The Sakeman's Day Off

So there Mari-san and I were on Monday morning, pondering what to do with a gorgeous Monday when neither of us possessed the energy to emerge from bed. In Star Trek parlance, we were barely at impulse power, but the sun finally beckoned us out of our house and into our little beaten Miata, heading for Tomales Bay in Marin to enjoy some oysters.

A note of caution to other San Franciscans like us with no sense of time: other people do follow posted signs, like those that say "We close the picnic area at 4:45. It takes an hour to get here from the Bridge, so plan your trip accordingly." Needless to say, leaving Bernal Heights at 2:55 does not leave much room for Murphy to muck up your plans to drive through Marin's redwoods at 60 mph. We got there at 4:35, and Sean told us he could only sell us a dozen to eat on site as he had to go to his next job (band practice, it turned out, but that's cool!). However, after a little cajoling and speaking one of my languages of brotherhood (hippie speak and lore of the Dead), he allowed us to chill out and finish eating as long as we didn't leave a mess. So here is a shot of Tomales Bay with some crazy cloud cover, roughly at 5:30 on Monday as the Mrs. and I felt like we were the only two people on earth (or at least in Tomales Bay). Sometimes the sun does shine even if we feel bereft of sunlight!

New Beginnings, but the Sake Song Remains the Same

I'm at Magnolia Brewery trying to bide my time while waiting for Chef Noriyuki Sugie and Mari-San to come back to finish tasting beers for our SF Beer Week pairing with Magnolia. We'll have 4 Magnolia beers won tap all month, and during beer week we are offering them paired with four dishes by Chef Nori (plus beer ice cream that Mari-san is making from Smokestack Lightningw Imperial Stout) all for just $40! As brewmaster Ben Spencer joined us (regaling tales from a recent trip to the Riviera Maya to catch some Widespread Panic shows), I had a moment to reflect on how, very often in life, it all just comes together.

What do I mean? Well, despite our chef changes et al, we are still alive, we've got a great new energy coming with Chef Sugie's entrance to Nombe, and we are doing our 3rd annual SF Beer Week with Magnolia. Couple this with my plans to finally bottle the sake I developed with Aisawa-San of Take no Tsuyu Brewery in Yamagata-Ken, and one can see that for every new beginning, there is also an ongoing constancy. So what is new just makes sense, and what is older just ages like fine wine or koshu!

Reflections on Kiyoshi

I remember one night having dinner at my in-laws house in Yokohama. The ladies (my wife Mari, her sister and her mother) were talking about a myriad of things at one side of the table while my father-in-law and I were sharing glasses of Suigei and talking about his favorite sport, baseball. As usual, I was answering many questions about steroid use, and about my feelings about SF hero Barry Bonds. I always defended him, and I would always find myself trying to persuade dad that cheating and baseball went hand-in-hand.

After about an hour, we were getting a little tipsy but, being men, we just kept going as the conversation shifted to politics (of course). At this time, dad and I noticed that the ladies attention had now turned to our drinking and discourse. My sister-in-law said that it seems that all dad likes to do these days is drink, to which Kiyoshi said something I`ll never forget: "I worked for over thirty five years and am now retired. If I want to drink a lot, that`s my choice." It still makes me smile to this day.

My father-in-law has passed, and I no longer have the sherpa that started me on my sake journey. I will miss him greatly, but I will always be indebted to him for the passion for sake that he awoke within me, and for how he treated me like a man despite my failings, and for the continued support and love he showed me throughout the dozen years that we have been related. Though not by blood, he is my dad, and I will love him forever.

My Father-In-Law and My Love of Sake

[Note:  This entry is in honor of Mari's dad, Kiyoshi.  He instilled a love of sake in me that shall not cease, and in respect of that, both Suigei and Kubota Manjyu are 20% tonight, July the 2nd.]

I developed my initial interest in Japanese food and sake while attending Georgetown.   It was the late ‘80s, and the sushi craze had started taking off in many East coast cities.  Given that I was studying International Affairs and Japanese Studies, I decided to spend my junior year abroad in Japan.

While I enjoyed sake quite a lot during that year, my introduction to the vastness and beauty of the sake world came from my father-in-law.  He served Kubota Manjyu, a superb Junmai Daiginjo that is very popular in Japan and in the West, at a luncheon introducing me to his family in Yokohama in ‘98.  The ritual of pouring sake for your guest/neighbor/friend before pouring your own, the clink of the small glasses as you kenpai, the satisfaction of the silky texture and feel with the aroma of citrus and herb….I was hooked.

After a less formal session at their home with another of his favorite sakes (Suigei, “the drunken whale”), I again was struck by the concept of sake as a daily table wine for Japanese, in the same way that wine is used in many European cultures.   The next day, I proceeded to buy a book by John Gauntner, “The Sake Handbook.”  John is the undisputed authority of sake in the English language, and enjoys a great deal of respect from and popularity with the sake brewers of Japan for his tireless efforts to inform and educate people about sake.

After opening Sozai with Mari-san, I decided to take John’s first level sake professional course.  It is accredited with the Japan Sake Brewer’s Association, and recognized as a premier sake education course in the industry.  I furthered my education by taking his second level course in Tokyo in February of this year.

Last Monday, John and twenty students in his current level one class were my guests at Nombe.  One circle completed.  Another already begun.

Kyoto, Tama no Hikari, and The Festival of Ume Flower Blooms

 [Note:  Today's focus is on Kyoto.  Thus, this evening at Nombe, enjoy 20% off Tama no Hikari by glass or bottle if you mention The Hippy Dippy SF Sakeman to your server.  Also, Kaguyahime (Bamboo Princess), a nice Tokubetsu Junmai from Kyoto, is only $30 all night long for a 500ml bottle!!!!  See you at Nombe tonight! www.nombesf.com, 415-681-7150]

My last visit to Kyoto, this February as part of my tour of sake breweries throughout Japan, started off with a visit to a storied and unique brewer, Tama no Hikari.   They are located in the historic Fushimi district, with a centuries old tradition of sake making.  Additionally, they are a nearly 350 year old company.    Unfortunately, as my guests told me, they had to move from their home in Wakayama prefecture to Kyoto after WWII due to bomb damage to their original brewery.

As a result, according to Kenzo Mabuchi, the company's overseas director, for years, many local Kyoto residents viewed them as outsiders, making inferior, non-Kyoto style sake.  In fact, to this day the brewer's best selling regions are Tokyo and, of all places, Hokkaido!  Eventually the locals found their way, and are enjoying these premium sakes made only with premium sake rice (no Honjozo sake here).  Additionally, their zero waste approach makes them as green-minded as you can get:  their shochu is even made from the sake-kasu that comes from sake production, thus making use of the lees at every stage it is made!

     Following this wonderful visit, concluded with trying several brands as yet unavailable in the US (but soon to be at Nombe anyway), I quickly set out to visit Kinkakuji, better known as The Golden Temple.

Though I've seen it several times before, to see its beauty and imposition up close is always mesmerizing and inspiring.  Visions like these, or seeing Mount Fuji in its glory, make me long to be in Japan.  The balance of beauty with mechanization, antiquity with modernity is a site that everyone should drink in once in a lifetime.

In looking for something fun to do for the evening, I consulted my cab driver, who told me that the annual Festival of Ume Flowr Blossoms was taking place at another nearby temple.

I always get into the visuals provided by scenery, but we are in the food business, so as Nick and Mari  begged, I got some great shots of the many street food vendors at the O-matsuri (festival).  You are sure to see many of these items (from top-to-bottom, ramen, okonomiyaki, oden, and imagawayaki) at our new snack food counter, opening in early July.

A day in Akita-ken with Saito-san and "Yuki no Bosha" brewer

Hi there -

Gil, the Hippy Dippy SF Sakeman here.  At Nombe, in addition to being the general manager, I am your humble guide through the beautiful world of sake.  In February, after taking and passing the second level sake professional's course in Tokyo, I had the privilege of traveling around Japan to visit many of the breweries whose products I offer at Nombe.  From today forward, I will be providing brief snapshots of these visits and exploits every Friday and Tuesday.  To those hearty souls who make it all the way through my stream of conscious remembrances, there will be clue words for secret specials at Nombe!

Today I want to highlight Akita-ken and my visit to Saiyo Brewery, the makers of the Yuki no Bosha and Saiyo brands.

My day started with a four hour ride from Tokyo to Akita city, followed by an hour-long ride on a small two

car train to the site of the brewery.  Saiyo is comparatively younger than most Japanese sake breweries, having begun in 1904.  Saitoh-san, the president of the company and my host for the day, is the third president of the brewery, following his father and grandfather.

 

As was the case at every brewery I visited in February, new batches of rice were being added to moromi at various stages of the three-stage-brewing process, so I got to observe each kura's different rice washing and steaming methods.  Just as at a much smaller brewery, the time rice was absorbing water was measured to the second by a stopwatch, with several kurabito counting off the remaining seconds before rice was to be removed from the water, washed thoroughly, then set aside to dry before being added to a msah for moto-creation or for adding into an existing moromi.

Next stop was the koji-mura, which I was most privileged to view during brewing season.   Here Saito-san, who studied at Tokyo Agricultural University (think Davis meets Harvard for people in the science of food), began to articulate the subtle items that make his brewery unique in melding tradition with state-of-the-art sake making techniques.  His koji is maintained on trays in these boxes that measure out the precise amount of koji to be added, in ratio, to the other moto or tsubo ingredients.  Additional machinery measures temperature and absorption rates for each individual tray upon transfer to a different container, from which the koji can be dumped and siphoned out to the next station to begin fermentation into a moto (starter).  Yet these high-tech innovations are house in a room made with a local wood that, in essence, breathes without releasing moisture, allowing the room to remain naturallly cooler than most koji-mura.

As would later be explained to me more in detail by Takahashi-san, the brewery's Toji for nearly forty years, the artistry of Yuki no Bosha is enabled by the kobo, or yeast, that they have cultivated within their brewery.  This is their own proprietary yeast, not delineated from any existing kyokai (brewer's association) yeast strain.  It helps to give all of their sakes, from the local Saiyo brand to the Yuki no Bosha label, that distinct, crisp finish and anise-like lilting flavor.

 

Mount Chyono is the grand mountain of Akita's range, and it can be viewed in all its glory from the ridge that sits atop Saiyo Brewery, not only the site of Saito-san's brewery, but where he and his parents once lived as well.  This is the essence of life in the cold North of Honshu: snow lined rodes under white-capped mountains, minutes from the cold Korean Sea, with six to eight months of hearty eating and sake-making.  You might understand why they call their award-winning sake Yuki no Bosha, "The Cabin in the Snow."

Gil, your Hippy Dippy SF Sakeman

 

(P.S. - If you visit Nombe and say, "Iwanabi Udon" to your server on May 26th or 27th, you'll get 20% off Yuki no Bosha Junmai Ginjo by the glass or Yuki No Bosha Junmai Ginjo Nigori by the bottle!)

A Night in Niigata and the Izakaya Effect

Man, what a week-and-a-half!!! I have so much to report on my experiences since my first post, but it is 1 AM and I have to get up in a few hours to head to Fukushima-ken to visit the storied, all kimoto-method sake maker, Daishichi. I wanted to make a brief post about the wonderful Izakaya I visited today in Niigata, one of most important sake brewing regions in Japan.

This is the Izakaya related to Asahi Shuzo, the makers of Kubota and Asahiyama sake brands. I often tell customers that my introduction to sake started with Kubota, and the fact that my father-in-law served the world famous Kubota Manjyu at our engagement party in Japan. The next day, we had Kubota Senjyu at his house for family dinner. I wondered if I had done something wrong to be served the honjozo of the kura. Instead, he informed me that on special occasions, we drink Manjyu, but on a day-to-day basis, we drink Senjyu. (Hiro-san of Ame Restaurant understood this immediately when his wife Lisa-san questioned me about the lack of Manjyu at Sozai when we opened that restaurant almost three years ago. I can still hear the echo of his laughter!) I will talk about my visit to the brewery later, but I wanted to talk about the food and my experiences with Ishitoku-san, the owner of the Izakaya.

The evening started with a crab chawan-mushi that melted in my mouth, especially when enjoyed with the futsu-shu of Asahiyama. This was followed by a pork tripe (motsu) that I have to say was one of the most righteous dishes I have ever had. I enjoyed it paired with Kubota Namagenshu, a rich sake just harvested in the last two months! To say my mind was blown would be an understatement.

Next up was an assortment of sashimi including some o-toro freshly plucked from local waters - what an unbelievable texture and mouthfeel, particularly when enjoyed with Kubota Manjyu NamaGenshu, a treat that no-one should die without experiencing once in a lifetime.

I concluded my night with an excellent fried tofu dish, followed by a pork loin salad. Along the way, i made friends with all of the staff, as well as the customers around me, experiencing the true power and art of the Izakaya.