After my step-son, Gregory Beitchman, told me that the coffee at Stumptown tastes almost exactly as good as Japanese coffee served at kissaten (coffee shop) in Japan, I had to try it even though I am not today a coffee drinker. Stumptown is housed in a hip and cool NY hotel, ACE. When you enter the store from outside you will be mingling with cool and young New Yorker or cool visitors from all over the world. I wanted to taste the real coffee (no latte or fake coffee). A...
Read MoreShad and Shad roe and continuation of Shun
When I moved to New York City the selection of fish at local fish monger disappointed me. I craved for extremely fresh fish (for cooking purpose), oily fish (sardine, mackerel, herring), locally caught fish and whole fish. In my second year in NYC at the beginning of May I was introduced to Shad. It was a flavorful fish with pleasant oiliness (but not as flavorful as my dear sardine or mackerel), and I quickly fell love with it. The season of Shad in the city lasted only...
Read MoreShun and Burdock gobo
Suddenly in the past couple of days in NYC we are enjoying (with a big ?; we did not have a real cold usual winter) spring like weather. Some people are already switching sweater and coat to tank top and summer dress. Now I am eagerly waiting for lamps at our local Union Square farmers market. Lamps has become my shun favorite at early spring after moving to NYC 13 years ago. Here is a part of shun description, an excerpt from my upcoming book, Hiroko’s American...
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Here you can see the hoshiimo, dried Japanese sweet potato, product. Mr. Onizawa and Mr. Terunuma are chatting with and introducing to the event attendees. Nobody tasted the dried sweet potato before. They loved the texture and fragrant sweetness of the...
Read MoreDried Sweet Potato is a discovery!
Sweet potatoes were originally came from Central and South America to Japan. Probably they were introduced by Spanish conquistadores to the Philippines, from whence they reached China. These potatoes were introduced to Japan from China in the seventeenth century. After years of improvements we have produced in Japan sweet potatoes which tastes very different from the American counterparts, which are often mislabeled yams. Japanese sweet potatoes, satsumaimo – are very...
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