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...
A step-by-step recipe to making your own amazake, sweet sake, at home.
Complimentary amazake (sweet hot sake) at Anko-dou, a manju/ gift shop in Gunma prefecture.
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...
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...
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...
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?...
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...
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...
A step-by-step guide on how to make Japanese sake lees pickles, or kasuzuke.
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...
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...
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...
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...
Last week, Urban Sake's Timothy Sullivan was kind enough to invite me to his ongoing sake tasting course, "The Elements of Sake" at the Astor Wine and Liquor Shop's...
