the giant sake company, Hakutsuru one recent Friday evening.

When I heard of an event at Hakutsuru to make sake in their lab and press it after only two weeks, I thought I could finally see their centrifuge in action. At a previous event held to meet one of their toji, I spotted a small centrifuge in their compact lab next to the event room, and I am pretty sure I was the only one who was really excited about seeing this machine, even more so than meeting the toji. (To be fair, the chat with Fujiki Toji was almost like hearing the whole Showa and Heisei sake making history and turned out to be truly interesting. I asked a lot of questions of him, so he wasn’t upstaged by lab machinary) But, when the opportunity arose to see this squat, washing-machine like appliance in action pressing sake, I thought “yatta!”.

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May 20th is finally here, and I am sure a lot of people were waiting very anxiously to see this at 10 am today. The results of this year’s Shinshu Kanpyokai are in, and the complete list of award winners is posted on the NRIB’s website [Japanese].

Out of 957 brews entered into competition, 487 received awards. Of those, 255 were recognized as Gold Medal Winners.

Congratulations!

Finally, we are off the evil black list. Gee, it really felt like we did something wrong to have the tag pop up with the warning whenever our website comes up.

So, finally, we are back to business as usual. As I was reading Kyoto Foodie’s post on the kikizake event in Otsu, Shiga, although the event was not just for sake breweries from Shiga, it made me think of Shiga and it’s super controversial food funazushi.

Back in December, I was thinking to make a type of sushi called izushi with really fresh salmon and kōji-kin culture. I had a recipe for izushi with salmon, seaweed, daikon, carrots, ginger, rice, bamboo leaves, and koji to let all the ingredients ferment at low temperature for two months. I believe this is the type of sushi made before the current nigiri sushi style that started in Edo period. Occasional sampling of izushi from Hokkaido were all good, so I wanted to challenge making this dish for sometime. Now well into May, the challenge is going to be put back on the long list of things I want to do, among other things, hopefully this year.

Although my project never got started, this curiosity of mine triggered interesting conversation with our friends at the end of last year. “Why don’t you use funazushi rice as a starter rather than koji“? I have heard of the name of this traditional dish from Shiga, but did not know how it was made or how it tasted. So, our friends invited us to join their annual visit to a restaurant, Sumimoto in Nagahama, who specializes in Shiga regional cuisine and serves funazushi and duck dishes along with other local fresh water fish dishes.
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Some of you may have noticed a warning from Google or from Windows virus software that says that Tokyofoodcast may be harmful to your computer. May is a a pretty broad term, and I’m pretty sure we’re not.

Stopbadware.org is sponsored by a group of companies and has identified many malware distributors. Unfortunately they seem to have thrown the baby out with the bathwater and misidentified many innocent websites. It is extremely time consuming to get off Google’s blacklist, but we will try. In the meantime, please continue to browse as usual.