Living & Working in Ishikawa, Japan
Foodies of Ishikawa, you’re in for a treat! Yuka Kokon is offering a class next week at Noppo kun restaurant about how to make and season foods with salt koji, an Ishikawa specialty. What is salt koji, you may ask? Koji is a trendy fermented seasoning (like miso) made of steamed rice and the same fermenting agent used in sake and soy sauce.
In this class, you will be taught how to make your own salt koji and also how to use salt koji in other recipes.
Class Information
When: Thursday, January 24th, from 10 am to 12:30 pm.
Where: Noppo kun Restaurant and Natural Foods Market in Nonoichi
石川県野々市市本町2-1-24
Cost: 2,500 yen. This includes lunch!
Contact: koji.seminar(at)gmail.com
The organizer of this event is English-proficient and will be on-hand during the demonstration. Both the chef and the organizer are excited to share this little-known specialty with Ishikawa’s foreign residents, so even if you can’t attend, pass word along!
Salt Koji Cooking Seminar (ENG)
As a foreigner living in Ishikawa, no matter how much you love Japanese food, there comes a point when you have had enough pickled vegetables, curry, and cod sperm. Want to whip-up something from home, but can’t find certain ingredients? Well, here is a collection of shops in Kanazawa where you can find food items from back home.
Yamaya – やまや
This is THE foreign import store of mass-produced goods. Here you will find ingredients for Italian, Southeast Asian, Tex Mex, and Indian meals. You’ll also find imported potato chips and snacks, matzo ball soup, pancake mix, maple syrup, peanut butter, garbanzo beans, flour tortillas, hot sauce, and tons more. My listings are biased, so check this place out for yourself. Personally, I think their strength lies in their assortment of alcohol. They have a decent selection of imported beers that you won’t find in any Japanese market or conbini and an impressive selection of spirits for very decent prices; I’ve found the spirits here to be 10-30% cheaper than in the US. There are many branches spread across Japan, including one in Nanao, three in Kanazawa, one in Nonoichi, and one in Komatsu. Click here for a complete listing and hours of operation. http://www.yamaya.co.jp
Diamond - ダイヤモンド
Ah, the elusive Diamond market. Often described as the foreign goods store on the second floor of Omicho Market – beware! Many never find it, so let me guide you. From the fancy entrance facing M’za (see picture), go into the actual market, turn left, then turn right, and finally turn right once more. It will be on your left hand side. Go into the shop and THEN go upstairs to the second floor. If you try taking any other stairs to “the second floor,” you’ll never get there. This shop has a plethora of foreign goods similar to Yamaya, but more selective and on a much smaller scale. They include hundreds of spices, ghee, dry pastas, sun dried tomatoes, baking goods, shredded coconut, agave syrup, Cherry Cola, and cooking oils (avocado, grapeseed, walnut, almond). Hours of operation follow Omicho market’s schedule. http://www.daiya-net.co.jp/index.html
Fu-do – 風土
For the health-conscience, Fu-do offers a variety of brown rice (玄米) harvested exclusively by a dozen farmers across Ishikawa prefecture. A kilo of rice averages around 500-600円. They will gladly offer you rice bran (ヌカ) free of charge. You can use the rice bran to cook bamboo shoots in the spring! If you are not familiar with cooking brown rice in your rice cooker, wash it and then let it soak in water for 5 hours prior to turning on the cooker. The shop is located in the basement of Omicho market near the escalators. Hours of operation are 10am-6pm and follow Omicho’s holiday schedule. http://fu-do.agri-ishikawa.jp
Yaoya -八百屋
This shop is owned by Yamada-san, a friendly fellow who lived in Canada for a while and speaks some English. He carries an assortment of seasonal produce from Ishikawa as well as some goods from overseas. Shop highlights include: passion fruit, fresh coriander (cilantro), jalapeños, zebra tomatoes, purple cauliflower, round squash, and cherimoyas. He receives new stock on Tuesdays and Saturdays, but if you are coming from out of town, he recommends giving him a call to check what produce is available that day. Produce subject to change with the seasons. Yaomatsu is located near the top of Shintatemachi. He is open from 8am-6pm and closed on Sundays. http://www.yaomatsu.jp
Cheese Oukoku – チーズ王国
This shop, in the basement (デパ地下) of Daiwa, opened less than a year ago. It carries a nice variety of cheeses (ricotta, gouda, cheddar, blue, parmessan, mozzarela, brie, camambert, and more). Word to the wise, if you are looking for pure crumbly feta, check out the cheese section in M’za’s basement market. These shops are not cheap, but the quality and selection is 10 times better than anything you’ll find at the supermarket. As an added bonus, if you are looking to make pesto from scratch, you can find pine nuts in the Daiwa basement market right around the cheese shop. Hours are from 10am-7pm. http://www.cheese-oukoku.co.jp/
The Meat Guy
The Meat Guy is an online meat provider based in Nagoya. Not exactly in the neighborhood, but if you are looking for meat, this is your guy. You can find anything on there: lamb chops, turkey, alligator sausage, rib eye steaks, suckling pig, Australian beef and more. Shipping is a reasonable 650円 and occasionally he offers free shipping deals. Check him out at http://www.themeatguy.jp.
This listing is Kanazawa-centric as this is where I live, but it should cover many of your bases. I invite those who live outside Kanazawa and everyone else to chime in with your recommendations in the comments section!
Here is a map I’ve put together of all of the shops listed.
Mauricio is a 2nd year ALT in Kanazawa who very much loves Japanese food.
The Ishikawa JET Kitchen gives you adapted and original recipes made for your kitchen.
Are all the new foods you’re finding at the supermarket a bit overwhelming? Have you been wracking your brain trying to convert your favorite chocolate chip recipe to your metric measuring cups? Are you sick of not knowing which flour you need for what kind of cooking?
Cooking in Japan can be a challenge, but now it just got a little bit easier with The Ishikawa JET Kitchen, an interactive digital cookbook from Ishikawa AJET. This cookbook is the brainchild of former Anamizu CIR Leah Zoller. With the help of a dedicated group of recipe contributors and testers, the penultimate cookbook that every JET should own. Whether you’re new to cooking, or a culinary whiz you will benefit from the wide range of traditional Japanese and homegrown recipes from Ishikawa JETs around the world.
Recipes for people with dietary restrictions have been tagged for easy searching – so whether you’re vegetarian, vegan, lactose intolerant, or keep gluten-free you can find what recipe will work for you in no time.
For only ¥1000 you can get over your fear of the supermarket and use your kitchen like a pro. All proceeds from The Ishikawa JET Kitchen will go to Second Harvest charity. If you like the cookbook, make sure to tell your friends, family and coworkers!
To get the Cookbook, please transfer your payment of ¥1000 to the Ishikawa AJET account:
Bank name 北國銀行（ほっこくぎんこう）
Branch name 宇野気支店（うのけしてん）
Acct number 381962
Acct name エージェットイシカワシブ
Please send an email with the subject line “Cookbook Payment” to ishikawaajet[at]gmail.com with your name as it appears on your bank book. We’ll email your copy of the cookbook once payment is confirmed.
Please not that a direct “buy now” option is no longer available.
The end of summer vacation is in sight, and the weather seems to be conspiring. With average temperatures since the weekend hovering around 27 degrees (down from the mid 30s a week ago), it’s hard to believe its still August. At this rate, we can expect the disappearance of these quaint little blue-and-red banners from storefronts any day:
The "ice" flag (read: Shaved Ice Sold Within)
Summer is the season of kakigori (かき氷 – shaved ice). First recorded in writings from the Heian Period (784-1185), this popular icy treat continues to make an annual appearance in cafes, convenience stores and festival stalls across Japan from June through August. It comes in fruity flavors like melon and peach (my favorite is strawberry with condensed milk), as well as Japanese classics like macha (green tea) and azuki (sweet bean).
If, like me, you find yourself experiencing the childish desire for shaved ice season to last forever, you might consider making your own. Kakigori ki (かき氷機 – shaved ice machines) are available in a number of colors and models at house ware purveyors (think AEON, Komeri, Don Qihote and PLANT 3). Until this year, I had always dismissed this kind of thing as a silly extravagance, but I was surprised to see how cheap they were. Even without end of summer discounts, you can expect to spend between 900 and 3000 yen (those that are electric or are covered with images of Pikachu, Anpanman, or Micky Mouse tend to run a little higher than the plain, hand-crank varieties).
My electric shaved ice machine was 1900 yen at PLANT 3 in Tsubata.
Ingredients are surprisingly simple – just ice (most machines are fine with regular old ice cubes) and syrup. For that brightly colored carnival effect, flavored syrups are available at most grocery stores. Alternatively, if you’re feeling ambitious, you can make your own! For a homemade plum syrup recipe, check out Hokuriku Expat Kitchen. Go enjoy the stuffing out of summer – and, as always, happy cooking.
Kakigori with homemade plum sauce and condensed milk. I wish I had done this much earlier.
Chelsea is a second year CIR in Tsubata. She writes a blog, and will probably be posting shaved ice recipes through December.
With this being the summer of energy saving, even those havens of heavy AC use like Kahoku AEON are a few degrees warmer inside this year than last. On the flip side, this summer has seen a surge in countermeasures against summer discomfort which don’t use electricity, but employ instead the powers of nature and the human psyche. For example, the sound of a fuurin (風鈴), a glass windchime, draws one’s attention to the breeze and is said to create a cooling effect. (I had one last year, and I have to say, I found it very pleasant.) Another example that you may have noticed around your town is the Green Curtain (グリーン・カーテン) , leafy vines trained to grow on a net in front of a window. Of course, this blocks hot sunlight from the interior of a home or office, but the real selling point is psychological – green leaves waving gently in the wind are meant to make the veiwer feel cool and energized.
Now, one issue is that there aren’t many attractive vines that live long and prosper when forced to grow along a scorching exterior wall in the middle of summer. With a lot of TLC, morning glories and cucumbers do okay, but the champion of the green curtain is goya. A relative of the cucumber, goya (or bitter melon) is native to tropical and sub-tropical locations around the world. It produces a fruiting body that resembles a cucumber with the measles. While theoretically edible, the bumpy goya is one of the bitterest foods out there. Recipes that use goya, such as Okinawan chanpuru, usually include steps to remove some of the astringent taste, and mask the rest with the mild flavors of eggs, meat or tofu.
If they’re so bitter, why bother? Here are five reasons why you might consider giving goya a try:
Whether that last one actually has any scientific backing, I’m not sure. But like I said, power-saving summer comfort is as much psychological as it is material.
Ready to give goya a go? Check out the end of this blog post for a chanpuru recipe – it’s easy, filling, and (most importantly of all) completely edible.
Chelsea is a second year CIR in Tsubata. She enjoys meeting other food people through her blog, and is always up for trying new veggies.
Bento: healthy, convenient, and (with a little planning) yours for only 10 minutes of your morning.
I know a lot of JETs partake of school lunch on a pretty regular basis, but do you ever have days when you need to provide your own lunch? And how about those of you who work at schools without kyushoku, or who don’t work at schools at all? Do you ever feel envious of the neatly packed bento that your students or coworkers bring from home? Do you want to make your own lunch, but feel daunted by the prospect of waking up even earlier than you already do?
There are two ways that I bribe myself into making bento for myself (almost) every morning. The first: giving in to my ego and posting photos of my lunches online for people to write nice comments on. The second: making stuff in advance.
While psychological motivators are all well and good, preparing dishes in advance is actually a very effective time saver, and could ultimately be the difference between a one-time early morning stint and a sustainable bento-making schedule. Sometimes you might just put aside a little bit of whatever you had for dinner the night before, but it’s also helpful to have something with a long life span on hand in the fridge or freezer. Meat products lend themselves to this particularly well, but there are a number of vegetable dishes that can be set aside for later.
My personal favorite is kinpira gobo (金平ごぼう). Kinpira describes a method of cooking which is a combination of simmering and sauteeing in a mixture of soy sauce, sake and sugar. The final result is salty, sweet and spicy, all at the same time. A variety of vegetables and other ingredients can be prepared this way, but my favorite is gobo (burdock root), a root vegetable available in the produce section of Japanese grocery stores year round. Gobo is a long, skinny root, usually still covered in dirt, sold in a large plastic in quantities of 2-10, depending on the size of the roots. It is somewhat tough, and needs to be soaked to remove bitterness before being prepared. It’s unique, earthy flavor is worth the work, though. It makes a good addition to miso soup or stir fry, but I think its flavor is best exhibited in kinpira.
Kinpira is a great addition to bento for a number of reasons. For one, it tastes just as good (if not better) cold as it does hot. Equally important is the fact that it keeps well in the refridgerator, and can be set aside in the freezer for a long time if sealed properly. I usually make a big batch of it all at once, then wrap it in small portions in plastic wrap and keep it frozen until I need it.
Want to try making kinpira? Check out the recipe on my blog!
I got up at 7:00this morning, washed my face, got dressed, did my hair (okay, actually, I just sort of ran a comb through it - it looks pretty weird), made lunch, ate breakfast, read a front page story from the New York Times, and was out the door by 8:00. With a little planning, making a bento every day is not an unattainable goal.
Chelsea Robinson is a first year CIR in Tsubata with a thing for food. Check out Hokuriku Expat Ktichen for more bento ideas and culinary musings.
For a small country, it seems to me that Japan has an amazing variety of regional cuisine. Here in Ishikawa, we’re blessed with ample seafood, and the cold winters and hot, humid summers lend themselves particularly well to fermentation; as a result, many of our regional specialties involve fermented seafood which, I think, is something of an aquired taste that I have yet to aquire. If you, like me, are looking to try something else that’s popular with the locals, why not give fu (麩) a try?
Fu is the name used to describe a number of preparations of wheat gluten (essentially, what’s left over if you wash all the startch out of wheat flour.) Some kinds, including sudare-bu （すだれ麩 – a type of fu eaten almost excuslively in Ishikawa), are very dense and hard, and require soaking before they are edible. Other kinds, such as kuruma-fu （車麩 – a popular ingredient in home cooking in Hokuriku） are leavened with baking powder. These are light, brittle, and extremely absorbent. The soak up sauce like nobody’s business, and make a satisfying (and protein-rich) meat subsitute in stir fry and curry.
I bought a package of kuruma fu earier this week, and have been having a lot of fun cooking with it. Would you like to give it a try? Check out Hokuriku Expat Kitchen this week for recipes for Fu Donburi and Cold Miso Soup (the latter is even seasonal!) Happy cooking!
Forgive me for the following lines of shameless self-promotion. I’m a CIR in Tsubata who happens to adore food – its cultural relevance as well as its production and consumption. A few months ago it was getting to the point where it seemed like my Facebook wall was almost nothing but photos of things I had eaten. So I decided to consolidate. I started a blog.
I try to keep my content local when I can, and particularly enjoy trying out mysterious seasonal produce – but I post everything from bento ideas to restaurant reviews, as well as recipes and stories. If you’re a fellow food enthusiast, would like guidance on cooking in Japan, or are just looking for a fun way to experience more of Ishikawa, Hokuriku Expat Kitchen is meant for you.
Look for a weekly update on my culinary adventures every Thursday, here on the Ishikawa JET Blog!
Without further ado, today’s post is a restaurant review.
Unkai (雲海) is an awesome gyoza restaurant in the hills just inland of central Tsubata. It’s a bit of a trek, even with a car, but I promise it’s worth your while. You can sample twelve unusual dumpling varieites (including curry and black sesame) as well as Chinese teas and homemade desserts, served against the backdrop of an elegantly restored 100 year old house. The owner/chef is generous and accomodating, and will gladly design a menu that fits the needs of your party. Vegetarian versions of all of the gyoza are available upon request.
Hours: 10:00 a.m.~7:00 p.m. (Closed Wednesdays) Open by reservation only
Phone Number: (076) 288-0308
Address: 石川県河北郡津幡町字上藤又ト９ (Ishikawa ken, Kahoku gun, Tsubata machi, Kamifujimata To 9)
For more information, see the full review, or visit Unkai’s webpage (Japanese only)
The Ishikawa Prefecture Tourism League seems to be increasing its efforts to court foreign tourists via the creation of multilingual tourism websites: Hot-Ishikawa started producing an English-language quarterly tourism e-newsletter (see prior link), through which I found Gourmet Ishikawa, a new multilingual resource for dining in Ishikawa. The site may be viewed in Japanese, English, Korean, or Chinese (traditional or simplified) and has great information on not just restaurants but also Japanese dining etiquette and Ishikawan food culture.
This information comes to us from Ishikawa CIR Rohan:
Kanazawa IFIE International Salaon
Hello everyone,
IFIE is organizing its first International Exchange Party ‘Salon de Talk’ of 2011 on 1st of July. This time we’ve decided to make it a 2-in-1 affair. You’re welcome to wear a traditional ethnic costume…I’ll probably try and look Indian…for a change!
Please see the attached poster for details. Let me know if you’re interested in participating (rohanranade AT ifie DOT or DOT jp)…but please HURRY, since there only 30 slots available for foreigners.
Have a great week!
Upcoming Events
