Tokyofoodcast

Small pleasures 001: Chou a la Creme from Le Fromage

Growing up in New England before the era of foodie-ism, the local corner bakery either didn’t exist, or was most likely Dunkin Donuts for a lot of my early years. Au Bon Pain and Vie de France were better, but not great improvements. So, one of the things I do love about living in Japan, [...]

Et-chan: Nihonshu covergirl!

If you look very closely at the photo on the cover of the March issue of Dancyu, you’ll see Et-chan.

Sake of the week #044: Can’t keep up!

When faced with a choice between visiting kura, picking up bottles of the freshest sake, entertaining visiting nihonshu fans, working, visiting more kura, and doing a MeetUp–or writing up the latest Sake of the Week, our brains gave out.

Sake of the Week #043: Hokushika Junmaishu “Icehouse”

This sake is a special one for me. Not just because it is a complex and enjoyable brew, but because of where–and more specifically who–it came from. One of my students who will graduate next month brought me this bottle from her hometown because she knew how much I’d enjoy it.

Sake of the Week #039: Gangi Kassei Nigori Nama

In a moment of calm before people arrived and dinner got started, I tried to get a decent picture of the bottle. If you look closely, it has a little keitai strap charm hanging around the neck. It reads 噴き出し注意 or “Caution! Spouting!”. When I bought this, the staff at the store were careful to warn me and I did need a towel to catch some of the overflow. The little warning charm will probably go on my keychain or phone soon.

Happy New Year 2010

Our traditional Happy New Year card. Wishing you all good food and good sake in 2010.

Sake of the week #037: SakéOne on Basic Brewing Video

I’ve been watching the Basic Brewing Video Podcast for years. James and Steve are great fun to watch and hit just the right balance of fun and brewing otakuness as they explore fermentation and food. As you might guess from the name, the focus is on beer, but they like to branch out now and then too with podcasts on mead and even sake. This two part series on the SakéOne brewery of Forest Grove, Oregon is definitely worth watching.

Sake of the week #036: Juji Asahi Orochi no Mai 15BY

Back home, I started a pot of polenta going and layered some in a dish with gorgonzola to finish in the toaster oven. Then, I put the fennel, carrots, kabu, leeks, daikon, and onion in the roaster to get started. Two of the pork steaks got a little black pepper but that was about it before a searing in the pan and then deglazing with calvados and Heering cherry liqueur. The steaks went in the roaster with all the juices and some bits of dried fig too.

At this point I had posed myself a problem without giving it any thought. What sake was going to go with a roasted dinner like this?

Sake of the week #032: Shichihonyari Junmai 80% Nama Genshu

It wasn’t long ago that Et-chan waxed rhapsodic about Shichihonyari, but I couldn’t resist coming back to them this week. The fact that we had two bottles in the fridge that we had ordered after Tomita Shuzo’s recent visit to Takase-sensei’s benkyokai helped.

Sake of the Week #028: Sagaminada Tokubetsu Junmai is my new local

One reason why Sagaminada caught my interest is that they are almost my second “local”. Work takes me out to Machida and Sagamihara everyday, so these guys are my nearest sake brewery. They really have respect from their community.