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 #031: Hagi no Tsuyu Genryu Wataribune Ginjo Junmai Muroka

Fully 85% of Hagi no Tsuyu brew stays right at its home prefecture, consumed in Shiga. Somehow in Tokyofoodcast’s fridge, though, their Genryu Wataribune Ginjo Junmai Muroka gets refilled every time we finish one. It’s one of those bottles on auto-refill mode whenever I go to Mitsuya in Nishi Ogi.

Sake of the week #021: Kamekameha Sumeragi Junmai Daiginjo

During the first week of August, at a tasting event planned by the Nomu Rangerswe invited Uehara-san from Uehara Shuzo, Shiga, who is famous for the very robust Furosen brand, as our special guest. As we were getting ready for the tasting, I almost had another “oops” moment. I was putting the 12 bottles up for display, when I heard that the second one was called Kamehameha. “Uehara-san is going Hawaian!”, I thought. I looked at the label carefully before I said anything and saw no picture of King Kamehameha. Instead, three very square kanji read, Kamekameha.

Funazushi Finale

Funazushi at Kitashina

In a series of recent posts, I summarized the very special food that is funazushi: where we had good funazushi and the history and traditions behind this special dish from Shiga. I’ll finally finish off this Shiga cuisine series for now. That is until our next trip to uncover more yummy places for [...]

Making Funazushi

No, this is not how to make your own stinky-fish treats at home. Although, you could probably make a decent start after watching this video. Previously at Tokyofoodcast, Et-chan described the amazing dishes we had at Kitashina and briefly how Okami-san gave a demonstration of her fish preparation technique.
So, I’d like to introduce my new [...]

Dishes from Japan’s biggest lake

At Kitashina

Omi Takashima station lies on the west coast of Lake Biwa in Shiga only one hour away from Kyoto by local JR train. With that kind of proximity to the ancient capital, I was expecting another commuter suburb with an AEON or equivalent generic shopping center and a Tsutaya. When we arrived at the [...]

Funazushi 101

Funazushi at Kitashina, Shiga

Funazushi as we see it today is widely known as the signature Shiga dish that has been passed down from generation to generation. Whether because of its stinky nature or just the idea of miraculous micro-organisms hard at work in your food, this dish provokes passionate discussion, splitting people into two groups: [...]

Tokyofoodcast on the Trail of Funazushi

Funazushi at Kitashina, Takashima, Shiga

Last year, I was in Nagahama, Shiga for Funazushi for the first time in my life! This year, we had a special opportunity to sample two very good, but quite different forms of the original sushi. Funazushi has been made of fresh water fish from Lake Biwa since at least the [...]

Sake of the week #003: Furosen Adoberry from Adogawa

Adoberry from Adogawa

Just like umeshu is not sake, this bottle of boysenberry liqueur from Uehara Shuzo is not exactly sake either. It is made with boysenberries, sugar, and junmaishu-a very special junmaishu.
This week I made a big circle through Shiga Prefecture going around Lake Biwa and visited three very good sake sake breweries: Uehara Shuzo, [...]

Funazushi in Shiga: The origin of sushi

Finally, we are off the evil black list. Gee, it really felt like we did something wrong to have the tag pop up with the warning whenever our website comes up.
So, finally, we are back to business as usual. As I was reading Kyoto Foodie’s post on the kikizake event in Otsu, Shiga, although [...]