Ebi Chili is the best example of a dish that has been Japanified. It was originally created in the 1950s by a Chinese immigrant in Japan, taking cues from Sichuan-style cooking. It’s a shrimp dish that has a little spice and a little sweetness, perfect for the Japanese palate that typically can’t handle serious heat.

I remember loving Ebi Chili as a kid.

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Amazake literally translates to “sweet sake” which is deceiving considering it’s non-alcoholic. It’s sweet, milky and easy to digest, making it perfect for kids or adults with an upset stomach.

Amazake is made by combining koji with cooked rice, which allows the rice to break down into simple sugars. This is the first step to sake-making. After this step, making sake involves fermentation, pasteurization and filteration and achieves an ABV of around 15%.

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Complimentary amazake (sweet hot sake) at Anko-dou, a manju/ gift shop in Gunma prefecture.

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Infusions are pretty common at PDT, since they’re a great way to add a particular flavor to a cocktail without having to add more volume to a drink, which is what would happen if you added the flavor by way of say, a flavored syrup. This is because the particular flavor that you’re trying to impart is added to the spirit, and because alcohol functions as an extractant, it pulls out the flavor of whatever herb or spice you’ve added, and retains that flavor after you’ve strained out the solids.

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That’s right, we’re hosting a FREE sake tasting at the shop this Thursday. If you’ve ever wanted to learn the differences between a nama, junmai, and ginjo, now is your chance!

WHAT: We’ll be serving various types of sake at different temperatures to compare the differences in taste and structure of the sake.

WHEN: Thursday 8/30 from 6-8pm

TIX PRICE: Free // Please RSVP to hello@umamimart.com

WHERE: Umami Mart
815 Broadway
Oakland, Pop-Up Hood
BART: 12th Street
Google Map

As a refresher courses, make sure to read Yoko’s comprehensive guide to regular vs.

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Shio koji, or 塩麹 (salted koji) is a going through a major boom in Japan right now. What is it?  It is a mix of salt and koji mold. Wiki says, “Koji (Aspergillus oryzae) is a mold used in Chinese and Japanese cuisine to ferment soybeans. It is also used in the making of alcoholic beverages such as sake, and shochu.”

Basically koji is used to make miso and sake, to get its distinctive flavors.

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Did you know sake officially became Japan’s national booze? It was announced in April I didn’t know there was such a thing as a “national liquor”, but I guess it’s similar to vodka for Russia, and whisky in the UK?, what’s for America? Budweiser?

Anyhow, Japan Society’s annual sake tasting event is coming back next Tuesday evening. I don’t know if you remember last year, but the topic was the most basic stuff — hot vs cold, daiginjo vs ginjo, etc.

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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 some extent, right? So I stepped in to find out that I was right.

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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 father’s generation (ojisan aka old men).

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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 cheap, next to the okara (tofu lees) in a Japanese or Asian market.

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