BLUEBERRY KAKIGORI TOKYO EVENT

SPECIAL

SUMMER 

EVENT

BLUEBERRY KAKIGORI TOKYO

SAT + SUNDAY AUG 12 ~ 13

11:00 – 17:00

2023年8月12日 13日

UNU building in Shibuya Tokyo

BLUEBERRY KAKI GORI TOKYO

This weekend’s Blueberry kakigori Tokyo Event was a perfect foil to the summer heat.  One day only – we have been looking forward to it since we first heard about this special event!  Good things happen when one of the best farmers in Japan combines his fruit with talented young patisseries.  In this case blueberries at peak ripeness from Mr. Kato’s farm in Kanagawa are presented in a multi flavor kaki gori dessert.  One usually finds the best kakigori Tokyo in sweet shops in Kyoto our near temple gates in Ise Japan.  Some claim there is a kakigori Harajuku back street that is the best kakigori Japan.  What is kakigori and how a farmer from Kanagawa created perhaps the best version ever is the story.  

WHAT IS KAKIGORI ?

Kakigori (かき氷) is a Japanese shaved ice dessert flavored with syrup and a sweetener, often condensed milk.  Kakigori can be described as a light and fluffy ice dessert made by thinly shaving ice from pure, unflavored ice blocks.  Placing a bowl, underneath the machine, a side wheel is rhythmically turned to generate a mound of airy ice shavings.  Next, the ice shavings are garnished with ice cream, yogurt or sweet & fruity syrups, like melon or strawberry.  Variations include green tea (matcha) , hojicha and anything that can be made sweet and syrupy.  The best versions are not just sweet but present subtle flavorings and offer counterpoints to sweetness.  Originating in Japan around the 10th century one can find kakigori offering outside temple gates and in in sweet shops across Japan.

KAI KATO ORIGINAL KAKIGORI RECIPE

Picking blueberries at their peak ripeness in early August captures them at their best.  The perfect kakigori recipe is not as simple as it looks.  Mr. Kato knows better than anyone what this is and infused some in a simple syrup for 1 week to create a blueberry sauce.  Subtle complexities of lemon basil were additionally infused into condensed milk together by patisserie Nono.   Inside the food truck a large ice block was sliced by machine into a mountain of airy shavings.  Over top, a deep blueberry syrup was drizzled.  Next dots of cool, tart yoghurt were added along with the lemony condensed milk infusion.  Finally, nature’s perfect creation – the sweet & tart blueberry were added. The result was a multi flavor and textural masterpiece that teased the palette throughout while cooling the body on this hot 35 Celsius day in the heart of Shibuay Tokyo!

JOIN US!

 

Kai Kato of Green Basket Japan grows olives and western vegetables in his fields in Odawara City and Minami-Ashigara City in Kanagawa Prefecture.  His parents ran an Italian restaurant, so he was familiar with olive oil and western vegetables from an early age. As the company he started immediately after graduating from university became more and more stable, he began to feel less and less fulfilled in his work. He wanted to “always be a player,” and farming was the result of his pursuit of a way of working that would allow him to move and feel satisfaction in his own life.

When people say you can’t do something, you want to do it!  Growing Delicious, Human- and Environment-friendly Vegetables
The driving force behind Mr. Kato’s farming is his strong desire to “deliver delicious food.
In the vegetable market, the size of vegetables is often determined for ease of distribution, or the appearance of the vegetables is sometimes more important, but Mr. Kato says that he tries to grow “vegetables that customers can genuinely say ‘tasty.
He says that his father, who had asthma, had a great influence on his decision to grow safe and secure vegetables using only plant-based fertilizers and no pesticides. He says that health-friendly natural foods have been on his dining table for 30 years, when organic food was not widely available in Japan.
Even in today’s global diet, vegetables grown in the air, soil, and water in which we live every day are good for our bodies, and Green Basket is committed to growing vegetables and soil in a healthy and environmentally friendly way.

I hate to lose,” says Mr. Kato with a bright smile. Vegetables grown without pesticides, chemical fertilizers, or animal manure often face challenges such as slow growth, and he sometimes receives harsh criticism. He says that he sometimes runs into obstacles in his daily farm work and sometimes feels depressed because of the reactions of others, but “coming to the farmers’ market on weekends gives me energy.
Selling vegetables that she has grown with care while talking with customers is fun, and hearing customers say, “It was delicious,” is the most encouraging thing for her.

GREEN BASKET FARMS

Kanagawa Tokyo Japan

〒250-0113

神奈川県南足柄市岩原611

グリーンバスケットジャパン株式会社

TEL   090-3592-8891

​WEBSITE  https://www.greenbasketjapan.com/