dsmWeekly - October 30, 2024

In Japan, cozy pubs welcome co-workers and friends after work. (Getty Images)

FOOD & DINING

Learn about Japan, one sip of sake at a time
By Michael Morain

Japan has a standard 40-hour workweek, but its workers are famous for putting in longer hours.

“In Japanese business culture, people say that real business takes place after 5,” said Yoko Tanaka, the executive director of the Japan American Society of Iowa (JASI). “You go have a meal together, relax, and then honest conversation can take place.”

Often, that honest talk happens at an izakaya, a cozy pub on a quiet side street or alley. They’re often found in clusters, where each place serves sake (rice wine) and various local specialties — usually unpretentious comfort foods that change with the seasons.

JASI plans to re-create an izakaya next Friday at the River Center in downtown Des Moines. Ticketed guests can mingle among several stations that serve authentic dishes, including yakitori (grilled chicken skewers), tamago yaki (savory-sweet omelets) and dango (chewy rice flour dumplings). Visitors can also enjoy a soy-marinated pork dish, courtesy of the team from the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival, and a special JASI sushi roll, custom-designed for the occasion.

The event will also feature an origami station, taiko drummers and bon folk dancers from Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. (Tanaka said they’ve been practicing on Zoom.)

JASI was founded 35 years ago to promote Japanese culture here in Iowa, and the izakaya is the group’s third annual sake event. The first two, in 2022 and 2023, celebrated the drink’s century-old traditions and educated Iowans who didn’t know much about it.

“People would tell me, ‘Oh, I’ve had sake’ ” and then describe a sake bomb served with beer, Tanaka said. “That’s one way to consume sake, but it’s not ideal. In Japanese culture, sake isn’t just another drink to indulge in. There are spiritual and cultural aspects, too.” She said that many Japanese believe it cleanses the spirit, brings people together and brings good fortune, especially at weddings, New Year’s Day and other celebrations.

For the JASI event in 2022, leaders from Yamanashi, Iowa’s sister state, sent a case of sake that was used for a special toast with the Japanese consul general who drove in from Chicago. The 2023 event featured sake pairings with a three-course menu of Western dishes, catered by Allora at the Krause Gateway Center. “Sake is like white wine,” Tanaka said. “It can go with all kinds of different foods.”

Tickets are still available for the 2024 Sake Event: Night at Izakaya on Nov. 8. A VIP reception starts at 5:30 p.m., followed by the main event from 6 to 9 p.m.

This weekend, pumpkins are ripe for smashing in Cambridge. (Photo: Center Grove Orchard)

BEST BET

Smashing pumpkins at Center Grove Orchard

Say goodbye to October with a quaint little tradition called “Pumpkin Destruction” 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Center Grove Orchard in Cambridge, about 15 minutes northeast of Ankeny. Every fall, the orchard invites visitors to pick their own pumpkins in the patch, before they go to the chopping block after Halloween. The main event is at 3 p.m. Saturday, when a crane will pick up and drop pumpkins for an honest-to-gourd explosion. Then, just for good measure, a tractor will run over more pumpkins.

Visitors can participate in various pumpkin-smashing games and a pie-eating contest and visit the store to pick up farm-grown goodies for Thanksgiving (or, let’s be honest, the ride home). Find all the details online.

The Week Ahead

Halloween Game Night (6-9 p.m. Thursday): Head to the New Northwestern Cocktail & Wine Bar for a costume contest, drink specials and various holiday games, where you can win a gift card to the bar. Admission is free.

48-Hour Film Project: Best of Horror (7 p.m. Thursday): Earlier this month, local filmmakers created short horror films over the course of a single 48-hour weekend. They premiere their results on Halloween at the Fleur Cinema, where costumed guests can win a cash prize.

Dinner at Johnny’s (6 p.m. Friday): Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse in West Des Moines hosts a four-course meal with a seasonal menu (including a 6-ounce filet encrusted in pumpkin seeds) and cocktails featuring Osceola’s Revelton Distillery. The distillers will be on hand to meet guests and answer questions.

Iowa Blues Hall of Fame Exhibit (5-9 p.m. Friday): Enjoy live blues during this month’s First Friday open house at Mainframe Studios, where folks from the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame will unveil a new exhibit. The night’s lineup features noted Iowa musicians — including hall of famers JC Anderson, Greg Sutherland and Dwight Dario — playing on each floor while guests browse artwork from 180 tenant artists.

Totally Rad Vintage Fest (10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday): Get a flash from the past at the Iowa Events Center, where ’80s, ’90s and ’00s nostalgia will be on full display. Visitors can shop for clothes and other vintage items and play old-school games in the pop-up arcade.

Beer Yoga (noon Sunday): Beer and yoga may seem like an odd pairing, but at 515 Brewing they’re a perfect match. Why not strike a pose with other fans of yoga and/or beer? YOLO.

Safe place: On Tuesday, Hope Ministries unveiled its new 50,000-square-foot Center for Women and Children at the Hope Ministries Steve Lankford Campus at 3800 E. Douglas Ave., the former site of Douglas Elementary School. The center will provide short-term shelter and long-term life recovery programs for single women and mothers with kids who are experiencing homelessness. It includes a commercial kitchen and dining room where Hope Ministries will serve three free meals every day to residents, plus an auditorium, classrooms and rooms for fitness, art therapy, and activities for children and youths.

Many Iowans struggle to find their next meal, and opportunities are available to assist those in need.

PEOPLE & COMMUNITY

Mapping the meal gap

Writer: Mathany Ahmed

Earlier this year, the “Map the Meal Gap” report revealed the worsening reality of Iowa’s hunger crisis. The annual report from the nonprofit Feeding America showed that nearly 11% of Iowans — about 344,550 people — don’t know where their next meal is coming from. More than 110,500 of those Iowans are children.

For a closer look at the numbers, we sat down with Annette Hacker, the Food Bank of Iowa’s vice president of communications.

“Food insecurity was already high during COVID-19, but it began to subside a bit in late 2021 and early 2022,” she said. “Then, as pandemic-era relief programs ended in April 2022, we saw a consistent monthly rise in food insecurity. It’s been skyrocketing ever since.”

In 2023, the Food Bank of Iowa distributed 30% more food — more than 22.5 million pounds — than the previous year. Certain areas have been hit especially hard, including Lucas and Clarke counties in south-central Iowa, where food insecurity rates top 13%.

Nearly $246 million is needed to resolve the state’s food needs, a staggering sum that can make the average Iowan feel overwhelmed by the scale of the problem. While the causes of food insecurity are often structural, individuals can still make a difference when they pitch in. “Nobody can do it all, but everybody can do something,” Hacker said.

How you can help

Donate funds
“We can do the most with money,” Hacker said. Financial donations allow food banks to buy what they need in bulk, which helps stretch every dollar. At the Food Bank of Iowa, 96 cents of every dollar goes toward feeding someone in need. “Instead of buying a can of vegetables for a dollar at the store,” Hacker said, “we can buy five cans with that same dollar.”

Donate food
Nonperishable food donations like canned vegetables, pasta, rice and cereals are always in demand. Check with your local food bank to see what items they need most.

Volunteer your time
If you want a hands-on way to help, consider volunteering. You can help sort and pack food, distribute meals or assist with administrative tasks. “Volunteering at the food bank is a really fun and rewarding experience,” Hacker said. “If you ask any of our volunteers, they’ll say if you try it once, you’ll be hooked.”

Advocate for policy changes
“The problem is poverty,” Hacker said. “It’s not a coincidence that 11% of people in this state live in poverty, and 10.8% of them are food insecure.” Coming together as a community to advocate for policy changes can create lasting changes that can alleviate poverty, and by extension, hunger.

For more information on how you can help, visit the Food Bank of Iowa’s website at foodbankiowa.org.

Iowa Stops Hunger is an ongoing Business Publications Corp. initiative to raise awareness about food insecurity in Iowa and inspire action to combat it.