Oct 13, 2007 04:30 AM
Amy Pataki
Restaurant Critic
Love ramen? You're soaking in it.
Such is the new shtick at a Japanese theme park affiliated with a famous noodle shop. Bathers bob about in a giant bowl of hot water flavoured with pepper. To complete the illusion, yellow noodles dangle from giant chopsticks overhead.
There are drier – and closer – ways to indulge in Japan's iconic foods. Within the GTA are a handful of small restaurants offering Japanese fast food and street snacks. Common stuff like ramen, onigiri (rice balls), takoyaki (octopus dumplings), okonomiyaki (savoury pancakes) and even shu cream (cream puffs).
One place to start is Kenzo Ramen, with its stripped-down menu and service to match.
Kenzo offers three basic ramen and a handful of fancier ones. Owner Daniel Park makes a point of pulling his own Korean wheat noodles and simmering his bone-based stocks for 20 hours.
Ramen is supposed to be quick but the wait is long at Kenzo's Yonge St. location. (Park blames lack of staff.) I wish I could say it's worthwhile, but not for the bland broths.
Miso ramen ($6.95) is too subtle by far. White pork-bonetonkatsu ($7.95) is as rich and monotonous as cream. Ji su men ($8.95) is the best, deeply flavoured and thick from potato starch and beaten egg. The noodles, though, are always spry and the barbecued pork awesomely moist.
Kenzo's real appeal is its okonomiyaki ($9.95). To describe this dish as Japanese pizza, as many do, is inaccurate. There's a choice of flavourings, true, but the "crust" is a thick, eggy batter laced with minced cabbage.
Two things are key: okonomiyaki must come topped with tangy brown sauce and mayonnaise (better than it sounds); and a sprinkle of katsuboshi (dried bonito flakes) should shimmy in the heat. So it is at Kenzo. The seafood okonomiyaki is light and fluffy, with welcome crunch from julienned carrots and bean sprouts.
Another place to go beyond sushi is J-Town, the Japanese mini-mall in Markham. Café Green Tea is a low-key cafeteria entered through the cookie section of the adjoining Heisei Mart grocers.
Aside from an unfortunate-sounding menu item called "mashed brown," Green Tea's offerings are straight forward. There's decent soba ($7) in soothing dashi broth. These buckwheat noodles come with lovely marinated shiitake and the requisite pink-swirled fish cake. Nor can you go wrong with anything breaded, such as juicy chicken cutlets ($7).
The onigiri ($1.50) aren't on the menu; you have to ask. They're simple things, just a nugget of cooked salmon or sour pickled plum buried in sticky steamed rice, then folded in nori. As in Japan, some last-minute assembly is required. Thus Green Tea's nori snaps like a testy turtle.
Also inside J-Town is Bakery Nakamura, a French-influenced patisserie that does a steady business in cream puffs ($1.80). Cream puffs are beloved in Japan, filled to order and eaten on the spot; the irresistible smell of fresh baked choux wafts down many an Osaka street.
Nakamura pre-fills its sturdy shells with thick vanilla cream that bursts out the sides on the first bite. These puffs aren't the most delicate out there, but they go down easy.
But it's the takoyaki ($4.25 for six) at Naniwa-Taro that represent the best of Japanese street food in Toronto. Osaka-born owners Minaru and Ai Morita set up shop in the food court of a T&T supermarket in Scarborough two years ago. They make okonomiyaki in four variations, including layered hiroshimayaki and noodle modanayaki, plus uniquely Japanese versions of Western dishes such as omu raisu (ketchup-and-rice omelettes).
Just watching the Moritas poke and flip the dumplings frying in their custom cast-iron moulds is a treat. What starts as a thin batter augmented with powdered shrimp, tempura bits, red ginger and purple octopus chunks eventually emerges as crisp-creamy spheres, blistering hot and utterly delicious. Factor in the extra flavour from the requisite brown sauce, mayo, powdered seaweed and katsuboshi, and you've got a snack worth lining up for, just as they do in Japan.
thestar.com
Organic Japanese food hot items in U.K., Europe
Organic Japanese food hot items in U.K., Europe
By WILLIAM HOLLINGWORTH
LONDON (Kyodo) Demand for organic Japanese food has grown "phenomenally" over the last few years as more Europeans opt for healthier diets, according to a major importer who was recently commended by the Japanese government for his efforts.
Christopher Dawson, chairman of Clearspring Ltd., talks about the popularity of organic food products imported from Japan during a recent interview at his firm in London. KYODO PHOTO
Christopher Dawson, chairman of Clearspring Ltd., says his products have attracted much interest from supermarkets eager to stock his range of Japanese organic produce, which includes teas, noodles, soups and sauces.
Dawson, the only foreigner to receive this year's agriculture ministry award in Tokyo for the overseas promotion of Japanese food, said the demand has been buoyed by TV programs in Britain extolling the virtues of traditional Japanese food.
And, as with British food, consumers are increasingly looking for the organically grown option, free from pesticides and other chemicals.
Clearspring has been operating as a wholesaler since 1988, and was bought by Dawson in 1993. It imports products from all over Japan that are then sold in Britain and other European and Middle Eastern countries under the Clearspring brand.
The majority of the company's produce is organic and the food is made using traditional Japanese methods. All the foods are made without artificial additives, preservatives or colorings.
Since he took the helm in 1993, Dawson said business has "increased fourfold," with the real growth in organic products. The last 12 months have seen a significant increase in orders and the company supplies two of Britain's biggest supermarket chains.
Clearspring is the biggest importer of Japanese organic food into Britain.
"Demand is huge and particularly so of late. Supermarkets have been coming to us, which is very unusual. We have waited a long time for this," Dawson said in an interview.
"There has been a lot of press about the benefits of green tea, the 'bento' (boxed lunch) has become popular and you can get miso soup at restaurants."
Clearspring, which is based in west London, sells organic green teas, miso, rice cakes and crackers, vinegars, soy sauces, sake, as well as "soba" and "udon" noodles. The firm even sells "umeboshi" pickled plums.
Dawson says the organic miso soup, rice cakes and wheat-free "tamari" soy sauce are big sellers. Other less well-known products, including umeboshi, are growing in popularity.
Before buying Clearspring, Dawson spent 18 years living in Japan, where he worked for an export company.
While working in Japan, he realized the importance of sourcing organically grown produce for the overseas market. He worked with the producers to get their food certified as organic.
He said, "Because the food is from overseas, a lot of consumers (in Britain, for example) like to know that it is organic because they don't know a lot about the food-making process in Japan and want to be careful."
The organic certification process is still very much in its early stages in Japan, compared with the United States and Europe. In fiscal 2004, organic produce represented only 0.16 percent of total farm output.
The Japanese government has tried to boost the production of organic foods by offering more support and there are bodies that certify produce as organic.
However, the Japanese organic standards are not as stringent as those of the European Union, Dawson said.
Therefore, each type of organic food from Japan has to be separately inspected by Ecocert, the EU body, in order to get its organic certificate before it can be imported into Britain.
Dawson said it is very costly to go through this process for each product and ideally he would like to see Tokyo raise the Japanese organic standards so they can be European Union-compliant.
"It causes a lot of work for us, and at the end of the day we are working hard to promote Japan's food," Dawson said.
Despite this, he said he believes there is much to be said about the value of Japanese food and is optimistic about its future in the West. "It tastes delicious and has so many applications for nutrition, health and ecology," because it is considered to be very energy efficient to prepare, he said.
The Japan Times Online
By WILLIAM HOLLINGWORTH
LONDON (Kyodo) Demand for organic Japanese food has grown "phenomenally" over the last few years as more Europeans opt for healthier diets, according to a major importer who was recently commended by the Japanese government for his efforts.
Christopher Dawson, chairman of Clearspring Ltd., talks about the popularity of organic food products imported from Japan during a recent interview at his firm in London. KYODO PHOTO
Christopher Dawson, chairman of Clearspring Ltd., says his products have attracted much interest from supermarkets eager to stock his range of Japanese organic produce, which includes teas, noodles, soups and sauces.
Dawson, the only foreigner to receive this year's agriculture ministry award in Tokyo for the overseas promotion of Japanese food, said the demand has been buoyed by TV programs in Britain extolling the virtues of traditional Japanese food.
And, as with British food, consumers are increasingly looking for the organically grown option, free from pesticides and other chemicals.
Clearspring has been operating as a wholesaler since 1988, and was bought by Dawson in 1993. It imports products from all over Japan that are then sold in Britain and other European and Middle Eastern countries under the Clearspring brand.
The majority of the company's produce is organic and the food is made using traditional Japanese methods. All the foods are made without artificial additives, preservatives or colorings.
Since he took the helm in 1993, Dawson said business has "increased fourfold," with the real growth in organic products. The last 12 months have seen a significant increase in orders and the company supplies two of Britain's biggest supermarket chains.
Clearspring is the biggest importer of Japanese organic food into Britain.
"Demand is huge and particularly so of late. Supermarkets have been coming to us, which is very unusual. We have waited a long time for this," Dawson said in an interview.
"There has been a lot of press about the benefits of green tea, the 'bento' (boxed lunch) has become popular and you can get miso soup at restaurants."
Clearspring, which is based in west London, sells organic green teas, miso, rice cakes and crackers, vinegars, soy sauces, sake, as well as "soba" and "udon" noodles. The firm even sells "umeboshi" pickled plums.
Dawson says the organic miso soup, rice cakes and wheat-free "tamari" soy sauce are big sellers. Other less well-known products, including umeboshi, are growing in popularity.
Before buying Clearspring, Dawson spent 18 years living in Japan, where he worked for an export company.
While working in Japan, he realized the importance of sourcing organically grown produce for the overseas market. He worked with the producers to get their food certified as organic.
He said, "Because the food is from overseas, a lot of consumers (in Britain, for example) like to know that it is organic because they don't know a lot about the food-making process in Japan and want to be careful."
The organic certification process is still very much in its early stages in Japan, compared with the United States and Europe. In fiscal 2004, organic produce represented only 0.16 percent of total farm output.
The Japanese government has tried to boost the production of organic foods by offering more support and there are bodies that certify produce as organic.
However, the Japanese organic standards are not as stringent as those of the European Union, Dawson said.
Therefore, each type of organic food from Japan has to be separately inspected by Ecocert, the EU body, in order to get its organic certificate before it can be imported into Britain.
Dawson said it is very costly to go through this process for each product and ideally he would like to see Tokyo raise the Japanese organic standards so they can be European Union-compliant.
"It causes a lot of work for us, and at the end of the day we are working hard to promote Japan's food," Dawson said.
Despite this, he said he believes there is much to be said about the value of Japanese food and is optimistic about its future in the West. "It tastes delicious and has so many applications for nutrition, health and ecology," because it is considered to be very energy efficient to prepare, he said.
The Japan Times Online
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