Namiya sits on a quiet backstreet near the intersection of the Yamate shopping street and Honmoku-dori. In the late afternoon sunlight softly streams in through the long front windows. A large wooden table extends across the single-room restaurant. At its center sits a pot simmering over charcoal. Namiya serves biodynamic wine and craft beer with dishes made from natural cheese and naturally farmed vegetables. The menu changes weekly, incorporating those seasonal vegetables, and the dishes are designed around macrobiotics. First we tried the vegetable terrine burrata (¥1500 with crackers). The vegetable of the week in the terrine was Brussels sprouts,…
Author: Seasider
Yoshimi and Shoki Matsuzaka are the founders of kitafuku Co (lowercase intentional), a start-up that recycles spent grains from breweries to create paper products, though they were originally system engineers working for the same company. The two met when they joined the company futsal team. Yoshimi is from Hokkaido while husband Shoki hails from Fukuoka. The company name is derived from the first kanji of their respective home prefectures. When they started their company in 2019, they initially worked as contract engineers. In their company’s second year they sought to add to that the creation of in-house products and services.…
Folks, we’d like to introduce our new writer, Glenn Scoggins. If you didn’t notice his work last issue, you definitely will this issue, as he has contributed both the feature and another good bar review (he’s a well-known beer lover). Scoggins has lived in Yokohama since his arrival in Japan in August 1977, and he’s been a history teacher and college counselor at Saint Maur International School for the past 45 years. What an amazing legacy! And what a great person to be writing for the Yokohama Seasider. Welcome aboard, Glenn.
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Ingredients onion 1 (diced, 2cm cuts) carrot ½ (peeled, diced in 2cm cuts) potato 300g (peeled, diced in 2cm cuts) bacon 100g (2cm cuts) asari clams 2 130g cans (drained, set aside juice) garlic 2 cloves (minced) white wine 100ml milk 400ml fresh cream 100ml thyme 1 sprig cracker to taste salad oil to taste salt & pepper to taste Heat oil in pan and fry bacon. When excess fat has been fried off, add the garlic and mix till fragrant. Add onions and carrots. Stir-fry until onions are clear. Add the clams and thyme. Lightly stir-fry and add wine.…
Horizon Farms is one of those companies we all can love. It’s a Japan-based online retailer of exquisite-quality agricultural products from family farms in Japan and several countries overseas. Its produce is organic and its gourmet meat is ethically raised. Through select partnerships, it ensures sustainability while providing you peace of mind and some of the best ingredients for your dinner table that you can find. Two of Horizon Farms’ signature items, for which it is the exclusive importer, are Morgan Ranch beef (USDA Prime) and organically fed, free-range chicken from New Zealand. Other items that caught our eye include…
A boutique liquor store in Yokohama established in 1890 is notable enough for its long history, but Motomachi Aichiya Tsubosaki-shoten (hereafter, Aichiya) has much more than that to be proud of. There’s a quaint tasting bar where you can enjoy selections of fine alcoholic beverages. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable. And tucked behind the building, there’s a tiny, attached izakaya called Kyuusuke. Mitsuru Tsubosaki, an accredited kikizakeshi (sake sommelier), is the warm personality you’re most likely to meet there. His father is actually the fourth-generation president and, together with Mitusuru and his wife, the three run the shop. The…
Yokohama Canvas Bag stresses the concept of working together with local companies to source raw materials and proudly produces a brand that is uniquely Yokohama. All of the company’s products are made from fabric, fasteners, and other items solely supplied by Yokohama-based companies. This is all driven by the philosophy of company founder Yukio Suzuki. Prior to opening his current company, Suzuki was a founding member of another company where he played a key role in the development of a variety of products. That one began with just a few employees, but they built it into a business 200 strong…
Hamajiman, located along Isezaki-cho’s shopping strip, is a Western sweets shop founded more than a century ago. Hamajiman’s origins date back to 1913 when it launched as a Japanese sweets shop called Ichimura Confectionery. In those days, it was still rare to have a Japanese shop like this, and the owners thought to create sweets as omiyage (souvenirs) that would be the pride of Yokohama. They thus conceived of a treat filled with koshian (sweet bean paste) and chestnuts–the idea was to sell a Hamajiman saichu, or “Yokohama-pride bean jam cake”. Rave reviews piled up and, as the name suggests,…