Walking around Kagurazaka district in Tokyo, you will see many retro style houses and small buildings.
Some are residential, some are shops selling chopsticks, lacquer wares, etc, and others are converted into modern restaurants, bars and cafes.
Kagurazaka is also known for geisha district in the East (Kyoto, the West), so you may run into some geishas walking in kimono and geta.
I wasn't lucky this time, but instead, I came across a Koji shop!
The place is called, "Sennen- Koji" (thousand year koji)
They sell natural koji, and variety of koji products such as amazake, shio koji, shoyu koji, koji-pickles, koji-sweets, etc etc etc. Just browsing was so mesmerizing!
Then, sake-kasu.
Sake kasu is lee leftover from sake production.
Still has its distinctive aroma and flavor of sake, and contains some alcohol (which will be evaporated in cooking), and you can use it for marinating, pickling, or adding some sweet-ish, sake-ish flavor (hard to describe) and creaminess to your soup, stew, sauteed, or even sweets.
For some reasons, two of my Japanese friends were just talking about how they add sake-kasu to daily miso soup and it's really good, makes the soup more thick and creamy, and deeper flavor.
But I'd never done that before, though I knew many people do that in Japan.
So I bought it, along with one pack of shio koji.
Now I'm using this sake kasu to my miso soup at least once a week , and I'm loving it!
link to Sennen Koji store
link to a guide to Kagurazaka
Some are residential, some are shops selling chopsticks, lacquer wares, etc, and others are converted into modern restaurants, bars and cafes.
Kagurazaka is also known for geisha district in the East (Kyoto, the West), so you may run into some geishas walking in kimono and geta.
I wasn't lucky this time, but instead, I came across a Koji shop!
The place is called, "Sennen- Koji" (thousand year koji)
They sell natural koji, and variety of koji products such as amazake, shio koji, shoyu koji, koji-pickles, koji-sweets, etc etc etc. Just browsing was so mesmerizing!
Then, sake-kasu.
Sake kasu is lee leftover from sake production.
Still has its distinctive aroma and flavor of sake, and contains some alcohol (which will be evaporated in cooking), and you can use it for marinating, pickling, or adding some sweet-ish, sake-ish flavor (hard to describe) and creaminess to your soup, stew, sauteed, or even sweets.
For some reasons, two of my Japanese friends were just talking about how they add sake-kasu to daily miso soup and it's really good, makes the soup more thick and creamy, and deeper flavor.
But I'd never done that before, though I knew many people do that in Japan.
So I bought it, along with one pack of shio koji.
Now I'm using this sake kasu to my miso soup at least once a week , and I'm loving it!
link to Sennen Koji store
link to a guide to Kagurazaka