April 16, 2014
Our main objective for our trip to Japan (besides noodles and ekiben) was to visit the many factories where they make the bar and glassware we select for Umami Mart. We wanted to go straight to the source, and meet the people behind the products. This ended up being far more fruitful than we could have […]
March 28, 2014
Japan is noodle crazy. Each station in each town of each prefecture have their own noodle specialty. Being noodle fiends ourselves, Kayoko and I researched some of the regional noodles of Niigata prefecture before setting foot there last month. As soon as we arrived, we noticed a lot of ramen and soba. We wanted to […]
March 17, 2014
Trends in roll combinations in the States are rapid, with so many joints coming up with their own “house” rolls. Conversely, the combinations of rolls or makimono are very constant in Japan. In this post, I am specifically referring to hosomaki (or thin rolls). There are the staples: kappa (cucumber), oshinko (pickled radish) and kanpyo (dried […]
October 25, 2011
Last Wednesday, I went with the OPENharvest group to a rice farm in Uonuma, Niigata. We harvested one paddy of rice from cutting the rice plants to hanging them to dry on a rack. Rice farmer Satoshi Imai gave me the run down on why his rice is special and how he envisions the future […]
October 24, 2011
At 5am on a Thursday morning, groggy and jetlagged, 20 of us OPENharvest participants, with Food Light Project members piled into three vans headed for Niigata prefecture. As we drove through the quiet morning streets of Tokyo, we eagerly anticipated the adventures ahead. Three hours and several rest stops later, we made it to Uonuma, […]