Good bye, plastic:)

We recently cleaned up our kitchen cabinet... and managed convinced to free ourselves from most of kid's plastic bowls and plates!

Since the cleanse, Roo has been using her ceramic Peter Rabbit plates (thank you Omi:) and a ceramic red cup at her mealtime!

The big thing for Roo now is her obsession of a folk and knife. She learned how to cut her food with a knife... and now can't get enough of slicing everything she has on her plate. Time to time I have been little concerned... that her fierce force of cutting might do some damage to those special plates.  Then I thought... how perfect the MINOTAKE bamboo plates could be for her! I wouldn't have to worry about her cutting (breaking) through the plates since they are durable and they are so easy to clean afterward. 

So now she uses her MINOTAKE small square plate and grown-ups complement hers with the large square ones! I am ecstatic... as you can imagine. Our tablescape is once again... plastic free yet kid's friendly:)

Here are some snapshots from our Sunday breakfast. We have been doing a lot of omelet lately especially with avocado. I just love how special it feels when I make an omelet for everyone.

Guten Appetit!

New: Bamboo Bento Box!

You know... the Bento Box culture (lunch box) in Japan is huge! So when my lovely customer Sonia from France suggested me to look into the Bento Box for our shop, I knew I had to get onto it!

Luckily I did not have to look too far.  Kohchosai Kosuga, a traditional bamboo maker in Kyoto who have created a beautiful line of MINOTAKE collection also carries a series of handmade bamboo bento box! 

So I selected two different kinds of stack-able lunch box for our shop!

I love how vivid the bamboo grain shows on these Bento Box and how crisp the shape feels in hand and eyes. I tried making a few lunches with these Bento Box and food looks amazing! Also it's just the right size so it's not too big nor too small. (their single Bento Box would be too small for us who are used to the western portion, right??)

Enjoy:)

Bamboo Bento Box by Kohchosai Kosuga
Available in Rectangle and Round
with an option of black or red elastic band. 

MINOTAKE - How it's made!

Since I have Industrial Design background, I am a huge fun of understanding how something is made. So I loved seeing some of the production photos of MINOTAKE Mr. Kosuga has sent me!

You can see how involved these steps are to produce the MINOTAKE collection... much by hand using traditional bamboo manufacturing process.

I hope you enjoy!

all photos from Kohchosai Kosuga

Welcome MINOTAKE from Kyoto!

I am sure that you have already seen our new shop addition, MINOTAKE...  This beautiful collection has been shared by Gizmodo, tasteology (sister site to Notcot.org), Better Living Through Design and more... around the blogsphere!

I thought I would share a little background story about how this collection came on board!

I must admit... that this collection and Baum-Kuchen was meant to happen. On our last day of traveling Kyoto, I was strolling the city by myself (which was a super rare occasion...) for product sourcing.

On my way home after walking the city for three hours (without much success), I stumbled upon a small retail space that looked interesting... and there it was a collection of MINOTAKE among other beautiful bamboo products Kohchosai Kosuga produces. I was glued to their display and had a chance to talk to a lovely retail clerk there... I explained to him that I would LOVE to share their amazing collection at our shop in Los Angeles. He gave me a business card to CEO of the company and I bought a few sets to share with my partner-in-crime and my in-laws who happened to be staying with us during the week (and you know they have the most amazing German eyes for aesthetics:)

As soon as I got back to our home in Kyoto, I looked up their website and other retailers who are carrying their products and quickly came to the conclusion that there are very few people out there who knew about them. I was on a mission... I sent an email to Mr. Kosuga explaining how much I am in love with his MINOTAKE collection. I am sure that the email almost sounded like a love letter... (professional kind, of course).

Fast forward few weeks, we were discussing how to bring those collection to the U.S. and I was in the full gear to share these amazing products at our shop. One thing I really wanted to do for the MINOTAKE collection was to find a way to showcase their amazing sculpture form curved out of the bamboo. Doing a photo shoot and creating mini clips for each item was so much fun!

I will share a few of my favorite photos as well as four mini clips I made for the collection here!

p.s. On the next post, I would love to share some of the photos Mr. Kosuga has sent me from his factory!



MINOTAKE Spoon

MINOTAKE Small Spoon 

MINOTAKE Square Spatula

MINOTAKE Triangle Spatula