Create Exceptional New Vegan Taste Sensations

- Only Sugimoto Japanese Forest Grown Dried Shiitake can provide

Recipe => Zen minestrone

Did you know that:

- only dried (not fresh) Shiitake can provide a third Umami booster called Guanylate

- our rehydrated Shiitake broth provides delicious Dashi unlike our competitors

- our dried Shiitake provides x6 the Umami Booster of other Asian competitors

- traditionally, the secret ingredient to improve the taste of Zen Vegan Cuisine is to use dried Shiitake

Dried Shiitake played a key role in unlocking the best Vegan flavors in Zen cooking. Zen cuisine aims to improve Umami and appreciate/respect the essence of natural foods, a taste sensation called "Tanmi."

"Natural" and "fresh" are the best words to explain it; the light, delicate touch of a practiced chef, emphasizing the inherent goodness of an ingredient without heavy seasoning. Start with the best food and allow it to shine for the greatest example of tanmi in action. (From "TANMI, THE LATEST ANCIENT TASTE SENSATION")

What is Guanylate?

The founder of Zen Buddhism, Dogen, wrote a book on Zen cooking 800 years ago, and the story of dried Shiitake appears many times in the book, "Tenzo Kyokun." ("How to Cook Your Life" Amazon)

Unlike dried porcini, Shiitake's Guanylate brings out the best tastes, not masking or adding another flavor. As a natural Umami taste intensifier, dried Shiitake is a key ingredient in Zen cooking.

Despite the lack of meat and fish, using Shiitake gets the rich Umami taste from the vegetable ingredients makes for a hearty and satisfying culinary experience. Dr. Ole in 2012 investigated and proved how Guanylate in dried Shiitake provides Umami.

Tanmi expands from Zen to Japanese cuisine.

Zen went from being a religion to culture and became deeply rooted in the hearts of the Japanese people, and the concept of Tanmi became engrained in Japanese cuisine, "Washoku."Respect for inherent flavors of ingredients and bringing out the essential taste of food is a culinary custom of Wahoku based on values respecting Nature (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage).

In Japan, The first step is to enjoy the original flavor of seasonal ingredients in their natural form when they are at their best. At this time, it is uncooked and cut into different shapes and sizes to bring out the best pure tastes with minimal flavoring.

The next step is to grill or simmer foods after the natural flavors have peaked. Cooking by heat brings another layer of flavor and prevents contamination. So Japanese cuisine considers the best and most expensive food to be prepared raw if possible and enjoyed during their peak season to eat.

(From "The Raw and the Cooked in Japanese cuisine: Triangulations around Culture, Nature and Artifice")

So why are dried Shiitake more precious than fresh ones?

Shiitake's drying and rehydrating process produce Guanylate, which boosts the Umami taste of other ingredients. For this reason, fresh Shiitake do not contain Guanylate. Our Shiitake are grown naturally and has 6 times more natural Guanylate than these sawdust-grown ones from Asia. Furthermore, our dried Shiitake has the highest VitaminD content of any food source.

Double your Pleasure: Twice as delicious!

Rehydrated dried Shiitake provides a tasty and juicy Shiitake and a delicious Dashi dashi/broth. Dried Shiitake produces a delicious broth when they are rehydrated.
Forest-grown dried Shiitake have six times the Guanylate of our Chinese competitors, so they have six times the power to make food taste better.
Our cultivation method makes the Dashi broth very tasty, so there is no need to dispose of the broth nor squeeze out the moisture from the Shiitake after rehydrating, unlike you do with Chinese Shiitake.
You can use the rehydrated Shiitake and the Shiitake broth as natural Umami bombs, respectively.
Rehydrating at a lower temperature will produce the most Umami taste.

Dried Shiitake Make Vegan Food More Delicious.

Shiitake can enhance the Umami taste of non-MSG Vegan cooking. Zen monks found Forest-grown Shiitake is the best Umami enhancer for Vegan Cuisine more than 1000-years ago.
Please view this video to see the rave reaction of people eating our Zen minestrone at the NY Vegandale Festival.

Dried shiitake make meat lovers happier.

Dried Shiitake tastes even better when used in meat and fish dishes rather than vegan dishes.

Trying is believing. We can provide documentation to prove any of our statements made above. We can send samples, and please visit our booth at the exhibition, where we will offer delicious dried Shiitake food samples.