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TOKYO ISAI - UNIQUE NIBOSHI TSUKEMEN OUTLET THRIVES IN CAPITAL'S RAMEN AS BATTLEGROUND

TOKYO ISAI - UNIQUE NIBOSHI TSUKEMEN OUTLET THRIVES IN CAPITAL'S RAMEN AS BATTLEGROUND

@Jackie San

Futoshi Mori, Japan News Senior Writer

"Food is a passion. It’s a serious battle for both the cook and the diner. There are many ramen restaurants in Japan that have a tremendous passion for ramen and I’d like to introduce to you some of these passionate establishments, making the best of my experience of enjoying cuisine from both Japan and around the world"

Upon exiting the north exit of JR Nakano Station in Tokyo, a multitude of eateries and a colorful sign hove into view. “A town where the Showa-era meets the present,” the signage proclaims.

The Showa Shinmichi area is crammed with small restaurants and bars, while the strains of enka melodies float through the air from karaoke establishments. Indeed, the atmosphere is strongly redolent of the Showa era (1926-89).

A new ramen shop, Isai Tokyo, opened here June 18, boasting niboshi tsukemen (noodles with niboshi fish dipping soup) as its signature offering.

The shop’s owner, Tsubasa Inoue, 41, has paid his ramen-world dues. Prior to opening his first outlet in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Inoue served as a senior executive of a famous Tokyo ramen chain. Though he faced a series of unexpected challenges in opening his Tokyo store, he continues to strive daily to achieve his dreams.

It was a blisteringly hot, sweat-inducing day when I arrived for my 2:30 p.m. meeting with Inoue. Tokyo summers seem to be getting hotter each year, likely to due to global warming. On such days, my mind often turns to tsukemen —cold-water cooled noodles.

Located near Waseda Street, Isai features a white lantern and a noren curtain at its entrance. Dressed in traditional chef’s attire, Inoue greeted me with a smile.

The shop’s interior is small. Viewed from the entranceway, a counter runs the length of the kitchen to the left, with another counter on the right.

My first visit to the shop was in late June, shortly after its opening. At that time, a line had already formed outside and customers were crammed tightly together in the counter seats.

However, when I visited the establishment to meet Inoue on July 4, the restaurant had only four seats along the right-wall counter. “I want my customers to eat in a relaxed atmosphere,” Inoue said.

I ordered the signature thick, niboshi tsukemen (¥1,100, including tax) with special toppings (an extra ¥200). My dish suddenly appeared while I was struggling to photograph the small kitchen. As it was a tsukemen dish, the noodles and dipping soup were served separately. The shop specializes in niboshi (dried fish), and a mere glance told me that the soup comprised a rich niboshi. It did not smell fishy, nor did it have a slimy texture. However, it still had a rich taste with a niboshi aroma.

The medium-thick noodles — specially ordered from a noodle company — have a relatively high moisture content and are characterized by a smooth and glutinous texture.

“I’m particular about the richness of the broth from the dried fish,” Inoue said. “I use dried fish such as Japanese anchovies, round herring, horse mackerel and small amberjack from Nagasaki, Chiba, and other parts of Japan, and adjust the flavor myself. The taste varies depending on the season and origin of the ingredients.” Despite rising prices for dried fish, Inoue does not skimp their usage, thus ensuring the soup preserves its flavor. He combines the dried stock with pork and chicken broth and uses soy sauce (shoyu) as a source of kaeshi.

I noticed some baby corn in the broth, which struck me as somewhat unusual for a ramen topping. “When I opened my first ramen shop in Sapporo, I used baby corn,” Inoue explained. “I used the ingredient at my Tokyo store, too, with the aim of making the dish look different.”

The soup also includes sliced onions, white onions, and diced, braised pork. The pork, which is added for its umami flavoring, infuses the soup with flavor, further enhancing its tastiness.

The noodle bowl toppings included three slices of chashu pork, comprising braised belly, low-temperature cooked loin, and shoulder. Other toppings include ajitama (seasoned egg) and nori (dried seaweed). The braised pork — cooked using a hand-held burner — was savory and tasty. A pot of soup-wari sat atop the counter, allowing patrons to add it to their remaining soup: a classic way to finish off a bowl of tsukemen.

As an industry veteran, Inoue’s high-quality tsukemen was packed with flavor and delighted the palate from the very first mouthful. I polished it off in no time at all.

" STRING OF CHALLENGES "

“As this is an interview, I’m keen to convey the facts to people,” Inoue said in a quiet tone as he explained his first big challenge in opening his first Tokyo outlet. Initially, he was perturbed by various posts on social networking services regarding the store.

Trouble arose shortly after the Nogata, Nakano Ward outlet opened on June 5. An old acquaintance who owned an izakaya in Nogata, had allowed Inoue to use the premises as a ramen shop during the daytime. However, the venture was forced to close on its very first day when the building owner complained about a “strong smell of niboshi.” As a result, Inoue shut the shop within an hour of its opening. He weighed various ways to operate the store, but as there was no way to control the smell, he decided that the only option was to give up on the venture.

“It’s true that boiling dried fish gives off a smell, but [the incident] was a real shock,” Inoue recalled.

Later, an izakaya owner in Nakano who knew the Nogata-store owner offered Inoue a helping hand, and only two weeks later, the shop reopened in the Nakano location.

A standing style izakaya operates at the Nakano premises on Fridays and Saturdays, so Isai’s ramen business is limited from Sundays to Thursdays.

Inoue encountered other challenges, too. Despite having an air-conditioner designed to cool an 18-tatami-mat area, the shop was still hot. Poor ventilation coupled with constant heat from the noodle cooker and the soup-pot heater meant the in-shop temperature was always high. However, Inoue installed a new air conditioner and two fans, which finally overcame the heat.

A promotional pamphlet titled “Nakano Tsukemen map” was published around the time that the Nakano outlet opened. The free publication — produced by the Nakano Ward Tourism Association —introduces around 80 shops that offer tsukemen.

The cover includes the phrase, “Nakano, the birthplace of tsukemen.” The upbeat pamphlet covers a wide range of specialty outlets, ramen stores, and bars that offer tsukemen dishes. However, Isai’s initial opening proved too late to warrant inclusion in the colorful brochure, which underlines exactly how hotly contested the Nakano area is for tsukemen.

But Inoue remains upbeat. “The only thing I can do is to give it my all and laugh about everything later.”

" SAPPORO START "

Inoue has been active in the ramen world for nearly 20 years. He began his career working part-time at an outlet of the famous Tsujita ramen chain in Tokyo, working his way up to manager, then general manager, during which time he gained a wealth of experience. Five years ago, he struck out on his own in Sapporo. Inoue explained that the change in location was driven by a desire to compete in a different arena from Tokyo. Furthermore, his parents were from Hokkaido and he still has relatives there, so he was not unfamiliar with the area.

Sapporo Isai thrived and has gained a strong following. Inoue’s various limited-edition ramen dishes met with a positive response, and he remains deeply indebted to the people of Sapporo. “They helped me grow up,” he said.

But deep in his heart, Inoue also wanted to try his hand in Tokyo. On the third anniversary of the Sapporo shop’s opening, he began to make plans for a presence in the capital and achieved his goal as the shop’s fifth anniversary approached in June of this year.

To help realize his vision, Inoue moved to Tokyo with his wife and children. The Sapporo shop is now run by two colleagues and Inoue visits the outlet twice a month, on Fridays and Saturdays.

The name of the shop, Isai — homonyms of which can mean “distinctive” or “prominent” in Japanese — reflects Inoue’s determination to “be unique.”

Despite the many obstacles he has encountered, Inoue keeps going because he has dreams.

“I want to further pursue flavors and create ramen dishes that people from all walks of life can enjoy,” he said. “In the future, I want to open branches in the U.S. and Europe.”

But Inoue’s vision does not end there. “When I become an old man, I’d like to open a small ramen shop with my wife, where people from the community can come to eat ramen,” he said.

@Jackie San

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DEATH REMAIN UNSOLVED ! ARREST IN GILGO BEACH KILLINGS ISN'T END OF INVESTIGATION, POLICE SAY.

DEATH REMAIN UNSOLVED ! ARREST IN GILGO BEACH KILLINGS ISN'T END OF INVESTIGATION, POLICE SAY.

@Jackie San

MASSAPEQUA PARK, N.Y. (AP) JULY 18, 2023 — Detectives on Long Island are hunting for fresh clues about an architect arrested in connection with a string of slayings known as the Gilgo Beach killings. They’re combing through storage units linked to Rex Heuermann and using DNA evidence to see if he’s connected to other cold cases.

The ongoing work Monday marks an important new phase in a multi-agency investigation that — after years of dead ends and frustrations — led prosecutors to charge Heuermann with murder last Friday in the deaths of three of the 11 women whose remains were found buried along a remote beach highway in 2010 and 2011.

Heuermann, who has lived for decades across a bay from where the remains were found, is also considered the prime suspect in the killing of a fourth victim. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer said Heuermann denied committing the crimes.

Investigators have said it’s unlikely just one person killed all of the victims, and they insist the probe is far from over after the watershed moment of Heuermann’s arrest.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison, who spearheaded the creation of an interagency task force last year to solve the Gilgo Beach killings, has vowed that authorities will “work tirelessly until we bring justice to all the families involved.”

“We’re just in the infancy of the work that needs to be done going forward,” Deputy Commissioner Anthony Carter told The Associated Press on Monday.

Detectives executed a search warrant at Omega Self Storage in Amityville on Sunday and searched another nearby storage facility on Monday. Both are less than a 10-minute drive from Heuermann’s home.

This followed a multi-day search at Heuermann’s house in Massapequa Park, about a 25-minute drive across a causeway spanning South Oyster Bay to the sandy stretch known as Gilgo Beach where the women’s remains were found. That search yielded more than 200 guns, Harrison told Fox News on Monday.

Investigators were also checking to see if Heuermann’s DNA — obtained from pizza crust he disposed and linked to genetic material found on a Gilgo Beach victim’s remains — connected him to other unsolved cases.

Heuermann, 59, is charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. Authorities are continuing to work toward charging him in the death of a fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney.

Most of the victims were young women who had been sex workers. Their deaths long stumped investigators, and the mystery fueled immense public attention and led to a 2020 Netflix film, “Lost Girls.”

Harrison, the NYPD’s former chief of detectives and chief of department, made solving the Gilgo Beach killings one of his top priority when he was appointed police commissioner in January 2022.

Harrison soon formed the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force, convincing the FBI, state police and local departments to commit their top investigators full time to the effort. Harrison assigned longtime Gilgo Beach investigator Detective Lt. Kevin Beyrer to lead the probe.

“His goal was not to move the case forward, his goal was to solve the case,” said Carter, who moved to the Suffolk County department with Harrison from the NYPD.

Task force investigators started working out of a dedicated space at a Suffolk County police facility, an open space with no offices so they could share ideas and information.

Within six weeks of their first meeting, task force investigators identified Heuermann as a suspect — using a vehicle registration database to connect him to a Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared.

Some of the victims were believed to have disappeared from Massapequa Park, and their cell phones were found to have pinged towers in the area.

The truck discovery unlocked other investigative tools.

A grand jury authorized more than 300 subpoenas and search warrants, allowing the task force to dig into Heuermann’s life. They collected billing records for burner phones he allegedly used to arrange meetings with the victims, retested DNA found with the bodies, and combed Heuermann’s internet search history, which showed intense interest in the Gilgo Beach killings and the renewed investigation.

In January, a task force surveillance team tailing Heuermann in Manhattan watched as he threw the remnants of his lunch — a box of partially eaten pizza crusts — into a sidewalk garbage can. Investigators rushed in, grabbed the box, and sent it to the crime lab, which matched the DNA from Heuermann’s afternoon nosh to a male hair found on burlap used to restrain one of the victims.

The results of that testing came back on Tuesday, two days before Heuermann’s arrest.

“There were some questions about the task force — that the mission of the task force is now complete because we’ve affected an arrest,” Carter said. “Everything is in its infancy still. This is just part of it. There’s so much more work that needs to be done in terms of additional investigation, additional interviews, analyzing evidence, and on and on.”

“There are still a lot of victims, and we need to continue to try to bring justice for all of them,” he added. “That’s super important to all of us, and super important to the Suffolk County Police Department.”

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IN LATEST VITRIOL, HADI CLAIMS MALAYS OBLIGED TO BE POLITICAL TO CEMENT SUPREMACY

IN LATEST VITRIOL, HADI CLAIMS MALAYS OBLIGED TO BE POLITICAL TO CEMENT SUPREMACY

@Jackie San

KUALA LUMPUR (July 13, 2023): PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang today again published a statement warning about a false takeover attempt by minority “extremists”, as he called on Muslims to actively participate in politics to block infidels from usurping political control.

In a long-winded post published on his Facebook page this morning, the PAS president said Islam obliges its followers to be politically active, with the goal being to cement Malay political hegemony.

Today’s statement is the latest in the series of conspiracy-ladened vitriols launched by the PAS president against the Pakatan Harapan-Umno government, in which he accused the DAP of plotting to quash Malay political dominance by puppeteering its allies, and how political apathy among Muslims enables it.

“To abandon political matters is to violate one of Allah’s decrees who created mankind and the prophets. The Prophet (Muhammad) S.A.W. had demonstrated practically how to build a nation as decreed by Allah,” Hadi wrote.

“Even if the richness of Islamic knowledge is preserved by the (politically) struggling ulama, the absence of political power makes them under siege. In fact this has led to the abandonment of the fiqh in Islamic political thoughts.

“Thus Islam is obligated to lead even if Muslims are allowed to cooperate with the non-believers in a multi-faith society,” the PAS president added.

Hadi and PAS have long fought for what they described as Malay political supremacy, even if past and current administrations have been dominated by ethnic Malays.

The call for compulsory Muslim political participation also underscores the party’s long-held belief that Islam and governance cannot be separated, a view that fuels its fight for an Islamic state and the ideological opposition to the idea that religion and the state should be separated.

Legal experts have long insisted that Malaysia is politically secular although Islam is constitutionally enshrined as the “religion of the federation”.

What the latter entails remains the subject of heated debate until this day but PAS leaders alleged the DAP, through its allies in PH, are secretly fighting to trivialise Islam’s role in governance.

DAP leaders have repeatedly denied it, calling the allegation incendiary and an attempt to manipulate Malay insecurity.

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INDONESIA LGBTQ EVENT MOVED AFTER SECURITY THREATS - JAKARTA

INDONESIA LGBTQ EVENT MOVED AFTER SECURITY THREATS - JAKARTA

@Jackie San

JAKARTA (July 12, 2023): A Southeast Asian LGBTQ event set to be held in Indonesia next week has been cancelled and relocated after a series of security threats, organisers said in a statement.

Homosexuality is legal everywhere in Indonesia except in conservative Aceh province, which adheres to strict Islamic laws, but gay couples often face discrimination in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

ASEAN Queer Advocacy Week was set to be held in the capital Jakarta from July 17 to 21, bringing together LGBTQ activists from around the region to connect and discuss challenges to the community.

“The organisers of the ASEAN Queer Advocacy Week decided to relocate the venue of the program outside Indonesia, after receiving a series of security threats from various groups,” Philippines-based organiser ASEAN SOGIE Caucus said in a statement late Tuesday.

“The decision was made to ensure the safety and security of both the participants and the organiser.”

ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, which organised the event with Indonesian group Arus Pelangi and Thailand’s Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, said it had been monitoring a “wave of ‘anti-LGBT’ sentiment on social media”.

They did not say when or where the relocated event would take place for security reasons.

The Southeast Asian country’s most powerful Islamic regulatory body, the Indonesian Ulema Council, called on the government to prevent the meeting from being held in Indonesia.

“The government should not give a permit to any event in this country that contradicts religious values,” the council’s deputy chairman Anwar Abbas said in a statement.

He said none of the six officially recognised religions in Indonesia “tolerates LGBT practices”.

Other LGBTQ events have been cancelled in Indonesia after resistance from Islamic groups in recent years, including a visit by US special LGBTQ envoy Jessica Stern in December.

Outside Aceh, Indonesia’s current laws on homosexuality are, however, more liberal than some of its neighbours.

In Singapore, sex between men remains illegal, a holdover from colonial rule that is not strictly enforced.

Sodomy is a criminal offence in Malaysia and can result in imprisonment, corporal punishment, and fines.

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NORTH KOREA SAYS CARRIED OUT NEW TEST OF SOLID-FUEL ICBM

NORTH KOREA SAYS CARRIED OUT NEW TEST OF SOLID-FUEL ICBM

@Jackie San

SEOUL (July 13, 2023): North Korea said Thursday it had successfully tested its new intercontinental ballistic missile, state media reported, as Pyongyang vented its fury after threatening to down US spy planes it said had violated its airspace

The report from state-run KCNA news agency said the Hwasong-18 — a new type of purportedly solid-fuel ballistic missile that has reportedly only been fired by the North once before, in April — flew 1,001 kilometres at a maximum altitude of 6,648 km before splashing into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.

The flight time of around 70 minutes is also similar to some of North Korea’s previous ICBM launches, experts said.

The launch, which KCNA said was guided by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was a “grand explosion” that shook “the whole planet”, according to the report.

Kim also vowed that “a series of stronger military offensive” would be launched until the United States and South Korea change their policies towards the North, KCNA said.

The confirmation of the launch — which the South Korean military had reported on Wednesday — came as relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points ever, with diplomacy stalled and Kim calling for increased weapons development, including tactical nukes.

In response, Seoul and Washington have ramped up security cooperation, vowing that Pyongyang would face a nuclear response and the “end” of its current government were it to ever use its nuclear weapons against the allies.

The launch “is a grave provocation that damages the peace and security of the Korean peninsula” and violates United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang, South Korea’s military said, calling on North Korea to stop such actions.

The United Nations, United States and its allies, including France, also strongly condemned it.

“This launch is a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilising the security situation in the region,” US National Security Council spokesperson Adam Hodge said in a statement.

Pyongyang in February also launched a Hwasong-15, which flew a similar 989 kilometers.

‘PROVOCATIVE' UNITED STATES ACTIONS

Wednesday’s launch came after North Korea on Monday accused a US spy plane of violating its airspace and condemned Washington’s plans to deploy a nuclear missile submarine near the Korean peninsula.

A spokesperson for the North Korean Ministry of National Defence said the United States had “intensified espionage activities beyond the wartime level”, citing “provocative” spy plane flights over eight straight days this month.

“There is no guarantee that such shocking accident as downing of the US Air Force strategic reconnaissance plane will not happen in the East Sea of Korea,” the spokesperson added.

Kim’s powerful sister Kim Yo Jong said that a US spy aircraft had violated the country’s eastern airspace twice on Monday, according to a separate statement.

Kim Yo Jong said North Korea would not respond directly to US reconnaissance activities outside of the country’s exclusive economic zone, but warned it would take “decisive action” if its maritime military demarcation line was crossed.

The United States said in April that one of its nuclear-armed ballistic submarines would visit a South Korean port for the first time in decades, without specifying an exact date.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has ramped up defence cooperation with Washington in response, staging joint military exercises with advanced stealth jets and long-range heavy bombers.

Yoon is set to attend a Nato summit in Lithuania this week, seeking stronger cooperation over North Korea’s growing threats.

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@Jackie San