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Tasting Sake

One nondescript conference room. Sixteen bottles of sake. A half dozen of the best sake-tasting palates in New York. Henry Sidel, who runs Joto Sake, pulled together this group last week to evaluate a bunch of brews he recently brought back from Japan. He invited me to join in and observe.

February 8, 2009

Making Sake

At 8am the toji, the sake brew master, makes his morning rounds. He inspects the moto, a mingling of rice, water, koji rice, yeast and lactic acid that fulminates for about two weeks. He steps into the warm, fecund koji room to check out cottony mold blooming on steamed rice spread on large wooden trays. He works a twelve foot pole to stir the moromi -- the sake mash -- moto, rice, water and koji percolating in thirteen hundred gallon steel tanks, a mixture like gurgling oatmeal that ferments for about twenty five days before being pressed to release clear liquid -- sake.

March 25, 2009

The Right Temperature To Serve Sake: A Guide

I remember the first time I tasted sake, and sushi for that matter, back when I was in college in the 80s. A friend who studied in Japan took me to a sushi bar on Irving Place in Manhattan, where he introduced me to raw fish on rice and sake served as hot as a steaming mug of coffee.

February 7, 2010

akita sake

When I sat down with my friends Chizuko Niikawa and Akiko Ito today, both Akita natives, both sake experts, I posed a simple question: What makes Akita sake so special?

April 4, 2008

"Secrets of the Sake Brewery" Tasting and Fundraiser for Tsunami Relief at Matsuri!

Please join Chef Tadashi Ono and Sake Samurai Timothy Sullivan, with yours truly as moderator, for an important fundraiser for Japan earthquake/tsunami relief at Matsuri restaurant on Tuesday, April 12th at 7pm. The fundraiser will be very special workshop and tasting that goes behind the scenes at Japan's legendary Dassai sake brewery, where Timothy has just spent two months training.

April 1, 2011

Monster Sake Tasting at EN

Sake lovers, take note: My pals Reika and Jesse at EN Japanese Brasserie in lower Manhattan are holding their annual monster sake and shochu tasting this Saturday from 3p to 5:30p.

May 17, 2011

Rick and Hiroko's Holiday Sake

A hearty congratulations to my friends Rick and Hiroko (that's her in picture) on the one year anniversary of their wonderful shop Sakaya, the only store on the East Coast dedicated to premium, small-batch, artisanal sake and shochu. In honor of their milestone -- and to help us all find a great some sake -- I asked them to recommend a few of their favorite bottles of nihonshu for the holidays.

December 20, 2008

Sake and Salt Poached Flounder

At the farmers market, Atsushi and I spotted local Long Island Sound flounder, in peak season right now. I asked him how to prepare this delicately fish and he suggested poaching it in sake and salt, a simple method to subtly and elegantly express its flavors. We picked up a bunch, iced them down, and brought them over to Chef Tadashi Ono's house to prepare for his family (hey, I wan't the only enjoying Atsushi's cooking!).

August 6, 2008

Steaming Large Clams with Dashi & Sake

I found these big, hunky clams at the farmers market this weekend, each at least 2 inches across. But how to prepare them? My wife Momo found a bunch of recipes online, but we decided to go as simple as possible -- steam them with sake.

November 15, 2011

Sake-Steamed Whole Chicken

Here's a simple method my pal and coauthor Chef Tadashi Ono of Matsuri mentioned to me last week: Steaming a whole chicken with sake. It couldn't be easier.

February 8, 2010

Videos: Clam Soup and Sake-Steamed Clams

In these two videos Chef Abe demonstrates two great techniques for clams, both easy and delicious. For the clam soup he uses Little Neck clams, and for the sake-steamed technique (sakamushi) he uses smaller Manila clams.

November 19, 2010

old school sake

August 18, 2007

sake 'n cheese

August 5, 2006

wada sake brewery

February 20, 2006

Tokyo Station Sake

March 24, 2009

Tasting: Sake Temperature

January 25, 2010

Joto Sake Event and Tasting at Matsuri

October 19, 2009

Blind Sake Tasting Challenge!

January 16, 2010

Seabass Simmered in Sake and Soy Sauce

Here's another dish that makes use of the invaluable otoshibuta. Atsushi and I picked up a small whole sea bass from the farmers market, so fresh its eyes were crystal clear and gills bright red. We cleaned and scaled it and decided to simmer it whole, something I've wanted to learn how to do.

August 20, 2008

Matsuri Hot Pot and Sake Pairing

November 17, 2009

Hot Pots & Sake at Matsuri

November 3, 2009

Sake & Cheese Tasting

November 12, 2009

Sake World

November 7, 2007

Nihonshudō NYC ("The Way of Sake")

October 30, 2007

Joto Sake

November 7, 2007

Register for Workshop and Tasting at Saveur Magazine!

Please join me as I moderate: "From Soba to Artichokes: Vegetarian Cooking, Japanese-style," featuring Chef Masato Nishihara of Kajitsu restaurant, at the Saveur test kitchen on Monday, October 26th from 7p to 9:30p, featuring a sake sampling from boutique importer Joto Sake.

October 1, 2009

sakekasu-cured grilled fish

I became interested in sakekasu (or sake kasu) at Matsuri, the restaurant where I volunteer as a cook. Chef Ono prepares his delicious version of glazed black cod by first marinating the fish for several days in a mixture that includes sakekasu. I wondered about the effect of this ingredient. But before I get into this, let me pause for a quick definition:

December 27, 2007

freestyle hotpot

After I wrote about nabe, or home-style hotpot cooking, last month, I asked a friend in Japan to research the many regional varieties of this social and comforting soul food. She just sent me a list of twenty styles of nabe, dishes prepared with salmon, tuna, octopus, pork, chicken, root vegetables, even wild boar and snapping turtle. These hotpots all reflect local foods, customs and geography, and their histories and lore are absolutely fascinating: One traces back to the cooking of Japanese pirates, another originated with bear hunters. There's a nabe invented by sake makers living inside breweries during production season and one that's supposed to be eaten in the dark (yikes!). There's even a nabe invented in 2005 to commemorate the merger of three cities. Like I said, fascinating.

January 28, 2008

On Cooking Sukiyaki

Sukiyaki, of course, is a classic shaved beef hot pot traditionally cooked in a special cast-iron pot. We love getting down with sukiyaki on a frigid winter night here at Brooklyn mission control. Especially when paired with a glass of great sake.

January 30, 2012

Onion Salad with Miso Dressing

A couple of weeks ago a Japanese government representative here in New York handed me an interesting pamphlet called "A Guide to Japanese Ingredients," listing food producers and their ingredients, as well as a few recipes. One dish in particular caught my eye, for onion salad. The restaurant Yakitori Totto (which I love and should have mentioned in my restaurant post!) features it and it's fantastic. It's a kind of aemono, "dressed things," which, according to "Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art," is Japanese-style salad of several raw or cooked and cooled ingredients tossed with a dressing. Typical aemono dressings are vinegar-based and thickened with pureed tofu, ground sesame or miso. Just like the one in the recipe below. This dish makes a tasty small plate to accompany sake at the beginning of a meal.

May 11, 2008