Japan – JP002A
Composition: Other
Colour: Black
Shape: Raw
Very tasty, earthy, grainy, a bit sandy and soft at the same time, with notes of coffee. The smell of ‘after the rain’.
This earth sample was given by the Japanese chef Toshio Tanabe as a present to the Museum of Edible Earth in May 2022. In return he received different samples from the Museum of Edible Earth.
In 1988 Toshio Tanabe founded the restaurant Ne Quittez Pas in Tokyo, Japan. Ne Quittez Pas, is a French name that translates to ‘Do Not Quit’. This restaurant serves dinners with earth. A dinner costs about 170 euros (231,000 yen). It is popular and is almost always fully booked. This earth comes from Kanuma in Tochigi prefecture.
A garden wholesaler provides it. The earth is extracted from five meters deep. It undergoes chemical analysis for toxins and impurities. Then it is heated to kill bacteria.
The menu of the restaurant is focused on seafood, with a combination of the different flavors, earth and the sea. Only very fresh ingredients are used. Fresh seafood is delivered to the chef directly by a fisherman. The menu varies from day to day.
According to chef Tanabe, eating earth has been a tradition in Japan since long ago. It disappeared recently because of modernization and pollution, for instance due to the use of pesticides. Chef Tanabe has learned from farmers that soil could be eaten if agricultural chemicals are not applied to it.
Sources:
● Ne Quittez Pas, restaurant page, Japan (English), accessed on 15/05/2022 nequittezpas.com
● Dig in! Diners served food made from SOIL at top Japanese restaurant, Daily Mail, by Jill Reilly, 09/10/2013, UK (English), accessed on 15/05/2022 www.dailymail.co.uk
Photo by masharu
It smells like moss. Not sure about the taste, but I am pretty sure it will add an extra layer to a meal.
It looks really beautiful, aesthetically. but also is very tasty and damp. Can easily imagine something growing quickly in here.
A nice culinary crumble.
Very intens, starts with nutty dry than the taste gets deeper. heavy, dark. streng ( nl). I see a samorai in frond of me. the after taste is meditative. earth dark a bit somber in a quiet way.
Fruity
Mouldy
Damp
Basement
Like a smell of new pack of soil
Mushrooms
It is not grainy. Flavour is subtle. It sucks up all the moisture. The smell is better than the taste. I don’t like the taste. It dries up. The most earthy. It is good with every food. It is like truffle chocolate. It is like biscuit crumble. It is pretty moist. It is not as the chalk.
Achei o gosto leve, o solo não é arenoso, e a textura não é grudenta.
The best one, it is not soft, is is melting, a bit sandy
Neutral taste, melts very fast, very sandy.
It is like wet soil, wet earth