Sake Bar in Emeryville

There is a food court called Public Market in Emeryville.
It's still under construction but many of the shops are already open, and someone told me that there was a Sake Bar, so we went to check it out.

The bar The Periodic Table offers sake, shochu and liquor from Japan. There are also beer taps of craft beers from local and Japan.

Besides glasses of sake, there are 3 or 4 tasting course which you can choose the combination from the menu, and we tried 4 sake tasting course.
This was our choice.

Shichihon yari Junmai
Maboroshi Junmai Ginjo
Seiden Omachi Junmai Daiginjo
Seiden Gohyakumangoku　Junmai

Otsumami was this beautiful cheese plate and pickles.

Maboroshi and Seiden Omachi (Omachi is the name of the rice which has umami and earthiness) were the best with food.

Seiden Gohyakumangoku was good with salty pickles.
Gihyakumangoku is also a name of sake rice, and known to have light aromas and textures, and a clean finish.

We were support to have just appetizers here and go to dinner, but the selection of sake was good, otsumami was delicious, people were knowledgeable and friendly... we became too comfortable and decided to stay here for dinner.

Shiba Ramen is a ramen shop next door. These two shops are owned by the same owner and we could order ramen from the bar, so I ordered clear ramen with pork chashu, and JC ordered White Bird (rich, creamy soup) with chicken chashu.

The ramen was gooood! And the chicken chashu was unexpectedly delicious (I stole from JC)!
Soup was rich, had good flavor but not heavy or greasy.

There are good ramen stores opening around the bay area recently and we tried some of them.
For me, Shiba ramen is one of the best.

Good drinks and good ramen. What else can I ask for?
Highly recommended place!

Urakasumi Hiyaoroshi

Urakasumi Tokubetsu Junmai Hiyaoroshi

This is Junmai, so there is no added alcohol.
Sake is usually pasteurised twice, after fermentation and before bottling.
This sake is pasteurised only once after fermentation. This is called Hiyaoroshi and said to retain more freshness.

Clear,  pale lemon color.
Medium plus intensity, medium dry, medium plus acid, medium umami and medium plus body.
Aromas of caramel, banana, ripe pineapple.
Nector of pink flower on the palate.

We had this with duck liver pate with walnut and a slice of Rakkyo.
The sake went good with duck liver.

Shichida Junmai Ginjo

Shichida Muroka Nama Junmai Ginjo.
Ginjo sake from Saga prefecture, Japan.

Muroka means sake is unfiltered.
Nama means sake is unpasteurised.
Junmai means there are no distilled alcohol added.
Ginjo means polishing ratio of rice is 60% or less.

Pronounced aromas of melon, watermelon, peach and bubble gum.
Ginjo aromas and subtle umami flavors.
Acid was higher and body was medium +.
Overall impression was very lively!

We paired this sake with Chirashi sushi.
Unfortunately,  the pairing wasn't as good as we hoped.

I guess sake had too much flavor to have with raw fish.
Thinking that stronger flavor would do better with this sake, we tried it with chocolate (simply because it was there), half as learning experience and half as thrill.
The pairing actually wasn't that bad.
 
Next day, we had this sake with vinegar marinated food. The pairing was much better.