You see signs in stores that say "In preparation" .
It's the sign that is posted when the company is not "open."
That's strange, isn't it?
I mean, they're sleeping at night, right? There's no way they'd be preparing the whole time they're closed.
They're obviously trying to make the preparation time look longer. No matter how you look at it, they're trying too hard to show off.
Oh, but wait a minute.
Can we also think of the time that staff members spend going home, taking a bath, eating dinner, watching YouTube and laughing, sleeping, waking up, and then going back to work as the preparation time they need to serve the best udon at their restaurant?
Living a healthy lifestyle when the staff are not at the store can be seen as preparation for them to work with full energy.
(I don't know why I chose it as a udon restaurant though.)
I see, that's true.
If we could imagine more accurately what kind of preparations the people working at the store are making, we wouldn't say, "The preparation sign is strange."
Well, if that's the case...
"In order to provide delicious udon to everyone, I get enough sleep and live a healthy life. But I do watch a little bit of YouTube. I also go to the pachinko parlor every once in a while. That's all part of a healthy life. Without that, you can't take a break. If you're stressed, you can't play good udon. So, I'm also making the most of my private time, all in preparation for delicious udon. When I say "preparing," I mean that in that sense!"
It would be better to put that on the sign.
...What am I saying?
Sorry. In this blog, I wanted to talk about preparations.
Because, yes, I 've been preparing for the last two months.
I'm not sure whether to be depressed or nervous , but anyway, an order was issued to stop restaurants that serve alcohol , so my restaurant (Bokumo) was closed from April 20th to June 20th.
During that time I mainly did these two things.
1. Preparations for the opening of "Bokumo Wine", a New Zealand wine specialty shop
This is truly the most preparation of all, preparation at heart.
We decided to do it in January, and the staff had discussed starting as soon as we got our licenses, but so many things we need to do and want to do have come up, and preparations are still ongoing.
In reality, it might have been a nicer idea to open while the restaurants were closed, but what took priority over that was "making proper preparations so that we could open in a way that we were satisfied with."
If we had been preparing the shop while running the restaurant, we probably wouldn't have had enough time and it might have ended up being quite incomplete, so I was grateful that we were able to use the period of closure to prepare for the opening.
And before the opening, we did crowdfunding. Thank you so much for all your support.
With crowdfunding, you can only check the list of those who supported your campaign once it's over, and when I saw the list with the names of over 200 people, my body started to heat up.
Of course, there were many names I was seeing for the first time, but mixed in were the names of regulars, people who come often, people who care about us even though they're not from Nagoya, people I'd worked with in my previous jobs, and so on.
The faces of all the people who helped me came to mind, and I got teary-eyed in the middle of the night. I couldn't help but mutter, "Is this a slideshow?"
As I wrote in this blog before, at first I didn't like crowdfunding because it's a way of openly asking for help.
But when it was over, I felt the warmth of the people and was deeply moved. I'm grateful. I'm glad I did it.
I know you're all looking forward to it. Good luck, me.
There are a total of 220 rewards, and we will send them to you in order of arrival, so please wait a little while.
We will announce the opening of Bokumo Wine here once everything is ready.
2. Kazumina Na Goodnight Live
"Kazumi Na Na Good Night Live" is a live broadcast of the promising 21-year-old singer-songwriter, Na Na Na , playing the guitar and singing from inside Bokumo. We did this during our last closure from January to February, and we're doing it every Friday this time too.
Nana-chan is a staff member of Bokumo, the company I work for. As a staff member, she is very talented, but as a singer-songwriter, she is 100 times more talented. No, maybe that's just me being biased. If you take my bias out of the equation, she's 99 times more talented.
Many people watched the live stream online every week for eight weeks, and during this period, the total number of views on Instagram Live, Facebook Live, and SHOWROOM was about 3,000 in total.
It was really great that a 21-year-old genius (let's call him that) who didn't have much live experience was able to gain some live experience during this period, and it was also great that Bokumo was able to continue its work of "creating a venue for presenting food and drink + more" which has been a constant focus since the band opened.
You can purchase Kazuminana's recently released album here.
Other information is also available here.
She is currently in the process of preparing to take off as a professional musician.
If we were to compare it to a restaurant, it would be like having customers oversee the preparation of the food.
Well, starting from Monday, June 21st, we have flipped the sign over and reopened Bokumo (wine bar). Our opening hours for the time being are 17:00-20:00. Alcoholic drinks are served until 19:00.
We will take thorough measures against infectious diseases. We have also installed CO2 concentration sensors and are paying attention to ventilation volume. Please come if you are interested.
The chef offers delicious dishes and a fine selection of wines.
This week's wine and snacks
Recently, in conjunction with the opening of the New Zealand wine shop, Boxmo Wine, I have been ordering various New Zealand wines and receiving samples. Then, I taste them and decide on the lineup for the store.
So, one thing I value is food pairing. During this closure period, I have been cooking more and buying prepared foods from department store basements and supermarkets, trying out different combinations of food with newly arrived wines, finding some that go well with them, and others that don't.
So I just eat a lot. I'm getting a little chubby.
One of the things we focus on at our wine shop is to include a wine card with every wine we send, including information on recommended pairings.
We want you to decide which food to pair with the wine and wine card you received. And we want you to feel that your satisfaction will skyrocket when you pair the wine with some good snacks.
For this reason, I try out various pairings on behalf of the customers who buy wine from Bokumo Wine, and end up losing money.
A poor excuse...
Well, this time we will introduce you to some wines from the Bokumo Wine lineup that we think will be a hit!
Wine Portfolio (HAWKES BAY) Mimi Methode Traditionnelle NV
Wine Portfolio (Hawke's Bay) Mimi Methode Traditionelle NV
Grape varieties: 51% Pinot Noir, 39% Chardonnay, 10% Pinot Meunier
It's a sparkling wine. It's a sparkling wine with a very fruity taste. It has a burst of apple flavor. If you said, "This is cider," some people might believe you, as the apple flavor is so strong. And it's slightly sweet.
It's the perfect drink to chill on a sunny day. This is a sparkling wine that I would recommend to people who are not used to drinking wine.
Moreover, because it is made using the same method as champagne, the bubbles are extremely fine.
This is what I tried together.
"Pad Thai" is a Thai dish. I guess you could call it Thai-style fried noodles.
The complex flavor of the fish sauce complements the flavor of the wine. Also, since pad thai is a slightly sweet dish, the slight fruitiness of this wine matches it well.
This was the first time I made Pad Thai myself, but it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.
This kind of flavor would go well with Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling , and my imagination ran wild. It was fun.
I think I'll try adding it as a semi-regular in the future when thinking about wine pairings.
No, wait a minute. Pad Thai is made with rice noodles, but noodles are still noodles. They're carbohydrates.
Also, it's popping...
Diet? Yes, of course, I'm in the process of dieting.
