What is Ume? Where did it come from? “Ume” means Japanese plums in Japanese. You may have heard of “Umeboshi” in Japanese which are pickled Japanese plums that we normally eat with white rice in Japan. In Japan, there is an old saying that “coarse tea and Japanese plum a day keeps the doctor away” […]
Category: Food/Drink
Introducing authentic Japanese food
What is Amazake? Amazake is one of the fermented foods that has been loved by Japanese people since the Edo era (1603-1868) which is made from fermented rice that helps nutrient digestion and absorption of human body, meaning Amazake helps abosrb nutrition in an efficient manner and turn it into energy. Especially during the hot […]
Beneficial effects of green tea Today, I’d like to introduce some of the beneficial effects that green tea has on infectious diseases and human immune systems. In Japan, there is an old saying that if you drink green tea that was picked on the eighty‐eighth day from the beginning of spring, you will be able […]
What is pickled base called “358”? The pickled base made of salt, koji, and rice called “358 (three, five, eight in Japanese)” is a product of Fukushima prefecture used as an ingredient for Japanese food. As the name indicates, the product is made by mixing salt, koji, and steamed rice in the ratio 3:5:8. By […]
If you are in Japan, a lot of Sushi restaurants deliver fresh sushi to your home with just a phone call in advance. Most of the time, the sushi comes in a Japanese Jubako box, a special lacquered food box similar to Bento boxes. These days, if you are in central parts of Tokyo, you […]
Coffee Shop near Gakugei-daigaku station “Kanno Coffee” is a coffee shop located about a 12-minute walk from the Gakugei-daigaku station on Tokyu-Toyoko Line. It looks like a coffee factory outside (and indeed, there is a coffee factory inside the building) but inside the shop has a very warm, comfortable atmosphere with wooden furniture. The owner […]
Nihonshu Oendan “Nihonshu Oendan” is a company that aims for people inside and outside of Japan to truly taste, understand, and discover a real good sake, while also reviving historical family breweries in Japan. They partner with sake breweries in various areas in Japan such as Ishikawa, Shimane, Nigata, Oita, and Saitama and make original […]
History of the restaurant Today I’d like to introduce one restaurant that serves food and drinks that incorporate Japanese tea as ingredients. The restaurant serves a wide range of Japanese tea such as Green tea, Barley tea, Hojicha, Matcha, etc. The restaurant opened in 2014 as a main dining of Hotel Ryumeikan Ochanomizu Honten which […]
If you are in Tokyo and want to see Japanese drum (“Taiko”) show while enjoying good Japanese Izakaya food, then please try Gonpachi Nishi-Azabu. It is a chain of restaurants with more than ten locations in Tokyo. You may have already heard about the restaurant as the restaurant was the model location for a fighting […]
You may have made Miso soup before but today, I’d like to introduce a very easy way to make your miso soup ever better. Just by adding two different kinds of miso, your soup will have much deeper and richer flavor. What I normally use for my miso soup is a mixture of red miso […]