Blog » Niigata

Ginpachi is a sushi-ya in Sanjo City, Niigata, that's been open since 1961. Check out the amazing sushi we ate on our last visit to Ginpachi.

For our May Sake Gumi offerings, we've chosen 4 sakes that'll taste great with smoky, spicy, and grilled foods – just in time for the upcoming summer BBQs!

February sakes ship today for Sake Gumi, our monthly sake subscription club. If you like what's on deck here, you should probably join! Every winter, we take a trip to Niigata Pref. where sake and rice are king. Coincidentally, it is also where...

When we mentioned to Mr. Akio Watanabe, owner of Bar EST! in Tokyo that we were heading to Niigata, he recommended that we visit Bar Owl. It was one of those things that we told him we would do but Yoko and I didn't actually...

I'd like to start with a little background on the small town of Tsubame-Sanjo. This manufacturing town in Niigata Prefecture produces most of Japan's stainless steel items. If you are enjoying a little cake with a tiny fork in Tokyo or stirring a cocktail...

Sake is one of those things that really makes you appreciate locality. It's like the meyer lemons in Berkeley. It's totally cliche and played out, but local food traditions are a sight to behold. The fact that they are native to their land, makes...

During our visit to Aoki Brewery in Niigata, we were told that the three most important factors of brewing sake is the rice, the water and the people. The rice that breweries use for sake-making are not the usual grains you find at the grocery...

Kayoko and I go to Niigata every February. Our friends in Tokyo gasp in horror, "Why would you go somewhere so cold? In the middle of February?" The reason is kind of simple: it's low season and getting around is cheap and less crowded. And...

Our Japan trip last month was a jam-packed, 5-city tour with barware factory tours, sake brewery pit-stops and a visit to a craft brewery! Niigata Beer has been around for 17 years now, brewing beers for the local market, and also making beers for other...

When we voiced our wish to visit a few factories in Japan earlier this year, we didn't realize that so many of them would be in the same town. Not just that, but only a short drive from one another. Tsubame City in Niigata is...

Our main objective for our trip to Japan (besides noodles and ekiben) was to visit the many factories where they make the bar and glassware we select for Umami Mart. We wanted to go straight to the source, and meet the people behind the products....

Japan is noodle crazy. Each station in each town of each prefecture have their own noodle specialty. Being noodle fiends ourselves, Kayoko and I researched some of the regional noodles of Niigata prefecture before setting foot there last month. As soon as we arrived, we...

Trends in roll combinations in the States are rapid, with so many joints coming up with their own "house" rolls. Conversely, the combinations of rolls or makimono are very constant in Japan. In this post, I am specifically referring to hosomaki (or thin rolls). There...

http://youtu.be/DW8TaQeeGB8 Last Wednesday, I went with the OPENharvest group to a rice farm in Uonuma, Niigata. We harvested one paddy of rice from cutting the rice plants to hanging them to dry on a rack. Rice farmer Satoshi Imai gave me the run down on why his rice is special...

At 5am on a Thursday morning, groggy and jetlagged, 20 of us OPENharvest participants, with Food Light Project members piled into three vans headed for Niigata prefecture. As we drove through the quiet morning streets of Tokyo, we eagerly anticipated the adventures ahead....