Harvest Niseko—A Look Into Niseko's Food and Gourmet Scene
Providing more than just interesting recipes, Harvest Niseko provides a look at the culinary scene here in Niseko, from farms and farmers to chefs and kitchens.
You have probably seen it somewhere around the Niseko area, it is stocked in a number of different locations across the region. Harvest Niseko is the collaborative work of Tess Stomski and Chisato Amagai. Both Tess and Chisato have been living and working in the Niseko area for over a decade and the creation of Harvest Niseko was a project four years in the making. Considering the size and depth of the book, it is quite understandable that it was not a quick project.
Harvest Niseko - What to expect
There are a total of 114 Japanese and Hokkaido-specific recipes spread out across the book. In addition to the mixture of traditional and modern recipes, Tess and Chisato have also put together a number of interesting interviews with local farmers and chefs. Of course, with so many great chefs and local farmers in the area, it is impossible to interview everyone! Most interesting is the way in which Harvest Niseko approaches ingredients as the theme of each section rather than specific meals or types of cuisine as the means of dividing the book.
The ten produce items (twelve if you were to split up the sections for Carrot & Lily Bulb and Bean & Tofu) are all locally produced and sourced here in the Niseko area. This was an important deciding factor when Tess and Chisato went about deciding what they would be including in their compilation.
Harvest Niseko - Recipes at a glance
| Section | Exemplary Dishes |
|---|---|
| Cabbage | Okonomiyaki, Champon noodles. |
| Asparagus | Asparagus and poached egg, Asparagus wrapped in Pork. |
| Egg | Dashimaki tamago (egg roll), Buta kakuni. |
| Tomato | Quick pickled cherry tomatoes, Taco rice, Udon salad. |
| Potato | Hokkaido-style potato dumplings, Pork and potato stew. |
| Rice | Chirashizushi, Gyudon, Inari Zushi, Omelet rice. |
| Daikon Radish | Daikon salad, Pickled daikon radish, Daikon oroshi pasta. |
| Carrot & Lily Bulb | Kinpira burdock, Harusame salad, Lily bulb quiche. |
| Bean & Tofu | Tofu hamburger, Okara cookies, Tofu donuts. |
| Pumpkin | Baked pumpkin cheesecake, Pumpkin croquettes. |
Harvest Niseko provides an incredible look behind the scenes of Niseko's increasingly famous food scene. Of the eighteen interviews, ten are with farmers and each one specializes in one of the produce categories in the book. It is pretty rare to get a chance to learn about the production of the food you can eat, especially given the language barriers that would typically prevent many people from learning about Japanese farming.
Keep an eye out for Harvest Niseko next time you visit!
