Izumibashi(いずみ橋) tasting dinner at Ryu's

Last night, I went to Izumibashi sake tasting dinner at Ryu's. What a lucky I am that I could meet Mr. Hashiba from Izumibashi and taste their beautiful sake in Singapore !!! 

Izumibashi was founded in 1857 and Mr. Hashiba is the 6th generation of the family. They are one of a few breweries to make sake from growing rice at local fields, polish rice and brew sake at own brewery like "Domaine" of wine in France. They brew only Junmai-shu.

 

最近、マイブームの和食屋＆燗酒屋、柳'sで開催された酒蔵『いづみ橋』の利き酒会に行ってきました。

まさか、いずみ橋の橋場友一さんにシンガポールでお目にかかれるとは・・・・何とラッキーな。

 

Mr. Sakuma from Ryu's (left) and Mr. Hashiba from Izumibashi (right) in the left photo

I enjoyed a perfect marriage between wonderful dishes perfectly designed for kanzake (hot/warm sake) from Ryu's and Izumibashi Junmai-shu served by the professional of making warm/hot sake. Guess how difficult it is to warm sake at the right temperature without thermometer ? 

 

柳'sのおいしいお料理と、燗酒のプロにより適温に燗された「いずみ橋」の生酛・山廃とのマリアージュ。

何ともいえない至福の時でした。

 

1. 夏ヤゴ にごり酒～純米活性～　Nigori  Sparkling - Lively sparkling with umami taste from rice.

2. いづみ橋　生もと　山田錦  Kimoto Junmai (Yamada Nishiki) - Felt more smoother than Yamahai (4)

3. 秋とんぼ　山廃　雄町   Yamahai Junmai (Omachi) - Fantastic balance between acidity and umami 

4. 秋とんぼ　山廃　山田錦  Yamahai Junmai (Yamada Nishiki) - Stronger body than Kimoto (2)

5. いづみ橋　神力　生もと純米酒  Kimoto Junmai (Shinriki) - very refreshing and smooth flavour. felt less umami and clearer than Kimoto Yamada Nishiki (2).

 

 

Kanpai!!!

Oishii Japan 2015

Oishii Japan is ASEAN's largest dedicated Japanese F&B Showcase in Singapore and it was held on 22-24 Oct 2015 at Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibision Centre in Singapore. This year, there were more than 300 exihibitors from Japan were participated in the show and exihibited lots of Japanese seafood, sake, vegetables/fruits, pickles, earthwares, meat etc.

 

My focus this time was to reunion to 2 shochu distilleries that I visited during the last Kagoshima trip on Jun-July 2015 and taste/learn shochu more because I can hardly have a chace to taste such a variety of shochu in Singapore. (Please refer what's SHOCHU if you don't know.)

 

Reunioned 2 distilleries;

• Yamamoto Shuzo distillery (Left) -> blog when I visited them will be uploaded shortly.
  • Tasted their signature brand of "Tekkan Kuro" and "Tekkan" to compair the difference between kuro koji (black mold) and shiro koji (white mold). It is usually told that shiro koji is lighter and sharp while kuro koji is richer and mellow flavor. Could I find the difference ? - When I taste with straight, not really. Mix with water - yes, I could feel that kuro koji is more mild and soft than shiro koji. This is a great experience to know it.
  • The brand are already in the market of Singapore, you will find them at Isetan or Meidiya.
• Jikuya Shuzo distillery (Right) -> please refer the previous blog here when I visited them.
  • As wrote in the blog, they are a small distillery and the brand has not arrived in Singapore yet.
  • They brought a few different types of shochu for the exihibition.
    • Shibi-no-tsuyu Sou: A very light and refreshing imo (sweet potato) shochu bottled in a stylish blue bottle (shown in the picture below). As It was specially designed to suit for summer, perfect shochu in Singapore, a tropical country and some of them may be released in Singapore soon.
    • Grape Liqueur: This is a liqueur made by mixing sweet popato shochu and grape juice. Surprisingly you don't feel any sweet potato flavour. It tastes like wine.
    • Satsuma Koukaden: Sweet potato shochu made from purple sweet potato. The gorgeous aroma with a natural sweetness from sweet potato, rich and mellow flavour.

 

Other shochu distilleries from Kyushu area in Japan I met in the exihibition.

 

(Pictures - Left side from top to bottom)

Ikinokura Distillery Co., Ltd (Nagasaki Prefecture) - They are located in a small island called Iki. Iki island is the birthplace of mugi(barley) shochu in Japan. The brand "Ikinoshima" has toasty/mellow aroma with a rich taste. I love it!!!

 

Kyoya Distiller & Brewer Co., Ltd (Miyazaki Prefecture) - Picture with their signature brand of Kameshizuku(甕雫) and  jasmine tea liqueur. Kameshizuku was a very smooth, light and soft sweet popato shochu bottled in a jar earthware. It was great!!!  The flavour of jasmine tea liquer was the one for real jasmine tea itself, made by mixing shochu and jasmine tea.

 

SENGETSU Shuzo (Kumamoto Prefecture) - They produce shochu made from rice, which flavour is a bit simillar to sake. A rice shochu made in the area is specially called Kuma Shochu. This time, Singaporean really loved their red-shiso (Japanese herb) liqueur (pink box in the picture).  

 

(Pictures - Right side from top to bottom)

SATSUMA Shuzo (Kagoshima Prefecture) - One of the leading sweet potato shochu maker in Japan. Their brand "Satsuma Shiranami" is my regular banshaku shochu at home. I tasted 3 sweet potato shochus with different type of koji mold, yellow koji, white koji, and black koji. I could identify the different flovour of yellow koji while white and black koji were identical... They recommend to try it by mixing with hot water. I will definitely try it again!!

 

Kitaya (Fukuoka Prefecture) - They produce shochu as well as sake. They makes a variety of shochu such as rice, barley, sweet potatos and liquer. Singaporean also likes their KOIZORA - Umeshu (plum liquer).

 

Sanwa Shurui Co., Ltd (Oita Prefecture) - All shochu fan may know their brand "Iichiko", a leading brand of mugi (barley) shochu. This was the first time for me to know and taste Iichiko sweet potato shochu called "Iichiko Kogane no Imo", which I thought is good to drink by mixing with hot water due to the strong/musculine flavour.

 

 

 

 

A shochu seminar was held on 23rd Oct at ABC cooking school after the exhibition. 100+ participants were seriously learn what shochu is and enjoyed the tastings with food pairing. I am looking forward to the day that shochu becomes as popular as wine or sake in Singapore.

 Kampai!!!

Banshaku (晩酌)

“Banshaku(晩酌)” is Japanese word which means drinking alcohole at home from evening to night time such as dinner time, or a habit of drinking sake at these time.

My father of 75 years old  has had “banshaku” every night for more than 50 years. He seldom goes out for drinking or dinner because he really enjoy his own “banshaku” with his favorite sake (in this case, sake means alcoholic beverages in general) and small meals that are specially prepared to match with sake. I do remember that his “banshaku” meals looked very yummy and I alway wished I could eat it when I was a child. As he is getting old, he can’t drink a lot now, but I can still see him enjoy the habit. “Banshaku” is a great food culture in Japan and my sweet family memories. 

 

With that, I also like "Banshaku". My "Banshaku" is drink sake (in this case, sake means alcoholic beverages in general) with dinner in weekdays, so I usually chose the best sake which is matching today's dinner. 

 

My today’s banshaku. Imo shochu mixed with hot water and deep-fried chicken with flavored leek source. The fregrant sauce is well matching to Imo shochu’s toasty sweet-potate flavor. Kanpai!

 

 

 

Kabuki performance in Singapore - シンガポールで歌舞伎鑑賞

Do you know Kabuki (歌舞伎)? It is a traditional Japanese form of dance drama with roots tracing back to the Edo Period (the 17th century). It is recognized as one of Japan's three major classical dance drama along with noh and bunraku, and has been named as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

 

Kabuki actors are all male even for female roles. They wear elaborately designed costumes with eye-catching make-up and outlandish wigs, and arguably most importantly, the exaggerated actions performed by the actors. An old-fashioned form of Japanese is tipically used for the performance, which is difficult even for Japanese people like me to fully understand.

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67-bgSFJiKc

 

Today, I enjoyed ”Kabuki” perforemance by Ebizo Ichikawa XI, scion of Japan’s oldest kabuki family, in Singapore.  

He played 3 dramas, "Uwanari 嫐(うわなり)"、" and "Mimasu Kuruwa no Kasauri  三升曲輪傘売（みますくるわのかさうり）" and the other.  While the latter is a brand new piece createdspecially for the Singaporean performance, Uwanari has not been performed in a hundred years, andits debut on the 17th October in Singapore marks a significant moment in kabuki history. 

Although I worried if I could understand, but all stories were very easy to understand even for foreigners who don't understand Japanese.

Jikon tasting (而今 飲み比べ)

昨晩、知人の送別会で訪れたひもの屋さんになんと而今が３種もある！！！ことを発見。人知れず一人二次会して比較試飲してみました。而今は三重県の名張市にある１８１８年創業の老舗の蔵、木屋正（きやしょう）酒造が醸す酒で、日本では非常に人気が高く、入荷してもすぐに売り切れてしまうため、なかなかお目にかかれないお酒です。基本的に吟醸造りながら、 程よいうまみと香りとバランスがよく、しかも余韻がきれいで後を残さない切れのあるお酒です。シンガポールで３種並行テイスティングができるとは、またとない幸運でした。

 

Last night, I visited Himonoya Singapore for a farewell party of my Japanese friend who is going back to Japan. Surprisingly, I found 3 types of "Jikon" there and decided to stay there after the party to taste them by myself. Jikon was produced by Kiyasho brewery which is a small brewery in Mie Prefecture fonded in 1818. It is so popular in Japan that it is sold out very quickly and thus the chances to taste them are quite limited. It is basically made by Ginjo-Zukuri (production method of Ginjo)  and well balanced between aroma and umami flavour with clear and crisp aftertaste. 

It ws really lucky for me to have a parallel tasting of Jikon in Singapore. 

 

Kanpai!!

 

（Left to right)

1. 而今　特別純米 (Jikon Tokubetu Junmai)　―　爽やかで控えめな香り。注いだあと室温くらいになるまで待っていると、旨味が増しおいしくなってきた。非常にコスパの高い味わい。A bit weak but clear aroma. Umami flavour is increased after waiting for a while until it became nearlly room temperature. High cost performance.
2. 而今 純米吟醸 雄町 火入れ (Jikon Junmai Ginjo Omachi Hiire) ―　果実のような甘味・酸味とふくよかな旨みのバランスがよく、とても柔らかな味わい。The balance between sweetness/sourness and umami is very well. Very smooth taste.
3. 而今　純米大吟醸 (Jikon Junmai Daiginjo) ―　とても華やかな香り、スムーズな口当たり、柔らかな味わい、後味は比較的すっきりしている。Very gorgeous aroma, smooth texture, round flavour with relatively crisp after taste.

Mussels x Junmai-shu

(English follows Japanese)

 

ムール貝のビール蒸しに純米酒をあわせてみました。おサレ居酒屋のシェフの日本酒仲間から教えていただいたレシピとマリアージュです。高野酒造（新潟県）越路吹雪 純米酒と共に。ムール貝と純米酒の相性、サイコー！！！かなりいけます。

 

高野酒造（新潟県）越路吹雪 純米酒
まろやかな米の旨みと後味のキレの良い純米酒。常温で。

 

An experiment of sake food pairing. Mussels steamed with bouillon and beer. I got the idea and recipe from one of my sake friend who runs izakaya (Japanese tapas bar) in Tokyo.  I usually pair a steamed mussels with white wine, but it was surprisingly good matching with Junmai-shu. The biteness from beer and umami from bouillon/mussels perfectly go well with sake. Try it.

 

Echigo Fubuki Junmai-shu : Takano Brewery (Niigata Prefecture)

A mild sake with a mellow flavour from rice itself and sharp aftertaste. Enjoy with a room temperature.

 

 

Sake Day in 2015

1st October is considered as the beginning of Sake brewing season.

Wishing a great brew for the year, it is called the Day of Sake or Day of Kanpai (= toast).
This year, about 50 F&B outlets in Singapore conducted Kanpai on the day.

I joined a kanpai event at Lewin Terrace hosted by Sake Samurai “Mariko Kiyonaga” and Sake brewery owners from Nishinoseki Shuzo and Ichishima Shuzo.

The main attraction in the event was "Kanpai" performed at the same time with the event venue in Japan connecting by Skype and 8 French finger food with pairing of 8 kinds of SAKE.

Personally, I was very excited to meet Mariko Kiyonaga san. She is a charming lady with a full of passion for sake. Kanpai!!

 

Photo

• Top left:  with Mr. Ichishima (Ichishima Brewery)
• Top right: Sake #3 and #4
• Centre: with Mariko Kiyonaga san wearing kimono
• Bottom left: Sake #5 and #6 
• Bottom right: Mr.  (Kayashima Brewery)

 

List:

Ishichima Sake Brewery (Niigata Prefecture)

1. Silk Delux Junmai - Creamy stew (white cremy source)

2. Tokubetsu Honjozo - Penne with tomato source

3. Junmai Daiginjo - Snapper carpacio

4. Karen Plum - Cheeze cake

 

Kayashima Sake Brewery (Oita Prefecture)

5. Hana Nigori - Japanese style braised vegetables

6. Tokubetsu Junmai Tezukuri - Beancurd with sesami based source

7. Junmai Daiginjo Fukurodori Shizuku - Snapper carpacio

8. Daiginjo Hizoshu - Foie Gras