Common Grains

Tortoise Workshops | January & Febrary

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:30:23 +0000

Event Photos

Visit our events page to see upcoming Soba-Making Workshop at JANM, March 11th, 11AM-1PM.

Curated by Sonoko Sakai, Common Grains will come to Tortoise with four Japanese grain themed cooking workshops in January and February 2012. Joining Common Grains in these workshops is Matsuko Soma, and Naoko Moore, Japanese donabe and culinary expert.

Beginners Soba Making – Hands on Workshop with Sonoko Sakai
Saturday, January 21 10am – 12pm
Sunday, February 19 10am – 12pm

Sonoko will show you how to make two soba dishes that are featured at Sonoko’s pop up soba bar at Breadbar in Century City between January 10-19, 2012. Learn how to make soba from scratch, and slurp the delicious creations with cold and hot sauces. Tasting Menu: Zaru soba served wtih with plain and walnut dipping sauces and Japanese herbs. Kamo negi seiro- Zaru soba served with a hot duck and scallions dipping sauce. Fee: $65

“Gohan and Okazu” - Rice Dishes and Sides made with Donabe Rice Cooker Kamado-San
(Donabe Cooking Demonstration + Tasting) with Naoko Moore
Sunday, January 22 10am – 12pm
Saturday, February 18 10am-12pm

Rice made in a Japanese donabe clay pot tastes fluffy and heavenly, many people say they can’t go back to electric rice cookers after tasting donabe rice. Donabe specialist and rice lover, Naoko Moore, will host a cooking class of two one-pot rice dishes, featuring Iga-yaki Donabe Rice Cooker, KAMADO-SAN and two side dishes. Menu: Salmon & Hijiki Rice, Earthy Mushroom Brown Rice, Komatsuna & Abura-age “Nibitashi” Light Stew. Haricot Vert “Goma-ae” Salad with Black Sesame sauce.

Fee: $65

The Common Grains project is made possible with a grant from the Japanese government project, Cool Japan. Common Grains project is presented by Shinmei, leading Japanese miller. For more information, visit Sonoko’s blog, www.cooktellsastory.com.
Naoko Moore is a Japanese culinary and donabe expert. For information about Naoko Moore, please visit www.toirokitchen.com.

Common Grains Rice Exhibition, Demonstration and Tasting at Cookbook | Feb 3-9

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:44:14 +0000

Common Grains Rice Exhibition, Demonstration and Tasting at Cookbook
Location: Cookbook | 1549 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Link out: Click here
Description: The sustainable and natural food grocery store will host a Common Grains rice exhibition featuring more than 50 varietals of rare and artisanal Japanese rice and offer guests the opportunity to taste and purchase the uncooked rice as well as pre-packaged freshly prepared rice dishes. The cooking demonstration by Naoko Moore (Toiro Kitchen) will showcase recipes and techniques used in traditional Donabe rice pot cooking. Authentic Donabes from Iga will be on sale during the event, and more than 50 bags of brown short grain rice, sprouted shorted grain brown rice, white short grain rice and other rare varieties from around Japan. Each guest who visits Cookbook during the Common Grains exhibition will receive a complimentary collector’s “The Story of Rice” photo booklet.
· WHERE: Cookbook is located at 1549 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90026
· WHEN: Friday, February 3, 2012 – Thursday, February 9, 2012 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m., rice exhibition on display; Saturday, February 4, 2012 from 1-3 p.m., rice demonstration and tasting
· COST: No cost to attend and rice will be available for purchase

Rice Exhibtion:

There will be over fifty bags of Japanese short grain rice and California short grain rice, from 16 rice growing regions in Japan. The packages are 2kg size.

Regions include:
1. Iwate
2. akita
3. ibaragi
4. Niigata
5. Hokkaido
6. Chiba
7. Miyagi
8. Yamagata
9. Saga
10. Fukuoka
11. Chiba
12. Hokkaido
13. Akita
14. Toyama
15. Ishikawa
16. Iwate

Varities:
Short Grain rice varitals such as Akita Komachi, Uonuma Koshihikari, Hinohikari, Kirara 397, Jyouetsu Yumebirika and more. Brown Rice, Sprouted Brown rice, White rice, Sweet Rice, Special blends and original selections. Common Grains Inari sushi ( Koshihikari rice) and Chirashi Sushi (made with Anson Mills Carolina Gold) .

: Japan Rice Regions Map

Common Grains Film Screenings and Soba Bar at Atwater Crossing | Feb 3

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:41:52 +0000

Common Grains Film Screening and Soba Bar at Atwater Crossing

· WHAT: Guests will enjoy screening of films featuring an unsung player in Japanese cinema—rice. The award-winning film by Japanese filmmakers, Branded to Kill, an entertaining 1960’s gangster movie will be accompanied by an informal lecture by Anne McKnight, member of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA. A soba bar featuring artisanal soba and grilled onigiri, and a variety of sake will be offered at the indoor and outdoor screenings.

· WHERE: Atwater Crossing located at 3245 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039

· WHEN: Friday, February 3, 2012, soba bar opens at 5 p.m. and the screening and lecture begins at 7:30 p.m.

· COST: No cost to attend the screenings, food and drinks will be available for purchase

· RSVP: Please RSVP to commongrains@wagstaffworldwide.com

Common Grains Film Screening and Soba Bar at Atwater Crossing | Feb 4

admin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:29:29 +0000

Common Grains Film Screening and Soba Bar at Atwater Crossing

· WHAT: Guests will enjoy screening of films featuring an unsung player in Japanese cinema—rice. The award-winning film Furuyashikimura, a classic 1982 in-depth rice documentary, will be accompanied by an informal lecture by Anne McKnight, member of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA. A soba bar featuring artisanal soba and grilled onigiri, and a variety of sake will be offered at the indoor and outdoor screenings.

· WHERE: Atwater Crossing located at 3245 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039

MAP

· WHEN: Saturday, February 4, 2012, soba bar opens at 5 p.m. and the screening and lecture begins at 6 p.m.

· COST: No cost to attend the screenings, food and drinks will be available for purchase

· RSVP: Please RSVP to commongrains@wagstaffworldwide.com

Common Grains Charity Panel Discussion and Lunch | Feb 5

admin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:40:58 +0000

Event Pics

WHAT: Common Grains will host a panel discussion featuring expert grain miller and farmer, Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills in South Carolina and Monica Spiller from The Whole Grain Connection, a non-profit organization aiming to enhance the desirability of organic and sustainable grains. Other grain experts will also speak on the panel and a rice exhibition highlighting ancient varieties of grain will be on display. A special three-course prix fixe soba lunch, a collaboration between Sonoko Sakai and Mutsuko Soma of Common Grains, Roxana Jullapat of Cooks County and Naoko Moore of Toiro Kitchen, will be available following the lecture highlighting Anson Mills and Japanese grains.

· WHERE: Atwater Crossing located at 3245 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039

MAP
· WHEN: Sunday, February 5, 2012 from 11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

· COST: Panel discussion is free and open to the public; $45 per person for priority seating to the panel discussion, prix fixe lunch and a donation to The Whole Grain Connection;; payment is accepted prior to the event via PayPal or at the event with cash or check

· RSVP: Please RSVP to commongrains@wagstaffworldwide.com

Panel Discussion:

Fine Grains: How East and West Grains Come Together in New American Cuisines

The foodways of both Japanese and American local cuisines have roots in “traditional” grains like rice and buckwheat (soba). In this panel discussion, each speaker describes how new sourcing of grains has allowed them to connect to traditional cuisines and revive these ingredients in the context of local American cuisines. They explore how these traditional grains from North American and Japan have re-surfaced on the menus of both “common cuisine” and haute cuisine. They offer examples of how “traditional” grains like buckwheat and Carolina rice have been re-imagined in dishes like griddle foods, pastas, breads, and pastries and they speculate how these grains might mingle in the future—though they took different routes to the contemporary table.

Correction: Panel Discussion begins at 11AM, Feb 5th!

On the Panel:

Glenn Roberts - Anson Mills

A former historic restoration and hospitality design planner, Glenn Roberts founded Anson Mills in 1998 to reintroduce lowcountry ingredients once prominent in the Antebellum Southern pantry. Today, Anson Mills produces artisan organic heirloom grain, legume, and oil seed ingredients from crops grown across the South and in parts of New England for chefs and home cooks in the United States and abroad. Additionally, Glenn provides pro bono seedsmanship to the growing community of rice farmers along the southern Atlantic coast. A founding member of the Fellowship of Farmers, Artisans and Chefs, Glenn is also president and CEO of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation. He was the 2008 recipient of the Artisan of the Year Award from Bon Appétit magazine and the 2010 Food Arts Silver Spoon Award.

Monica Spiller – The Whole Grain Connection

Monica Spiller has taken a special interest in whole grain foods since 1982, beginning with the question: Why do we not eat our grain foods whole, when we have so much evidence that this is the truly healthful and tasty form? In her quest she has studied nutrition, and in the 1980s she emphasized the study of the microbiology of sourdough fermentation in whole grain bread making. During the 1990s she grew more than 70 varieties of wheat with the help of many farmers, eventually selecting 12 landrace varieties suitable for organic farming in California.
In 2000 she founded the Whole Grain Connection, non-profit, so that farmers could be supplied with farm scale quantities of non-proprietary landrace wheat. Organic vegetable farmers have been the main customers and they sell all their grain at Farmers Markets and locally quite easily. However, large-scale organic grain growers need a strong local grain infrastructure in order to succeed in selling locally. Recognizing what is needed to enable the supply of whole grains locally, and then attempting to fill those needs, is the focus of her current efforts.

Roxana Jullapat – Cooks County

Baker Roxana Jullapat honed her skills in some of the best California kitchens: La Brea Bakery, Campanile, Bastide, Lucques and A.O.C.. Her strongest suit is in working with fruit, and her dessert menu, one of the most market-driven in town, consistently gets rave reviews. In later years, she has taken special interest in working with heirloom grains and incorporating them in her bread and dessert repertoire. In November 2011, Roxana along with chef Daniel Mattern, opened Cooks County, a long-awaited restaurant of her own, with partners Claudio Blotta and Adria Tennor Blotta.

Sonoko Sakai - Program Curator of Common Grains

Moderator:

George Cossette – Silver Lake Wines

Common Grains Soba Pop-Up Restaurant at Soba-Ya | Feb 9-21

admin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:15:48 +0000

Common Grains Soba Pop-Up Restaurant at Soba-Ya

Soba-Ya Restaurant will be closed Wednesday, Februray 15th due to restaurant improvements!

Location: 1757 W. Carson Street, Suite R & S, Torrance, CA 90501
Description: · WHAT: Artisan soba makers Sonoko Sakai and Mutsuko Soma will host a pop-up soba restaurant during the grand opening of the new soba-based restaurant, Soba-Ya, featuring freshly stoned and milled handcrafted soba prepared with a choice of traditional or modern ingredients and garnishes and specialty onigiri.
· WHERE: Soba-Ya is located at 1757 W. Carson Street, Suite R & S, Torrance, CA 90501 MAP
· WHEN: Common Grains pop up is only in the evenings 5-9pm, and closed on Sundays, but
SOBA-YA is opened 7 days a week 11-230 and 5-9pm. Opening night is Thursday, February 9, and the Common Grains Pop Up runs through Tuesday, February 21, 2012 from 5-9 p.m., Pop Up closed Sundays
· COST: Menu items range from $11-16
· RESERVATIONS: Seating is limited. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling Soba-Ya at 310.782.7356

Free Gift:

• A set of 4 Common Grains (environmentally sustainable) chopsticks to the first 100 people at the restaurant opening. Offer is for Feb 9th only.

Common Grains Rice Workshop at Healthy Living Day | Feb 11

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:40:28 +0000

WHAT: Common Grains will host a grains workshop featuring rice and miso soup as part of the Japanese American National Museum’s Healthy Living Day.
Healthy Living Day features a variety of activities and events for families and individuals geared toward healthy living.
• WHERE: Japanese American National Museum located at 369 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
• WHEN: Saturday, February 11, 2012

11 AM – 12:30PM – Naoko Moore teaches you how to eat healthy by making
onigiri (rice balls)! (First come first serve, limit 15 students)

1 – 2PM –Sonoko Sakai teaches you how to eat healthy by making
delicious miso soup! (First come first serve, limit 15 students)

EVENT PHOTOS

Common Grains Dashi Workshop at Soba-Ya | Feb 12

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:21:53 +0000

Title: Common Grains Dashi Workshop at Soba-Ya
Location: 1757 W. Carson Street, Suite R & S, Torrance, CA 90501
Description: · WHAT: Common Grains will host a dashi workshop at the new soba-based restaurant in Torrance, Soba-Ya. Curator of the Common Grains program, Sonoko Sakai joins chef Mutsuko Soma, and Mamiko Nishiyama of Yagicho (a 275 year-old store in Tokyo specializing in quality dashi making products, katsuobushi, konbu seaweeds, dried shitake mushrooms), as they demonstrate how to use dashi ingredients. Guests will taste a variety of dashi preparations with fresh handcrafted soba and rice balls. Additionally, guests may purchase rare and authentic dashi ingredients at the workshop. Guests can stay to have a lunch or dinner at Soba-Ya, the new restaurant by Shinmei, a leading Japanese rice miller and the presenter of Common Grains. This project is made possible with a grant from the Japanese Government’s Cool Japan initiative.
· WHERE: Soba-Ya is located at 1757 W. Carson Street, Suite R & S, Torrance, CA 90501
· WHEN: Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
· COST: $65 per person to attend the two-hour workshop
· RESERVATIONS: Class size is limited. RSVP to commongrains@wagstaffworldwide.com

Common Grains Soba-Mae Sake Tastings at Silverlake Wine | Feb 19

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:59:34 +0000

This event is SOLD OUT!

Title: Common Grains Soba-Mae Sake Tastings at Silverlake Wine
Location: 2395 Glendale Blvd. #A Los Angeles, CA 90039
Link out: Click here
Description: WHAT: Common Grains will host a soba-mae sake tasting at Silverlake Wine where guests will have the opportunity to try five varietals of sake and cuisine by Sonoko Sakai and Mutsuko Soma of Common Grains. Five types of sake will be paired with specialty dishes including yakitori with shitake mushrooms, market fresh vegetables with tofu-sesame dipping sauce and mini grilled onigiri. Silverlake Wine’s sake specialist, Kris Elliott, will be on-hand to educate guests on sake during the event.
COST: $20 per person for five sake tastings and four food pairings
RESERVATIONS: RSVP to Silverlake Wine at 323.662.9024

About Kris Elliott: Born and raised in Japan with a Japanese Mother and American Father, Kris’s unique
background is the perfect bridge between Eastern and Western cultures. Considered one of the
country’s top sake specialists, Kris worked an entire sake brewing season at the award winning
brewery, Nanbu Bijin, in the cold north of Iwate, Japan. The experience, profoundly
inspiring and physically exhausting at once, left Kris with a deep respect for the traditional
methods of handcrafting sake. He is dedicated to exploring and understanding the world of
sake.

Start Time: 15:00
Date: 2012-02-19
End Time: 17:00

Aperitif – Ichishima “Isle of Paradise” Tokubetsu Honjozo – Chilled (Slightly rich, very clean, delicate, dry)
Pricing – $23.40 btl / $0.98 oz / 12 pk / 720 ml
Tamago two ways with grated daikon radish and sprouts
Pairing Suggestion – Yuki no Bosha “Cabin in the Snow” Junmai Ginjo Nigori – Chilled
Pricing – $12.25 btl / $1.23 oz / 12 pk / 300 ml

Yakitori with shitake mushrooms and Tokyo Negi
Pairing Suggestion – Taiheikai “Pacific Ocean” Tokubetsu Junmai – Very Slightly Chilled
Pricing – $20.75 btl / $0.86 oz / 12 pk / 720 ml

Market fresh vegetables with tofu-sesame dipping sauce
Pairing Suggestion – Dewatsuru Habataki “Cranes of Dewa” Junmai Ginjo – Chilled
Pricing – $21.36 btl / $0.89 oz / 12 pk / 720 ml

Miso seasoned Burdock wrapped in Kobe beef and served with mini grilled onigiri
Pairing Suggestion – Watari Bune “Ferry Boat” Junmai Ginjo – Chilled
Pricing – $25.50 btl / $1.06 oz / 12 pk / 720 ml

Onigiri Contest Photos & Winners | Jan 9

admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:15:53 +0000

Onigiri Contest at Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, CA, January 8th, 2012