At 1 pm I knocked on the door to KotoKoto, the restaurant in Naka-Meguro that we frequent. Last January Hiromi-san (owner of KotoKoto) started to make her own miso, it takes 10 months so it is just recently that we can get a taste of it in her miso soup. It was time for her to make a new batch. I was there to help.

It was fun work. She had prepared by cleaning and boiling the beans. So the three of that helped her only had to mince the beans, mix them with mugi yeast and salt, and make “snowballs” of the paste. Then Hiromi-san and I “threw” the balls into buckets and “squeezed” the air out of the paste. Finally we covered the buckets with plastic foil and salt. The salt will keep the mold at bay when storing the to-be miso for at least 10 months.