Tag Archives: 日本

Bryan Baird’s Newsletter (2010/09/16)

September 16, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

Baird Beer & Taproom Events Bulletin

10-Year Commemorative Fall Seasonal Release

Dear Taproom Friend & Baird Beer Enthusiast:

Our ten year business anniversary has provided our brewery added incentive for creative experimentation. Yet another of the fruits of this experimental brewing is being released on Friday, September 17: Berry Big 10-Year Brown Ale.

New Seasonal Release:
*Berry Big 10-Year Brown Ale (ABV 7%):

The idea here is simple: combine the big, rich, luxuriant taste of malt with the piquant, tart flavor of fresh strawberries. A fairly high gravity Brown Ale grist provides the former and hand-picked Shizuoka strawberries from the Nirayama fields of our friends at Serizawa Saketen the latter. A berry-like fruitiness from English East Kent Golding and New Zealand Motueka hops helps to round out the flavor profile.

For more on the brewing of this fabulous ale, please check out our official Brewer’s Blog: http://bairdbeer.com/en/blog_numazu/. Berry Big 10-Year Brown Ale is available both on draught and in bottles (633 ml) through the fine family of Baird Beer retailers in Japan (including our own Taproom pubs). Individual consumers can purchase bottles direct from the brewery via our online E-Shop: http://bairdbeer.com/en/shop/.

Special New Beers on Tap:
Lambics are spontaneously fermented ales terrifically tart and sour in character which are brewed by artisanal breweries in an area of Belgian near Brussels. We have long admired these traditional ales and thanks to the fancy footwork of beer importer Andrew Balmuth, we are featuring several unique varieties on tap at our Nakameguro and Numazu Fishmarket Taprooms.

The Lambics which we are featuring were brewed in Belgian by the noted 3 Fonteinen brewery, then shipped on to Rome, Italy where innovative brewer Alex Liberati of Revelation Cat Craft Beer has dry-hopped them with various European and American hop varieties. We will be serving the following Single Dry-Hopped Lambics over the coming days and weeks:

*Nakameguro Taproom (Hallertau Tradition and Centennial)

*Fishmarket Taproom (Styrian Golding and Amarillo)

You also will not want to miss our latest small-batch, handpump-dispensed Real Ale on tap exclusively at our Taproom pubs: American Dream Red Ale. This is a lovely fall season ale rich in malt character and redolent with American hop flavor and aroma.

Cheers,

Bryan Baird

Baird Brewing Company
Numazu, Japan
HOMEPAGE

The Japan Blog List

———————————
Must-see tasting websites:
-Sake: Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass, Tokyo Foodcast, Urban Sake, Sake World
-Wine: Palate To Pen, Warren Bobrow, Cellar Tours, Ancient Fire Wines Blog
-Beer: Good Beer & Country Boys, Another Pint, Please!
-Japanese Pottery to enjoy your favourite drinks: Yellin Yakimono Gallery
——————————–
Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

—————————————-
日本語のブログ
—————————————-

Uncategorized

French Dessert: Roasted Figs, Vanilla Ice Cream & Blue Cheese Sauce at Pissenlit

September 16, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

Service: excellent and very friendly
Facilities: great washroom, great cleanliness overall
Prices: reasonable, good value.
Strong points: Interesting wine list. Great use of local products.
entirely non-smoking!

We are about to enter the best season to savour figs and there are plenty available in our Prefecture and City as the climate is particularly propitious for grwoing ll kinds of fruit here.

Figs come in many gusise from small and black to enormous and violet (there also green ones here. I mean green and ripe!).

Tooru Arima at Pissenlit in Shizuoka City came up with an interesting concept in this seasonal dessert.

He first siced the large figs chosen amon still a little green spcimen and roasted them.

He served them with a spoon of vanilla sauce and Roquefort Blue Cheese sauce. There werestill small intact pieces of blue chees inside the sauce.
The combination of sweet, sugared, salty, sweet and sour and others was incredible, especially in regards to the apparent simplicty of the dish!
Too many taste and nusaces to describe, but certainly heaven for sweet teeth woorying about one’s health!

PISSENLIT
420-0839 Shizuoka City, Aoi Ku, Takajo, 2-3-4
Tel.: 054-270-8768
Fax: 054-627-3868
Business hours: 11:30~14:30; 17:00~22:00
Closed on Tuesdays and Sunday evening
Homepage (Japanese)
Credit Cards OK

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

Uncategorized

French Gastronomy: Pacific Saury and Potato Terrine with Aioli at Pissenlit

September 16, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

Pacific Saury. or sanma/秋刀魚 (Atumn Sword Fish in Japanese) is very much in season right now when it is fat and easily prepared.
The Japanese love it as sashimi or grilled directly over a fire.

Tooru Arima at Pissenlit in Shizuoka City came up with a typically French creation: terrine!

The organic potatoes had been first boiled and seasoned and then sieved before being laid and seasoned again with ground black pepper in a kind of almost solid puree intersped with very thin slices of Pacific saury. Cutting/slicing the fish can be done only with the proper Japanes knife and skills.

The terrine was then gently cooked in bain-marie and cooled down completely before being served at room temperature.

A succulent aioli mayonnaise and organic greens from Mishima City completed this simple dish but so beutiful in balance and taste!

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

Uncategorized

French gastronomy with local products: Roasted Pork and Organic Vegetables at Pissenlit

September 16, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

The main reason for my choosing a restaurant is whether it serves cuisine made with as many locla products as possible, be they vegetables, meat, fruit or fish. or all of them!

Luckily enough, Shziuoka Prefecture is a mine gold when it comes to local poducts as proved in this latest seasonal creation by Tooru Arima at Pissenlit in Shizuoka city!

The pork is “Yusui Buta/湧水豚” from Fujinomiya City at the foot of Mount Fuji which was served roasted with a dijon seed mustard sauce.

All the vegetables were organic and grown by Mr. Hirooka in Mishima City (also at the foot Mount Fuji!).
The vegetables represented here are from the top: Okra. Shishito pepper, Shikaku Ingen/squre string bean, and Ingen mame/String bean.

The pork lay partly over a slice of roasted white eggplant/aubergine.
The later is topped with okra and its flower!

For a better view of the okra flower!
Succulent!

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

Uncategorized

Iwate Prefecture Specialties 3: Spiny Lobster

September 11, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

As previously mentioned, I’ve just spent a nice holiday away from it all in Iwate Prefecture in the North/Tohoku Part of Japan, in Morioka more precisley!

Although Iwate Prefecture does not have as long a seashore as in Shizuoka, it’s nonetheless noted for its fish and crustaceans, especially spiny lobsters/Ise Ebi/伊勢海老!

The above sashimi dish was served to us for dinner at our hotel in Shizukuishi, a noted area for skiing and hotsprings.

The spiny lobster is estremely fresh of course and its raw meat is very sweet, a real morsel here in Japan.
The fish are maguro/tuna toro and sanma/Pacific Saury.

A great extravagant combination!

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

Uncategorized

Iwate Prefecture Specialties 2: Sanma/Pacific Saury

September 10, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

Sanma O-tsukuri: plate of Pacific Saury sashimi

As previously mentioned, I’ve just spent a nice holiday away from it all in Iwate Prefecture in the North/Tohoku Part of Japan, in Morioka more precisley!

Although Iwate Prefecture does not have as long a seashore as in Shizuoka, it’s nonetheless noted for its fisheries, especially sanma/Pacific saury!

As it comes absolutely fresh in that Prefecture, it is best savored raw in season (right now) when it is “fat”.
We ate the above in a great little izakaya in Morioka City.
The fish was cut in almost paper-thin slices and served with lime, grated ginger, momijioroshi/grated daikon with chili pepper and finely chopped thin leeks to be dipped into soy sauce.
A must for sashimi officionados!

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

Uncategorized

Medicinal Plants, The Ones That Really Work 1: Ginseng

September 10, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

Some time ago I posted an article on food supplements, Food Supplements: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly that did attract some controversial reactions ( for which I’m still not ready to apologize! LOL). I though it would be only fair to complement it with a series of articles on medicinal plants that could do well, or even better, to replace the said supplements.

In Europe more than 200 of them are referred to as such and registered as entering the composition of more than 600 medicines.

Actually half of occidental medicines contain vegetals, marine products or micro organisms of natural origin.
One has to be wary of bad products though as announced by the Afssaps in France, The European Medicines Agency in Europe, and the Commission E in Germany.

Here are the ones that have been proven as efficient by all above agencies.
Bear in mind that the same medical plants might have an adverse results on people with special problems as noted below:

1) GINSENG

Best employed to combat STRESS.

Origin: China, Kore and Canada.

Action: its roots contain ginsenosides which help the human body fight stress and recover its proper equilibrium/balance. It also contributes to improvement of physical and mental capacities when tired, suffereing fro great fatigue or concentration trouble. It also helps people recoverung from illness.

Directions for use/Posology: Can be acquired under the form of dried root powder, tablets or whole roots (the latte best used as tea after leaving it hot water for 10~15 minutes).
Take 0.5~2 g of dried roots every morning (to avoid insomnia).
Phytotherapy products are consumed at 200 mg three times a day.
The treatment should not exceed three months to avoid human organism overwork.

Contraindications and interactions: People suffering from insomnia or nervous trouble should be very careful about using ginseng.
People suffering from diabetes, hypertension or cardiovascular/heart disease should never use it without a doctor’s authrorization. The same apply if you use an anticoagulant.
During treatment avoid caffeine (coffee, tea, chocolate,…) to avoid irritabilty, insomnia or palpitations.

Also: Eleutherocoque (Eleutherrococcus senticosus)
Eleutherocoque or Russian ginseng is also called “bush of the devil”. Small thorn-bush from 2 to 3 cm in height, it has sheets webbed and lengthily petiolate. It produces black and fleshy fruits. Many scientific studies showed that the plant behaved like one revitalizing exceptional, able to appreciably increase the athletic and intellectual performances as well as the resistance of the body to the environmental stresses.

To be consumed as herbal tea, 2~4 g for 1500 cc of water.

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

Uncategorized

Iwate Prefecture Specialties 1: Noodles and Soba

September 9, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

Jaja Men

I’ve just spent a nice holiday away from it all in Iwate Prefecture in the North/Tohoku Part of Japan, in Morioka more precisley!

Whenever you mention Morioka City in this country, the Japanese will firts say noodles, ramen, Ja Ja Men and so on!
A paradise for the Missus who is a me, vermicelli, udon, soba and pasts addict!

The picture above shows the Ja Ja Men, maybe its most famous morsel in taht field (I will write a more detailed report on my visit as soon as I more time!)

Yasai Soba Salad

Soba are next and this particular cold soba served with loads of finely chopped carrot and cucumber and katsuo bushi/dry bonito havings was simple and tasty!
The Missus certainly enjoyed them!

As for me, I had sake soba!

The small flask at the right contains cold sake. I poured it over the two-tier soba dishes. The sake will drip into the bttom dish (thrid one) and will be added tothe suace later. Served with mushrooms and grated daikon.
Now, that was a beauty!

Tororo Soba

Tororo means grated yama imo/yam. Another Missus’ favorite (I mean another “favorite”, not another “Missus”).
We ate that in Hiraizumi on top of a mountain!

Cold tomato Spaghetti salad.

I had this in the same restaurant, It was made with local products only!

Local Korean restaurants serve their own variety of “Re men/cold ramen”!
Very tasty indeed and always serve dwith a slice of fruit in it!

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

Uncategorized

Bryan Baird’s Newsletter (2010/09/02)

September 9, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

Baird Beer & Taproom Events Bulletin

First Ever Seasonal Releases

Dear Taproom Friend & Baird Beer Enthusiast:

Beer, as you know, is our passion. We enjoy drinking it everyday and in some quantity. Our aim is pleasure from flavor enjoyment, though, not inebriation. To this end, we are great fans of flavorful beers that sport a moderate to low alcohol content. Today we are releasing two first time seasonal brews that pack powerful flavor without undo alcohol strength.

New Seasonal Beer Releases:
Eastern Wind Session Ale (ABV 4.8%): Session Ales are moderate to low alcohol content beers that enjoy full flavor and are meant for imbibing the duration of the social session. Eastern Wind is brewed with a variety of wheat malts, rye malt and floor-malted barley. It delivers moderate hop bitterness but tons of hop flavor and aroma from generous late hopping with equal portions of three aromatic varieties (Tettnanger, Santiam, Saaz). It then is fermented with a Belgian yeast strain which lends a wonderfully tart and fruity character. Eastern Wind Session Ale is available on draught and in bottles (633 ml) through the fine family of Baird Beer retailers in Japan. Consumers can purchase direct from the brewery through our online E-Shop.
NZ Cascade Single Hop Ale (ABV 5.0%): We love to experiment with different hop varieties. In this single-hopped version of an English-style Pale Ale, we employ the New Zealand varietal version of a classic American hop — Cascade. While the aromatics tend to be somewhat restrained, the bitterness is firm and clean and the hop flavor has great depth in its piquant fruitiness. NZ Cascade Single Hop Ale is available only on draught and exclusively at our own Taproom pubs.
If you are planning a session drinking outing to one of our Taprooms soon, you also will find one additional beer gem: Hop Burst Brown Porter. We are serving the lowish gravity English-style Brown Porter as Real Ale on hand pump. Generally, Brown Porters tend to be low in hop character but this is not so with Hop Burst, which enjoys terrific hop flavor and aroma with restrained bitterness. “Hop bursting” is our practice of making only late flavor and aroma hop additions and forgoing early bittering additions. Come in for a pint and see for yourself what that tastes like.

Cheers,

Bryan Baird

Baird Brewing Company
Numazu, Japan
HOMEPAGE

—————————————-
日本語のブログ
—————————————-

Uncategorized

Erecting the Kakashi/Scarecrow at Ryunan Primary School Rice Paddy

September 1, 2010 dragonlife Leave a comment

Ryunan Primary School has been organizing a traditional Festival for the last 40 years: Scarecrow Erecting!

This Festival takes place on the first morning of the second semester of the scholar year.
As I had been invite to attend (I coach cricket there, too) I found myself meeting the kids at 10:40 a.m. in blinding heat!

The school was founded 46 years and is still a large one by Shizuoka City standards in spite of the declining population.

I told you it was really hot (33 degrees celsius) and the teachers (and I) were wearing bandanas! As for the kids caps are compulsory!

But some kids managed to forget them, which shows that Japanese society is not that much different! LOL

For once I was allowed to take pictures of the kids as this was a public event, and the kids loved the attention (all those V signs!)!

The kids were divided into 21 groups of 5th graders looking after 2nd graders.

The kids who had forgotten their caps were already having second thoughts!

The school rice paddy is located behind the school at a distance and across a wide street.

It is a large rice paddy, by scholl paddies standards, and thekids could walk across it thanks to elevated narrow paths.

That “kakashi/scarecrow” is about to get a sun-tan (or sunstroke!)!

The kids plant their own rice in May.
Until two years ago they used Asahi no Yume/朝日の夢/Morning Sun Dream variety. But they have switcged to Hi no Hikari/ヒノヒカリ/Day’s Sunshine.

I must say were very disciplined and were waiting for their turn to bring their kakashi into the rice paddies with a smile!

Each group went to a preordained spot and waited for their teachers to give a hand (and a hammer) to ercet their charges.

Some kakashi wer cute!
Incidentally, the teacher is not a scarecrow!

This one might scare the crows (loads of them here!) but not the kids!

I’m afraid this one will be eaten by the birds!

Now, what are those red eggs?
The teachers explained that they use only a minimum of fertilizer and pesticide so as not to interfere with the ecology.

-“The eggs of a jumbo Ta Mushi!” as repied one of the kids, taking one of them out to admire…
Big slug!
Actually the paddy is full of life, and the kids have no qualms chasing them!

Smiles everywhere!

The kakashi will stay there for people to admire and birds to avoid until October when the kids will harvest the rice and cook it themselves for school lunch!

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

Uncategorized

Mango Cheesecake

August 28, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

When it comes to sweets in Summer, it is not always easy to satisfy yourself or your friends. Especially cakes tend to become either too heavy or too light.
The Japanese have struck the right balance with their notion of cheesecakes.
Here is a simple recipe that should please everyone, be the adults or kids!
Keep in mind this is the basic recipe. Obviously you can add for taste all kinds of liqueurs!

Mango Cheesecake

INGREDIENTS: For an 18 cm diameter mold (12 inches)

-Cream cheese: 250 g
-Sugar: 80 g
-Frozen mango: 100 g
-Eggs: 3 large
-Plain yoghurt (Before drainage. Sieve it through a coffe drip paper filter): 500 g
-Cornstarch: 40 g
-Cholate chips cookies: 150 g
-Margarine: 70 g

RECIPE:

– Bring back cream cheese to room temperatue. Drain water from yoghurt.

-Heat the margarine for 30 seconds in the microwave at 600 Watts.

-Drop the chocolate chips cookies in a food processor and break them up. Add the margarine and mix.

-Spread the cookies mixture over the bottom of the mold. Use a mold with a bottom that can be lifted up, or line th mold withh baking paper (oil it a bit then). Leave the mold inside the refrigerator.

-Drop in a (cleaned) processor the cream cheese, sugar, frozen mango, eggs (and liqueurs or other options) and mix well.

-Pour the mixture into a bowl, Add the drained yoghurt and mix with a hand whisker.

-Add the cornsrach and mix well.

-Pour the cheesecake into the mold over the biscuit mixture.

-Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. lower temperature to 180 degrees Celsius and bake for 50~55 minutes.

-Cool down the cake completely before unmolding it.

-Easy, ain’t it?

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

Uncategorized

Halloween Chocolate Chou

August 26, 2010 dragonlife 4 Comments

Halloween is not that far away and people will be looking for new ideas.
I personaly am looking forward to it as I need a welcome shiver in this hellish heat!
Here is a simple recipe for a universal favorite, chou or chou a la creme in French, to enjoy with your children and sweet-toothe adult friends!

Halloween Chocolate Chou!

INGREDIENTS: Enough for 30 small choux

Chocolate Custard
-Milk: 2 cups/400 ml/cc
-Sweet chocolate of your choice, crumbled: 1 cup/200 ml/cc
-Flour: 2 tablespoons
-Cornstarch: 2 tablespoons
-Unsalted butter: 20 g
-Vanilla essence: a few drops

Whipped cream:
-Fresh cream: 1 cup/200 ml/cc

Chou pastry:
-Butter: 100 g
-Water: 180 ml/cc
-Flour: 100 g
-Egg yolks: 4
-Red liquid coloring: 5 measure spoons (such spoons are usually sold together with the coloring)
-Yellow Liquid coloring: 5 measure spoons
Experiment with the coloring

Decoration:
-Chocolate: as appropriate

RECIPE:

-Heat milk to lukewarm. Add butter, flour, and cornstarch. Mix well. Heat in microwave oven at 600 Watts for 3 minutes. Mix from time to time.

-In a separate bowl, melt the chocolate over a bain-marie. Add vanill essence and mix. Take off fire and add milk mixture. Mix well.

-Pass the chocolate custard through a sieve.

-That’s how it should look!

-In a separate bowl mix the water with coloring liquid.

-Drop the butter into a pan with the colored water. Heat and stir until the butter has completely melted. Switch off fire when liquid starts boiling.

-Add sieved flour and mix with spatula.

-Mix until smooth.
Switch on fire again. Mix with spatula.
Once the diugh starts detaching easily from the bottom of the pan, siwtch off fire.

-Add egg yolks one at a time and mix well until smooth before adding the next yolk.

-On an oven plate lined with cooking paper, make 30 choux. keep them separate by about 5 cm/2 inches. Spray them with a water atomizer a little before baking them.

-Bake at 190 degrees Celsius for 25~30 minutes.

-Take choux out and let cool completely.

-Whip the fresh cream until consistent enough.
Cut choux in halves.
Fill them with whipped cream. Top the cream delicately with the other chou half as shown above.

-Put the chocolate custard into a pastry bag and fill the choux with chocolate custard so as to hide the whipped cream. Decorate with chocolate.

Have fun and do not hesitate to experiment (other colors?)!

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

Uncategorized

Double Cheese Chou

August 25, 2010 dragonlife 7 Comments

The Japanese love their chou a la creme! Actually they call them chou cream! Mixing up connections? They particularly love the small version/petit chou that you would not find easily in shops in Europe or America. In this country they are everywhere!

Here is a typical Japanese version:
Double Cheese Chou!

INGREDIENTS: Enough for 6 fairly big (by Japanese standards!) choux (plural with an “x”!)

Chou Pastry:
-Unsalted butter: 30g
-Water: 20 ml/cc
-Milk: 20 ml/cc
-White sugar: 1/2 teaspoon
-Salt: a pinch
-Flour: 30 g
-Egg: 1

Cheese Custard Cream:
-Milk: 200 ml/cc/1 cup
-White sugar: 50 g
-Flour: 30 g
-Egg yolks: 2
-Vanilla Essence: a few drops

Cheese Whipped Cream:
-Fresh cream: 100 ml/cc/1/2 cup
-White sugar: 1 + 1/2 teaspoons
-Cream Cheese: 40 g

RECIPE:

-Cheese Custard Cream:
In an oven bowl sieve in flour and sugar. Add milk little by little and mix well.

-Add the cream cheese after crumbling it between your fingers. Wrap with cellophane paper. Put in microwave for 2 minutes at 500 Watts.

-Take off cellophane paper at once. Mix thoroughly with a hand whisker. Add egg yolks and mix well again.

-Wrap with cellophan paper again and put back into microwave oven for 2 minutes at 500 Watts. Take out cellophane paper. Mix well until smooth. Add vanilla essence and mix well again.

-Transfer into a fridge dish. Cover well with cellophane paper so as to prevent cream from drying. Mixing again with a saptula from time to time will help cream to chill more quickly.

-Chou pastry:
Sieve flour.
In a pan drop butter, milk, water, sugar and salt. Mix and cook over a medium high fire.

-Mixing with a spatula melt butter with other ingredients. Once the butter has completely melted and started “boilin”, add all flour and mix quickly with spatula.

-Once the water has evaporated take away from fire and mix again energetically.

-Once the pastry has become smooth and uniform and can be easily detached from the bottom of the pan, add betaen eggs little by little and mix weel until smooth.

-The pastry will be ready when it becomes “bright” and slightly adhere to the spatula.

-On a oven plate lined with baking paper place 6 balls of pastry with a spoon. Keep them sufficiently separated from each other.

-Wet the tips of your fingers with water and shape the balls. Don’t worry too much about the aspect. As long as they are roughly rounded, no problem!

-Lightly spray them with water and bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 10~15 minutes ir until they have completely risen.

-Once they have completely risen lower temperature to 170 degrees Celsius and bake for 15~20 more minutes. Do not open oven halway and make sure to lower the temperature!

-Take chou out and let cool completely.

Cheese whipped cream:
-Bring cheese cream temperature to room temperature. Warm it up inside microwave oevn to soften. Don’t overheat it, just soften it! Transfer into a bowl

-Beat the cheese with a hand whisker until smooth. Add sugar and fresh cream and whisk until fluffy and light.

-Cut chou cream in halves and fill bottom halves with cheese custard using a spoon.

-Cover cheese custard with cheese whipped cream with a pastry bag. Top the whole delicately with the chou upper half.

Not that difficult, is it?

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

Uncategorized

Where to eat locally grown organic vegetables in Shizuoka

August 24, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

Salad of organic vegetables from Bio Farm at Uzu

It is one thing to know that Shizuoka Prefecture is getting deserved fame for the quality and variety of its vegetables all year round and especially organic vegetables, but it is another to know where, or more precisley in which restaurants, to savour them in good company.
We are presently blessed with three restaurants in Shizuoka City (still looking for more in the whole Prefecture!) which not only serve them but can arrange full vegetarian and vegan meals on request!

UZU

Deep-fried organic potatoes from Bio Farm

Service: excellent, easy-going and very friendly
Facilities: great washroom, great cleanliness overall
Prices: very reasonable, good value.
Strong points: Very fresh local ingredients, especially organic vegetables extensively used. Local sake. Home-made umeshu. Great shochu list.

Uzu is arguably the best Izakaya in the whole Prefecture having won accolades from its peers, national medias and gastronme writers.
Although they serve all kinds of food, vegetarian and omnivores, they make organic vegetables their specialty. Most of them are grown at Matsuki Bio Farm in Shibakawa, Fujinomiya City at the foot of Mount Fuji.

Check their homepage as they update it as the menu changes, which is almost everyday as they serve only seasonal food.

UZU-4

Vegetables Shabu shabu

UZU
Shizuoka City, Otowa-cho, 3-18
Tel.: 054-249-6262
Business hours: 17:00=23:00
Closed on Mondays and first Tuesday
Reservations recommended
Credit cards OK
HOMEPAGE (Japanese)

———————

TETSUYA SUGIMOTO

Ranking：
Service: Highly professional and friendly
Equipment: Great overall cleanliness. Beautiful washroom
Prices:~
Strong points:Freshest produce and ingredients only, mainly from Shizuoka Prfecture. Organic vegetables. Seasonal food only
Map (Japanese)
Entirely non-smoking!

If you happen to visit Shizuoka City, you will find many restaurants and izakayas serving and mainly using produce/products and ingredients from Shizuoka Prefecture. There are many treasures to be discovered in this hoard!
One of them is the French restaurant going by the name of Sugimoto Tetsuya!

If you can read Japanese you will know what is waiting for you inside!
A gastronomic paradise in Shizuoka Prefecture!
Mr. Sugimoto does everything by himself: chef, waiter and entertainer! This is real slow food in its true and best meaning!
Almost all ingredients are from Shizuoka Prefecture, be they vegetables, fruit, meat or fish!
But his specialty is organic vegetables from Shizuoka Prefecture!
I requested that particular dish to feature only produce for Shizuoka Prefecture only.

All these were organic vegetables grown by different farmers in Hamamatsu City.
The dish included egg-plants/aubergines, 3 varieties of zucchini, tomato and “manganji” Chili pepper.

To give you an idea how Mr. Sugimoto works, all vegetables were first sauteed separately and cooked in the oven before served with two different dressings:
-Olive oil and orange juice
-Framboise/raspberry vinegar

Tetsuya SUGIMOTO
420-0038 Shizuoka City, Aoi Ku, Umeya,, ２－１３，１Ｆ
Tel./Fax: 054-251-3051
Opening hours：１１：３０～１４：３０，１７：３０～２１：３０
Holidays: undecided
Cedit cards OK
ＨＯＭＥＰＡＧＥ

————————

PISSENLIT

Great food is great food!
Be you vegan, vegetarian or omnivore, one can only appreciate and being thankful for savouring vegetables not only of the best quality, but local and organically grown to boot!
I will never tire of saying to everyone how lucky we are here in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, a region renown nationally and increasingly internationally for its exceptional gastronomy!

Pissenlit, with Uzu and Tetsuya Sugimoto is is generally considered as one of the “Shizuoka City Triumvirate” when it comes to healthy, local and sublime gastronomy.
Chef Tooru Arima has many contacts in the Prefecture and it is always a good idea what’s available as it can change very quickly. He is particularly fond of oraganic vegetables grown by Mr. Hideyaki Hirokawa in Mishima City

Even if I have nurtured a special relation with chef Tooru Arima (and many others), he he is only too happy to oblige with his custon\mers’ selfish requests!

The above is a sample of the greens grown by Mr. Hirokawa!

And these the other organic vegetables grown by the same farmer!

If you have the occasion to visit Mishima City this is the address of our great farmer!

Mr. Hideyaki Hirokawa, Mishima City, Kawaharagaya Yamada, 765
Tel.: 055-973-2702

————————-

STILL LOOKING AROUND!

————————-

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

Uncategorized

Bryan Baird’s Newsletter (2010/08/24)

August 24, 2010 dragonlife 2 Comments

Baird Beer & Taproom Events Bulletin

Two New Seasonal Releases

Dear Taproom Friend & Baird Beer Enthusiast:

As you know, fruited ales are close and dear to our brewing hearts despite the fact the fruit beers tend generally to be vapidly cloying and concocted with gimmickry foremost in mind. There is no gimmickry in the crafting of Baird fruited ales; we use only fresh, locally harvested fruit; we painstakingly process the fruit by hand; we subject the fruit to the fermentation process; and we weave the fruit into the matrix of the recipe so that it complements, rather than dominates, the beers other underlying flavors.

Today we are excited to release two fruited summer ales, one an annual mainstay (Asian Beauty Biwa Ale) and one a new creation (Biere du Biwa). These ales should be available at your favorite Baird Beer retailer beginning Wednesday, August 25.

Asian Beauty Biwa Ale 2010 (ABV 5.6%):
Biwa is “the small, yellow, edible, plum-like fruit of the loquat tree.” We had no idea what it was until our partner-friend-carpenter-farmer, Nagakura-san, brought some in several years ago for us to taste and then brew with. It is an extremely subtle fruit that harmonizes sweetness with tartness. Asian Beauty Biwa Ale is coyly fruity, spritely effervescent and yet delicately firm — like a true Asian Beauty!

Asian Beauty Biwa Ale 2010 is available both on draught and in bottles (633 ml) at Baird Beer retailers throughout Japan. Individual consumers also can purchase bottles direct from our brewery via our online E-Shop.

Biere du Biwa (ABV 5.7%):
Biere du Biwa is brewed with the same recipe and processing parameters as Asian Beauty with one major exception: We ferment it with a Belgian ale yeast rather than our house ale yeast. The resulting flavor difference from this single variable change is profound. If you ever wanted to isolate and discover the character that a Belgian yeast strain imparts to a beer, this is the chance.

Biere du Biwa feels tarter and drier on the palate than Asian Beauty. The phenolic character imparted by the yeast is strong and almost defining. After imbibing a glass, the overall impression is one of supreme refreshment.

Biere du Biwa is available on draught only at fine Baird Beer retailing pubs and restaurants throughout Japan.

Cheers,

Bryan Baird

Baird Brewing Company
Numazu, Japan
HOMEPAGE