Of kimchi, all on our show today. Ive been seeing and have even at times been a part of a japanese tea ceremony, but ive only recently learned more about the tradition behind it. With me now is Hitoko Hagiwara, an instructor for chado urasenke, san francisco, who first learned about the ceremony as a child in japan, and after coming to the u. S. , in 1991, has been teaching it in her home since, and she also arranges demonstrations at cultural events. And also with us, starting a tea ceremony right here on our set, is yasuko zingg, a student at chado urasenke, san francisco. The ceremony is also called way of tea, the ceremony, a preparation of matcha, powdered green tea. So give us an idea of what were gonna see here. This is more of the informal one, right . Yasuko zingg yes. Just making green tea for you. Robert okay, i can always use some of that. Yasuko okay. We all prepared beforehand to make this tea. Robert mmhmm. And the matcha is a very important part, right . Yasuko mmhmm. Robert it would seem like a simple thing to do, but you have a very ritualistic way of doing this, right . Thats the tradition, huh . Yasuko yes, yes, we have to practice, practice, practice. Robert mm. Hitoko hagiwara maybe if you before youre going to drink that, you know, tea, were going to enjoy the sweet. Robert oh, okay. Hitoko yes. Yasuko mmhmm. Robert ill probably do that during the commercial break. Hitoko okay. Robert youre already doing a lot more than i do when i prepare my own tea. Yasuko this isyou know, sometimes i feel like green tea is same idea to make a latte. Robert oh, yeah, very much so, yes. Yasuko maybe because of this, i just do like this. Robert okay. Yes, you rotate it twice, right . Both twice. Yasuko yup. Robert and you hand it here. Yasuko mmhmm. Robert okay. Yasuko yes. Robert thank you. Yasuko youre welcome. Robert what is the matcha . Whats the significance of this kind of tea . Yasuko matcha is the purest tea style that is come from china in 12th century. A monk brought it. So the matcha is special, made by green tea leaves, and then grinded to the fine powder. Robert yeah, it really looks like fine powder too. Yasuko yes. Robert so, hitoko, give us weve seen a little bit of informal ceremony here. Give us, sort of, an overview. We want to, kind of, put it in pictures so people could follow it easier. Give us, sort of, an explanation of the formal ceremony and the different steps. Hitoko oh, different step . Okay, on todays, were going to see in the tv, in the video here, and then were going to prepare the really formal tea ceremony first, and then, later on, were going to do more casual. But, right now, its kind of preparing the obi for thethis is for the girls, and then, you know, we have so many different kind of the kimono style, and this is a long sleeve. That means before get married. Shes supposed to be single, and then the lady was putting and now is guests arrive to my house. Theyre going to have a sweet before going to go to the tea ceremony room. Robert yes, like the one you offered me. Hitoko yes, yes, exactly the same ones. Robert and that is just because its better with the tea, or is it part of the ceremony . Hitoko oh, yeah, before, you know, kind of, tea, its better to drink something. And there was a eating the, you know, cakes. I preparing all the materials to do today for the formal tea ceremony. Yasuko lots of preparation. Hitoko lot of preparations. And this is a kind of mountains in kyoto. Robert mmhmm, so the container, the case, is very important as well . Hitoko veryyeah, yeah, incense container. Robert theres so much detail. Hitoko yeah, and this is for the flowers. This iscame from my student gardens, and then wakeiseijaku is, you know, harmony, respect, purify, and tranquility. This is kind of four letters for the significance for the tea ceremony. Robert i see, kind of the themes of the ceremony, huh . Hitoko yes, exactly. Now is theyafter ate, they go outside at the garden, and now im going to invite them, please come on, you know . Please come up and follow me. Theyre going to wash their hands and mouth with the water. Its more like a purify the body. Instead of, you know, washing the body, theyre going to go to the, you know, secret place that theyre going to wash everything. They call it the tsukubai sorry. Robert is the ceremony used specifically for certain type of occasions, or can it be applied to anything that you think is special . Hitoko anything for to gathering. Robert so its to make something more special . Hitoko yes, yes, exactly. Yasuko every time, we have a theme, too, and then, its seasonal. Hitoko this is the stuff i was preparing with the charcoal, real charcoal. Really difficult to bring the, you know, charcoal nowadays here. This is very special for the tea ceremonycharcoal. Now is im starting the formal tea ceremony called koicha is thick tea. Its not like you have right now. This is more casual tea. Robert oh, i see, okay. Hitoko yeah. Yasuko usucha. Hitoko yeah, i was using that tea container, chaire, right now, and hot waters. Robert and this tea that were seeing here on the video is different than this one in what way . Hitoko yes, exactly different. Robert in what way . Hitoko okay, theres more likethis is kind of foamy, right . But the other one is kind of thick. Thick tea. Robert i see, okay. Hitoko and the tea itself is different. The powderpowdered green tea, but its different. Robert yeah. And yasuko said more like latte, huh . Yasuko the bubbly part. Robert yes, exactly. Yasuko i was thinking, oh, maybe they got their idea from green tea. Hitoko lot of green tea here. Robert yes. How much do you serve . Do you serve a certain amount . Hitoko yes, yes. Robert how much do you usually . Hitoko usually for the koicha is 3 grams of matcha, and then about 30 cc for the one person, and 80 degrees centigrade. Yasuko i think this is a very interesting part of tea ceremony. Its traditional, oldstyle asian japanese culture, but also very calculated, specifically 30 cc, the temperature is this and that, and then angle is here, here. Very calculated. Robert in a certain way, just like almost trying to follow a recipe. Hitoko yeah, exactly, exactly. Robert all right, thats very interesting. All right, i tell you what. Were gonna talk a little bit more now also about not only what weve seen, but also the historical and cultural aspects of this, right . Hitoko mmhmm. Robert okay, when we come back, hitoko and yasuko will show us the stepbystep process again about making the japanese tea, and the tea ceremony, so stay with us. Youve come to the right place. We are learning about the traditional japanese tea ceremony as taught by chado urasenke, san francisco, with instructor Hitoko Hagiwara and student yasuko zingg. Hitoko, lets pick up a little bit now. We were watching the formal ceremony, and now you take it outside, right . And what happens here . Hitoko after were done at the, you know, formal tea ceremony, we just go outside and enjoy the atmosphere of the outside and then enjoy the more casual tea ceremony. Robert yeah, yeah, i mean, its a formal ceremony, but its a very relaxed atmosphere. Hitoko relaxing now, yes. And then there was a serving that, you know, the cakes now, and then she is serving, you know, foamy usucha is yasuko yeah, look like a yellow in outside. Robert yeah, yeah, looks yellow there, but its really more green, yeah. Hitoko this isnow is not sitting on the tatami anymore. Theres the tables and the chairs, and all the guests were sitting on the chair again. This is about the 11th generation of the urasenke tea master created this one at the endat the first part of the meiji era. You know, edo period to the meiji era is really a lot of difference there, you know . At that time, so, for the foreign people or the westernized, more room. They created this kind of table instead of kneeling on a tatami, yes. Robert does the ceremonial part of it end with the serving, or thats pretty much at the thats the end, and then everybody sort of relaxes. Hitoko yeah, relax, yes. Robert one thing i should mention too is that, you know, there is, for people who should know, that there is caffeine in japanese tea, and theres a pretty good amount in this, so people should know that. Hitoko whole leaves there. Robert however, as we were also saying, my mother used toharumi, she used to serve me green tea when i wasnt feeling well, and i think that this is probably very popular for that as well, right . Yasuko yes, and then 12th century, chinese monk brought matcha tea to japan. That time, they used tea as a medicine, so, yeah. Robert thank you very much for showing us this. Its been very interesting, you know . And, again, so many people have seen the ceremony and not really understood what its about, and so were really glad that you were here to help us present that. Hitoko oh, thank you very much. Our pleasure, our pleasure. Robert well, next, we look at another interesting cultural process, this time, involving korean food. The hot topic of kimchi is coming up, so dont miss it. But its not just part of a great meal. Kimchi is a traditional way of preserving vegetables, involving sea salt and herbs. The making and sharing of kimchi is called kimjang. With me is aruna lee, the owner and founder of volcano kimchi, which you can find on store shelves in the bay area and at farmers markets in san francisco. A very inspiring success story. And also with us is ellen hong white, a consultant with ethnic media services, who also runs a nonprofit school. Us, which hosts workshops throughout the bay area, bridging the gap between suppliers and consumers. Welcome to the show. Both thank you. Robert aruna, you grew up in a buddhist monastery, adopted by a nun at six years old, which eventually led you to start this business. Thats a very intriguing story. Whats the connection there . How did it influence you . Aruna lee 2014, i launched the volcano kimchi to create kind of kimchi i had growing up, the kimchi made with care and consciousness. And buddhist temple, you see vegetables grown just in the mountains, and the monks, they harvest and make kimchi with fresh harvested vegetables. Robert oh, yeah, very much. In fact, ellen mentioned to me earlier thats an organic kimchi. It is available only here, huh . Yeah. Ellen, give people an idea cause i know a lot of people think they know what theyre talking about when they say, kimchi. Tell us what kimchi is, and give us a kind of a cultural perspective on it. Ellen hong white kimchi originally means, brined vegetables. Its a technique to preserve vegetables for a long time. During brutal winters of korea, which is subzero degrees, people had to survive for three, four months, and so they decided to just preserve the vegetables during the winter, and they use salt and some herbs, and they mixed it together, and they put it in a clay pot and buried underground. And it will last you for three months, three, four months without refrigeration. So its a technique. If you can use any kind of vegetables, any kind of hard vegetables, root vegetables, and leafy vegetables to make perfect kimchi that will last you throughout the winter. Robert did they know that it was going to have the particular taste in and stuff that it does, or was that part of the just the preservation process, and then it turned out hey, this tastes good . Ellen i think it was an accident. Robert yeah, yeah, thats interesting. Ellen the fairy talefolk tale is that someone was carrying vegetables, and they accidentally dropped vegetables into the ocean, and then, the ocean water salted the vegetable, and it turned out it was salty, sour, savory, sweet, and all of those five tastingso they decided, lets make it every year so we can all feed us throughout the year. Robert yeah, in fact, you just had a festival, didnt you . Ellen yes, we did. Robert it was the first one . Ellen yes, korean government decided to work with the consortium of private and Public Partners to bring in kimchi festival all over the world, so they started with seoul, korea; tokyo, japan; paris, and Ho Chi Minh City in vietnam, and theyve been doing it for three years, and this september was the first year to bring it to america at the presidio in san francisco. Robert aruna, to watch it from the personal way that you kind of connected with it, grew it into a business, is it amazing to you to see kimchi getting, like, this kind of expansion . Aruna i love the energy, like, especially, i have a booth at farmers market, and so many people come from all over the world that show interest how much they love kimchi. Robert yeah, yeah. What is it that you think really, particularly, appeals to people about it . Aruna i think kimchi, you can eat at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and it enhances flavor of a food, whatever you have. Robert yeah, yeah, i can eat, like, a bowl of rice and kimchi, just, almost just by itself. You gotkimchi also got some recognition, didnt it . Ellen yes, United Nations educational, scientific and Cultural Organization recognized kimchi as intangible practices that needs to be preserved because kimchi isit benefits. It has health benefits. Kimjang, which is the practice of making kimchi and sharing throughout the winter is actuallygives you a lot of emotional benefit because you get together with friends and family, and you make it together, and you share it throughout the year. So unesco found that its intangible, Cultural Heritage then needs to be preserved. Robert all right, that is great. Were gonna have you come back and make a demonstration for us. Well look forward to talking to you again because i know the festival is coming back again next fall, right . Ellen yes, it is. Robert all right. Ellen thank you. Robert thank you for being here. All right. Well, were gonna take a quick break and get ready for a food demonstration on preparing and assembly, including showing us how to make a popular kimchi dish using napa cabbage. Hows that for bay area connection . So, come on back. The founder and owner of volcano kimchi, a kimchi product you can find at many bay area stores, and aruna is going to show us how to make a popular dish. So whats it called, and what are the ingredients . Aruna so today we are making kimchi using napa cabbage as a main ingredient. Robert very good. Okay, go ahead and show us. Aruna so you have to, leaf side pointing down, and cut through onethird. Robert this is important, right . Aruna yeah, and then use your hand to cut through like this so you dont waste any leaves. Robert very good. Aruna and then do same way to make a quarter of this. Robert thats to make sure you dont lose pieces, huh . Aruna and then i want to show you how to remove a core, and you dont wanna waste much, so if its too wide, you can cut in half and then slice into size so its, like, bitesize. And then were going to brine napa cabbage using very good salt. Robert this is the sea salt . Aruna this is gray sea salt. Robert gray sea salt, okay. Aruna there are three things you need to know when youre making kimchi and using good seasonal ingredients and using good salt and properly store while its fermenting. So you lightly toss. You dont have to, like, massage hard. Just lightly toss. Robert okay, mix it in. Aruna and then you wanna put heavy weight like this and leave it for three hours to overnight, and let it brine. So, this cabbage, i prerinsed, and so we just salt and without rinsing. Were gonna use all the kimchi juice from the cabbage. Robert my mother used to do this. I didnt know why she did that. All right, so transferring the cabbage to here. Aruna mmhmm, and let it brine. And i prebrined the cabbage like this in a crock pot, put heavy weight on, and there was no water, so you see how much water we have here . Robert oh, yeah, okay. Aruna and then you can find the rocks when you go to beach or robert wow, okay. Doesnt have to be too scientific, just heavy, huh . Aruna yeah, and when you brine properly, the cabbage just the bend like this. It doesnt break, so thats, you know, you brined properly. So lets transfer this here. This is about one head of cabbage, and im going to add all these four different kinds of mustard. Robert okay, what are we adding, then . Aruna this the mustard family red mustard, the red mizuna, green mizuna, and green wasabi, and then daikon stems. And look at this beautiful colors of radish. Purple radish, green radish, and daikon radishlike that, and since i make a vegan kimchi, i use this kelp, and then dried mushroom, you grind and make a powder from. And then we gonna add this premade sauce robert yes, very premade. We wanna make sure people know that. Aruna using onion, ginger, garlic, and mushroom, and all yummy stuff, and use your hand, we callhand taste. Robert okay. Aruna so you put, really, your Loving Energy into the kimchi youre making. Its very meditative. Robert the way they used to do at the monastery . Aruna yeah, so anyone can make good kimchi using good ingredients. Robert yes, oh, it smells so fresh. I wish people could smell the way that smells like. It is just so fresh. Aruna so you just evenly massage, and voila, we have this delicious kimchi ready. So you wanna keep in a jar and leave it in Room Temperature for a day or two. Depends on your temperature you have. Robert and we have these two here. What do these represent then, the final product . Aruna so this kimchi, i made yesterday to bring here, and also this one is, mul kimchi, which is kimchi without chili pepper, but this red mustard gave this beautiful color. Do you see this pink color . Robert very nice, yes. We should give people one last look here of this. Aruna mr. Handa, would you like to sample this . Robert i definitely want to. Aruna okay, lets see. Lets how we do. Robert all right, here we go. This is how. Mm, that is really good, really good, and very crunchy. Aruna very crunchy. So this is still very raw, almost like a salad, but in few days, you will have a delicious kimchi ready. Robert thank you very much for doing that. Aruna lee showing us how to make kimchi. I wanna thank her, and she is at volcano kimchi for this demonstration. You can find out more about all of our guests on facebook, twitter, as well as nbcbayarea. Com. And thats it for our show this week. We will be back next week. Asian Pacific America will be back. Aruna lee, thank you again for being here. Aruna thank you so much. Robert thank you for showing us how to do that. Aruna thank you. Robert all right, thank you very much for joining us. We will see you next week. Thanks for watching. Aruna thank you so much. Good morning, welcome to sunday today on this november 3rd, i am willie geist, i hope you enjoy that one hour of sleep as the clock falls back one hour. Today this man is waking u