Caiparinha with Blackberry from our garden

Blackberries are very vigorous and considered to be weeds around here, but I let them grow at the small corner in my garden because, of course, I want to enjoy the fruit.

I don't really do anything to take care of them. Maybe that's why the fruit tasted good but a little thin by itself.
So JC made them into a cocktail.

Caiparinha with blackberry

Caiparinha is a cocktail from Brazil.
It's made with Cachaça, hard liquor of sugar cane.
Other ingredients are lime, blackberry and raw sugar.
Mint (another weed in the garden) for garnish.

Sweet and sour. Refreshing. And delicious!

Tasting 3 sake

JC had a chance to meet a sake ambassador from Japan the other day. 

He kindly gave him three bottles of sake to try, so we got to taste sake with very different styles. 

Narutotai Mizu to Kome Junmai Genshu (right)
It had pronounced aromas of melon, anise, pear and fennel.
It was clean and had some umami.
Very approachable and I could drink this just by itself.

Tsuki no Katsura  Iwai Junmai (middle)
This sake had more complexity and umami flavors.
It would be good with food.

A・Zen Genmai Koshu Ai(left)
This was an interesting sake: the label didn't tell the seimai-buai (polishing ratio), but it said Genmai (brown rice) so the polishing ratio must be really high (＝polished only a little bit).
It usually means that this sake has richness and a lot of umami flavor.
This is Koshu (aged sake) matured for 5 years.
The aromas and flavors are of mushroom, toffee, caramel and rice crispy.
It had sweetness but not too much.
This sake would be good with rich food.

If sake can be made from brown rice, I wonder if it's possible to use malted rice instead of Koji enzymes to brew sake.
Maybe it would taste like beer...? 

Sake class

I didn't like to study when I was a kid.
Only after I grew up, I realized the fun and excitement of learning.
My life could have been different if I knew it earlier, but I replace this regret with the attitude of better late than never, and now I'm busy learning anything I am interested in.
It means, I took sake class.

The class was held at Takara Sake brewery in Berkeley.

After we learned about the category, style and production methods of sake, we had a tour of the brewery.

At this size of brewery, many of the processes are mechanized.
Rice is steamed and cooled down while they pass through a huge machine, and inoculation of Koji mold is done by this small machine.

Fermentation takes place in huge tanks. There is a floor at the top of the tank for easier access.
This is then pressed by Yabuta shibori machine which were brought into from Japan.

The containers for Ginjo sake fermentation were relatively small.

This brewery also has Sake museum.
They display the tools that were used for traditional sake making.

At this class, we got to try many sake from all over Japan, from Honjozo to Muroka Nama Genshu to Kijoshu (sweet sake).
Sake has more variety of styles and flavors than I thought.
The flavor of sake doesn't change of course, but it somehow taste better if I had more knowledge about them.

Full of Wasabi

We are lucky to live near good fish market.
It's a little pricey but  has quality to match and people are knowledgeable and friendly, so we do most of our shopping here.
Being a loyal customer for more than a decade is sometimes rewarded with great surprise like this:

Big wasabi! presumably from Oregon.
Somebody ordered this but cancelled, and somehow they gave this to us so that we could try wasabi dishes, which we did!

First, we had to have it with sashimi.

Namerou
Sashimi-quality fish is minced finely with miso and aromatic vegetables.
This is originally fisherman's food.
Hamachi-zuke
Sashimi of Hamachi is marinated in soy sauce and mirin for 10 minutes.
We had these with Junmai Ginjo sake.

Next day.
Grilled Salmon with wasabi and Wasabi mashed potate
Simply grill the salmon and paste freshly grated wasabi on it.
This is not picturesque, but tasted great.
Although if you use tube wasabi, it would become too spicy, I assume.

We had this with Caroline Parent Sauvigny-les Beaune 2011
Modern-style? Burgundy Pinot Noir with big oak flavor which is balanced with fruit.

The spiciness of wasabi was well integrated with the fattiness of salmon and went good with the wine.


Third day.

Umeboshi Dip
Umeboshi is chopped into paste then mixed with miso, mirin and wasabi.
Good with rice, good as otsumami (sake-friendly food).
Surprisingly this was good with Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.

Fresh wasabi is not simply spicy: it has good flavor and is versatile.
It can be used as a reliable condiment.

Card Case making

I live near bus stop so I use bus often but it was pain in the ass to have exact change every time I took bus (it doesn't give me change). Therefore, when Bart Clipper card (prepaid card for public transportation) was introduced, it was like a heavenly gift.
I had this card in my wallet, then worried that I could have dropped other cards while I took in and out the Clipper card, so decided to make a case for this card.

Design is simple: rectangle and two pockets on both sides.

Put stitches around the window for reinforcement.
Crease at the fold lines.

Attach pockets on the body with glue.

Stitch around the pockets and treat the edge with Edge Kote to give smooth edges.

Done!

It's very simple, but the leather gives some thickness and heaviness so that the case wouldn't get lost in the bag.

I'm more like an indoor person, but with this card in my hand, I became more active.
This is not an overstatement.

Minowamon Kimoto Junmai Daiginjou

If you are into something, you are likely to have a great find.
Of course it's because you are searching for it with a keen eye, but I also feel like that the good luck has drawn into by enthusiasm.    

We've been into sake recently and this is what we found.
Daishichi Minowamon Kimoto Junmai Daiginjou.

There were fruity aromas and flavors of Ginjo, and also richness from Kimoto.
I could taste the freshness and the richness at the same time.
Very good sake.

Kimoto is a traditional way to produce a fermentation starter.
Steamed rice and Koji are pounded to create lactic acid to give safe environment for yeast to grow. This is very labor intensive and done in cold environment, and its reward is the interesting rich flavor.

We had this with Niku-jaga (Japanese style beef and potato stew).
The sake was really good with beef flavor.

Sake and Otsumami

Unlike wine which gives you agonizing time to figure out when is the best timing to open, good thing about Sake is that they don't last for years so after you purchased it, you can open whenever you want, and in many cases it can be the sooner, the better.

Kuroushi Junmai Ginjo (left)
Made from 100% Omachi rice.
Omachi rice is said to have richer texture and higher umami flavor.
This Sake had aromas of melon, pineapple, bran, cereal and savoriness of matured cheese.
Acid was relatively high for Sake.

Ichinokura Junmai Daiginjo (right)
This Sake was clean and had more fruitiness.
The finish wasn't as crisp as I felt from the aroma: it had pleasant aftertaste.

Both of them were good, easy to drink.
By itself, maybe I liked Ichinokura more.





Finger food especially good with Sake is called Otsumami.
Today's Otsumami were:

Negi with Miso sauce
Mix miso, mirin, sesame seeds and pinch of sugar, heat up in microwave, and pour over the grilled green onions.

Cucumber marinated in Ponzu
Chop the cucumber, sprinkle salt, wipe off water after a while, and marinate in Ponzu with a drop of sesame oil.

With food, Kuroushi tasted much better.

True Sake in SF

True Sake is a Japanese Sake specialty shop in San Francisco.
They only carry Sake from all over Japan, from Junmai Daiginjo to Futsu-shu.
This kind of store might be rare even in Japan because most of the Sake stores there carry other beverages too.

Sake can be perishable so it's good to have specialty store nearby who knows how to handle them.

One problem is it's hard to find parking around there. So when we find good parking spot, we tend to cerebrate it with shopping spree.

And these are the sake we bought this day.
From left to right:
Shichida Junmai Ginjo
Urakasumi Junmai Daiginjo
Kuroushi Junmai Ginjo "Black Bull"
Hanagaki Junmai Ginjo
Ichinokura Junmai Daiginjo

When we got back home, we opened Hanagaki.
This sake is from Fukui prefecture.

It had sweet aroma of fruits, but dry to the taste.
Tasted really good especially when it was chilled.
It was clear but had a little complexity which makes this sake good with food.
In fact, it somehow went really good with grilled Pita bread.

Domaine Roulot Auxey-Duresses Premier Cru

There are tons of wines on the market.
Even at the smallest wine shop, I have no idea what to choose.
Best way to find a good wine is to ask for recommendation.

Domaine Roulot Auxey-Duresses Premier Cru Rouge 2008
This wine was recommended at Kermit Lynch.

Auxey-Duresses is a village in Cote de Beaune, Burgundy.
The wine had garnet color with acid and tannin well integrated.
The aromas were of rose, tart cherry, pomegranate and cured meat.

Domaine Roulot is known more for their white, but this Pinot Noir was elegant, restrained and tasted great!
This is good food wine but I also enjoyed drinking just by itself.

Burgundy at this price range (I believe this wine was around $40~50 when I bought some years ago) is hard to choose.
Ones with good reputation can't be found at this price, and $50 is too expensive to pay for wine from famous AC which might cost that much only because of the appellation name.  

I wouldn't have chosen this wine if it wasn't recommended, and now this is my favorite wine.
Thank you for the recommendation.