We try out a revolutionary product: long, looooong Japanese sandwich bread【Taste Test】

How are you supposed to eat Cookhouse’s Whirled-Up Sandwich Bread? The clue is in the name!

When a new invention fills a much-needed niche, we’ll often declare that it’s “the greatest thing since sliced bread”…but the sliced bread used for sandwiches itself has been pretty static for a while. Oh, sure, some bakeries will bake their loaves in interesting shapes or use food coloring to create patterns for the slices, but in essence, the square-ish slice of bread is the same as ever…and we still tend to use it the same way. Two slices, slap a filling inside, eat.

Could that be about to change, though? Are we on the border of a brave new sliced-bread frontier?

Allow us to introduce you to today’s item of interest: the Whirled-Up Sandwich Bread (Kururin Sando Pan) produced by Cookhouse.

▼ The bread is a limited item, only sold at select Cookhouse stores on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Yes, for 584 yen (US$5.24) you can take home this incredibly disorienting long-bread loaf and make longwiches out of it. Each slice is about 6 millimeters (0.23 inches) thick and roughly 40 centimeters (15.7 inches) wide, and we were utterly mystified how one would go about actually using it.

We actually asked the shop attendant if the idea was to cut it in half and make a typical sandwich out of it, so blinkered were we by decades of tradition. But no! He told us that it was possible to load all of the fillings onto a single slice and eat it that way. First order of business, though, was measuring our bread once we got it home. Was it actually 40 centimeters wide?!

▼ No, actually. The packaging adds on a bit of length.

Because the bread is thinly sliced, it may tear as you pull it out of the bag. Be very careful with removing your long bread from its even longer packaging, lest this tragedy befalls you:

We liberally piled on ingredients, wondering if maybe we were meant to eat it like an open-faced sandwich. Nope! Turns out the bread is too thin to support the ingredients when laid flat in one layer like this.

▼ Ham, cheese, and egg salad seemed like a great combo to test with.

Apparently, the key to eating this bread is in the “Whirled-Up” part of the name. Very carefully, you have to roll the bread and incorporate the ingredients. Think of it like rolling your own sushi, but with bread instead of the nori wrapping.

▼ It takes a very tender touch to avoid splitting the bread as you roll it up.

After we had rolled it all up, we took a look at it. After all that rolling, our sandwich had become an absurd behemoth…or maybe a bread-emoth? At any rate, it now looked comically huge and overloaded with filling.

▼ Bam!

In spite of its funny appearance, the longwich was easy to pick up and eat, and the thin bread was very pleasant both in terms of taste and texture. We gobbled it down in no time at all and were surprised to find it made for a very novel and comfortable way to eat a sandwich.

▼ With all its contents folded together…

▼ …the final sandwich concertinas into beautiful layers of filling and bread.

But still…why? Why had people seen fit to reverse the typical orientation of a sliced bread loaf? Sensing that there might be a story behind it, we got in contact with the manufacturer.

▼ “Do you whirl-it-up at home?” asks a promotional poster.

Here’s what they had to say:

“It’s tough to leave the house in the current circumstances, which means it’s not uncommon for people to get stuck in a rut of eating the same foods in the same ways. So we thought up this bread that the whole family could enjoy by eating it in a similar way to hand-rolled sushi. It’s made at the factory to be thin and very long, and we’d love it if you found your own way to roll it up and use it to complement your dining table spread.”

▼ You can even buy versions with the heel of the bread.

They actually have a point. Shaking up the way you eat is refreshing, and especially welcome when you’re stuck at home and unable to vary your meals. If you have a Cookhouse outlet near you, grab a loaf and get whirling! And for those who don’t, have you tried making a furoshiki-style sandwich yet?

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348-year-old sake brewery’s newest creation: A special sake just to drink with ramen!

If you have raman and sake, what else do you need?

There’s room for debate as to whether or not it’s accurate to refer to sake as rice “wine,” since it’s actually brewed in a process more similar to how beer is made. That said, sake does have a culinary similarity to wine in that many connoisseurs believe good sake becomes even more delicious when it’s paired with food so that their flavors can complement one another.

So that got Daiichi Shuzo Kaika, a sake maker in Tochigi Prefecture that’s been in business for 348 years, thinking. Sano, the town where Kaika’s brewery is located, has a lot of ramen restaurants, so why not create a sake specifically to be paired with ramen?

And so Noodle Sake Haruka Akifuyu was born. Well, technically the special sake’s birthday was last summer, when a limited-quantity batch went on sale. That sold out pretty quickly, though, and in light of its popularity Kaika has now put it into regular production, with the ramen sake going on full-time sale as of October 1.

Kaika says that Noodle Sake Haruka Akifuyu has a crisp, clean flavor, which should let it play nicely with the more powerful seasonings found in a bowl of ramen. The sake was developed in cooperation with ramen critic Satoko Morimoto, who knows a thing or two about ramen as she reportedly eats about 600 bowls of it a year.

ラーメンの為のお酒

〜飲みきりサイズで再登場〜

熱燗でもお試しください

春華秋冬ワンカップhttps://t.co/fEcQ9bo3uX#NOODLESAKEで乾杯　#非売品当たるキャンペーンは26日まで pic.twitter.com/tvVwOaPW54

— ラーメン女子　森本聡子 (@majoooon) September 20, 2021

For its summer batch, Noodle Sake Haruka Akifuyu was only available in large bottles, but Kaika is now offering it in “cup sake” size, of 180 milliliters (6.1 ounces), just enough for one person to fully enjoy in a single sitting with a bowl of ramen, and very affordably priced at 396 yen (US$3.65).

▼ Written on the glass are “Good sake” and “Good ramen,” with the unspoken understanding that if you have those two there’s no need to explicitly state the obvious “Good life” part of the equation.

It’s worth noting that while Japanese food and beverage companies sometimes come up with some pretty unusual limited-time novelty flavors, Kaika’s intent with this sake isn’t just to get a chuckle and a one-time-only purchase from customers. “We want this to become a sake that ramen restaurants around the world will serve, as a matter of course, five, or even 100, years from now,” and if you want to get in at the starting point of that aspired-to history, Noodle Sake Haruka Akifuyu can be ordered online from Kaika here.

Source: PR Times via IT Media
Images: PR Times
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Three remarkable ramen shops in Spain, according our traveling Japanese reporter

Ikuna has tried tons of Japanese restaurants in Spain…but these all stood out for very different reasons.

Our world-traveling, Japanese-language reporter Ikuna Kamezawa is at it again. She got her vaccine and her vaccine passport and followed all of the recommended and required precautionary measures, and has now been in Spain for about a month.

Being away from home so long, her family and friends inevitably ask her, “Don’t you miss Japanese food?” But in Spain, the answer is actually, “Not at all.” That’s because the big cities in Spain are chock full of sushi and ramen restaurants.

Since Ikuna has been in Spain for a while now, she’s walked all over Barcelona and Madrid and tried all kinds of restaurants…and found three particularly remarkable ramen restaurants that she wanted to share with you.

1. Ramen Shifu in Barcelona

Ramen Shifu is actually a ramen restaurant chain that has shops in Madrid as well as Barcelona. It’s a pretty popular place that can have lines out the door on busy days.

The first thing that caught Ikuna’s eye at the Barcelona restaurant–besides the sign outside that said “Ramen-san” in Japanese–was the little sign inside that said, “Omoide Yokocho” on it. It looked just like the sign leading into Memory Lane, the small, iconic alley of food stalls in Shinjuku!

There was a neat array of noren banners hanging across the space, advertising eel, okonomiyaki, sashimi, and torimeshi (chicken and rice), although the restaurant didn’t actually serve any of those things.

There were lots of little touches reminiscent of life in Japan, like the “Manga Cafe 1B” sign that looks like it was taken directly off of the side of a building.

They even had a sign for “Muryou Annaijo”, which literally translates to “free guidance center”, but the guidance provided at these centers in Japan is related to local hostess bars, erotic massage parlors, and other businesses in the fuzoku (adult entertainment) industry. Ikuna had to wonder if they knew what that sign was for when they put it up.

A wallpapered wall featuring a menu of tasty looking bento offerings made Ikuna hungry, though they didn’t actually serve any of those items.

Though there were some misspellings and some questionable signage–and a lot of misleading food signs–the restaurant clearly put a great deal of effort into making it feel like you’d stepped into a Japanese yokocho alleyway, which really touched Ikuna!

So, how about the food? Lunch was 11.95 euros (about 1,552 yen or US$13.86) and included a drink, a side, ramen, and a dessert. Ikuna settled on karaage as her side.

▼ The paper sleeve for the disposable chopsticks had “Good appetite” written on them in Japanese. Ikuna couldn’t really find any fault with that.

The karaage was decent. It felt like the kind you might find in the frozen section of a Japanese supermarket; not the best, but definitely karaage.

Ikuna’s order of Shoyu Ramen definitely fit the bill in terms of looks!

The noodles were not the best noodles Ikuna had ever tasted, and the soup wasn’t exactly as piping hot as she liked it, but she didn’t mind too much. Since this was Spanish ramen, there wasn’t much point in comparing them to a ramen shop in Japan. She was just happy to get to eat it!

The chashu, however, was a real winner. It was even better than some that she’d eaten in Japan. It was juicy and soft and really delicious.

Once she’d downed that, her dessert arrived: a jumbo-sized coconut mango jelly with tapioca balls.

All that, plus a beer, for 1,552 yen might make this an even cheaper ramen meal than in Japan. Plus, the restaurant had the added bonus of playing an endless stream of Japanese idol music, which many Japanese otaku would appreciate. Using the song-identifying app Shazam, Ikuna was able to discover they were playing music by artists like Necopla, KATACOTO *BANK, Planck Stars, and SOL, all female idol groups. It felt a bit like eating in a ramen shop in Akihabara, which was not a unpleasant realization.

2. Muginoya in Barcelona

Muginoya, located in a quiet spot just a bit outside of the city center of Barcelona, serves not only ramen but also Japanese favorites like katsudon, unagidon (eel over rice), fried rice, yakisoba, grilled chicken, and even agedashi tofu (deep fried tofu in dashi sauce). It felt more like an izakaya bar than a ramen shop.

The interior had a very retro, Showa-style vibe.

It was also decorated with anime posters as well as banners for food items that weren’t on the menu.

They had plenty of Japanese sake, which was definitely a plus in Ikuna’s eyes!

The restaurant offered a ramen set for 10.50 euros, which included a drink and a side. The list of sides was pretty impressive and included rice balls, spring rolls, gyoza, takoyaki, croquettes, and teriyaki chicken.

Ikuna was missing Japanese rice, so without a single hesitation, she ordered the rice ball.

Though she would have preferred a plain rice ball, it actually turned out to be a tuna mayo onigiri–which wasn’t terrible on its own, but the rice had a bit too strong of a vinegary flavor, as if they’d used sushi rice to make it.

Ikuna also ordered the Tonkotsu Ramen advertised on a signboard in the restaurant. It looked really good!!

The flavors, however, were obviously not inspired by Japanese cuisine. The chashu pork had a strong flavor of star anise and the broth had an unexpected kick to it. It was also topped with cilantro! But though it wasn’t typical tonkotsu ramen by any means, it was still really tasty. It was definitely something Ikuna would come back to eat again!

By the way, the music in this restaurant was old-school-style Japanese pop, featuring artists like Class, Naotaro Momoyama, Southern All Stars, and Sukima Switch. They were all nostalgic songs to Ikuna, which made her feel like she was at home in an izakaya in Tokyo.

3. Ra-men Kagura in Madrid

This ramen shop has four chains in the city of Madrid, and has over 10,000 reviews on Google. Even Ikuna’s homestay host, Diego, eats there often! Naturally, Ikuna had to check out a restaurant that received such ardent support from its patrons.

Ikuna arrived just 10 minutes after the restaurant opened, but half the seats were already full. By the time she left, a line had formed. It’s certainly a popular spot!

The interior of the shop was very subdued, especially compared to the others. It actually had a really realxed atmosphere.

It had just the right amount of Japanese touches.

Some of their most popular food is actually not ramen but their karaage set meal and their curry. Ikuna also noticed that a lot of the customers around her were ordering the takoyaki, which she found interesting.

But Ikuna had come for ramen, so she ordered the Tonkotsu Miso Ramen, which came as a set with a drink for 10.50 euros. And it was…

Really insanely good!

The flavors were completely Japanese and super authentic.

The chashu pork and boiled egg were particularly good quality, just as good as the best quality you’d find in Japan.

If the food at Ramen Kagura is this good, Ikuna thought she could live in Spain forever without missing Japanese food at all. Plus, the music was particularly good, featuring a nice mixture of J-pop hit songs from the ’90s up until today, including Mika Nakashima, Yumi Matsutoya, Mayo Okamoto, and Hana*Hana, which made Ikuna feel like she really was home.

Though some things were a bit strange for her, Ikuna will, as always, continue on her quest to find the best Japanese food wherever she is, whether that be Spain, India, Paris, or wherever else. Whether it’s in the form of the atmosphere, the decorations, the food, or the music, there’s always enough to cure her of homesickness in some way or another!

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