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April 30, 2024
 

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KANPAI CULTURE

Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Aug 7, 2015
Experts assess the future of sake at Milan conference
On a sweltering summer afternoon in Milan, Japanese food enthusiasts meandered through the marble-lined halls of the Palazzo delle Stelline, a 17th-century landmark that faces the church that houses Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper." Inside, a group of Italians dressed in yukata (summer kimono) stopped to sample freshly griddled takoyaki (octopus dumplings) at a booth, while diners in the cafe browsed shelves displaying Japanese products such as green tea and rice crackers. From late June to mid-July, the Stelline had been the site of Salone del Giappone, an exhibition devoted to the cuisine and culture of Japan, which was sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries as part of the Expo Milano 2015 world fair, which runs through Oct. 31.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jun 12, 2015
Tasting the many shades of Japan's regional sake
At the risk of sounding like a killjoy, I have to confess that drinks festivals rarely excite me. These events are often promoted as learning opportunities that can help you improve your tasting skills and discover new brands. While the lure of convenience (the chance to sample hundreds of varieties of sake or wine in one place) has a certain appeal, circumstances tend to shift the focus away from tasting and toward drinking. Outdoor tippling fairs are particularly dangerous and require extra caution. Behind the promise of convivial bonhomie looms the specter of public drunkenness and long, panic-inducing lines for the women's restroom.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
May 8, 2015
Californian flavor conference explores green tea's versatility
Making the perfect cup of matcha — the frothy green tea served during Japanese tea ceremonies — requires skill. The trick is to use a bamboo whisk to whip the brew swiftly with a smooth back-and-forth motion of the wrist.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Apr 10, 2015
Jimbocho Den brings hot sake and hanami to Shizuoka
On an evening in late March, a group of well-heeled guests arrive at the Nippondaira Hotel, on a high plateau in the center of Shizuoka City, for the fifth edition of Dining Out, a series of creative pop-up dinners held at various locations around the country. The theme this time was hanami — the tradition of holding convivial gatherings beneath flowering cherry trees — and the event commenced in a Japanese-style room with tatami-mat flooring and a view overlooking the garden. Rows of cherry trees lined the grounds, and beyond the bay the snow-covered summit of Mount Fuji peeked through the clouds.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Mar 10, 2015
G10 Sake Night washes down well at Tokyo's Bar Shampoo
It's Saturday night at Bar Shampoo, one of the roughly 200 tiny watering holes crammed into the Golden Gai district of Shinjuku, and Takashi Goto is setting up for G10 Sake Night, the popup event he's hosted every weekend since June.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Feb 10, 2015
Danish cherry wine leaves no sour taste at Cella Masumi
It's difficult to leave Cella Masumi, the tasting room and specialty shop adjacent to Miyasaka Brewing Company in Nagano Prefecture, without a bag full of treats.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jan 13, 2015
Research institute makes sake a little easier to understand
For the past few years, I've harbored a secret dream — an extremely nerdy ambition unlikely to be shared by anyone other than the hardest of hard-core sake and wine geeks. That dream is to become a master taster.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Dec 9, 2014
Sake specialists give a lesson in culture
In Saijo, Hiroshima Prefecture, the largest room in the home of Hisao Maegaki, president of the sake brewery Kamoizumi Shuzo, is set for a feast.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Nov 11, 2014
Japan denied a dram of its winning whisky
Of the many things that Scotland has bequeathed to the world — golf, kilts and the baffling culinary phenomenon of fried Mars bars — my favorite by far is whisky. I have an enduring fondness for peaty and powerful Scotch whiskies from Islay and the Islands (as anyone foolish enough to leave me alone with a bottle of Talisker or Laphroaig can attest), but I wasn't terribly surprised to hear that a Japanese single malt had topped the rankings in "Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2015" earlier this month.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Oct 7, 2014
Selling the Italians on sake, 'the wine of Japan'
At 4:30 p.m. on a Sunday in Milan — the height of the aperitivo hour — the courtyard of the stately Chiostri dell'Umanitaria building was filled with people sipping drinks.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Sep 9, 2014
Green fairy leads to Tokyo absinthe bar
Five years ago, Hiroyasu Kayama developed a fascination with absinthe. Shortly before opening his bar Ben Fiddich in July 2013, he took a pilgrimage to the famous absinthe-producing town of Pontarlier, which lies on the French border with Switzerland. Now, the 30-year-old mixologist wants to start an absinthe revolution in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Aug 12, 2014
Spreading the gospel of natural winemaking
Should you ever be lucky enough to get your hands on a bottle of wine from Beau Paysage — the cult producer in Yamanashi Prefecture, whose coveted cuvees sell out within hours of release — look at the back label. On it, you'll find a message from winemaker Eishi Okamoto, earnestly delivered in Japanese and English: "A glass of wine can change the world."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jul 8, 2014
What to drink when you're eating oysters
Shucking an oyster is harder than it sounds. A fair amount of dexterity is required to pry open the mollusk's tight-lipped shell and liberate the flesh. The one time I tried to open an oyster with a shucking knife, I ended up smashing it with a hammer instead.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jun 10, 2014
Meet the Willy Wonka of extraordinary cocktails
Contrary to expectation, the Blue Cheese Martini at the Akasaka branch of Code Name Mixology is a subtle concoction. The cocktail is clear, served in a delicate crystal glass, with three olives on the side. The cheese aroma hovers faintly on the nose, but the first sip is mildly sweet and fruity. The character of the drink changes completely after eating one of the olives: The blue-cheese flavor billows across the palate, mingling with the briny spiciness of the olive. As the savory sensation recedes, hints of pear and lemon rise to the surface, followed by an earthy smokiness in the finish.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
May 13, 2014
Let's not forget the sake at world food events
On the afternoon of April 28, at an intimate gathering in London's Ametsa restaurant, a cluster of admirers with champagne flutes in hand fluttered around chef Helena Rizzo. The Brazilian Rizzo, who helms the acclaimed restaurant Mani in Sao Paulo, had recently been named the World's Best Female Chef, and the international guests, who had convened in London for the annual World's 50 Best Restaurant award ceremony, had come to congratulate her before the gala that evening. As trays bearing crispy scorpion-fish cakes and chorizo sandwiches floated around the room, a representative from Champagne house Veuve Clicquot, which sponsors the awards, announced the planting of a herb garden in Reims, France, to commemorate the winners. Rizzo will be the first recipient to select herbs that reflect her style of cuisine and her native country, Brazil, for the new garden.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Apr 8, 2014
Koenji brewpub takes an experimental approach
Growing up, I'd always thought that drinking before dusk was considered something of a no-no. When my friend suggested on a recent Sunday that we stop by Koenji Bakushu Kobo to try some jikasei (homemade) beer at 3 p.m., I pushed it to the more respectable hour of 5. By the time we arrived, though, the crowd was spilling out of the bar with plastic cups of beer in hand. Clearly, I was the only person with qualms about afternoon tippling.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Mar 11, 2014
Catalan cuisine, sake's international pairing pal
"Please, just one bite," cajoled Derrick Lim, patting my shoulder like a solicitous Asian grandmother. "You have to try this dish." A certified sake professional, Lim had been explaining the concept behind his latest venture — a sake-and-tapas bar called Bam, located on Singapore's trendy Tras Street — and was eager to demonstrate the harmonious relationship between Spanish food and Japanese nihonshu. "The chorizo is a great match for the sake," he continued, pouring me a glass of Shichida Junmai Ginjo from Saga Prefecture and pressing a fork into my hand.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Feb 11, 2014
All-female wine award targets girls of the grape
Before the tasting commenced at the inaugural Sakura Japan Women's Wine Awards in Tokyo, the judges were reminded to remove their lipstick. The competition, organized by the Wine and Spirits Culture Association (WSCA), is the first in Japan to feature an all-female panel of assessors. Over the course of four days, the event brought together approximately 200 women in the wine industry from around the country.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jan 7, 2014
Fresh pressings from Norway's sake brewery
Nu00f8gne u00d8 Brewery in Norway is best known for its line of award-winning craft beers, but the company is quickly gaining a reputation for another brewed beverage: sake.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Dec 12, 2013
Umami: an ideal sake pairing
On a recent September morning in Napa Valley, a sake-pairing session at the Culinary Institute of America's annual Worlds of Flavor conference began with a lesson in organic chemistry. The theme of the seminar was "sake and umami," a topic tantalizing enough to fill the room with food and beverage professionals who had traveled to the California conference from around the world to explore trends in gastronomy. Pens scratched notes furiously as Kumiko Ninomiya, of the Umami Information Center in Tokyo explained the science behind umami, the fifth taste, discovered by Japanese biochemist Kikunae Ikeda in 1908.
When will Japan intervene to support the yen?
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'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Raising kids in Japan as a single parent? It takes a village.
Making things work as a foreign, single mother in Japan isn't easy, but these tips and tricks can help you through the hardest parts.
Yen rebounds strongly after first slide past ¥160 since 1990
The yen dropped to ¥160.245 per dollar on Monday before heading into the other direction to ¥155.01 amid speculation of an intervention by Japanese currency authorities.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.

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