A new discovery! IKEMEN RICE
My husband and I like walking as it is healthy. In the weekend, we sometimes make a walking tour from Nakameguro to Aoyama. In front of the United Nations University there is a Farmer’s Market.
http://www.marche-japon.org/area/1302/
Energetic and passionate farmers come to sell their wonderful products. Natural, organic vegetables at reasonable prices are for sale. I like to cook Japanese food but sometimes it is hard to read the names. Often it looks delicious to me but I don’t know how to cook them. The farmers are so willing to give advice. It is the best cookbook you can ever imagine.
After enjoying our purchases, we continue our walk through Omotesande. There we always stop at Shoku Raku En. This shop is specialized in Niigata products.
http://niigata-shokurakuen.com/
Every weekend there is a special event. At the end of last year, we looked at a booth which displayed “Ikemen Rice“
What is Ikemen rice?
There was only the Japanese explanation, full of difficult kanji which I couldn’t understand. There was doubt. Should I ask to explain?
Ikemen? Has it anything to do with “ IKI?“ I read a book about the meaning of Iki. It is difficult to understand for Western people but once you are connected to the concept of iki you can feel very secure.
Iki explains the spirits, minds of the people. So I thought if Ikemen rice has a meaning to explain the pure intention of the cultivator it must be an extremely good rice.
The promotion photo of Ikemen rice seemed a little modern to us but maybe it might be done for a special reason? Anyhow, we were attracted to this product.
Suddenly communication started between the cultivator of the rice and us.
“The farmers who cultivate Ikemen-rice adopt a special water-purifying system. Cultivating rice with purified water gives rice less trouble such as harmful insects, diseases and so on.
That's why they can keep the usage of agricultural chemical to a minimum. As a result, there are no chemicals left on Genmai of Ikemen-rice. “
We could understand that Ikemen-rice is very pure and safe.
We decided to buy Ikemen rice. At home, we took enough time to prepare the rice in the correct way.
Let’s support people who believe that they are able to cultivate pure food in a natural surrounding.
http://www.nos-1st.co.jp/ikemen/index.html
Nowadays, Koshihikari rice sold in stores is actually "Koshihikari BL (Blast resistance Lines)," which is a new variety of rice made from original Koshihikari.
But Ikemen rice is original pure old "Koshihikari."
If you can handle another challenge, there is also Ikemen coffee. The taste and smell is rather different from usual coffee. We drunk for many years the same coffee which contains a lot of caffeine and is probably cultivated with using a lot of pesticides.
Ikemen coffee is pure and safe for your health!
As with everything is life, a wrong behaviour is not easy to change but once you choose for a better way of living you are part of changing the world into a better place. Isn’t that what people want these days? So start by changing the attitudes in your own lifestyle and choose for safe food and drinks.