June 12, 2012
By Shizuka Wakashita One day I had to run errands near a local wine shop and it suddenly occurred to me that maybe this shop has some jizake (sake produced by smaller breweries, or as with beer, “micro breweries”). If they are passionate about wines they must be for sake as well, at least to […]
January 19, 2012
Back in Cupertino, Kuni (my pops) had a huge bag of fuguhire (dried blowfish tails) from Tsukiji market, which he is grills to make fuguhire zake. These tails are from the blowfish variety tora-fugu or “tiger fugu”. Fuguhire zake is a common way to drink hot sake in Japan during the cold winters, at least amongst my […]
January 5, 2012
If you can get your hands on sake kasu (sake lees, a yeast by-product of sake making) a subculture of cooking opens up to you. Most commonly used for marinating fish and pickling, sake kasu looks like pizza dough with the consistency of wet clay and aroma of nama (unpasteurized) sake. It’s usually available for […]
April 28, 2011
Annual Sake Tasting & Lecture: Back to Basics! Tuesday, May 10 @ 6:30 pm Japan Society, NYC Every year, Japan Society hosts a sake lecture and tasting, inviting dozens of brewers from Japan. Over the years, we’ve covered so many topics on sake–from water, rice, milling, sake vessels, molds, to even bottling. Sake is becoming […]
February 16, 2011
I regretfully report that Anders, aka Skankynavia and Packaging Whore columnist, is on sabbatical for the next few weeks, and will be returning in mid-March. Sorry, Martians! I know you all adore his posts, but our resident SkankMaster will be hibernating for the rest of the winter. It’s chilly up there in SkankyLand. I’ll be […]
February 3, 2011
I am excited to continue with Part Two of my sake series this week on Japanify. In my first post titled Futsushu vs. Tokutei Meishoshu, I described the difference between ordinary and premium sakes. We are now ready to define the different types of tokutei meishoshu (premium sake)–there are six types in all that each […]
January 27, 2011
I had many opportunities during my first six months living in Japan to get really unpleasant hangovers from sake. This was mainly because I was living off a wage that made me think “Did I miss my stop and end up in China?” while drinking a lot of cheap sake. Nevertheless, the job was awesome–I […]
April 6, 2009
Yep, it’s the season for Japan Society’s annual sake tasting. Get your tickets before it sells out! This year’s focus is on Koji, the mold, the heart, the most important ingredients in sake making.Hope to see many of you! ANNUAL SAKE TASTING AND LECTUREWithout Koji, There is No SakeTuesday, May 19, 20096:30 pm @ Japan […]
March 18, 2009
After another late Tuesday night filled with drunken cocktail tinkering for today’s Happy Hour column, I’m back with the 2nd installment of the two-part primer on simple syrups. In case you missed last week, you can check out Part I here. Last week I showed you how to infuse simple syrups with fresh herbs and […]
March 19, 2008
It’s pretty cool this year. You will get to taste sake that you will never be able to in this country. Brewers will bring sakes that are submitted to this year’s National Sake Appraisal to be held in May this year. New Sake is very intense, and is truly a rare opportunity. Hurry and buy […]