I recently visited the Izu Peninsula. The highlight of my stay there was taking a tour at Kanesa
カネサ鰹節商店! Yasuhisa Serizawa warmly welcomed me into his family factory. It’s like stepping back in the past, when time was running at a different gear. Everything looked so natural and in perfect balance with the four seasons, the traditions and the hearth. You can really tell that behind all this there is so much care and love for keeping alive a food culture that is at the base of the Japanese diet, considered today World Heritage.
Serizawa san aim is to pass on to the next generations all about the Katsuobushi and Shiobushi: making and habits. He loves to work with kids school so his explanations are so easy to understand and remember.
The final product is incredibly rich and I will never thank enough my dear friend Yuka Tanaka, the director of Slow Food Mt. Fuji, for making me to discover this hidden gem. It was such a fullfilling experience: I also visited the local restaurants where Katsuobushi and Shiobushi from Kanesa are used. So yummy!
From now on I will only use Kanesa Katsuobushi to make my dashi. Thank you very much for this amazing experience.