You will now read these words.
Introducing the Kobe + Portland Yakisoba Project, Year 3: Midnight Diner Edition!
You will now read these words.
These words will guide you into the Midnight Diner.
With every word and every number, you will become more open, relaxed, receptive.
I will now count from one to ten.
On the count of ten, you will be at the Midnight Diner.
I say one.
And as you focus your attention, you will slowly begin to relax.
Two.
Your hands and fingers are getting warmer and heavier.
Three.
The warmth is spreading through your arms to your shoulders and your neck.
Four.
Your feet and legs get heavier.
Five.
The warmth is spreading to your whole body.
Six.
Your relaxed body is slowly beginning to sink.
Seven.
Deeper and deeper and deeper.
Eight.
With every breath, you sink deeper.
Nine.
You are floating.
On the count of ten, you will be at the Midnight Diner. Be there at ten.
I say ten.
You are in Kobe, Japan after midnight.
You are standing in front of a door. At your feet, there is a cat eating a pile of bonito flakes. You are hungry and thirsty. A sharp, cold wind that smells saline like the ocean crosses your face. A lantern to your left reads meshi - food. You slide the glass door open and enter.
Irashaimasei, someone says in a low voice. You smell the deep salty aroma of miso soup with pork. An older man is in the kitchen. He looks stoic and capable, wearing an indigo blue shirt with a white apron tied around his waist. You sit down at a stool along the counter. He walks towards you, glancing up, silently asking for your order. You feel suddenly very vulnerable and exposed. But you know exactly what you want to order. In fact, you must eat this and only this. He will know if you are not true to your deepest cravings. You say:
The Umi Kobe Combo, please: a Kobe-style whiskey highball and an Umi yakisoba-pan.
He nods and you exhale. You are welcomed into the night. You are ready to share your secrets.
Snap. You are in Portland, Oregon. Someone is telling you a story:
In the first summer of the pandemic, Andy, to avoid both the heat and the people, would begin his work at the distillery in the earliest hours of the morning and come home by early afternoon, exhausted. After an icy cold whiskey high-ball, he would often drift off to sleep watching his new favorite show: Midnight Diner. In one episode, a character orders yakisoba-pan: yakisoba noodles tucked into a tender hotdog bun. In his dreamy state, Andy linked this unusual carb-on-carb snack to an unusual whiskey begun long ago...
...Four years earlier, Andy had reached out to Lola of Umi Organic to see if she had any ramen noodles she couldn’t sell. “Whiskey is made from grain, so are noodles!” he reasoned. He wanted to try to make whiskey using Lola’s excess noodles. As she learned the ins and outs of managing her inventory, she was overjoyed to find a home for her soon-to-expire product. Zero waste—a win-win. Over 1,000 days of barrel aging later, they had Umi Ramen Whiskey presented by Stone Barn Brandyworks. The flavor? Omoshiroi.
Could Andy and Lola release their truly wild and unusual limited-edition whiskey to much fanfare? Could Lola introduce Portlanders to the food and drink culture of Kobe, one of her homes away from home? Could Andy experience the Midnight Diner in real life and eat yakisoba-pan? Of course! And so the Umi Kobe Combo was born.
Hello friends! I’m entering 2022 like it’s a fever dream, a hypnosis, a Japanese sitcom, and apparently I want to bring you with me!
From January 19 to February 1, my friends Andy and Kyoko and I have asked some of our favorite restaurants around Portland to serve their riff on what we’re calling the Umi Kobe Combo, a Happy Meal for the late-night crowd featuring singular Umi Ramen Whiskey served as an ice cold highball with a yakisoba-pan: Umi yakisoba noodles tucked into a tender Oyatsupan milk bun. Each restaurant will make their unique spin on this classic Japanese after-school snack!
Participating Restaurants:
Expatriate, 5424 NE 30th Avenue, Portland
Oma’s Hideaway, 3131 SE Division Street, Portland
Obon, 720 SE Grand Avenue, Portland
Sunrice at Deadshot, 2133 SE 11th Avenue, Portland
Ippai PDX (tbd!)
A few spots will run just yakisoba-pan without the highball:
Oyatsupan, 16025 SW Regatta Lane, Beaverton
Shizuku, 1235 SW Jefferson Street, Portland
Find just the Umi Ramen Whiskey at:
Zilla Sake, 1806 NE Alberta Street, Portland
This is your chance to try the Umi Ramen Whiskey that my friend Andy Garrison of Stone Barn Brandyworks made with our noodles. It is, honestly, delicious!
Although I write about my noodle business, Umi Organic, only occasionally in this newsletter, it is always humming along in the background, informing everything I do. Reciprocally, it’s been important for me to bring my creative spirit to my business and prioritize collaborative, inclusive projects.
This is year three of the silly, playful, interactive Kobe + Portland Yakisoba Project, which my friend Kyoko Shinohara and I dreamed up in 2019 as an (almost) annual celebration of cross-cultural connections and collaborations through food, supported in part by the City of Kobe. Kyoko leads the Kobe International Club PDX and organizes tastings and food explorations. As part of our project, each year, artist Jillian Barthold creates zines and illustrations to bring our ideas to life and our Japanese and Japanese American friends share recipes and stories. This ongoing project takes a lot of connectivity to bring into being.
It’s a weird time to go out to a restaurant, but an even more challenging time to travel abroad. Our goal is to transport you into the blurry magic of late nights in Japan, drinking and snacking with friends, revealing secrets, and haunting your favorite haunts. If it fits within the range of activities you feel comfortable doing, I hope you will come taste an Umi Kobe Combo at one of the participating restaurants. If it doesn’t, you can order to go! After the event ends, Stone Barn will also sell some of the Umi Ramen Whiskey from their tasting room and at farmers markets. You can use Jane’s yakisoba-pan recipe (don’t forget to head over to Oyatsupan for some buns!) to transport yourself into Kobe from the comfort of your kitchen!
Learn more about our annual project at umiorganic.com/kobe.