141 replies to this topic

[Kiem Hwa]

Shirokiya in Honolulu is having a Niigata fair this week
http://shirokiya.com...f1876b1fc96.gif

[Sencha]

Kaki no Tane (lit. persimmon seeds)

Did you know that Kaki no Tane was first produced by Naniwaya in Niigata?
http://www.naniwayas...4-beika/04.html

I had not realized Niigata is where kaki no tane were first produced! They sure remind me of my childhood. I loved to eat those! I'm so tempted to pick some up soon.

[Hiroyuki]

Shirokiya in Honolulu is having a Niigata fair this week
http://shirokiya.com...f1876b1fc96.gif

Are you going there?

[Kiem Hwa]

Shirokiya in Honolulu is having a Niigata fair this week
http://shirokiya.com...f1876b1fc96.gif

Are you going there?

I went for lunch today I sampled alot of various pickled daikon (shiso, miso, shoyu....), rakkyo, some pickled shiitake and nasu (yum!), other tsukemonos.

I also saw some dried? shiitake coated with sesame seeds with maybe a slight shoyu-sugar flavoring, looked like a snack, but they didnt have samples
There was also various seafood products to sample, including mentaiko & tarako, and ika shiokara.

They had koshikari rice musubis, but I had the koshihikari rice:mochiko rice (80:20%) grilled "gohei mochi", painted with a shoyu sauce while grilling and then mine was dipped in kinako. I also has the kushi-dango set pictured in the ad, with an, goma, and shoyu sauces. Wow, the koshihikari rice bags were so expensive. I think it was 5 or 10 punds of rice for 30$.

[Hiroyuki]

Thank you for your report, Kiem Hwa.

Some comments from me:
Gohei mochi is not a specialty of Niigata. It's a specialty of the Hida/Takayama (parts of Nagano and Gifu prefectures) and other regions.

If the bag is a 10-lb. one, I don't think it's expensive at all by Japanese standards, so it may be a 5-lb. bag.

[Kiem Hwa]

Thank you for your report, Kiem Hwa.

Some comments from me:
Gohei mochi is not a specialty of Niigata.  It's a specialty of the Hida/Takayama (parts of Nagano and Gifu prefectures) and other regions.

If the bag is a 10-lb. one, I don't think it's expensive at all by Japanese standards, so it may be a 5-lb. bag.

As far as the Gohei mochi, I think it was there because it was mostly made from the koshikari rice.

As far as the koshikari rice, it is probably a 5lb bag then since any products imported here from Japan have the prices raised 25-300%.

(For instance, i saw the Asahi ponzu in Japan for about 600yen, but here it is 9.50$ (a 50% increase), and anything I can find in the 100 yen stores over there is usually at least 2.50$ (250% increase) over here. )

[Hiroyuki]

You can view some nice pictures of rice paddies in Yuzawa town in Niigata prefecutre from here

[Hiroyuki]

             

I have never seen that before!

It's no wonder, torakris, because this is the very first attempt ever made by anyone. Nihon Lift Service http://www2.ocn.ne.jp/~jls/what/w1.htm (Japanese only) conceived an innovative idea for using its lift facilities at Ishiuchi Maruyama ski resort http://www.snowjapan...ail.php?resid=7 in the off season. They used a lift with 75 seats and an overall length of 800 meters to hang out premium Shiozawa-produced Koshihikari rice totaling 300 kg (50 pyou) in weight to dry in the sun. The lift was operated every two or three hours to complete the drying process in five days.
Tenpi boshi (sun-dried) rice tastes better than machine-dried rice, but has become rare because it requires much more time and labor.
As the name implies, the price of tenkuu mai is quite high; it starts at 17,000 yen per 10 kg, twice as high as the regular Shiozawa-produced Koshihikari rice.

Rice harvesting has begun this week in my rice-producing district in Niigata prefecture, about one month later than in Chiba prefecture, where the same variety, Koshihikari, is grown.
Tenkuu mai is dried out in the sun, as you can see from the official website of its producer, Nihon Lift Service. As you can easily guess, it's also sky-high in price - 10,000 yen per 5 kg! As of yesterday, 70% of all Tenkuu mai is already reserved for purchase, according to last night's local TV news program.

[Hiroyuki]

Rice harvesting continues this week and it will probably end next week.
Yesterday, my family went to city Imaizumi Museum to see my daugher's picture of my wife, displayed along with those of all other first graders in the Shiozawa area.
On the premises of the museum stands this big momument:

It says
You are in Uonuma.
Shiozawa Koshihikari
Minami Uonuma city
Soon-to-be-harvested rice paddies near the meseum:

Momument against Ishiuchi Maruyama Ski Resort:

[Route246]

I will be in Japan in December, perhaps in Niigata. I want to bring home (to California) 10kg of rice for my wife. It seems like there are many varieties of koshihikari. What's good and what's not so good? Is there something specific I should target or just get Niigata koshihikari and that should be good enough?

Rice harvesting continues this week and it will probably end next week.

[Cheeko]

I will be in Japan in December, perhaps in Niigata.  I want to bring home (to California) 10kg of rice for my wife.  It seems like there are many varieties of koshihikari.  What's good and what's not so good?  Is there something specific I should target or just get Niigata koshihikari and that should be good enough?

Rice harvesting continues this week and it will probably end next week.

Check out the thread on Types of Japanese Rice - I didn't find it until yesterday, but it has a lot of great information on rice in general as well as Koshi-Hikari rice.

Hiroyuki-thanks for posting those pictures of the monument and especially of the rice crop that looks like its almost ready...

[Hiroyuki]

I will be in Japan in December, perhaps in Niigata.  I want to bring home (to California) 10kg of rice for my wife.  It seems like there are many varieties of koshihikari.  What's good and what's not so good?  Is there something specific I should target or just get Niigata koshihikari and that should be good enough?

Rice harvesting continues this week and it will probably end next week.

Check out the thread on Types of Japanese Rice - I didn't find it until yesterday, but it has a lot of great information on rice in general as well as Koshi-Hikari rice.

Hiroyuki-thanks for posting those pictures of the monument and especially of the rice crop that looks like its almost ready...

As I stated elsewhere, Koshihikari rice produced in former Shiozawa town (now a part of Minami Uonuma city) and some neighboring areas is the very best. Google 塩沢産コシヒカリ (Shiozawa-produced Koshihikari), and you will get sites selling Shiozawa Koshihikari rice.
I provide only one link below:
JA Shiozawa Komegura
Minami Uonuma 南魚沼 Koshihikari is the second best, followed by Uonuma 魚沼, and Niigata 新潟 Koshihikari.
Again, as I stated elsewhere, Koshihikari is a rice variety, and its quality varies depending on where it is grown.

That being said, the difference between these brands are so subtle you could hardly tell the difference. I used to eat Koshihikari rice produced by my father in Chiba prefecture until about a decade ago, and now I usually eat Koshiibuki rice produced in Niigata prefecture. From my experience, I can say that I can hardly tell the difference between Chiba Koshihikari, Niigata Koshihikari, Shiozawa Koshihikari, and Niigata Koshiibuki.

You must pay attention to the milling date. Once milled, rice will deteriorate quickly, and should be consumed within two weeks or so. Unless you are a regular consumer of rice, I would recommend buying smaller bags, say, five 2-kilogram bags rather than one 10-kilogram bag. I would also recommend buying rice in nitrogen-filled bags so it keeps fresh for long, but unfortunately, I can't find any rice shops selling rice that way. Those of you who live in and around Tokyo, do you know of such rice shop?

Finally, you don't necessarily have to buy Koshihikari rice in Niigata. You can get decent Koshihikari rice in Tokyo although it may be slightly more expensive. Because the milling date is of great concern, you may want to buy it in Tokyo if the time from your trip to Niigata to your departure to the United States is considerably long.

[Hiroyuki]

Strictly speaking, in 2005 and after, almost all rice cultivated in Niigata prefecture is Koshihikari BL (Blast resistance Lines), not Koshihikari. Koshihikari BL derives from Koshihikari and has almost the same quality as Koshihikari. Niigata prefecture and JA decided to switch the Koshihikari rice to be cultivated throughout the prefecture to Koshihikari BL, partly because the latter is more resistant to blast and thus requires less pesticides and mainly because they thought the change would eliminate mislabeling scandals altogether. Any mislabeled rice can now easily be identified as such through DNA testing. There are some farmers who are resistant to such a sweeping change, claming that Koshihikari BL is not Koshihikari, but most farmers have followed the decision of Niigata prefecture and JA.

[Hiroyuki]

Here is a photo gallery in the Snow Japan website.
You can see some photos showing tenkuu mai, which I described upthread. You can also see dozens of photos showing how snowy Snow Country is.

[Hiroyuki]

When I went shopping the other day, there was a man at the supermarket who gave out free samples of "kuwa no ha men" (mulberry leaf noodles). I asked him if it was a specialty of Tookamachi city, and he replied that he was the only person who makes it. So, strictly speaking, it is not a speciality of Tookamachi city (adjacent to Minami Uonuma sity), but I thought you might be interested. So, here it is:


I bought two packs:




It was good! Very smooth texture and faint leaf flavor.

[Hiroyuki]

Watch all the video clips under the eight categories ranging from SPA and EVENT.
I'm sure you will enjoy. You will feel as if you visited the Snow Country.

[Hiroyuki]

Kakinomoto (edible kiku flowers) (Sorry I can't spell the English word for kiku .  Can you?)

Strange as it may sound, I bought a pack of kakinomoto the other day for the very first time, mainly because it was on sale (98 yen).

It has a crisp ("shaki shaki" in Japanese) texture, and my son says he likes it very much (it's sometimes served at school lunch).

[torakris]

Are they bitter? I haven't eaten the yellow kiku ones in a while but I recall them being quite bitter.

[Hiroyuki]

Are they bitter? I haven't eaten the yellow kiku ones in a while but I recall them being quite bitter.

No, not bitter at all. They are all about the texture.
The sauce that I made was:
1/2 cup (= 100 cc) dashi
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar (The original recipe called for 1 tbsp sugar).

The sauce was less sweet and wasn't sour, so my wife put some more sugar and some vinegar. But I liked my version.

[Cheeko]

Kakinomoto (edible kiku flowers) (Sorry I can't spell the English word for kiku .  Can you?)

...chrysanthemum -- but if you wanted to sound "posh" then you'd just say "mums" My dad grew the yellow ones in our garden but I don't remember eating the flowers - just the green part of the plant.

Edited by Cheeko, 13 October 2006 - 06:27 PM.

[Hiroyuki]

I went to this small, local festival, "Shinmai Matsuri", today, first with my son and later by myself.

Can you guess what this is?

It's rice chaff. What are they going to do with it? I'll give you the answer later.
A line of people waiting to be served:

I got mine!

A shio musubi (salted rice ball), some pan-fried(?) vegetables, and clear soup with maitake (Ishizaka maitake!) and other stuff. The rice ball is, of course, made with Shiozawa Koshihikari rice! A real treat for any Japanese!
I had two brands of sake:

A retro bus:

Nuka momi (bran and chaff) kama:

The answer to the question above: The chaff is burned to cook rice.
Small kama to use in a rice-related quiz:


When I came back to the site, the rice was already cooked :

A rice-related quize is under way:

I was glad to find that I wasn't late to taste the rice cooked in the nuka momi kama:

Look at the world's most expensive and tastiest rice:

Two girls received the first prize:


I bought these:

Three packs of Ishizaka maitake, hand-made konnyaku, and purple sweet potato yokan.

[Hiroyuki]

I bought a 5-kg bag of Koshihikari rice at a "home center" today

not because I wanted it but simply because the Koshiibuki that I usually buy was sold out.
Edited to add: The 5-kg bag was 2,980 yen. The place of production on the label was simply "Niigata" (not "Uonuma" or "Minami Uonuma").

Edited by Hiroyuki, 14 October 2006 - 05:32 AM.

[Hiroyuki]

Can you guess what this building is?

It's a bank. Cool, isn't it?
This is a doctor's office:

If you want to see what it was like one year ago, click this.
These two buildings are on Bokushi Doori (Street). If you want to see what the street looks like, click this.

[Hiroyuki]

I had two brands of sake:

In the Shiozawa area, there are two sake brewries: Aoki Shuzo and Takachiyo Shuzo
Kakurei (left) is a brand of the former, while Makihata (right) is a brand of the latter.

This is the office of Aoki Shuzo, which is located on Bokushi Doori, mentioned earlier.

This is the storehouse of the brewery:

In front of the storehouse, there is a spring:

Can you read the inscription?

[Hiroyuki]

I went to this small, local festival, "Shinmai Matsuri", today, first with my son and later by myself.

Actually, this festival is part of the campaign that is running in the Shiozawa area (from October 1 to November 3).
The name of the campaign: Shiozawa Shinmai Campaign.
Here is the cover of the guide to the campaign:

Map inside the guide:

I'm planning to go to one of the twenty restaurants in the Shiozawa area that participate in the campaign and report back.
If you want to see the guide in more detail, here is the web version of it:
http://shiozawa.interwindow.net/
Scroll down and click the photo of the cover of the guide.

[Hiroyuki]

I went to this small, local festival, "Shinmai Matsuri", today, first with my son and later by myself.

Some other features of the festival:
Echigo Mochi Buta (soft and juicy pork in Niigata):

Close-up:

Koshihikari beer, available at Kanazawaya liquor shop only:

For more, click here.
Kinoko Shin Soba (buckwheat noodles made with newly cropped buckwheat, topped with a variety of simmered mushrooms)

Close-up of the mushroom pot:

My son ordered one. He said that the mushrooms were amandare (honey mushroom), maitake, and buna shimeji.

[Hiroyuki]

When you get off at Shiozawa Station on Echigo Line, you will be greeted by this snow crystal pattern on the floor.

Shiozawa Station:

It looks almost desolate, but my wife says it's not unmanned.
When you walk down the main street, you will soon see this three-story wooden inn on your right.

I don't know why, but this is one of my favorite buildings in Shiozawa.
In two or three minutes, you will come to an intersection with traffic lights. When you turn left, you will see Bokushi Doori, mentioned upthread. When you turn right, you will see Herb Doori (Street).

The sidewalk on each side of the street is paved at intervals with tiles with different snow crystal patterns on them.
Some examples:




As this board says,

tiles with 35 different patterns are used, all from the book, "Hokuetsu Seppu" (Snow Country Tales), by Suzuki Bokushi, a writer who was born in Shiozawa in the Edo period.
This is Suzuki Bokushi Memorial Hall, located in Shiozawa.

I like this wooden-structured building more than the exhibits.
To keep this post food-related, I'd like to stress that it's impossible to talk about the specialties of Shiozawa such as rice and sake without referring to snow.

[Hiroyuki]

I will be in Japan in December, perhaps in Niigata.  I want to bring home (to California) 10kg of rice for my wife.  It seems like there are many varieties of koshihikari.  What's good and what's not so good?  Is there something specific I should target or just get Niigata koshihikari and that should be good enough?

Rice harvesting continues this week and it will probably end next week.

As I mentioned here

Shokumi (食味, palatability?, eating quality?) of a specific variety of rice produced in a specific location is determined through sensory evaluation by Japan Grain Inspection Association (Japanese only). A panel (group of assessors) determines the shokumi according to these factors: appearance, aroma, flavor, stickiness, and hardness.

Shokumi can also be determined with a shokumi kei (shokumi measuring instrument) or a texturometer.

Generally, rice is considered good if it is white, shiny, aromatic, sweet (becomes sweet when you chew it), sticky, and resilient.

rice is evaluated according these factors. It should be noted that depending on what you look for in rice, you may be disappointed by what is generally considered good rice by the Japanese. It should also be noted that rice is not sweet by itself. It will become slightly sweet when you chew it in your mouth due to the reaction between starch and saliva. What I mean is that good rice is not sweet rice.

[Hiroyuki]

Here is some interesting information about Shiozawa Koshihikari rice.
http://www.shiozawa-...koshihikari.htm
The title is: Why is Shiozawa Koshihikari rice tasty?
The subtitle is: Is Shiozawa Koshihikari rice marbled?
Rough translation: The rice grain is largely divided into the endosperm at the core and the outer bran layers. These bran layers contain large amounts of amino acids and are therefore sources of umami! The Prefectural Centeral Laboratory(?) found that in high quality rice, these bran layers deeply enter the endosperm just like fat marbled in beef. They also found that in such rice, the starch granules in starch cells are small and are less likely to break cell membranes when the rice is cooked.
These factors cannot be expressed as numeric values with a palatability measuring instrument, and are the secrets of esoteric tastiness of Shiozawa Koshihikari.
Impressed?

[Hiroyuki]

This is Uono River, which runs through the city, as seen from Maejima Bridge, just a one-minute walk from my house, against Mt. Hakkai:

Opposite side, toward Yuzawa town:

You can also see Mt. Kinjo (left) and Mt. Makihata (one of the 100 notable mountains in Japan, or 百名山 hyaku mei zan)

Uono River is famous for sweetfish (ayu) angling. You can also fish iwana, yamame, nijimasu, and other freshwater fish.