Fabala Kitchen to Tsukau (Sprouted Brown Rice Koji Seasoning)

The story behind it

Fabala is a technology-driven maker based in Muromachi, Nihonbashi, Tokyo. Founded in 2007, it makes seasonings as well as sake, coffee and cosmetics. Its first product was not a seasoning but a sake made from sprouted brown rice.

Koji is usually made by polishing the brown rice first and then sprinkling on the koji mold. Fabala has its own technique for turning brown rice into koji without polishing it, and Kitchen to Tsukau applies that technique to a seasoning.

The only ingredients are sprouted brown rice koji and water, with no salt and no sweetener. The label reads "pre-cooking ingredient seasoning": you use it on vegetables, fish or meat before cooking. In our interview, we split a kiwi in half and put it on only one side. The treated half left no lingering sourness.