Japan Eats!
339 episodes - English - Latest episode: 13 days ago - ★★★★★ - 64 ratingsWhat is Japanese food? Sushi, or ramen, or kaiseki? What about Izakaya? Akiko Katayama, a Japanese native, New York-based food writer and director of the New York Japanese Culinary Academy, tells you all about real Japanese food and food culture. With guests ranging from sake producers with generations of experience to American chefs pushing the envelope of Japanese gastronomy, Japanese cuisine is demystified here!
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
What Is Japanese “Shokupan” Milk Bread and Why Is It So Popular?
February 06, 2023 22:12 - 43 minutes - 39.5 MBOur guest is Noriko Okubo who is the co-owner and chief operations officer of Ginza Nishikawa U.S.A. Ginza Nishikawa opened in 2018 in Ginza, one of the poshest areas in Tokyo, to sell high-quality Shokupan bread. Shokupan is also called milk bread and is gaining popularity worldwide for its distinctively soft and fluffy texture with a pleasantly sweet taste. Ginza Nishikawa’s Shokupan bread earned accolades very quickly and now it operates over 130 shops throughout Japan. The huge succe...
Committed to Serving Authentic Japanese in Los Angeles
January 30, 2023 22:15 - 41 minutes - 37.6 MBOur guest is David Schlosser who is the chef/owner of Shibumi in Downtown L.A. Shibumi opened in 2016 and shortly afterwards, it earned accolades from various prominent media, including The Los Angeles Times’s Jonathan Gold who ranked Shibumi number two restaurant of the whole city. Currently, Shibumi holds one Michelin star. David was classically trained in Japan and soulfully serves authentic Japanese dishes at Shibumi. But originally, he used to cook French cuisine at Michelin starred...
272-Year-Old Brewery Makes Carbon-Neutral Sake
January 16, 2023 19:55 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MBOur guest is Cinzia Mesolella who is in charge of PR and communication at Kobe Shushinkan Breweries in Hyogo Prefecture. Hyogo is the home of “Nada no sake”, which means “Sake from Nada”, and is synonymous with great sake. Kobe Shushinkan Breweries was founded in 1751 and its award-winning label Fukuju has been served at Nobel prize dinners several times since 2008. Kobe Shushinkan is also known for its sustainable-minded sake production, and last year it released the world’s first carbon-...
How to Choose Great Sushi Restaurants: The Sushi Guide Answers
January 09, 2023 23:25 - 55 minutes - 51 MBOur guest is Guy Allen, a sushi blogger based in New York City. Guy fell in love with sushi at a very young age and has been exploring the world of sushi globally since then. You can find his discoveries on Instagram under @thesushiguide. His reviews are so unique and fascinating and his photos are so stunning that he has been invited to dine at great sushi restaurants in Tokyo. In this episode, we will discuss Guy’s diverse experiences at sushi restaurants, his criteria for great sushi, w...
The Best Japanese Restaurants and Chefs in 2022
December 13, 2022 22:22 - 46 minutes - 42.7 MBOur guest is Massud Ghaussy who has a Japanese food and restaurant blog on Instagram under TokyoManhattan. His posts not only describe restaurants he has visited, but also include many other elements behind the dishes, such as history, culture, and cooking methods. He joined us in Episodes 125, 136, 152 and 186 and shared his favorite Japanese chefs and restaurants in the world. Today’s topic is the best Japanese restaurants in the world in 2022. The popularity of Japanese food remains hi...
What Is Unique About Japanese Culture?
December 06, 2022 03:22 - 57 minutes - 52.8 MBOur guest is Greg Lam who has a popular YouTube Channel called “Life Where I'm From”. He has created over 200 videos since 2015 and his Channel has more than 1.6 million subscribers. Greg is based in Japan and in his insightful videos, he covers a wide variety of topics from Japanese breakfast, how a ramen shop operates, why Japanese bathrooms are the best, to Japanese social issues like minorities in Japan. In each video, he accurately and analytically captures a very ordinary aspect of l...
Fascinated by Japanese Culture: Sake, Essays, and Beyond
November 21, 2022 21:47 - 40 minutes - 37.4 MBOur guest is Jamie Ryder, who is a certified sake sommelier as well as a Japanese culture enthusiast. Also, Jamie publishes a Japanese culture-themed magazine called Yamato Magazine, which explores Japanese culture from a variety of angles. We have had many guests in the past, talking about Japanese food scenes in the biggest cities in the world such as Tokyo, L.A., London and Paris, but we don’t know too much about how Japanese food is gaining interest in other places. Jamie is based in...
Mike Satinover (a.k.a Ramen Lord) Shares His Passion for Ramen
November 15, 2022 04:34 - 1 hour - 56.8 MBOur guest is Mike Satinover who is a ramen expert based in Chicago. Ramen became a very popular dish outside Japan in the last two decades or so and these days you can find great ramen shops in many cities in the U.S. Mike fell in love with ramen when he spent a year in Japan 12 years ago and since then, his passion for the iconic Japanese national noodle dish has only deepened. That is why his Reddit page has become the go-to place for serious ramen lovers. Go there and you will be surp...
The Charm of Japanese Whisky
November 09, 2022 04:47 - 58 minutes - 53.3 MBOur guest is Tomo Matsushita who is the spirit sommelier at Copper & Oak in the Lower East Side, New York. Spirits are very popular in the U.S. If you look at the alcohol beverage market in 2021, beer was the most popular, which accounted for 43% of the market. Spirits were almost as popular as beer and their market share was 41%, and the remaining was mostly wine. Spirits are delicious but if you don’t know much about them, it is hard to choose what to drink. Tomo is the expert who can he...
Ask the Expert: How to Make Great Japanese Dashi Stock?
November 01, 2022 01:55 - 50 minutes - 46.6 MBOur guest is Shohei Miyajima who is the manager of Dashi Okume in Brooklyn, New York. The New York location of Dashi Okume opened in September 2022 but the history of the company Okume goes back to 1871. Dashi is a Japanese-style stock, but unlike western style stock it is used very extensively in Japanese cuisine. Dashi provides a rich umami taste, which is foundational in many Japanese dishes. Dashi is very easy to make in your kitchen because its ingredients have been carefully made o...
Knife Sharpening Expert Vincent Kazuhito Lau Discusses the Uniqueness of Japanese Knives
October 25, 2022 06:40 - 44 minutes - 41 MBOur guest is Vincent Kazuhito Lau who is the knife sharpener at Korin based in New York. Korin has been offering premium quality Japanese knives, tableware and cookware to Japanese and non-Japanese chefs and consumers for the last 40 years. Vincent began studying knife sharpening in 2009 and thanks to his passion and patience, he has acquired the highly difficult skills and the mindset of a professional knife sharpener. In this episode, we will discuss how Vincent fell in love with Japanes...
A Global Team Delivers the Terroir of Japanese Tea From Kyushu Island
October 18, 2022 04:47 - 1 hour - 57 MBOur guests are Joelle Sambuc Bloise and Aldo Bloise, who are the co-founders of Ikkyu. Ikkyu is a unique tea company that sells high-quality Japanese tea based in the southern island of Kyushu. If you live outside of Japan, it is not easy to find reasonably priced high-quality Japanese tea. Then I heard about Ikkyu. I ordered some tea from the website and I had some wonderful new discoveries! Of course, there are other great Japanese tea companies but I got particularly interested in Ikkyu...
Sharing the Essence of Japanese Food Culture From a Tiny Pottery Village
October 11, 2022 17:42 - 42 minutes - 39.2 MBOur guest is Prairie Stuart Wolff who is a writer and photographer and what I would call cultural communicator based in a rural countryside village called Mirukashi on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu. Since Prairie moved to Mirukashi in 2007, she has been deepening her interest in Japanese food through the beautiful surrounding nature. You can find her precious life in the village on her website, Mirukashi Salon. In this episode, we will discuss how Prairie ended up moving to Japan, ho...
Creating a Bright Future in a Depopulated Green Tea Production Town
October 05, 2022 00:28 - 50 minutes - 46.6 MBOur guest is Daiki Tanaka who is the founder of d:matcha. d:matcha is a highly unique tea company located in the rural town of Wazuka, Kyoto. Wazuka has been known as a premium tea production area for the last 800 years. The landscape of Wazuka is stunningly beautiful but the town has been suffering from serious depopulation. However, Wazuka started to see a bright future since Daiki moved there and began his various ambitious projects to revive the community. In this episode, we will ...
KAMBUTSU: The Dried Darlings of the Japanese Kitchen
September 26, 2022 22:48 - 58 minutes - 53.4 MBOur guest is Elizabeth Andoh who joined us 10 times in Episodes 18, 61, 83, 99, 108, 131, 156, 180, 200, 208, and shared her truly deep insight into traditional Japanese food culture. Elizabeth is a food writer and Japanese cooking instructor based in Tokyo, and she has lived in Japan for over 50 years. She runs the culinary arts program called A Taste of Culture, which offers a great opportunity for non-Japanese people to explore Japanese culture through its food. Elizabeth is also the ...
A Nomadic Fishmonger Is Inspiring the Future of Seafood
September 20, 2022 18:44 - 48 minutes - 44.6 MBOur guest is Arimi Asai who is the co-founder of Fish & Dish Sakanaya Asai based in Tokyo. Fish & Dish Sakanaya Asai is a unique and highly inspiring fishmonger. When we buy seafood, most of us will go to a supermarket and purchase a piece of fish without knowing its whole shape. It is easy and convenient but the process reminds us that we have become very distant from how we used to eat fish. Arimi and her husband Kazuhiro have a mission to shrink the distance. Their innovative mom & po...
The Master Tea Ceremony Practitioner Randy Channell Soei
August 09, 2022 13:30 - 1 hour - 58.8 MBOur guest is Randy Channell Soei who is a master tea practitioner from Canada. Randy went to Japan 37 years ago to study martial arts. His goal was achieved and he gained proficiency in various styles of martial arts, including Kendo, Iaido, and Kyudo. But somehow, his focus shifted to Japanese tea ceremony and eventually he became the first master tea ceremony instructor as a non-Japanese person. In this episode, we will discuss how Randy got into the tea ceremony, what exactly tea ceremon...
The 29th Generation of the Koji Merchant Family Demystifies the Magic Mold of Japan
August 05, 2022 23:49 - 47 minutes - 43.7 MBOur guest is Yuichiro Murai, the 29th generation of Kojiya Sanzaemon based in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Koji, which is also called the national mold of Japan, has been used to make a majority of anything delicious in Japanese cuisine, such as miso, soy sauce, sake, and shochu. In the last decade or so, koji has become a culinary keyword, especially among forward-minded top chefs like Rene Redzepi of Noma in Denmark, and Feran Adria in Spain. Yuichiro’s family has been selling koji product...
Discovering Awamori With Maurice Dudley in Okinawa
July 26, 2022 04:28 - 56 minutes - 51.9 MBOur guest is Maurice Dudley, who is an awamori specialist based in Okinawa. Awamori is a very important traditional alcoholic beverage from Okinawa Prefecture, but its preciousness is yet to be known outside Japan. Maurice went to Japan for the first time in 1994 as an Airman. He was stationed at a U.S. Military base in Okinawa and fell in love with awamori. Since then, he has continued to deepen his knowledge of and passion for awamori, and now owns an awamori bar and trading company, Blue...
An American Sushi Chef Conveys the Evanescence of Life in Georgia
July 12, 2022 05:40 - 1 hour - 59.6 MBOur guest is J. Trent Harris who is the executive chef at the beautiful new sushi restaurant called Mujo in Atlanta, Georgia, which opened in February 2022. At Mujo there are only 15 seats at the counter made with cypress and he serves an omakase-style tasting menu that changes daily based on the catch of the day. Earlier in his career, chef Harris worked in classic western kitchens, including the Michelin-starred modern Portuguese restaurant Aldea in New York where he was the chef de cuis...
The Art of Sushi: In-Depth Discoveries by a French Illustrator
June 27, 2022 20:52 - 45 minutes - 41.8 MBOur guests are Franckie Alarcon and Marilyne Letertre. Franckie is an illustrator and comic artist based in Paris. He recently published a fabulous comic book, The Art of Sushi. The title sounds very ambitious, but he does not disappoint you. I first learned about the book by reading a recommendation by an experienced Japanese sushi chef. The book is about Franckie and Marilyne’s adventures in Japan to discover real sushi. Their French perspective casts refreshing views on Japanese culture...
In Pursuit of Sustainability With the Power of Koji
June 21, 2022 00:05 - 53 minutes - 48.9 MBOur guest is Tetsuji Ishigaki who is a scientist and the president & CEO of SOI inc. based in Shizuoka, Japan. The company produces sustainable foods and ingredients using Japanese koji mold. Tetsuji has a strong mission to help to create a fully sustainable society by providing healthy products. It sounds like a cliché but what he does is real. His family started a koji manufacturing business in 1739 and with the deepest understanding of the Japanese national mold, Tetsuji has been invent...
Exploring the World of Craft Sake With Michael Tremblay
June 13, 2022 22:39 - 56 minutes - 52 MBOur guest is Michael Tremblay who is a Sake Samurai, international sake judge, sake sommelier, and certified sake educator based in Toronto, Canada. Michael is also the co-author of the excellent new book “Exploring the World of Japanese Craft Sake: Rice, Water, Earth” from Tuttle Publishing. This book is not an ordinary book on sake. It not only covers the basics of sake with unique insights but also discusses more advanced topics such as new rice varieties and water mineral contents and ...
Stories of Japanese Tea: The Essence of Tradition and Who Are Sustaining (And Evolving) It
June 07, 2022 00:28 - 56 minutes - 51.9 MBOur guest is Zach Mangan who is the co-founder of Kettl, the Japanese tea importer and distributor based in Fukuoka, Japan and New York. Zach joined us in Episode 44 and talked about his love and passion for Japanese tea. Now, six years later, Zach has lots of updates to share with us. In this episode, we will discuss this fascinating new book, Stories of Japanese Tea: The Regions, the Growers, and the Craft, what Zach offers at his new café and gallery in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the lates...
The Troubles Shoguns Created in Japanese Food Markets (And How Ordinary Citizens Solved Them)
May 23, 2022 22:40 - 1 hour - 56.6 MBOur guest today is Akira Shimizu who is the associate professor of History at Wilkes University and his focus has been our favorite topic: food. Professor Shimizu recently published an intriguing book titled, “Specialty Food, Market Culture, and Daily Life in Early Modern Japan: Regulating and Deregulating the Market in Edo, 1780–1870”. The book features the very unique period of Japanese history. The Edo era was a more peaceful time than ever thanks to the strong leadership of the shogu...
Fostering Future Sushi Chefs in the U.S.
May 16, 2022 23:56 - 53 minutes - 48.8 MBOur guest is Andy Matsuda, the founder and master sushi chef of Sushi Chef Institute in Los Angeles, California. Traditionally, sushi-making was something not to be taught, but what you patiently learn by watching your master for years and years. But Andy’s work experience in the U.S. and deep understanding of the global sushi market led him to open the sushi school in 2002. Since then, many successful graduates have been offering sushi to the world and increasing its popularity even furth...
Pioneering American Craft Sake: Blake Richardson of Moto-i
May 02, 2022 22:40 - 56 minutes - 52.2 MBOur guest is Blake Richardson who is the president and owner of Moto-i in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Moto-i opened as a sake brewery and brewpub in 2008. There are around 20 craft sake breweries in the U.S. now, but when Blake started Moto-i, there was not much information available about Japanese sake in English, not to mention other craft breweries to learn from. Blake also runs a sake rice milling company called Minnesota Rice and Milling, which is important for American sake brewers, cons...
Franco-Tunisian Kurabito Brews Super-Natural Sake At Terada Honke
April 11, 2022 22:57 - 1 hour - 62.1 MBOur guest is Mehdi Alexandre Medhaffar, who is a kurabito, or a brewmaster’s support, at Terada Honke in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo. Mehdi is Franco-Tunisian and he has made sake at five breweries in Japan for the last 8 years. Terada Honke is distinctively unique and known for its strong focus on natural sake-making. Here, we are not talking about a natural-oriented brewing style but a never-ending pursuit of minimum intervention to maximize the power of nature. The brewery was founded 3...
Rintaro: Merging Japanese and Californian Food Culture At Their Best
April 05, 2022 02:46 - 56 minutes - 51.3 MBjapan, japanese, japanese food, japanese cuisine, washoku, Japanese culture, japan eats!, Rintaro, Izakaya, sylvan Mishima Brackett, akiko katayama, heritage radio network, food radio Our guest is Sylvan Mishima Brackett, who is the chef and owner of Izakaya Rintaro in San Francisco’s Mission district. Shortly after its opening in 2014, Rintaro was included in Bon Appetit magazine’s Top 10 New Restaurant list and has been beloved by many diners for the last 8 years. Born in Japan and rais...
KI NO BI: What is Japanese Gin?
March 28, 2022 20:45 - 58 minutes - 53.8 MBOur guest is Marcin Miller who is the founding partner of the Kyoto Distillery in Japan. The distillery is the maker of the award-winning beautiful Japanese-style craft gin called KI NO BI. Before he co-founded the Kyoto Distillery in 2014, Marcin has been in the spirits industry for a long time as a writer, importer, distributor and consultant. Until very recently, no one would have expected that Japanese-made gin would become popular nationally as well as globally, but the Kyoto Distil...
Moromi: Artisanal Japanese Fermented Foods Made in Coastal Connecticut
March 08, 2022 01:51 - 55 minutes - 51 MBOur guest is Bob Florence, who is the founder of Moromi based in Connecticut. At Moromi, Bob produces hand-crafted, small-batch Japanese-style fermented products such as shoyu, miso, hot sauces, and other condiments. Bob studied how to make authentic Japanese fermented products in Japan and uniquely integrate the Japanese tradition and local flavors of coastal Connecticut. In this episode, we will discuss how an industrial chemist became an artisanal food producer, why Japanese-style ferm...
Growing Japanese Vegetables in America for 40 Years
March 01, 2022 00:14 - 43 minutes - 40 MBOur guest is Ken Suzuki, the founder of the Suzuki Farm in Delaware, which opened in 1983. In the last 39 years, Ken has devoted himself to introducing native Japanese vegetables and fruits to America. He and his team grow a variety of Japanese produce on their 28-acre land and harvest more than 30 kinds of crops throughout the year. I have been hearing about Suzuki Farm through Japanese and non-Japanese chefs who look for the uniquely delicate flavors of Japanese vegetables. In this e...
ichigo ichie (The Moment Perfected) In Ireland
February 22, 2022 00:04 - 44 minutes - 40.5 MBOur guest is Takashi Miyazaki, who is the chef/owner of ichigo ichie in Cork, Ireland. Takashi moved to Ireland in 2008 where Japanese food was yet to be more deeply discovered. Also, he was met by the global financial crisis shortly after his arrival in Ireland. After going through numerous challenges, he fell in love with Cork, a small city in the south-western part of the country, and opened a kaiseki restaurant called ichigo ichie in 2018. The restaurant became a huge success and earne...
Ichigo Ichie (Once in a Lifetime) In Ireland
February 22, 2022 00:04 - 44 minutes - 40.5 MBOur guest is Takashi Miyazaki, who is the chef/owner of Ichigo Ichie in Cork, Ireland. Takashi moved to Ireland in 2008 where Japanese food was yet to be more deeply discovered. Also, he was met by the global financial crisis shortly after his arrival in Ireland. After going through numerous challenges, he fell in love with Cork, a small city in the south-western part of the country, and opened a kaiseki restaurant called Ichigo Ichie in 2018. The restaurant became a huge success and earne...
Japanese Sake Delivered To My Door
February 15, 2022 00:15 - 51 minutes - 47.4 MBOur guest is Genki Ito, who is the founder of Tippsy Sake, an online store that specializes in Japanese sake, based in California. Japanese sake has been increasingly popular globally in recent years and the US is one of the most promising markets for the sake industry. For example, between 2011 to 2021, the value of Japanese sake export to the US tripled, and its quantity doubled, according to the Japanese government’s statistics. In other words, Americans are drinking not only more sake ...
Japanese Chefs Are Obsessed With Salt
February 07, 2022 23:22 - 46 minutes - 42.6 MBOur guest is Makiko Harada, who is a salt specialist and the owner of Glamsalt, a salt shop based in the Hudson Valley, New York. She opened Glamsalt in 2012 and now has numerous famous chef clients who adore her products, including those at Sushi Nakazawa, Sushi Yasuda, and Hatsuhana. Makiko is known for her extremely high-quality, unique products, and the awe and respect for salt in Japanese culture underlie her business approach. In this episode, we will discuss how Makiko got into ...
It Is Not Shochu; It Is American Rice Koji Spirits
February 01, 2022 00:24 - 57 minutes - 52.3 MBOur guest is Whit Johnson who is the co-founder of Horyzon Spirits based in Atlanta, Georgia. Whit founded Hryzon Spirits in April 2021 to produce very unique products that blend Japanese tradition and American terroir. More specifically, he chose to use Japanese koji mold, which is the foundational ingredient of Japanese cuisine, to produce his spirits instead of malts. Also, he uses Carolina Gold rice, which reflects the rich history of American South agriculture. It is very exciting to ...
What Is Okonomiyaki?
January 25, 2022 02:22 - 59 minutes - 54.2 MBOur guest is Kazuko Nagao, the founder of Oconomi, the okonomiyaki shop based in Queens, New York. Okonomiyaki is a Japanese-style savory pancake, which is very popular in Japan. Despite its rich, delicious taste and approachable style, okonomiyaki is yet to be known to the world outside Japan. Kazuko has been making okonomiyaki for New Yorkers at street fairs and food events for a decade. But last month, in December 2021, she decided to turn her seasonal okonomiyaki business into regula...
The First Sake Brewery in Mexico
January 18, 2022 01:00 - 48 minutes - 44.8 MBOur guest is Matthieu Guerpillon, the Marketing Manager & Brand Ambassador of NAMI, the first sake brewery in Mexico. Japanese sake has been produced outside of Japan in recent years, and it is very exciting to see that there is a sake brewery in Mexico, which is the home of excellent beer and spirits such as tequila and mezcal! NAMI is not just the first sake brewery in Mexico. Their products have proved to be outstanding. For example, The International Sake Challenge, which is an annual...
Bridging The Tea Ceremony And Your Daily Tea Habit
January 10, 2022 20:10 - 42 minutes - 38.7 MBOur guest today is Ryo Iwamoto, who is the founder and CEO of TeaRoom based in Tokyo. Ryo began studying tea 15 years ago at the age of 9 and now he is a certified instructor of the Japanese tea ceremony. He even has a special name that is only given to outstanding tea practitioners. Ryo founded TeaRoom in 2018 while he was still a student at the prestigious Waseda University to inspire the world with the power of Japanese tea culture. In this episode, we will discuss how Ryo got into ...
A Film for Ramen Lovers: Come Back Anytime
December 14, 2021 00:51 - 1 hour - 60.7 MBOur guests today are John Daschbach, the director of the fantastic new documentary film Come Back Anytime, and Wataru Yamamoto, the producer of the film. Our mutual friend Yukari Sakamoto, who is an influential food specialist based in Tokyo, introduced me to the new film Come Back Anytime, or mata irasshai (またいらっしゃい) in Japanese. It premiered at DOC NYC, which is the largest documentary festival in America, and at the IFC Center in November 2021. This documentary is about a ramen chef i...
Saving Vanishing Culture And Tradition
December 07, 2021 00:23 - 53 minutes - 48.6 MBOur guest today is Kou Sundburg, who is the founder of Kiraku. Kiraku operates multiple projects that aim to preserve Japan’s rich cultural and natural heritage for future generations. Kou has a strong business background with a unique bi-cultural vantage point of the Japanese tradition. Kou’s diverse projects include transforming abandoned machiya, or a traditional Japanese townhouse, in Kyoto into a Michelin-awarded luxury ryokan and reviving a sake brewery that was founded in 1793 but u...
Authentic Shochu Comes From Maryland, U.S.A.
November 22, 2021 23:01 - 1 hour - 55.9 MBOur guest is Takatsugu 'Taka' Amano who is the co-Founder and CEO of American Shochu Company based in Silver Spring, Maryland. Shochu is a traditional Japanese spirit and it is more popular than Japanese sake in Japan. If you compare sake and shochu, 4.2% of liquor tax comes from premium sake, whereas 14.8% comes from shochu, according to the Japanese government’s data in 2019. But the number flips when it comes to overseas. In 2020, Japan exported about $212 million worth of premium sake ...
Supplying Japanese Seafood Culture for 40+ Years
November 16, 2021 01:06 - 46 minutes - 42.3 MBOur guest is Nobu Yamanashi, the director of Yama Seafood. Founded in 1980 by his father Kengo Yamanashi, Yama Seafood has been one of the most reliable sources of high-quality seafood in the U.S. for over 40 years. Thanks to superior suppliers like Yama Seafood, our diet has shifted dramatically towards fresh seafood like sushi in the last decades. For example, people used to be frightened by the idea of eating raw fish in the 1950s, but now $300 per person omakase sushi dinner is not u...
Farming Japanese Sake Rice in Arkansas
November 09, 2021 00:39 - 55 minutes - 50.7 MBOur guests are Mark Isbell and Chris Isbell of Isbell Farms in Arkansas. Isbell Farms has always been forward-minded and played an important role as a strong supporter of the American sake industry. It is a multi-generational family farm with a focus on the sustainable production of quality rice. And also, Isbell is the first American farm that produced Sakamai, which means Japanese rice varieties developed specifically for sake production. There are approximately 25 sake breweries in th...
An American Chef Immersed in Nagano's Culinary Tradition
November 02, 2021 00:25 - 52 minutes - 47.8 MBOur guest is Christopher Horton who is the executive chef at Sanrokunana (367) in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. After graduating from the New England Culinary Institute, Chris worked at notable establishments, including Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C., Andaz Hotel Tokyo, and INUA in Tokyo, which was one of Asia’s 50 Best restaurants. Nagano is known for its beautiful mountains and hot springs, and very importantly, great local produce. Chris naturally combines his western culinary ...
All About Tuna/Maguro (And Sustainability)
October 25, 2021 21:43 - 52 minutes - 47.7 MBOur guest is Masamitsu Ishibashi who is the president and CEO of Misaki Megumi Suisan based in Japan. Founded in 1986, the company has been focused on processing and sales of fresh seafood, in particular tuna. Tuna, or Maguro in Japanese, is one of the most popular fish among sushi lovers. Not only does the fish have a very special place in Japanese food culture, but on the other hand, sustainability is a major issue nowadays and seafood including maguro is one of the frequently discussed a...
You Discovered You Like Sake. Now What?
October 18, 2021 21:52 - 50 minutes - 45.9 MBMy guests are Tim Sullivan & John Puma, who are the hosts of the Sake Revolution podcast. The Sake Revolution podcast started in January 2020 and each episode is so informative and so much fun that I have never missed an episode of the show. Tim is a sake expert and the founder of Urban Sake. He is also an honorable Sake Samurai as well. It is a title given by the Japan Sake Brewers Association to those who promote sake and Japanese culture. He joined us already twice in Episodes 32 and 1...
Sequoia Sake: Reviving 115-Year-Old Sake Rice in San Francisco
October 11, 2021 22:19 - 54 minutes - 50.1 MBOur guest is Jake Myrick who is the co-owner and toji, or brewmaster, of Sequoia Sake in San Francisco, which was founded in 2015. It is the first local artisanal sake brewery in the city. In 2019, only 4 years after their first production of sake, the brewery received both the gold and silver awards for best sake produced outside of Japan at the Tokyo Sake Competition. Jake has been relentlessly pursuing the best quality sake, and as a result, he has successfully revived the original s...
The Princess of the Rice Kingdom
October 04, 2021 22:05 - 49 minutes - 44.9 MBOur guest today is Marie Akizawa, the 6th generation rice merchant Yamadaya Honten in Tokyo, which was founded in 1905. Rice is a quintessential food in Japanese culture since it started to be produced 3,000 years ago in the country. Japanese people enjoy plain rice like the best part of the meal. Also, Japanese chefs are crazy about their choice of rice. For instance, at a fancy kaiseki restaurant, the last savory course of the menu is often a bowl of shiny plain rice. You would be surpri...