Today’s guest is Miho. Miho is originally from Kanagawa but she now lives here in Niseko and she makes bread under the label Ramacipan. Ramashicomes from the Ainuword for spirit. And pan is Japanese for bread.
Miho has been making bread for 13 years. I asked her why she started making bread. パンを作り始めたきっかけは?
Around the time when I’d left my job and I was feeling pretty low, my friend said that making bread was fun and suggested that I try it. And they taught me how to make it. 私がお仕事辞めたりして落ち込んでいたときに、友だちがパン作ったら楽しいからやってみなって言って教えてくれたの。
So your friend taught you how to make bread? と言うことは、その友人から作り方を習った?
I learnt how to make bread by looking at books … by myself … Well, my friend was going to bread making classes so sometimes I asked them for tips, but mostly I studied by myself with books. 作り方は本を見たりして、自分で・・・。 友だちがパンの教室に通っていたから、たまに訊いたりしたけど、大体は本を見ながらやりました。 勉強して。
A 36-year-old mother of two posted her family picture on her website and her Facebook page. She didn’t give anyone permission to use the photo so she was surprised when an old university friend was driving through Prague and saw the photo blown up in a shop window. According to news reports the shop owner has now taken steps to remove the photo. And the woman’s website has received hundreds of thousands of hits since the story broke.
And that was Stick News for Monday the 15th of June. Kia ora.
Miho 元々お友だちがみんなニセコがすごい好きで、スノーボードしに来たりしてて、そこで羊蹄山とわき水が出ているのを知って、いいなーっと思っていたのと、あ となぜだかたまたま元々初めから北海道産の小麦粉を使っていて、それでいつか北海道でパンを焼きたいなと思っていたら、今の旦那さんと知り合って、で自然 にこっちに来ることになって。 My friends and I had always liked Niseko and we used to come here to go snowboarding. So that’s how I knew about Mt Yotei and the spring water, and I thought it was a great place because of those things. I also happened to be using Hokkaido flour since I started. And I thought that I’d like to make bread in Hokkaido someday. Then I met my husband and we ended up moving here.
Sarah Are all the ingredients you use from Hokkaido? 材料すべて北海道産?
Miho 一部分だけ、札幌のマクロビオティックの店に卸しているパンは100%オーガニックじゃなきゃいけなくて、そこに卸しているパンにだけ東北のオーガニックの粉を一部分使っているけど、あとは全部北海道だ。 あ、でもちょっと特殊な粉を使うのも好きで、古代の小麦粉とか、そういうのは外国産のもたまに使っています。 I sell some bread to a shop in Hokkaido which has to be 100% organic, so I use flour from Tohoku for that bread. But everything else is from Hokkaido. Oh, actually, I also like using specialty flours, so I sometimes use imported flour as well.
Sarah What’s your favourite kind of bread? どんなパンが好き?
Miho 前はナッツとかフルーツが入っているのが好きだったんだけど、どんどんシンプルなパン、やっぱり最近は食パンが一番好き。 I used to really like bread with nuts and fruit in it. But gradually I grew to prefer more simple bread and now my favourite bread is plain bread.
Sarah What’s the most unusual bread you’ve made? 今まで作った中で最も変わったパンは?
Miho なんかあるかなー。 昔はね、それこそ本当に実験ばかりしてて、よく失敗していたけど(笑)最近は、そんなに、まあでも生の野菜を、ルッコラとか入れたりして、まあまあだったかな(笑) おうちで畑をするようになって、そこで穫れた物をそのまま入れてみようとか、スプラウトみたいなのとかやったけど、やっぱり普通のパンが美味しいのかなって。 Hmm, that’s a good question. I used to always be experimenting … and I failed a lot! But recently I haven’t really … But, yeah, sometimes I try making bread with fresh vegetables like arugula … hmm, that wasn’t that great. Since we’ve had a vege garden, I’ve been experimenting with using things straight from the garden, things like sprouts. But, at the end of the day, I think plain bread is the most delicious.
Sarah Have you tried bread in other countries? 海外でパンを作ったことは?
Miho 海外、カナダにワーキングホリデーに行った理由が、なぜモントリオールにしようと思ったかというと、フランス領だったからきっとフランスのパンが勉強でき るかなと思って行ったんだけど、モントリオールはあまりそこまで美味しいパン屋さんがあった訳じゃなかったけど、その頃から色々外国を旅するようになっ て、それでヨーロッパ一周10カ国回ってパン屋さん巡りしたり、アジアとかメキシコとかのパン屋さん、パン屋さんっていうか市場とかでパンを買っては味見 して。 The reason why I went to Canada on my working holiday, the reason why I decided to go to Montreal was because it used to be a French colony so I thought I might have been able to study bread making there. I actually didn’t come across any bread in Montreal that really stood out, but after that I ended up doing more travelling. I did a ten-country “bread tour” of Europe. And I also travelled in other countries in Asia, and Mexico and I visited bakeries, or markets, to try the bread.
Sarah Which country in Europe had the most delicious bread? ヨーロッパでどの国のパンが最も美味しかった?
Miho 一番好きだったのはドイツだったけど、でもイタリアとかフランスとかデンマークとか、それぞれの特徴のあるパンはやっぱりすごい美味しかった。 The bread I liked the most was in Germany. But the other countries like Italy, France and Denmark all had their specialty bread which was also really delicious.
Sarah What’s your dream? 将来の夢は?
Miho 最近思い描いているのは、自分たちで、小麦は本当に夢の夢みたいな感じだけど、なるべく自分たちで作った食材を使ってパンを焼いていけるような大きな畑を やりながら、やっぱり天然酵母のパンは時間が経ってもすごい美味しいんだけど、今の状況だとなかなか焼きたてを食べてもらえる状況でやっていないから、だ からそういう焼きたてのパンを食べてもらえるパン屋さんっていうか、パン工房みたいな、作るのをメインとしてだけど買いに来てもらえるような、もしかした らちょっとそこでお茶とかも飲んでいってもらえるような、そーゆー場所を作っていけたら良いなと思っています。 Recently what we’ve been thinking about is … well I don't know if we'll ever make the actual wheat, but … if we can, we’d like to have a big garden so I can bake bread using ingredients we’ve grown ourselves. Natural yeast bread is still delicious after a few days, but with the set-up I have at the moment, people don’t really have the chance to eat the bread right after it’s been baked. So I’d like to have a bakery or a kind of bread factory, which will mainly be for making bread, but people can also come and eat freshly baked bread. And maybe also have a place where they can have a cup of tea. I think it would be great if we were able to make a place like that.
サラのメモ: Today's interview is in Japanese with English subtitles - good reading practice!
Feel free to leave me feedback about the translation if you speak Japanese.
I wish Miho's dream was already a reality ... I would love to go and relax with a cup of tea and some of her freshly baked bread. Especially in summer ...