If you’re seriously into sake, or intend to be so, we suggest going to this article before jumping to the rest of ELV’s post.
Sake is one hot beverage, although you should never serve it that way. Ten years ago, when there were only a handful of Japanese restaurants in town, instead of one on every corner, sake was served warm in small, square wooden cups. These days you’d no more find such low-born blasphemy being visited upon premium sake than you would catching Aureole serving riesling in a mason jar.
What we love about sake are its clean, fresh and unique flavor profiles. It’s lower priced than premium wines and is the only drink that truly compliments Japanese cuisine (although we’ve often seen Japanese businessmen pounding Scotch(!?) throughout an omakase at expensive sushi restaurants.) Sake’s alcohol content is slightly higher than wine, but like everything else in Japanese food, delicacy and moderation are the rules for consumption. And like wine, it is a highly civilized drink not meant to be gulped.
What we hate about sake, is its delicacy, elusiveness and inscrutability. Like many things in Japanese cuisine, it can be subtle to the point of invisiblility. And just after we’d spent twenty years learning about wine so we could discuss brix, residual sugar, stirring the lees and micro-oxygenation without sounding like these guys, along comes a whole new sophisticated beverage to further confound and confuse us.
But the longest journey begins with that first step and there was no better place to take those strides than at a tasting of premium sakes last Thursday at Shibuya as part of Restaurant Week. For fifteen dollars, 36 sakes were lined up before you to taste and discuss. Sake guru Eric Swanson (the former sake sommelier at Shibuya) was on hand to answer questions (and organized the tasting), and several hundred people showed up (at 11:00 PM no less) to partake and ponder this mysterious beverage.
For those looking to educate themselves, Shibuya has the largest list in town (and a good by-the-glass selection.) Yellowtail in the Bellagio is also serious about its sake, as is Hachi at Red Rock, and Okada at Wynn. All have sake sommeliers who are brimming with enthusiasm and information*….so take the plunge!
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
* If there are others out there, ELV would appreciate getting a heads up from his loyal readership.
Once you start talking the fine points of Hungarian vs. Czech and which cooper does the best job finishing the barrel at a wine tasting, it’s time to admit you have no life and learn something else.
Sake remains a great mystery. Like wine it comes in so many varieties, but we rarely get a chance to try them and learn. I did a tasting at Nagano, liked what I tasted, bought a couple bottles and later decided I’d like some more. After all, you can get anything on the Internet.
Oh well, the only English words on the packaging confirmed things. Special bottling, only sold where I bought it. What a great opportunity to lean and start figuring out what styles you like. Thanks for sharing.
Oh, and for what it’s worth, it seems that I drank out of the same square wood cups when I got Sake at the sushi bar hiding in the back of Morimoto’s in Philadelphia.