Posted in Food, Philosophy, Sake, Writing on May 27th, 2008 1 Comment »
In previous posts about Japanese cuisine and sake-making I have talked about the obsession with ultimate quality in cooking (and in cutting, which is very important in Asian cuisine as the diners themselves do not have a knife!), as well as of sake brewing as a handicraft that in the end is practiced on a […]
Posted in Food, Osaka, Sake on May 27th, 2008 No Comments »
Sake brewing in Osaka began in Japan’s Middle Ages with a famous monastery, Amanosan Kongoji. Standing in Kawachi-Nagano, this is still a great Esoteric Buddhist temple. The sake, Amano-shu, was provided to the Ashikaga shoguns and also Hideyoshi is on record as a fervent admirer. Technically, this sake was also advanced - it was brewed […]
Posted in Food, Japan, Kobe, Museums, Sake on May 21st, 2008 4 Comments »
The largest sake producing area in the whole of Japan can be found in Hyogo Prefecture, at the seaside of Nishinomiya and in the eastern part of Kobe. This area is called “Nada” and as there are five sake producing districts, one speaks about the “Five Nada Districts” (Nada Gogo). From east to west these […]
Posted in Food, Sake, Technology on May 19th, 2008 No Comments »
Sake is for 70% water, so water is by far the major ingredient. Water used in the sake brewing process is called “Shuzo Yosui” and can be divided into two types: “Jozo yosui,” or the water used for the fermentation process and “Binzume yosui” or the water used for bottling and other processes. The first […]
Posted in Food, Sake, Technology on May 18th, 2008 No Comments »
Rice and water are the two main raw materials in sake, but for sake, not all rice is equal. The rice used for sake is called “sakamai,” “Sake rice;” about 5% of all rice grown in Japan is “Sake rice.”
One particular type of “Sake rice” is the so-called “Shuzo Kotekimai,” the “Rice ideally suitable for […]
Posted in Food, Kyoto, Temples, Travel on May 16th, 2008 No Comments »
In Kyoto there exist certain “nodes,” a sort of starting points that bring you to all kinds of interesting destinations while also being worthwhile in their own right. Demachiyanagi is, perhaps unexpectedly, one of those nodes.
[The wedge between the Kamo (left) and Takano (right) rivers, with Kamogawa Park and behind that the Tadasu forest of […]
Posted in Food, Osaka, Technology on May 2nd, 2008 1 Comment »
I have written a recent post on the birth of kaiten sushi or conveyor belt sushi exactly 50 year’s ago - an invention made in the great city of Osaka, but I still had to visit the shop where that happened: Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Fuse, Osaka.
Fuse is just a few minutes by Nara-bound Kintetsu […]
Posted in Book, Food, Japan, Manga, Osaka, Tokyo on Apr 22nd, 2008 No Comments »
Food manga are not always about gourmet food, even when they are called The Solitary Gourmand (Kodoku no Gurume). For there is not a shred of fancy food in all these stories. Instead, they introduce us to the daily dishes and common eateries of the ordinary Japanese, and that is all the more interesting.
The setting […]
Posted in Culture, Food, Osaka on Apr 20th, 2008 3 Comments »
Osaka often seems to be playing second fiddle to Big Brother Tokyo, but it actually is a city of many firsts. Calculators were invented here in 1964, the first automatic ticket gates appeared in Osaka in 1967, vacuum packed foods as curry were introduced in 1968, and the famous cup noodles made their first appearance […]
Posted in Business, Food, Japan, Society on Apr 3rd, 2008 1 Comment »
In Japan, food is judged on its health properties, real or imagined, and fads of such foods are fed by media frenzy. It is only a short time ago that all Japanese were eating blueberries for better eyesight and natto to slim down. Drinks, especially of the sort sold in 350 or 500 cc pet […]
Posted in Animation, Food, Japan, Osaka, Technology, Web on Apr 2nd, 2008 No Comments »
This somewhat creepy, robotlike Japanese woman follows your cursor with her eyes as you move it over the screen! The technology was developed by Japanese company MotionPortrait. (Via Jean Snow)
Billiken, the fiendish-looking God of Good Luck in the Tsutenkaku Tower, Osaka, has celebrated his 100th birthday.
During the ceremony, a birthday cake was presented to […]
Posted in Architecture, Art, Business, Food, Japan, Museums, Photography, Web on Mar 31st, 2008 No Comments »
Japan Newbie has a nice piece on a kushikatsu restaurant in Juuso, Osaka, run by an elderly couple. The cook wears berets and the wife is extremely forgetful, but the taste is great.
The New York Times features Mori Minoru of Roppongi Hills fame in The Builder Who Pushes Tokyo Into the Clouds. Yes, Mr Mori […]
Posted in Food, Japan, Kyoto, Museums, Sake on Mar 23rd, 2008 1 Comment »
I am starting a new series where I will look into the regional varieties of Japanese sake. The first one is Kyoto!
[Fushimi sake district, Kyoto]
Kyoto Prefecture is in volume the second sake producing prefecture in Japan - after Hyogo’s Nada district. That is all thanks to the breweries in the southern part of the prefecture, […]
Posted in Animation, Book, Food, Japan, Manga, Nature, Web on Mar 22nd, 2008 No Comments »
As the International Herald tribune reports, foreign minister Komura Masahiko has appointed Doraemon as Japan’s first cartoon ambassador. The robot cat, who is especially popular in Asia, promised:
Through my cartoons, I hope to convey to people abroad what ordinary Japanese people think, our lifestyles and what kind of future we want to build.
Perhaps the […]
Posted in Art, Culture, Food, Japan, Nature, Religion, Web on Mar 21st, 2008 No Comments »
The Mitsukoshi Department Store has bought a small Buddhist wood statue carved by famous Kamakura-period master Unkei at Christie’s in New York for $12.8 million. The Dainichi Nyorai (Cosmic Buddha) figure brought in more than ten times the estimated price - this is the highest price ever offered for any Buddhist artwork in the world […]
Posted in Animation, Food, Manga, Review, Sake on Mar 16th, 2008 2 Comments »
In my search for food-related manga, I came across a very interesting specimen: Moyashimon, by Ishikawa Masayuki, which calls itself “Tales of Agriculture,” but rather is about a hero with the unique ability to see and talk with bacteria and other micro-organisms.
Now this is a nice proposition, because Japanese food culture is after all a […]
Posted in Economy, Food, History, Japan, Web on Mar 8th, 2008 No Comments »
Watashi to Tokyo writes about yoshoku, “Japanese original Western food” as Turkey rice, American dog and Napolitan Spaghetti - a category sadly ignored by Michelin.
Ampontan has an interesting piece on the Imperial Warehouses (Gyofu) where originally the spoils of war were kept - except a Chinese rock (Korosei) of great historical importance these have now […]
Posted in Food, Manga on Feb 22nd, 2008 1 Comment »
In a previous post I wrote about the food-addiction of the Japanese. With the culinary passion here running as high as it does, it is not surprising that also among manga comics there is a category of “gourmet manga.” Here is my take on the most famous one: Oishinbo.
Oishinbo (usually translated as “The Gourmet” or […]
Posted in Food, Japan, Review, Tokyo on Feb 15th, 2008 No Comments »
Newsweek has taken up the Michelin-story in an interesting and knowledgeable article called The New Food Capital of the World by Christian Caryl and Akiko Kashiwagi.
“Japan is a food-crazy nation like few others,” they say - and as I fully agree with their judgement, I’d like to pick up a few points from the article […]
Posted in Culture, Food, Japan on Jan 25th, 2008 No Comments »
Is rice still the soul of Japan? Perhaps not so strongly anymore when you see the advance of hamburgers, pasta en steaks.
But various things still remind me of the fact that this tropical marshland plant has shaped Japanese civilization as we know it. Rice and the Japanese share a long and deep relationship. Rice […]
Posted in Food, Japan on Jan 22nd, 2008 No Comments »
Fast foods existed in Japan long before McDonalds arrived with its fattening hamburgers. My favorite type of such a traditional fast food is at the same time the most simple: the plain, old-fashioned rice ball.
Apart from a bowl of white rice in its original form, rice balls are probably the simplest rice dish. The name […]
Posted in Food, Kyoto, Temples on Jan 20th, 2008 No Comments »
In my post “Temples and Sweets in Kyoto” I wrote amongst others about the Inari Sembei (fox rice biscuits) of the Inariya shop near the Fushimi Inari Shrine. Yesterday, when evening was already falling, I was again in the Inari Shrine. A round moon was hanging above the vermillion buildings, slightly hazy. The air was […]
Posted in Culture, Food, Kobe on Jan 14th, 2008 No Comments »
We have tachi-yomi (standing and browsing the magazines and manga in a bookshop), tachi-shomben (public urinating in an upright position), and this is tachi-gui, eating at a stand-up restaurant. The diners are enjoying bowls of hot Hakata Ramen, something quite enviable.
Posted in Business, Culture, Food, Japan on Jan 13th, 2008 2 Comments »
Food crazes come and go in Japan, one after the other, sometimes many simultaneously, but the fervor for “black foods” is remarkably steady – it has already been with us for almost ten years. And indeed, black is better, as black foods often contain more anthocyanin (a type of polyphenol found in high concentrations in […]
Posted in Festivals, Food, Japan on Jan 11th, 2008 No Comments »
Today is Kagami-biraki, “opening of the mirror”, the day that the rice cakes (mochi) that were displayed during New Year as an offer to the gods, are broken into small pieces and eaten in shiruko (a sweet soup made of azuki beans) or as zoni (mochi in New Year soup). To eat them in some […]
