New Chris Crutchfield Blog: Visiting our key export market – Japan

I’m spending this week in Japan along with California rice grower Michael Rue, and Sun Valley Rice Milling Sr. VP Akira "Jim" Higa, both of which serve on important trade committees with the USA Rice Federation. Traveling with us are USA Rice trade officials Jim Guinn and Bill Farmer. We will be attending two very important activities as part of our ongoing promotion of US Rice in Japan. Additionally, we will be meeting with officials from the US Embassy and Japan's Ministry on Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) to discuss trade policy issues.

We arrived in Tokyo mid afternoon on Sunday. After recovering from the plane ride, unpacking, etc., we decided to go out to a very traditional Japanese dinner at Inakaya. When we walked in and saw this spread of food we were quite overwhelmed! Fortunately, Jim speaks great Japanese, so we were able to try a little of everything with the advantage of knowing exactly what it was.


We started out with sashimi of Maguro, Toro, Hamachi, and Ebi. That was followed by myriad roasted vegetables and edible flowers. Then the meat came out. We had yakatori (skewered) chicken and kobe beef. Just when we thought it was over, the house speciality was served -- this deep sea red snapper that had been steaming since we walked in the door nearly two hours earlier. After figuring out how to eat it with nothing but chopsticks, it was fantastic.


As we were finishing up the snapper, we witnessed (and joined in on) a great treat -- the traditional making of a true mochi ball. The two mochi "chefs" started out with a large wooden bowl kneading, working, and literally throwing cooked, wet mochi (sweet) rice around until it started to turn into a paste. At that point the fun started. The paste was transferred to another, larger, wooden bowl on a raised block. The chefs stood next to the bowl and alternately beat the paste with clubs resembling baseball bats as the whole restaurant cheered. That's when Michael was asked to join in. Being a good sport, Michael took the place of one of the mochi chefs and walloped away at the paste!

After all was said and done, we enjoyed a great mochi ball desert which finished off a very nice dinner. Now we can all rest on a full stomach and wake up ready for business tomorrow.

---

Chris Crutchfield
President and CEO -- American Commodity Company

Chris Crutchfield is very proud to represent the third generation of his family to be involved in the rice industry. Currently Chris is involved in all aspects of California rice from production all the way to the grocery store shelf.

Shortly after graduating from the University of Missouri in 1996, Chris moved back to California and joined with his father Paul Crutchfield in the formation of a rough rice pool for direct marketing to Turkey. Chris was responsible for the day-to-day management of the pool. That partnership developed into the formation of American Commodity Company (ACC) in 2000, and Chris assumed all direct management responsibilities for ACC.

Prior to establishing himself in the California rice industry, Chris worked in the press offices of Governor Pete Wilson as his Assistant Press Secretary. He also briefly taught secondary education in the California public school system.