This week’s entry is another Intermission in our lengthy Days of Wine and Music series. If you are the type of person who scrapes the caviar off the cracker and eats the roe, who cuts the decorative buttercream flower from the center of the birthday cake and consumes it whole, or drinks the rum and … Continue reading A JFEX Gem: Some Offerings from Shiino Foods
Japanese Cypress* This week’s entry is another Intermission in our lengthy Days of Wine and Music series. Well, it is late June when this is being written and that means only two things: 1) ultra-abysmal rainy-season weather and 2) JFEX, a huge food and beverage exposition that never disappoints. The venue for the former is … Continue reading A JFEX Gem: Yudanaka’s Blue Forest Ale
This is the tenth installment in our Days of Wine and Music series. Once again, we will provide our readers with more information on the Republic of San Marino, before we turn our attention in subsequent installments to the wines of the country and one winemaker-musician in particular. In this entry we will not include … Continue reading Striking Our Fancy
Gotterdammerung* This is the first installment in our “Days of Wine and Music” series. Over the next few weeks, we are going to delve into areas that at first may seem a little atypical when compared with our usual output, but it will eventually become clear where we are taking this. We like opera here … Continue reading Days of Wine and Music: An Introduction
In recent years, we have seen sake, or nihonshu, used in castella pound cakes, chocolate bonbons and other desserts. However, it was not until 2020 when Sake Ice opened in Asakusa did I hear of sake being used in ice cream, let alone a shop specializing in this sake-infused chilled creamy concoction. Soon after the … Continue reading I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Sake Ice (Cream)
In August 2023 Len Chandler, a classically trained musician and topical songwriter famous during the folk music boom of the 1960s, passed away. Mr. Chandler was a man of many talents, but he is best remembered for his childlike, but ever-so-serious song, “Beans in My Ears.” The little ditty was somewhat controversial and banned by … Continue reading Beans, Some Have Them in Their Ears, Permanently; Others in Their Mouths
Nara-zuke, Traditional Foods in Japan, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries This is the third entry in our multi-part series on marketing Japan to affluent foreign tourists. To some in the Anglophone world, pickles might be all about a guy named Peter pecking at pickers packaging pipers. Well, that didn’t come out very well, did … Continue reading Food: Nara-zuke
