A special ingredient from Japan’s southwestern Kumamoto prefecture transforms Japan’s most traditional cooking essential into something new.
soy sauce
The newest addition to the menu of the sweet life, or a crackpot idea that’ll leave you feeling salty?
A collaboration that brings one of Japan’s oldest traditions and food culture together, in the form of tableware.
Day two of our epic adventure includes an ancient soy sauce factory, pressed sushi, and rabbit-eared samurai helmets.
Our stew-loving reporter says a quick dash of one of Japan’s staple seasonings, added at just the right time, boosts the flavor of this cold-weather favorite.
Iconic character from Hayao Miyazaki anime is ready to terrify and/or charm you at mealtime.
If green tea, Japan’s favorite traditional drink, can make desserts better, why not its most important seasoning, too…right? Right?!?
We try out this revolutionary condiment that could change the way everyone eats sushi, sashimi, or anything really.
I’d like to fancy myself a man of refined tastes. When I eat ice cream it certainly ought to be rose flavored. My colas? Well, they better be of an unexplained taste. And when it comes to crackers, I accept nothing less than those doused in the essence of sea urchins.
And now you can too! All you have to do is pick up a pack of Waza No Koda Wari Noko Uni Shoyu crackers at your local food vendor this winter season.
One of the first things that foreign visitors to Japan learn about Japanese cuisine is that white rice served by itself is meant to be enjoyed as it is, not soaked in soy or doused in dipping sauce. But many people who aren’t all that well-acquainted with Japanese food find the taste of plain boiled rice bland, and love to drizzle sweet and salty sauces all over in order to jazz it up a bit, even if it does make eating it with chopsticks ten times harder.
The UK is one place that probably isn’t known for having a high level of familiarity with Japanese food. Chains like Wagamama and Shoryu Ramen do exist, but they tend to play fast and loose with the definition of Japanese food, and as a result many British diners wind up getting their tastebuds in a bit of a tangle. But now, Japanese company Kikkoman is actually encouraging this desecrating behaviour by bringing out a new product in the UK market: Kikkoman Sweet Sauce for Rice! As you might expect, it’s raising eyebrows in Japan.
Kikkoman is one of the most famous brands of soy sauce, especially since it comes in such unique container that is open on two sides and can never be closed. The company has been around since 1917, so they’ve had a lot of years to think of ways to advertise for the salty sauce around the world. One of their cutest ads comes from 1933 and features a crew of dancing cats in black skirts that make us squeel “KAWAII!”
Soy sauce is delicious, and it’s by far one of our favorite condiments. It can enhance all manner of foods and make even something as boring as plain tofu delicious. But even as much as we love it, how well do we really know it? For example, could our gourmand Japanese writers figure out they were eating soy sauce even if it didn’t look like soy sauce?
This might seem like a silly question – and it definitely is! But it’s also a legitimate question thanks to the clever food processing skills of a company that also makes pink curry. So, do you think our food-loving writers will be able to identify pink soy sauce? Or will we have the last laugh? Find out below!
Village Vanguard is a popular chain of novelty stores across Japan. There you can find all sorts of things from bird poop stickers to Resident Evil curry to wasabi toothpaste. As such, it’s easy to get desensitized to their range of items and lose the ability to be surprised with what they come out with next.
Or so we thought, until word came of a new product that will be sold there around the end of May. Purin Senyo Shoyu is a specially crafted soy sauce meant to be drizzled over a jiggly glob of pudding. You might wonder what pudding and soy sauce taste like together. The answer is surprisingly simple: it tastes like sea urchin.
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