On May 8th, the ethnic izakaya “Kuruya” in Hirosaki City received the certificate of the highest award of the local green curry recipe contest using local ingredients.

At the same contest held on April 19th at WACCA IKEBUKURO (Toshima Ward, Tokyo), event participants ate 9 of the 35 recipes that passed the first screening from 35 recipes nationwide, and voted to determine each prize. The "Shimizu Mori No. Green Curry" designed by "Kuruya" won the highest award with nearly double the number of votes. It was selected as the first local green curry in Japan.

“Shimizu Mori No. is a material that slightly suppresses the spiciness while maintaining the deep taste of green curry,” says Mizuru Sakamoto of the same izakaya. Making curry paste itself with local pepper is rare in Japan. Shimizu Mori Number is a pepper that is said to have been introduced and spread from Kyoto about 400 years ago. The Shimizu Mori district of the city is a place where red pepper was thriving, and the name of the pepper in Tsugaru was called "Namba".

Mr. Sakamoto added self-cultivated lemongrass and used the squid caught from the northwest coast of Aomori Prefecture and the "axle" of Shiitake mushrooms from Hirosaki as the ingredient for the main curry. He recalled that the recipe had solidified when he was inspired by the fact that the curry had no color if it was an axis.

Mr. Sakamoto smiles when he receives the certificate and says, "I'm happy that the recipe using ingredients from the prefecture was evaluated." Seiji Nishida, Managing Director of NPO “Yam! Yam! Seoul Soup Kitchen” (Tokyo), who visited the city to give a certificate of commendation, said, “The recipe selected this time is a food held in Thailand. We are discussing it with local companies in the direction of providing it at events such as. We would like to continue as a new transmission force for the future spread of this contest and ingredients in various parts of Japan.

It will be held for the second time next year.