Tasting party for "Kozuyu-onigiri," a new local cuisine in Aizu held

A tasting party for "Kozuyu-onigiri" (Kozuyu soup-flavored rice balls) developed by students from Aizu IT Nisshinkan (*1) Factories for Experiencing Start Up Venture 10, "Creation of ideas, local contribution project," was held at the cafeteria on Wednesday, July 15, 2015.

Factory 10 keeps on contributing to the local community, and invents new recipes using Aizu's cuisines and ingredients as a part of the activities. The Factory has developed and commercialized recipes using Aizu produce, such as Vegemel Burger (*2) and Sakuraage (*3).

What Factory 10 developed this time is "Kozuyu-onigiri," which combines local Aizu cuisine "Kozuyu" (*4) and easily eatable "Onigiri (rice ball)". Plenty of Kozuyu ingredients such as carrots, cloud ear mushrooms, and scallops were mixed with rice to create fluffy Kozuyu rice which was then shaped into Kozuyu-onigiri.

Many students waiting for Kozuyu-onigiri were already lined up minutes before the tasting party started. When the tasting party started, most of the onigiri were distributed in a few minutes. After all, all the onigiri were gone in around 10 minutes. Several participants asked if Kozuyu-onigiri was on sale, which indicated high expectation for the product.

White board explaining Kozuyu-onigiri concept (left), Steamed Kozuyu rice (right)

Kozuyu-onigiri for tasting (left), Tasting party (right)

Members of Factory 10 holding Kozuyu-onigiri

*1 Aizu IT Nisshinkan:Composed of "Factories for Experiencing Start Up Ventures" on themes to meet local needs. These "factories" are operated by the University of Aizu, which specializes in IT education, in collaboration with venture companies and municipal governments in the region. Each factory aims to help students to develop solid skills and entrepreneurial spirit by learning the practical production process, such as development of software to meet local needs, while receiving the guidance from managers and engineers in local companies.

*2 Vegemel burger: Filling and healthy local burger which puts fresh vegetables from Nishiaizu Town and wheel-shaped gluten cakes flavored with special sauce between slices of buns made from 100 percent rice flour. Limited number of burgers is on sale at "櫟 (Ichii)" in Nishiaizu Michi-no-Eki on Saturday and Sunday. The burger was named with the meaning of "Love (mederu) vegetables".

*3 "Sakuraage" is a variant of takoyaki (fried octopus balls) that replaces the octopus with horsemeat. In Aizu, people eat "Sakuraage" with spicy miso used for horsemeat sashimi. The delicacy represents Aizu's four seasons; spring with the color of horsemeat (which is considered to be pink by the Japanese, hence its nickname, "sakura"), summer with green cabbage, fall with red sauce and winter with the white dough.
News: "Sakuraage," invented by Yuichiro Onoue, a third-year student of the UoA was commercialized in August, 2014.

*4 Kozuyu-soup: "Kozuyu-soup" is a traditional Aizu dish with roots in feudal Japan. The soup made with a dried scallop stock contains lots of ingredients, and is a must for New Year's and other celebrations.