Checking the hazard level of your Tokyo location

Just a quickie post today. I found out about this a little while ago and have been meaning to get around to posting about, as other people might find it useful too.

Hazard maps, as modelled by Melvyn

Minato-ku ward office (and presumably other ward offices too) have released various hazard maps, to help prepare for the occasion of a large earthquake hitting central Tokyo. If you're in the middle of looking to sign up for a shop space, or moving house, it's worth a look to see if there are areas you might want to consider over others.

You can get big paper copies of these maps from the ward office directly, here is what they are called:

• 津波ハザードマップ / tsunami hazado mappu / tsunami hazard map
• 液状化マップ / ekijyouka mappu / liquefaction risk map
• 揺れやすさマップ / yureyasusa mappu / map showing how shakeable areas are likely to be
• 浸水ハザードマップ / shinsui hazado mappu / flood hazard map

You can also look online at pdfs of these documents (links to the English versions above), and they are available in English as well as Japanese. 

Fitting out your shop space in Tokyo

So.. we have a space! I've been looking casually for a couple of years and seriously since the end of summer last year, and just a couple of weeks ago came across a beautiful little space that was within budget, our application was approved and we have just signed and got the keys!

Even before you apply for a space, it's useful to know some of the requirements and terminology for fitting out the space to have it meet your needs and the requirements of your local health department (保健所 / hokenjyo).

Measuring out the space

If you're looking online in Japanese, fitting out a shop space is called 内装 / naisou, and this is often carried out by a contractor called a 大工さん / daiku-san (joiner/carpenter), or a 建築家 / kenchiku ka (architect/builder). In some cases you'll go through a 'designer' who would work with you on a plan for the space then probably have a team of daiku-san, and other workers to carry out the practical tasks. I've heard of people fitting their spaces out themselves too.

If you can meet the contractor at your space, or the space you're planning to apply for, they should be able to give you a detailed quote for the work you would like carrying out. Bear in mind that equipment (設備 / setsubi) and kitchen equipment (厨房機器 / chubou kiki) won't be included in that quote, and that some specialist work related to gas and electricity may need to be carried out by other people and be charged for separately.

I've seen it written on Japanese forums about reform and space-fitting that a general rule of thumb to calculate is about 100,000 yen per tsubo (坪) of space for the most basic naisou work (this would be roughly 30,000 yen per square metre). This would mean a 25m place is looking at a 750,000 yen before materials and equipment are included. Of course you'll find spaces and contractors that will need more or less than this, and it depends on what you want them to do, and what is required by the local hokenjyo as well.

If you look at the hokenjyo requirements for a food business permit you can see that they fall into a few main categories. Please note that the information to follow is just based on my individual understanding at present, and is not an exhaustive list. Please consult with your own health department and with professionals for definitive guidance. Here are just some thoughts to help you get started:

Plumbing 排水 / haisui

• If your business uses a lot of oil, for frying etc., then your hokenjyo will probably require you to have a drain in your kitchen floor. If there isn't already one in the space, or if you can't make one as you are above the ground floor of a building, then this involves creating a raised platform for the kitchen, and fitting a drain under that platform. Prices for this work are likely to start from a few hundred thousand yen, but will vary from space to space.
• Grease traps are not specifically required by most hokenjyo, although they are a good idea, for the environment and to avoid blocking up the neighbourhood's pipes. However there is a chance that another body, such as the water company may ask you to fit one depending on your type of business. Grease traps can be fitted under the floor, or small sized ones can be placed under your sink.
• Refer to your hokenjyo's requirements on specific numbers of and sizes of sinks. The staff hand-washing sink needs to have a fixed soap dispenser permanently attached to the sink.

Ventilation 排気・換気 / haiki, kanki

• Your hokenjyo may require separate air conditoners in place for the customer area and the kitchen area. Consider the need for 200v plug sockets and ventilation pipes to take the exhaust air out of the building. Also consider whether you can place air conditioner box on the outside of the building, and where.
• You will need to fit an extraction fan, and if you have a gas range you will need this to be connected to an extraction hood of a suitable size over your gas range.
• My hokenjyo requires that all wall and ceiling surfaces in the kitchen area are flat and easy to clean. This means that exposed pipes, especially the round ones that carry exhaust air out of the building, will need to be boxed-off so that all surfaces are flat. This is to prevent build-ups of dust falling into food you are preparing.

Electricity 電気 / denki

• What is the current amperage level for the property? Look at the electric breaker box at the property and you'll see 20A, 50A etc. Amps x Volts = Watts means that a 20A property running on a regular 100V Japanese 単相 / tansou / single phase circuit system has a total maximum capacity of only 2000 Watts. In addition the total *safe* capacity should be only up to 80% of that amount so this example actually only allows you to use 1,600 watts safely, which isn't much if you are planning to use an electric oven.
• Calculate your electrical load capacity needs by adding up the wattage for each of the pieces of equipment you plan to use, not forgetting anything already in the space such as lighting. The wattage information is available on the product label itself, and in the manuals.
• The amperage for your property can usually be increased if you require it, check if it's ok with the building owner and consult with your electric company and contractor. Your electricity provider will carry out the work (the lady at Tokyo Electric said it takes about 20 minutes and is usually free for 100V systems) and your contract with the company will also need to be increased. For Tokyo Electric, 60A appears to be the maximum available for 100V systems - but it will depend on your property.
• In addition to single phase electricity, some properties also have commercial-use 3-phase (三相 / sansou) systems in place. I'm not completely in-the-know about these yet, but believe the rate of electricity is cheaper than single-phase, but that you'd probably have the two systems running concurrently and pay two electric bills each month. Even if you have a single phase system, it is possible for your electrician to use it to fit some 200V sockets (for some air conditioners and electric ovens etc.). 
• Lighting in the kitchen also needs to be flat and easy to clean. Fluorescent tubes for example need to have box covers over them.

Gas ガス

• Even if there is a gas pipe in the property, check whether the property has a gas meter or if you will need to have one fitted. If you can't find the meter then you can ring the gas company to ask if the address has been previously registered for gas and they should be able to tell you.
• Also see above regarding ventilation.

Knowing the activities you plan to carry out and the requirements of the hokenjyo to allow you to do them, should be able to help you choose a space with a fuller knowledge of the likely total cost. Go along to a local hokenjyo to ask specific questions you may have even before you have your space.

As for me, lots of work to do... more updates to follow!

Omotenashi - little things that make big difference

Ordering some bits and pieces online for a sewing side-project I was struck by the little extras that were included in each delivery.

You see, I had ordered from a few different companies, but each item arrived with a little 'something extra', for free, and this really pleased me. Ribbons I'd ordered came with an extra sequined thread with "For You" on the packet, and these Liberty fabric samples arrived with this crazy-cute Hello Kitty swatch with a little note.

Little extras packaged with Liberty fabric and ribbons

If I think back, quite often when I've ordered things online there will be a little cute card in there, or a tiny package with one or two biscuits, or a recipe card.

It's not just online either - when you're at a restaurant you'll sometimes get given a サービス / service item (in Japanese "service" pronounced in English means complimentary, for free), like when we were the only customers in a bistro in Ebisu and they gave us "service espressos".  Think about times when you've had something like a packet of tissues or a mini soap bar put into your bag at the checkout at a drugstore, or been given free square of chocolate on leaving a restaurant. Once we even came away with a small bottle of "service" olive oil, as we'd liked it so much at the table!

I've been thinking about it and fumbled around a bit with ideas like 'they like to delight people here' and 'it's the excellent service culture here' before I hit the nail on the head. It's おもてなし omotenashi (kanji for this is rarely used but is お持て成し - to carry and to achieve).

The article linked to above explains it nicely, but in its simplest sense I feel it means doing something nice for someone that they didn't ask for. In customer service this is often described as anticipating the needs of the customer before they do and delivering generous hospitality. It's often also described as being selfless, which sounds like a subservient, surrendering mindset - I'd argue that choosing to act in this way, particularly in face-to-face encounters requires an assertive mindset, empathy and confidence.

Perhaps some of how this is employed today in business might be a little more cynical, as doing it 'without expecting anything in return' is not justifiable for purely logical businesses, and so customer loyalty, further sales and so on are probably expected results.

However I do get the feeling that carrying out omotenashi is a genuine pleasure for many people, and that the delight felt by the recipient is as much as was hoped to be achieved.

Certainly, even after almost 13 years these little gestures still manage to surprise me and are one of the things that make living here a pleasure.

Taking the hygiene manager test - requirement for food businesses in Japan

Woo! I'm now the proud owner of this little passport-like booklet proving that I'm now a designated food hygiene manager / 食品衛生責任者 / shokuhin eisei sekininsha. Have a look at this previous post for information on how and where to apply, today's post will be about what was involved in the day itself, and the little test they give you at the end.

The seminars are held a few times a month in locations all over Tokyo, take about 7 hours including a break for lunch, and seat just under 200 people each time. There is a 10,000 JPY fee which you pay in cash on the day, plus 700 yen if you want to buy an official name plate for your premises. You're seated in the order you arrive.

In your welcome pack is a notebook for the day's proceedings and a phone book-sized tome that includes a hundred or so pages of explanation that you'll be taken through during the day and another 100 or so pages of food hygiene-related articles from Japanese law.

Also in there were a handful of leaflets with details of various government-affiliated health, liability and employers' insurance especially for food businesses, some of which are cheaper than commercial options, and many of which had cute drawings and lots of big colourful fonts.

Speaking of cute drawings, check these out! The salient points of the fairly dry lectures were frequently illuminated with characters of germs looking afraid and hygiene managers looking stern and powerful. These ones show the legal requirements for the set-up of the staff hand-washing facilities, and the 3 ways to avoid causing food poisoning from unwanted microbial activity (don't introduce them, don't let them grow, kill them off!).

The first talk was about food hygiene law, and involved lots of kanji being written on a whiteboard, and lots of instruction of when to "赤ライン！ / underline in red!" in our books. Handy kanji to know for this section include:

• 法規 / houki - law
• 法律 / houritsu - law
• 憲法 / kenpou - the constitution
• 業種 / gyoushu - type of industry
• 許可 / kyoka - permission
• 厚生労働大臣 / kousei roudou daijin - Minister for Health and Welfare
• 表示基準 / hyouji kijun - labelling criteria
• 総合衛生管理製造過程 / sougou eisei kanri seizou katei - HACCP
• 添加物 / tenkabutsu - additives
• 禁止 / kinshi - prohibited
• 条例 / jyourei - regulation
• 保護 / hogo - protect
• 公衆 / koushu - public
• 方針 / houshin - policy
• 責務 / sekimu - obligation

There are 34 types of food business permitted under Japanese law - including those serving food and drink, those creating and selling confectionary, sales of fish products, sales of dairy-based products etc. - all of which require a designated food hygiene manager  / 食品衛生責任者 / shokuhin eisei sekininsha as well as a business permit / 営業許可 / eigyou kyoka. 7 of these types of business - such as businesses processing meat, fish or dairy products etc. - require a fully qualified hygiene supervisor / 食品衛生管理者 / shokuhin eisei kanrisha, which is a specific career choice, entailing a multi-year course of study rather than an informal 1-day seminar.

The second talk was about public health, and included some really interesting information on  Japanese demographics, illness and society. Have a look at the following tables, the far left column is the years running from 5th year of Showa (1930) until the 23rd year of Heisei (2011), see here for conversions.
The first table paints the familiar picture of a severely aging Japanese society.

Japanese population by age-band

Overall population (column 2, above) has slowed to stay around 127.8 million during the last 13 years. Recently 2 out of 10 people are over 65, set to increase as only 1 out of 10 people is currently under 14. In 1930 almost 4 out of every 10 people were under 14.

This second graph shows the main reason why the population is aging, and why it is projected to shrink to 95.2 million by 2050 - the birth rate in Japan (2nd column) has fallen from 32.4 per 1,000 people to 8.3 in 2011. This chart also shows in the 4th and 5th columns the marriage and divorce rates, which are decreasing and trending upwards respectively.

Birth, death, marriage and divorce rates in Japan

These charts show the main causes of death in Japan (left) and the main causes of food poisoning (right). After high incidences of tuberculosis in the early 1950s, up until the 1980s deaths from cerebrovascular causes such as stroke were the highest, since which point cancer (red line) and heart disease takes over. The food poisoning graph shows that reported cases (this graph is not about deaths) of Norovirus are by far the most common in Japan but that incidences of campylobacter and salmonella do also occur.

Including a short video, the afternoon was about hygiene and food-borne illnesses, and was hard to focus on attentively in the hot room, after lunch (maybe 20% of the attendees were sleeping at this point). There was some important stuff in here though, such as why and how to properly wash your hands - on a slightly related note I wish Tokyo would start providing soap in the public and train station loos!

The shokunineisei sekininsha test

Finally the test. As you can see in the image above, this was a 5-question multiple choice quiz that we were given 5 minutes to answer by writing the appropriate number on slips of paper. These were collected and quickly scored, but my impression is that you get the certificate from just having attended the seminar. No-one got zero points on the day I attended, in fact 70% got 5/5 questions correct. Including me, big swot I am ;).

Most of the mistakes made were with Q3

There is a lot of interesting and important stuff related to you during the day, but there is also a lot of very dry and lengthy reading aloud of laws and responsibilities. You'll be most comfortable if you can read a fair amount of kanji and follow most of what goes on, but much of the day reinforced my feeling that this training seminar is more to do with the Health Centers doing their part (we gave them a copy of their legal requirements so..) and making sure you know that you are responsible if something should go wrong, rather than ensuring that people who attend are fully aware of how to avoid something going wrong.

This probably shouldn't be the sole resource to inform the hygiene policy at your business. A good additional resource would be an online food hygiene course from your home country. Any certifications wouldn't be valid in Japan of course and some of the information will differ (for example regarding egg safety, the emphasis in the Japanese seminar was that only fresh eggs should be eaten raw, whereas in the UK the Department of Health recommends that raw egg recipes be avoided completely), but you'll learn more from extended self-study to protect your customers and livelihood than from a 1-day seminar.

Once you have the hygiene manager certificate it's yours for life without attending this particular seminar again. Once you've registered your business you will receive information from the Health Centre periodically about additional seminars on varied topics that your hygiene manager must attend during the life of your business. If you are an employee then your certificate goes with you to the various companies you work with during your food industry career anywhere in Japan.

So gosh, yes, I am now officially moving closer and closer to be able to legally run my own food biz in Tokyo. Quite scary/exciting!

Free range and other eggs in Japan - vocabulary, ethics and sources

To pick up a thread I started in this post about the ethics involved in supplier choices, today I got cracking on some further egg research. (The Japanese vocabulary is about halfway down the post.)

Organic free range eggs, with farmer's photo

Japanese people eat a lot of eggs, estimated over 300 a year per person (compared to Australia's 213 and Mexico's 365). The demand for eggs and egg products in Japan is greater than the domestic supply and so Japan imports a considerable amount, and does not export. The chart on this page shows that in terms of whole-shell egg production, Japan is closer to self-sufficiency than for many other food stuffs, importing generally less than 10%. Higher percentages of dried egg and liquid yolk and albumen are imported however. Japan's overall food self-sufficiency is low, reported at 40%, meaning 60% of food consumed in Japan is currently imported, and so it was a nice surprise to see an area where Japan appears to be faring well. Most of the whole, shell-eggs you'll see in supermarkets here then will be domestically produced.

There are quite a few interesting small domestic farms taking great care to produce eggs with the aim of superior quality and often also via humane methods that aren't possible in larger enterprises. This article estimates that just 6-7% of Japanese egg output is automated. (If all these statistics are correct, then over 34 billion eggs are being produced domestically, by non-automated methods...) Some of these small farms sell directly to the public and businesses online, as well as in your local supermarkets. I'll include some links at the bottom of this post.

You might notice a strange obsession of those farms with the fact you can pick up the yolk by its membrane using your fingers, or stand toothpicks up in it and it doesn't break like regular yolks, something I've only ever seen extolled on Japanese sites. Have a look :) Though I wonder if this could be more to do with the freshness, as all eggs start off firmer and denature over time, becoming more runny (good for making macarons!).

Above - a further 3 free range egg brands

Here's some Japanese terminology for those looking for help to make informed decisions in the Japanese supermarket.

• The two main terms used to describe free range are 平飼い / hiragai and 放し飼い / hanashigai.

Hiragai translates literally as 'flat kept' and hanashigai is like 'let lose'. Though these terms are used interchangeably by many people, in 2004 the Japan Free Trade Council requested that an official agreement be made regarding the labelling of eggs to reduce confusion for consumers. Hiragai means that the chickens are not caged and can walk around freely. Whether they are kept indoors or have access to outside is not specified by this wording, it seems that neither is the brood density.

Hanashigai means that for most of the day the birds have access to the outside - density of birds also not specified in this wording. The modifier 特定飼育卵 / tokutei shiiku tamago / specially raised eggs - means that from when the chickens were 120 days old, they are guaranteed to have been kept in a condition no more restrictive than 5 birds per square metre. This is likely to be a more expensive egg, but avoids yarded free range eggs, in which hens do have access to a restricted outdoor space but can still be densely populated which can lead to stress, cannibalism and disease. In the EU there has been a similar fixed categorisation of eggs based on their production methods since 2004.

As in many other countries then, simply having free range on the box doesn't mean that the image you have in your mind of happy hens running about in the fresh air is necessarily the case for the company you're buying from. Most companies have websites with information on how the birds are kept, if you want to be sure.

Other handy egg carton terms are:

• のびのび / nobinobi - relaxed and carefree, often used to emphasize the lifestyle of hens in a conventionally understood 'free range' context, though not legally defined ;).
• 自然 / shizen - natural. Not a particularly precise term in relation to eggs.
• オーガニック / oganikku - organic.
• JAS 認定 JAS nintei, or use of the JAS green leaf symbol - certified organic according to Japanese agricultural standards.
• JA 全農たまご / JA zennou tamago - eggs produced to Japan agricultural cooperative standards, that monitor hygiene and aiming to improve Japan's food self-sufficiency. Usually caged hens so that safety consistency can be guaranteed at a competitive price.
• 有機栽培 / yuukisaibai - organic farming methods.
• 有機卵 / yuukitamago - organic egg.
• 鶏舎内 / keisshanai - inside the coop.
• パック日 / pakkuhi - day the eggs were packed into cartons.
• 採卵日 / sairanbi - day the eggs were harvested.
• 国産 / kokusan - domestic.
• 自由に歩き回る / jiyuuni aruki mawaru - walk around freely.
• 生食用 / namashoku you - for eating raw.
• 生 / nama - raw.
• 低温殺菌 / teion sakkin - pasturised.
• 卵白 / ranpaku - egg white.
• 卵黄 / ranou - egg yolk.
• 賞味期限 / shoumi kigen - best before date.
• 温泉たまご / onsen tamago - soft boiled egg, not raw!

Don't buy onsen tamago for baking :)

I found an interesting contrary point of view in this series of posts that discuss the relative pros and cons of the 3 main ways of producing eggs in Japan: free range, regular caged, and caged in a windowless poultry system.

Keeping in mind that the company uses the windowless method and so wants to extol that system's virtues, they suggest that free range is hazardous because wild animals can have contact with the chickens and introduce disease, that it’s hard to check and be sure that all the birds are healthy, and it's impossible to control what they eat to ensure hygiene and consistency. Of conventionally battery caged hens (in a large coop with walls that get opened in the summer) they say that although it’s easier to keep the droppings away from the eggs, it gets too hot for the birds in the summer and the droppings ferment quickly causing other health risks. They suggest the regulated temperature of the windowless battery solution they use allows for the most consistent and hygienic product - as long as there are no power outages. Animal welfare isn't discussed as being a primary concern for them.

To combat the wild animal contamination risk with some free range situations, one of the farms from the links below has implemented a HACCP-compliant system including a netted area for the chickens to roam in.

The images below are of more conventionally farmed domestic eggs, not free range but with various features such as the feed used, meeting ZA zennou standards of hygiene and quality, and displaying the "face of the farmer" in front of what looks like a windowless poultry system.

Something else you might see on egg packages is 有精卵 / yuuseiran / fertilized eggs, or 無精卵 / museiran / unfertilized eggs. When a Japanese farm describes the benefits of fertilized eggs over unfertilized, they often emphasise the stress-free, close-to-natural social system created by having a cockerel with his own harem of hens, with the idea that this results in a better tasting egg.

Some sites go as far as to say that the 'spark of life' in fertilised eggs make them taste better, but I've also seen it stated (pdf) that unfertilized and fertilised have precisely the same nutritional profile. Perhaps the marker of fertilized egg is most useful at giving an indication of the likely to be more humane type of free range condition in which the chickens are kept. The down side would be that you have to ensure the eggs are kept refrigerated at all times, to avoid them becoming chicks!

Numerous industry sites emphasise the impact on the flavour and quality of the egg that comes from the food and water given to the hens (some go as far as saying that these are the only things that impact the flavour, with animal welfare irrelevant to taste) – so for the best tasting egg, look out for details on the package about the nutritional profile of the feed, and perhaps the fact the farm makes their own blend.

Another interesting character in the world of Japanese poultry is the jidori / 地鶏. In Japan this is a legally defined type of chicken, used mainly for meat, which must have a genealogy of over 50% of Japanese "indigenous" breed of chicken (defined as from at least before the Meiji period, that's an interesting link by the way), be over 80 days old, and be reared with fewer than 10 birds per 1m² from 28 days old. It's an offense to market something as jidori which doesn't meet JAS specifications. There are some places selling eggs from jidori birds.

The main types of jidori chicken are Nagoya cochin / 名古屋コーチン, Satsuma jidori / 薩摩地鶏 and Hinaidori / 比内地鶏, along with the gamecock Okukuji shamo. I was interested to learn that the term jidori is now trademarked... in the US! An enterprising US businessman Dennis Mao, started producing chickens in California in the jidori-style, and his business now supplies many of the famous restaurants who want "jidori" on their menu.

Here are just a few places to try ordering free range eggs in Japan, if you don't find them at your local super.
http://www.shurinosato.com/product/index.html
https://www.nakamuranojo.com/index.html
http://www.friendsfarm.net/
http://a-k-farm.com/egg/env
http://www.i-tamago.jp/namatamago/
http://www.bocca-farm.jp/index.html
http://www.nihonnoen.com/Nihon%20Noen/English%20Home.html
http://www.arkfarm.net/s.nl/it.A/id.2277/.f

I'd very much like to pay a visit to one or two of these farms and learn a bit more about how humane egg production works in Japan and what the legal definitions of more of the terms are.
If I get the chance to do a field trip, I'll report back!

Make your own self raising flour

Make your own self raising flour - (metric grams and U.S. cup versions):

• Sift together 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder and a quarter of a teaspoon of salt per cup of flour in your recipe
• which if you prefer is 5-7 grams of baking powder (about a teaspoon), and 1 gram (a small pinch) of salt for every 100g of flour.

Source for the baking powder ratio: Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.

Self raising flour, or self-rising flour as it's sometimes less gracefully called is plain, all purpose white flour with the raising agents already included, along with salt. The raising agents used in self raising flour vary depending on the brand but all include a dry acid component along with an alkaline base, that react to produce carbon dioxide bubbles that leaven the batter - Odlums self raising flour uses sodium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate and sodium acid pyrophospate for example, and Tesco's self-raising flour uses calcium phosphate and sodium bicarbonate.

If you look at the label of the baking powder you'll use to create your self raising flour you'll see a similar mix of ingredients - an acid such as calcium acid phosphate, an alkaline base usually sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), and you'll also see a filler such as corn starch to keep the mixture from getting moist and to make it easier to measure out. Which, incidentally, is the difference between baking powder and baking soda - baking powder often contains baking soda as the alkaline base to react with the dry acidic component, where baking soda is just the dry alkali. Many American recipes for things like muffins use baking soda only because the other ingredients such as yoghurt or buttermilk provide the acid for the reaction.

All commercially available baking powders are double-acting, meaning that you get some of the carbon dioxide gas produced when the baking powder gets wet during mixing, and the remainder is released when a specific temperature is reached during baking. The amount of gas released at each stage varies depending on the leavening chemicals used, with aluminium-based leaveners seeming to reserve most of the gas production for the temperature-induced phase.

Some people prefer to avoid the use of aluminium-based baking powders such as Clabber Girl, Calumet and the Japanese brand 'Home Made Cake' due to the stronger taste or health concerns, and opt for an aluminium-free baking powder such as Rumford or Aikoku. Although Rumford is a double-acting powder, the only acid used is monocalcium phosphate (calcium acid phosphate) which releases 2/3 of the carbon dioxide within 2 minutes of coming into contact with water - so best not to let your batters hand around too long!

While we're at it, here is some fun chemistry Japanese to help you figure out what your baking powder is made of (I should note here that though this information is correct in my understanding, I'm not a chemist):

• 炭酸水素ナトリウム / たんさんすいそナトリウム: sodium hydrogen carbonate (baking soda)
• 重炭酸ナトリウム / じゅうたんさんナトリウム: sodium bicarbonate (also baking soda)
• 重曹 / じゅうそう: also baking soda (abbreviated for of above)
• 第一リン酸カルシウム / だいいちりんさんカルシウム: monocalcium phosphate
• 酒石酸水素カリウム / しゅせきさんすいそカリウム: potassium bitartrate, also called potassium hydrogen tartrate (cream of tartar)
• (焼き)ミョウバン / やきミョウバン: potassium aluminium sulfate (burnt alum, potash)
• 硫酸カリウムアルミニウム / りゅうさんカリウムアルミニウム: also potassium aluminium sulfate
• 硫酸ナトリウムアルミニウム / りゅうさんナトリウムアルミニウム: sodium aluminium sulfate
• ピロリン酸カルシウム / ピロリンさんカルシウム: calcium pyrophosphate
• 酸性ピロりん酸ナトリウム /さんせいピロリンさんナトリウム: sodium acid pyrophosphate or disodium pyrophosphate
• クエン酸 / クエンさん: citric acid
• フマル酸 / フマルさん: fumaric acid
• グルコノデルタラクトン: glucono delta-lactone

If you read Japanese, there is also an excellent investigation into a whole set of aluminium-free baking powders commonly available in Japan and their chemical components here.

Thanks to Nick-chan for sparking the idea for this post!

Marzipan / almond paste in Japan, and a blind tasting test!

Last week I marzipaned the Christmas cake so that there will be time for it, and later on the royal icing, to dry completely before I head off to the UK for Christmas. Exciting!

Marzipan making night

I made the marzipan I used on the Christmas cake from this Delia Smith recipe, which involves whisking egg yolks and sugar using a bain-marie. You can measure the temperature during the 12-minute whisking stage and make sure it either reaches 71°C or is maintained above 60°C for over 3.5 minutes to kill any salmonella that could be in the egg.

Most British recipes for marzipan contain eggs in some form, frequently raw as in the photos below, but if you check the ingredient list of most shop-bought UK marzipan you'll see it does not.

Indeed, in Germany where they have refined marzipan making to a national craft, eggs appear only rarely to be used. Many eggless recipes involve heating water and sugar, and sometimes glucose to a specific temperature and pouring the hot syrup onto the ground nuts.

Heated to 118C, this syrup became clear and bubbly

I was interested to learn that there are specific legal requirements that need to be met in Germany to be able to call a product marzipan, including that it consists of at least 50% almond paste (marzipanrohmasse) which in itself can consist of only almonds, sugar and water and/or rose water.

The names 'marzipan' and 'almond paste' are often used interchangeably outside Germany, but it's probably helpful to think of almond paste as being a base for making the regular cake-covering/modeling marzipan (add more sugar). Almond paste is also used in baking and for making confections. Here is a breakdown of some of the different classifications of marzipan used in Germany.

Anyway back to the homemade stuff - I wanted to see what discernable differences there are between types of marzipan with/without eggs, cooked vs. raw, almonds vs *other nuts!* and so embarked upon a big making session followed by a blind tasting.

Serious stuff, this!

I subjected my partner, who didn't complain too much, to a taste test before work one morning. We tried out the following marzipans:

A - Shop-bought in France, just before its best before date. A 'control', if you will.
B- Delia Smith's, a cooked version (if you measure the temperature to 71°C) with eggs.
C- Cottage Smallholder recipe, raw with eggs.
D- Dan Lepard's Pecan marzipan (but made with walnuts, for lack of pecans), cooked with eggs.
E- Peter Greweling's eggless recipe, but made with hazelnuts, cooked.
F- BBC Good Food's zesty orange marzipan, raw with eggs.

Our verdict was that out of the homemade versions, the Delia 'cooked' version had a texture that was closest to shop-bought marzipan, as it was drier and finer-grained. All of the raw marzipans were comparably wet and sticky, which was a lovely feature when used inside stollen, but could be challenging to roll out to cover a cake - I'd recommend being prepared to use a little more almond powder and sugar in either C or F recipes to combat that (particularly F).

The non-almond versions were lovely, especially the Dan Lepard version, D although I don't understand why both the glucose and the glycerine were necessary. Either way I'm now going to have to get more nuts to try the pecan version - maybe with bourbon. I'm also curious to have a go at something with just/mainly honey and almonds to see how that tastes and behaves.

D was a little crumblier in texture but I think that was more to do with the ground walnuts (done in a blender) being less uniform than the pre-ground almond powder I used for many of the other recipes. There is so much scope for variation - cardamon-flavoured Iranian toot, pistachio marzipan, cinnamon and other spices, pine nuts and perhaps trying something like one of my absolute favourite nut paste treats turron de jijona.

I also tried baking the marzipan to see if any of the different versions would melt away, and none did. It all browned quite quickly in a hot oven, and A and E (eggless) remained wetter inside compared with the other versions. Delia marzipan (B) was the firmest on baking and reminded me of the texture of white anko paste.. I'd say the Delia recipe is best eaten cold/used to cover cakes.

I now have a ton of marzipan :) Aside from covering the Christmas cake I'm experimenting using the different flavours to stuff my stollen loaves, using some to as alternative mince pie lids, and having slices of the walnut one in particular with glasses of sherry. Cheers!

If you're not interested in having a go at making your own, you can buy marzipan online in Japan from quite a few places as it turns out, starting with here and here. It’s most commonly called マジパン / majipan, which usually refers to the high sugar content type of regular marzipan we're all familiar with that's good for covering cakes (at least 50% sugar). Even if you are making your own you might still find it more economical to order your ground almonds and powdered sugar online too (Nissin supermarket almond powder is 980 yen for 350g and you can pay just slightly over 1,000 yen for about 1kg online).

You'll find almond paste / marzipanrohmasse referred to as マジパンローマッセ / majipan rohmasse or ローマジパン / roh majipan / raw marzipan. Both of these names refer to the higher nut-to-sugar ratio almond paste (2:1 nuts to sugar, with up to 35% sugar). Incidentally you can get the real thing - Lübecker marzipanrohmasse in Japan too, I'm definitely going to have to check some of that out!

The history of marzipan and its etymology are contested and fascinating. The tradition of kneading ground nuts with a binding agent such as honey goes back at least as far as 1800 BC Egypt, but the particular almond and sugar incarnation is claimed to be originally Iranian, or Chinese, Spanish, possibly Italian... There are stories in Arabian Nights of marzipan being used during Ramadan and of it being an aphrodisiac, and of it being transported to Europe by crusaders. Other origin stories involve resourceful Toledo nuns, inventive French cooks, and a day-dreaming Venetian baker's daughter making a mistake with a recipe. It was supposed to have been used as a palate cleanser at medieval banquets, in times when sugar and almonds were expensive it was a gift fit for royalty, then in the 18th century Germany it was given as a christening present.
Today the taste of marzipan appears to divide people almost as much as does coriander.

The unusual name is variously explained as coming from March bread, St. Marc's bread, little box, the king who sits still ..! To quote from the online etymology dictionary:
"marzipan (n.) 1901 (in modern use; earlier march payne, late 15c., from French or Dutch), from Ger. Marzipan, from It. marzapane "candy box," from M.L. matapanus "small box," earlier, "coin bearing image of seated Christ" (altered in Italian by folk etymology as though from L. Marci panis "bread of Mark"), of uncertain origin. One suggestion is that this is from Arabic mawthaban "king who sits still." Nobody seems to quite accept this, but nobody has a better idea. The Medieval Latin word also is the source of Sp. marzapan, Fr. massepain."

Getting a food business permit - visiting the public health center

This week I got around to paying a visit to the Minato-ku public health center / みなと保健所 生活衛生センター / Minato Hokensho seikatsu eisei senta. A short walk from Azabu Juban and sandwiched between large Mita hospitals, the health center is in charge of inspections for food businesses, and deals with various other public health issues for the Minato ward area including disease control, pest control, hygiene, and food regulation.

On the 5th floor there is a long counter with stations for consultations in Japanese regarding food businesses - if your premises is in Minato ku this is where you will need to come to apply for an inspection in order to get your business permit. If you are at that stage already, there's more information on that process in my previous post.

I'm not at the space-hunting stage yet, but wanted to check a couple of things to help with planning my business model as the requirements might impact the kind of space I will need to look for.

I would like to have a multi-purpose space - which could be a cafe while also being a workshop for the bakery and orders, as well as allowing me to hold practical lessons - but I learned that a local bread school were not allowed to use their teaching kitchen as a commercial space, and so I wanted to know exactly why. It turns out that the problem is with who can enter the kitchen / 厨房 / chuubou - if I keep my kitchen quite separate from the café area through the use of a counter and a swing door for example, and do not allow customers or students into the kitchen, then I can use the café area outside business hours to teach. Of course this will mean I'll have to get creative with using tables as workstations and make sure only me and my staff ferry trays and things to the kitchen, but it looks like there may be a way to make this work, legally, in a small space.

This also means that if you are running a bakery from home in Japan, apart from your facilities meeting the confectionery business permit requirements, they will also have to be in what amounts to a second kitchen to be used solely for your business activities. The health center staff confirmed that a business permit will not be granted to a food business using their regular domestic kitchen because family members using the space and your own domestic food preparation presents a health hazard for a commercial food business.

Basic requirements for a food business permit

On the back of the application is a list of the basic requirements you'll need to meet, along with diagrams. I've done a rough translation here, but do check with your ward office as requirements are different for each area (these from Hiroshima are very nicely illustrated) and may change.

1. Building – made out of suitably durable material
2. Plan – walls and boards etc. made of suitable material and arranged appropriately for intended purpose
3. Floor – comprised of easy to clean and water resistant material
4. Interior walls – at least the bottom meter should be water resistant and washable
5. Ceiling and walls – made of easy to clean material
6. Ventilation – there should be separate ventilation for customer area and kitchen
7. Kitchen sinks – need to have at least 2 (of at least the dimensions in the 1st image below)
8. Hot water – to aid hygiene there needs to be hot running water
9. Staff hand-washing sink – need to be in the kitchen and in the visitor area (of at least the dimensions in the 2nd image below)
10. Hand sanitation – should be provided at the staff hand-washing sink (9)
11. Refrigeration – units need to be big enough to hold the required amount of chilled food appropriately
12. Temperature regulation – thermometers should be placed in the refrigeration/freezing units and in the kitchen area
13. Storage – there is shelving of adequate size to store the number and sizes of vessels required for the business 
14. Waste disposal – bins are of sufficient size and have lids
15. Cleaning equipment – have their own storage area
16. Changing room or locker – is outside the kitchen area
17. Customer area – should be positioned so as not to interfere with food preparation areas, and a toilet should be provided

Much of what they wanted to emphasise to me when I visited was about the sinks - that in addition to a staff hand-washing sink, there should be two kitchen sinks for a restaurant/cafe type permit, or one kitchen sink if it was only a confectionery business without eat-in areas, and that these all had to meet the specified sizes.

Since I was there, I took the opportunity to ask a few additional things. The staff who helped me were amused at how strict the international examples I came up with seemed to be - apparently there is no legal requirement in Japan for egg products to be brought above 71 °C, and there are no regulations about the weight of bread. Grease traps, which are a legal requirement for commercial kitchens in many countries are not legally required in Japan (at least, according to the staff I spoke to), but your building owner may want you to have one fitted, and it makes sense to adhere to best practice regarding waste fats, oil and grease disposal even if it isn't a legal requirement.

Finally, I checked but there are currently no resources available in English to help with the process, and all consultation is in Japanese. The staff at the Minato public health center said that other ward areas may provide this information, so if you are in another area it's worth asking!

Field Trip! - Hottarakashi Noen Farm, Tokorozawa Saitama

A series of posts from visiting interesting little (and large) cafes, food-related establishments and other places of inspiration.

The other weekend I joined an event organised by Minami Aoyama Yasai Kichi - BBQ at Hottarakashi Noen Farm. There was to be a tour of the farm, helping out in the vegetable plots while the farmer explained about their methods and then a barbecue of fresh-plucked veggies, beef and chicken. I was curious to learn about small scale farming, to meet a Japanese farmer, and very interested in the 'have a go' part of the day too.

Tokorozawa is about an hour from Tokyo on the Seibu Ikebukuro line. We met up, bright and early, at Kotesashi station (小手指駅) and took a bus from the south exit about 15 minutes to the farm, where Nomura-san was waiting for us. Nomura-san does not fit the Japanese farmer stereotype. He's young and fluent in English thanks to time in Australia, and he started Hottarakashi Farm after working in other fields, without a family background in farming. Most farmers you hear reported about in Japan are elderly, and the future of their farms uncertain with many being sold to large agricultural corporations or for other land use after they retire.

Nomura-san explaining about radishes

Nomura-san explained to us about the name ほったらかし農園 / Hotttarakashi Noen - In Japanese 'hottarakashi' means to neglect, or to leave something alone, such as an untidy bedroom. As I understood it, the idea with the farm is to 'leave it alone' as much as possible, by avoiding using chemicals, not being too neat or fussy, to create an environment where insects are part of the ecosystem and vegetables can be grown with as little interference as possible.

We set off on our little tour around the farm and saw nasu / 茄子 / aubergine (eggplant, if you prefer), growing on beautiful purple-stemmed bushes with lilac coloured flowers, sweet potato / さつまいも / satsumaimo leaves sticking out of the soil, huge courgettes / ズッキーニ / zucchini and cucumbers / キュウリ / kyuri growing on the ground. Nomura-san showed us the range of different types of tomatoes we'd be eating later, including a blackish variety. Apparently, when one tomato on the plant suddenly starts ripening, it's likely to have been damaged by bugs - early ripening is a way to try to have a chance of maturing and depositing some seeds onto the ground before that fruit spoils.

We were shown the edamame bean / 枝豆 (未熟な大豆 / mijyuku na daizu / young soybean) plants, grown both with and without a protective covering - when edamame are grown without the cover most of the leaves get eaten by insects if you're not using pesticides, so the covering helps reduce this. Bugs thriving is to some extent an expected and desirable thing at Hottarakashi Farm, where they are finding a balance between the productivity of the land and letting nature do its thing. They mentioned that planting certain crops together, as companion plants can help repel certain pests.

Our first task was to help out in the carrot / 人参 / ninjin field. About 20,000 carrot seeds had been planted and two tiny rabbit-ear shaped leaves were poking through the soil at intervals across the plot. We were to pull out everything else that didn't look like the carrot leaves. The carrots are not as hardy a plant as many of the weeds / 雑草 / zassou, and so doing this task now would help improve the carrots' chances as they mature. During this task we learned that 'leaving it alone' didn't mean there wasn't hard work involved... (picture from before our weeding: left, and after: right)

Next we got to select a few seeds we wanted to plant, were allocated a plot of land each (about 3 paces by 2 paces), and we got to have a go at planting our own little 畑 / hatake / allotment plot! We were told we could visit our plot again to tend or harvest as we liked, but that in general the plots would be largely left to fend for themselves, and any successful veggies picked and used by the team. This part of the day was a lovely surprise, I've never planted my own allotment before :)

White: Zucchini, pink: daikon, green: edamame

The afternoon was a blur of cold beer, BBQ food and chatting in the welcome shade. There were about 15 of us who made the trip out with Yasai Kichi, some customers of the restaurant and some friends of the owner. If you're interested to possibly join a future trip, check out the Yasai Kichi site to see future plans.

Hottarakashi Farm also do a veggie box delivery service! You can order as a one-off, or set up a regular monthly (etc.) delivery, and a box of local vegetables will arrive at your door in Japan, straight from the farm at exactly the time it's in season and tasting best. To order, go to their ameblo site (in Japanese) and send a message to ask for details. The current price on their site for a regular box is 2,100 yen + delivery charge (delivery was 315 yen to my place in Tokyo).

What to do with all those fresh aubergines and courgettes? To commemorate what would be Julia Child's 100th birthday this week (Wednesday 15th of August), I decided to have a go at her ratatouille. It tastes so much better than it looks ;)

Also included in our first box was a large green marrow-type vegetable, which I was informed was actually a Japanese 瓜 / uri / gourd. This gave me the chance to find out how to make something new - asazuke! Light Japanese pickles... I'll share the method with you in another post.

My own little shop probably won't be doing much in the way of savoury dishes, but perhaps the occasional quiche, or even as Nomura-san suggested, vegetable cakes! Carrot cakes, zucchini cakes... Hmm, it's got me thinking now.