Check It Out

No.223 (11/30/12)

Congratulations on B-1 Local Gourmet Food Grand Prix! 〜Hachinohe Senbei Jiru〜

By Nao H. Kauffman
Chief Editor

In the May 13th edition, staff writer, Naomi Kobayashi, wrote about a unique annual event: the B-1 Grand Prix. Thanks to the B-1 Grand Prix, many groups and committees all over Japan are now keen on creating their local, tasteful soul foods. Rather than just selling items, the purpose of this event is to promote areas with food specialties and unique cooking styles. By receiving a gold crown for the soul food, the cities can expect tourists to visit and enjoy the great food as well as other tourist attractions. B-1 Gourmet (known in Japanese GURUME) is a kick-start competition for local revitalization. This year, the 7th annual event was held in Kokura, Kitakyushu City in Fukuoka. Although Hachinohe Senbei Jiru was nominated several times in the past, they never got a gold crown and received only silver and bronze titles. Nevertheless, Hachinohe Senbeijiru Kenkyujo, a civilian organization founded in 2003, never gave up on promoting their food and became widely known in surrounding areas. After all their hard work and dedication, they won their first gold title this year! According to Hachinohe Senbeijiru Kenkyujo, it took three years to master their award-winning soup and took eight years to beautifully crack the Hachinohe Senbei crackers into three pieces, making them resemble the logo of Mercedes Benz. Please check out a Senbei Jiru recipe in the next page and try cooking and enjoying our local soul food. You can check the details about the May 13th edition of The Insider and other events on our homepage under “Top Articles”.

Courtesy information: http://www.senbei-jiru.com/index.html : http://b-1grandprix.com/

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