Tag Archives: 静岡

Crab Species 4: Japanese Mitten Crab/Mokuzugani

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Japanese Mitten Crab or Mokuzugani i Japanese is also called Mokuzou, Zugani, Tsugani or Kegani.
It caught alsmost everywhere in Japan in Autumn and Winter.
In Autumn the females come to lay their eggs at river mouths.
Plenty are found along the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture.
They are caught in boxes baited with fish.

As for food, they can be eaten boiled in soups or crushed with their shell and cooked with miso. They could even be prepared as French bisque.

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The female specimens are particularly appreciated for their egg sacs.

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These boiled egg sacs with the meat make for delicious sushi nigiri or gunkan!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’09/42)

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After yestreday’s small tour de force, the Missus wanted to take a break and make things simple!

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I think I can qualify today’s “bento” as “American/French Lunch”!

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The reason is the enormous sandwich prepared with a French baguette!

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Mind you, the filling was a healthy fusion of home-made chicken ham, boiled egg salad and cornichons!

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The salad was Japanese in concept: shredded vegetables, deep-fried renkon/lotus root chips, lettuce and mini tomatoes.

American Darkk Cherries for dessert.
Quite voluminous, maybe fitter for a young sportsman!

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Shizuoka Izakaya: UZU (revisited again!)

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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.

I will have to be careful, or UZU Izakaya is bound to become an addiction!
I visited that increasingly popular (need to reserve on Fridays especially!) last Friday for a quick dinner and some Shizuoka sake!

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Thye kabocha/pumpkin tofu snack was still there!

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Any sake is served in a different vessel, and you are offered a choice of cup for each sake you savour!

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Fried organic new potatoes with their skins!
Uzu specializes in organic vegetables and “shamo” chicken!

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Organic “Young Corn” grilled inside their husks. The “hair” around the corn is edible!

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Again, a rare morsel to please vegans and vegetarians:
“Young corn” organically grown by Mr. Matsuki in Shibakawa Cho, at the foot of Mount Fuji, served raw! Yes, you head/read right, raw!
These were the only two available that night and I didn’t have to pay for them! Slightly different from the above, they are very tender and sweet. You eat them as they are, no need for “dressing”!

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Now, that’s an iteresting morsel: Shamo Chicken Gratin inside a small organic kabocha/pumpkin!
Just small enough not to worry about the calories!

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Another bottle of sake!

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Grilled “Isaki/Chicken Grunt” ( a strange name for a fish!), caught off Shizuoka shores. Elegant!

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Deep-fried “shamo” chicken thighs and breast fillets!

No need for dessert!

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

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’09/41)

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I must admit that the Missus worked hard toady to create a slightly different bento, albeit using the same ideas!

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She opted for the healthy and fulfilling combination of maki/rolls and tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette.

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Having steamed the rice (she added a piece of konbu/seaweed today), stirred and cooled it, she mixed in a generous amount of tobikko/flying fish roe, “white” and black sesame seeds. She then made sushi maki with fresh lettuce instead of seaweed, and placed smoked salmon and avocado in the middle (she had them with lemon juice beforehand). Californian Bento? LOL

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As for the tamagoyaki, she made it according to my request: She mixed the eggs with fine pieces of pimento and chopped thin leeks. The result? Spanish Tamagoyaki or Japanese Tapas? I leave it to yuo!LOL

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As for the salad: shredded vegetables, mini tomatoes, French cornichons.
Got American dark cherries for dessert!

High-class bento, I must admit!

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Bryan Baird’s Newsletter (2009/14)

Baird Beer & Taproom Events Bulletin 2009 #14
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Dear Taproom Friend & Baird Beer Enthusiast:

The rainy season has arrived. This is not, of course, bad news for the Japan beer enthusiast because it means the release of Baird Rainy Season Black Ale.

*Rainy Season Black Ale (ABV 6.1%):

A torrential downpouring of hops define this otherwise roasty, toasty, espresso-like powerful black ale. 55 BUs of elegant American (Magnum, Galena & Sterling) and German (Tradition, Hersbrucker) lupulin as well as dry-hopped character from the spicy-floral combination of Sterling and Hersbrucker coat the tongue with a resinous stickiness that is pungently pleasurable. This is the Baird Beer antidote to the rainy season funk. We guarantee the results!

Rainy Season Black Ale is now pouring from our Taproom taps and will be available on draught at Baird Beer retailing pubs beginning Monday, June 15. 633 ml bottles also are available for purchase at Baird Beer retailing liquor stores throughout Japan.

The Rainy season gloom works on different people in different ways. To ensure there is a beery antidote that fits everyone’s afflicted disposition, we are releasing two additional Tsuyu-season Baird Beers: Numazu Lager and Faded Glory Pale Mild.

*Numazu Lager (ABV 5.5%):
This copper-gold lager (brewed back in March 2008 and conditioned for over one year in the keg), medium-light in body, bristles with a prickly hop bitterness (courtesy of Warrior and Columbus) and aroma (dry-hopping with Vanguard, Santiam and Sterling). I recommend imbibing as you stare out the Fishmarket Taproom window, marvelling at the acrobatic prowess of the swooning seagulls and contemplating the majesty of the low-hanging, fast-moving rain clouds which magically release their precipitate upon encountering the inland mountains.

Numazu Lager is available only on draught and only at our Numazu Fishmarket Taproom.

*Faded Glory Pale Mild (ABV 3.1%):

Pale Mild is a classic English Ale style that, much like the British Empire, has become essentially a historical relic. It is an unfashionably low gravity and low alcohol ale meant to replenish and not to inebriate. The brewing of low-gravity “small” beers is an extremely challenging task for the brewer because he is attempting to achieve flavor and character with the use of much less raw ingredient material. The Baird brewers relish the challenge and love the tribute that it pays to beer history and tradition.

Faded Glory Pale Mild is amber-gold in color, lightly floral in aroma (dry-hopping with Saaz) and somewhat biscuity in flavor (Maris Otter and Munich base malts). It is fresh and smooth from start to finish. This is a beer where flavor, refreshment, sociability and history meet at the crossroads! Faded Glory Pale Mild is available as Real Ale only at the Nakameguro and Fishmarket Taprooms.

Cheers,
Bryan Baird

Baird Brewing Company
Numazu, Japan
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The Japan Blog List

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Must-see tasting websites:
-Sake: Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass, Tokyo Foodcast, Urban Sake, Sake World
-Wine: Palate To Pen
-Beer: Good Beer & Country Boys, Another Pint, Please!
-Japanese Pottery to enjoy your favourite drinks: Yellin Yakimono Gallery
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Crab Species 3: Japanese Spider Crab/Takaashigani

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Takaashigani/高足が二, literally meaning “Tall Legs Crab” is the largest crab in the world and is caught almost only around Japan especially in the Suruga Bay In Shizuoka Prefecture and Izu Islands, but numbers of the crab have diminished over recent years, and there are many efforts to protect them. In Shizuoka Prefecture, people even help them grow from the eggs before returning them to the sea!

Fully grown it can reach a leg span of almost 4 m (13 ft), a body size of up to 37 cm (15 inches) and a weight of up to 20 kg (44 lb). The crab’s natural habitat is on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean (some 300 to 400 m deep) around Japan, where it feeds on dead animals and shellfish. It is believed to have a life expectancy of up to 100 years.

The Japanese spider crab has 10 legs. The front two legs have been adapted into claws. It has an orange body with white spots on its thin legs. In males, the limbs on which the claws are located become longer than its other limbs, and a large male can widen them to more than 3 m. The oval-shaped and vertically rounded shell can reach 30 cm in width and can be up to 40 cm long. The compound eyes are situated on the front, and two thorns stick out between them. Younger specimens feature hair and thorns on the shell, and their frontal horns are longer, but these gradually atrophy as the crab ages.

In Japan it is considered a delicacy and prices can easily jump!
The Japanese spider crab is caught using small trawling nets, and is often eaten salted and steamed.

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Interestingly enough, when bolied/steamed, not only the shell but also the flesh turns red.

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They do make for impressive sushi!

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Crab Species 2: Red King Crab/Tarabagani

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Tarabagani or Red King Crab is caught in Autumn and Winter.
It is the most coveted of the commercially sold king crab species, and is the most expensive per unit weight. It was named after the colour it turns when it is cooked rather than the colour of a living animal, which tends to be more burgundy.

Red king crabs can be very large, sometimes reaching a carapace width of 11 in (28 cm) and a leg span of 6 ft (1.8 m) [2]. It is most commonly caught in the Bering Sea and Norton Sound, Alaska, and is particularly difficult to catch, but is nonetheless one of the most preferred crabs for consumption.

The King Crab is native to the Bering Sea, north Pacific Ocean, around the Kamchatka Peninsula and neighbouring Alaskan waters.
In Japan it is caught in the Japan Sea and neighbouring Okhotsk Sea.

In Japan 100 tonnes are caught every year, whereas 40,000 tonnes are imported, mainly from Russia!

There are so many way to enjoy this great crab!
Here are a few examples:

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Boiled as Sushi Nigiri of course!

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Even more extravagant, raw as sushi nigiri!

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Just plain boiled on a bowl of freshly steamed rice. My favourite for its extravagant simplicity!

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As Chirashizushi should please anyone!

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And how about a great soup with miso!

Naturally, there are more ways, including grilling!
I will leave it to your imagination! LOL

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Cuttlefish/Squid Species 4: Surume Ika/Japanese Common Squid-Pacific Flying Squid

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Here we go again with this series called “The Jacques Cousteau” upon suggestion by Jaded Fork and forBread + Butter, and Elin who don’t mind being on a long haul! LOL

Surume Ika or Japanese Common Squid/Pacific Flying Squid is also called by regional names of Ma Ika, Matsu Ika or Kanzegi.

It caught off the shores of Northern Japan and south of Kyushu Island.
Catches tend to vary widely.
The Japanese squid can live anywhere from 5° to 27°C, and tend to inhabit the upper layers of the ocean. They are short lived, only surviving about a year.
The fishing season for the Japanese flying squid is all year round, but the largest and most popular seasons are from January to March, and again from June to September. Gear used to catch the Japanese flying squid is mainly line and hook, lift nets, and gill nets, the most popular method being hook and line used in jigging.
Most of it is turned into various pickled or dried cuttle fish/squid products.
It is also much appreciated broiled or simmered.

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It is quite popular as a simple sushi nigiri,

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or slightly boiled with “tare” sauce.

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Cuttlefish/Squid Species 3: Aori Ika/Bigfin Reef Squid

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Here we go with this series called “The Jacques Cousteau” upon suggestion by Jaded Fork and forBread + Butter, and Elin who don’t mind being on a long haul! LOL

Aori Ika or Bigfin Reef Squid is another extremely popular cuttle fish but in many othere countries.
In French languedoc and Roussillon they call them “piste” and eat them raw marinated in lemon juice, olive oil and spices on top of freshly toasted bread.

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America Aori Ika/Caribbean Reef Squid

Of course they come by various regional names in Japan: Mo Ika, Bashoo Ika, Kutsu Ika, Misu Ika, Shiroi Ika.
They are fairly large as they can attain 40~45 cm length for a weight up to 6 kg.

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Their season is from Summer to early Autumn (just in time for this article!). They are mainly caught in Central and South Japan along the Southern shores.
The catch has never been big (mainly by trawling nets), making them a choice morsel.
They are considered the best cuttlefish as far as sashimi is concerned.
The Japanese often catch them as a hobby to process and sell at local markets.

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As sushi, especially as nigiri, they are simply top-class!

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Crab Species 1: Snow Crab/Zuwagani

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(Male Snow Crab)

Snow Crabs, or Zuwagani in Japanese are very popular not only in Japan, but also in Russia, Canada and many other countries.

In Japan, they are also known under the following names: Matsubagani, Echizengani and Yoshigani.
The females are also called Seikogani, Megani or Koubakogani.
They are caught mainly in Autumn and Winter.
Their number have decreased in the Japan seas down to a yearly catch of 5,000 tonnes while 60,000 tonnes are imported from Russia and Canada.

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(Female snow Crab)

Male and female snow crabs are equally succulent, but the males contain more flesh and are accordingly more expensive.

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The “thorns” of a male snow crab are bigger.

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The “teeth” of a male snow crab are triangular in a seesaw shape.
The female “teeth” are in a straight line.

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The underbelly of a female snow crabis flatish.

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When buying a female (10 tmes as cheap) snow crab, choose a specimen with as few eggs as possible. Above speciman just has too many!

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A female snow crab should contain plenty of succulent orange egg sacs (the eggs not yet “born”). Otherwise, there is very little reason to buy any!

Crabs can be eaten in many ways, even raw, but my favourites are on sushi!

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Male Snow crab leg Sushi Nigiri.

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Female snow crab Sushi Nigiri and its egg sacs!

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Japanese Seasonal Fish: Sawara/Spanish Mackerel

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Sawara or Spanish Mackerel is considered as the best kind of Mackerel in Japan. Not only it is a big variety, but its comparatively white flesh is succulent in almost any kind of cooking!

It is known under different names such as Sagoshi and Sagochi when young and Yanagi when mature.
It is basically caught by trawling, but can be fished by line. It is, unlike other mackerels, a pretty solitary fish.

It is caught widely around Japan, off Russia, China and Korea.
The total catch has varied in recent years, but thanks to import, including 21.000 tonnes from China, it has become a feature in season from late Autumn to end of Spring.

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(Kan-Sawara at Uzu, Shizuoka City)

In Winter, it is called Kan Sawara/寒鰆 (寒stands for cold, 鰆 stands for Sawara/Spring Fish) and is a sought after morsel. In Shizuoka it is sometimes caught then in Sagara bay, and I can tell you it disappears quickly form the table.

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(Sawara at Uzu, Shizuoka City)

Later in Spring, it is just called Sawara and is leaner.

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It can be cooked in many ways: broiled as above.

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Or grilled.

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(Small pic, sorry!)

Of Course, as sushi nigiri! Especially Kan Sawara!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’09/40)

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It was back to classical” bento today!
That is rice topped with all kinds of ingredients!

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For once I managed to steal into the kitchen to take a quick pic of the rice being steamed with the beans!

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It was a pretty voluminous bento as you can see!

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As for the main meat the Missus fried slices of tuna in soy sauce and covered with cheese and chopped thin leeks.

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The rest of the garnish consisted of renkon/lotus roots, shiitake and stringbeans fried together in the same pan as the tuna. She added a fresh plum tomato, boiled egg seasoned with black sesame, home-made piclled mini melons and myoga and lettuce. I probably forget something!

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Chopped veg salad with pieces of lettuce and walnuts and cherries from Yamanashi Prefcture for dessert!

I can guarantee you I was full after that!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’09/39)

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For once, The Nissus madebento with “men/Japanese-Chinese Pasta”!

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The principle is to boil “ramen” and strain them through a “zaru/sieve” for them to become “zarumen”.

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At the office I piured the two different sauces and chopped thin leeks on the cole “zarumen” before eating them.

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As for the garnish, the Missus prepared “Tamagoyaki/Japanese Omelette, “Chicken Kaarage/Japanese style deep-fried chicken” (note the black sesame seeds coating), boiled “ingen mame/string beans”, a large plum tomato and home-made cucumber and myoga pickles.

She didn’t forget the dessert: banana!
Plenty and enough, I can tell you!

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Cuttlefish/Squid Species 2: Kensaki Ika

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I decided to dedicate this series called “The Jacques Cousteau” upon suggestion by Jaded Fork and forBread + Butter, and Elin who don’t mind being on a long haul! LOL

“Kensaki Ika/ケンサキ烏賊 goes by the Latin name of Loligo (Photololigo) edulis Hoyle,1885, but that complicated name does not prevent this particular squid to be extremely popular in Japan!

It is of course known under other local names: Ak Ika/Red Squid, especially in Shizuoka, Budo Ika/Grapes Squid, Shiro Ika, Gotou Ika.

They will soon appear in the markets in Summer.
They are mainly caught by line.
They are more and more available live, so great specimens can be easily bought.

They are a very versatile kind of squid as they can be appreciated as sashimi, sushi, simmered, boiled, broiled, dried, and especially as tempura!

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As for me, it is a bit of a dilemna as I like them both as sushi nigiri and sashimi!

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17th Shida Heiya Bishu Story

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Shidaizumi Brewery Sakes

On Wednesday June 3rd, six breweries located in the centre of Shizuoka Prefecture held their 17th Annual Event, Shida Heiya Bishu Story 2009 in Yaizu City at Shofukaku Hotel.

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This has become a real event in recent years, for which the 400 seats are sold out months before the event in spite of very few seats reserved for special guests like John Gauntner, the foreign authority on Japanese Sake who has to come all the way from Kamakura.
This time I was spared from making the kampai speech (John took care of that!) and could concentrate on the event on the full, taking my time to say hello to everyone and visit every stand for a hearty taste of some sublime brews!

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Aoshima Brewery (Kikuyoi/Fujieda City)

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Sugii Brewery (Suginishiki/Fujieda City)

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Isojiman Brewery (Yaizu City)

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Oomuraya Brewery (Wakatake/Shimada City)

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Hatsukame Brewery (Okabe Cho)

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Shidaizumi Brewery (Fujieda City)

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Took the time to take a pic of a new brand by Oomuraya Brewery to commemorate the new Mount Fuji-Shizuoka Airport in Shimada City!

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The hotel served us an excellent Japanese meal!

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Including Sashimi!

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And Sushi!

Looking forward to participating to next year’s event!
Before that I will make sure to visit all those breweries again!

Must-see tasting websites:
-Sake: Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass, Tokyo Foodcast, Urban Sake, Sake World
-Wine: Palate To Pen
-Beer: Good Beer & Country Boys, Another Pint, Please!
-Japanese Pottery to enjoy your favourite drinks: Yellin Yakimono Gallery

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