 |
|
 |
|
|
| |
Toppage ＞ Shudo - The Way of Sake＞ chapter2 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
| The man must have been singing the erotic song loudly in the bar, along with other drunks ? but he was sober enough to lower his voice once he was alone outside the bar. |
|
 |
|
 |
Midwinter Sake with Yuzu Flavor |
|
| |
|
|
| |
 Yuzu is a citrus fruit native to East Asia that ripens in the middle of winter. The golden fruits found amid dark green leaves under the clear winter sky are high in acidity (9%) and has a strong aroma. Fresh-squeezed yuzu juice is often used to add flavor to Japanese-style dishes like broiled fish and steamed chicken.
Japanese cooks would shave thin strips off yuzu skin and sprinkle them over suimono clear soup or chawan-mushi (unsweetened custard-pudding-like dish). You can also put a strip of yuzu skin in the cup before you pour sake and enjoy the flavor.
The Midwinter day, when the day is the shortest and the night is the longest, is called Toji in Japanese. It is a Japanese tradition to bathe in hot water flavored with yuzu fruits on the Midwinter day for good luck. There is also an old saying that you’re your hip warm if you rub your skin with yuzu fruits. Yuzu-flavored midwinter sake served after a hot bath would surely warm you up further. After that, a traditional midwinter meal with boiled and seasoned pumpkins, and rice and adzuki beans porridge flavored with another kind of citrus, kinkan, should bring a perfect ending to your Midwinter day.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Toshikoshi-zake, Sake on New Year’s Eve |
|
| |
It is always nice to have soba noodles with your family on New Year’s Eve, after getting everything ready for the New Year’s Day. A hot bowl of soba is welcome on a cold winter night, but a sake-lover might prefer soba served cold with hot tempura deep-fried shrimp and vegetables. Chilled but not too cold ginj?-shu (Choice-Draft), or warm but not too hot junmai-shu (100%-Rice Brewage) to go with soba will complete a New Year’s Eve traditional Japanese-style, as you listen to the bells tolled at Buddhist temples before midnight. |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
Sakazuki (sake cup)
Courier that Carries Sake to Your Lips
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
 This month, we will talk about sakazuki or small sake cups.
In ancient times, sake was often served in crude, unglazed earthenware cups. During the Middle Ages, about 500 to 1,000 years back, the nobles drank sake served in lacquered wooden cups. Chinaware sake cups, called choko, gradually replaced wooden ones afterward.
Choko was originally used to serve side dishes with dressings. But around the 17th century, people began to use choko to serve sake or sauce to dip soba noodles. At the same time, size of choko for sake grew smaller.
Some Japanese-style bars have a large assortment of choko from which customers can choose the ones they like. Still, it is often difficult to find one that exactly suits one’s taste.
So-called tsuchi-mono, or pottery sake cups, are often thick, simple in shape and unsophisticated to touch.
There are many pottery production centers across Japan that produce good choko ? Seto, Tokoname, Echizen, Tamba, Bizen, and Shigaraki are six of the oldest production centers. Others include Mino, Karatsu and Raku. Each produces unique and characteristic drinking cups.
Ceramic chokos are harder and whiter than pottery chokos. The best-known ceramic production centers are Arita and Kiyomizu. Ceramic sake cups have thin edges and sake naturally flows into your mouth when you put the cup to your lips. Many sake-lovers prefer the touch of ceramic cups.
Today, many amateur potters make sake cups that match their taste.
It may be fun to bring your favorite sake cup to a drinking party. Sake cup is a courier that carries sake to your lips. If you love and treasure sake, you might love and treasure the courier as well. And choosing a good sake cup should surely improve the taste of sake you enjoy.
When you bring your own cup, make sure you tell the host beforehand.
It would surely make a fun party if each guest brought his or her favorite cup and talk about them as they drink. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
『Fructose Helps Get Rid of Hangovers』
When we drink sake, alcohol turns into acetaldehyde, which has adverse effects on our body. This causes hangover.
The best way to overcome hangover is to get rid of acetaldehyde by drinking a lot of water, tea or fruit juice ? drinking a lot of juice is especially effective because it contains a lot of fructose.
Once fructose enters your body, it quickly resolves and during the process, it promotes resolution of alcohol. Fructose will not be stored in body as an energy source like glucose.
Moreover, level of potassium in your blood drops and amount of lactic acid increases when you drink too much, causing fatigue. But food rich in fructose often contains much potassium as well, and helps you recover from the fatigue. So it’s like killing two birds with a stone ? drink fruit juice after sake! |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
『Cod』 |
|
| |
 Winter is the season for cods. A Chinese character for cod consists of two symbols, one for “fish” and the other for “snow.” Some say it is because cods are the best during the snow season. Others say it is because cod meat is as white as snow. Either way, the fish is the most delicious from December to February when they spawn. The best way to serve fresh cod is in raw, as sashimi, but since the meat is rather tender, you might as well serve it marinated between kombu kelp. When you cook cod with vegetables in a pot (tara-chiri), never forget to serve milt along. Cod milt makes a delicious dish when you boil it lightly, cut it into pieces and serve it in soy sauce mixed with citrus juice along with grated daikon radish, red hot pepper and chopped scallions. Cod roes also go along with sake very well when cooked in soy sauce and sugar. |
|
| |
|
|
| |
『Oyster』 |
|
| |
 Winter is also the season for oysters. Unlike many other kinds of fish, wild oysters are rather rare and most of the oysters we eat are raised in farms. Recently it became relatively easy to buy fresh oysters in shell. Baked oyster is a juicy and tasty treat of winter. Oyster is often called “the Sea Milk,” because it is rich in vitamins and minerals, especially iodine and iron. It is one of a few seashells that are easy to digest and goes really well along sake.>
| |
|
| Translated by Stephen Hanson
|
|
|
