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Tetsu Kariya Biography

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“I think that the essence of the tea ceremony lies in how sincere you are toward your guests. Human life is a fragile thing. We may be alive and kicking right now, but we could die at any moment. That's why you have to put your heart and soul into the way you treat your guests, and conduct yourself as if it's the last time you'll ever see them. The tea ceremony is a practice through which you show your consideration to others. The manners and utensils are all part of that. That's why I think people who brag about how expensive their utensils are, or who take pride in the fact that they know the right manners, do not understand the spirit of the tea ceremony. Putting your heart and soul into it means you must get rid of all vanity. And that's why the governing aesthetic of the tea ceremony is to get rid of what's non-essential, in order to pursue the essence of things.”

EssentialTea CeremonyNatural Flavors
Book:Japanese Cuisine
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“Sardines have been considered a low-grade fish since the old days. Unlike sea bream, left-eyed flounder and sweetfish, they're never used in first-class restaurants. They've always been used as fertilizer in the fields or food for fish farms. People treat them as the lowest fish there is." "Hmm..." "Recently the size of the sardine catch has decreased, so people have begun to value them. But the chef here has been making sardine dishes since back when people thought of them as worthless. You could almost say the chef here... ... has staked his life on this fish. This place may seem shabby compared to a luxurious ryōtei that takes pride in using expensive ingredients... But the food here is sincere and earnest. This restaurant is far more attractive to me than the average first-class ryōtei. It may look shabby, but his spirit is noble. That's because the chef believed in himself and created this place from scratch by his own effort.”

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Book:Izakaya: Pub Food
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“Is this a potato? It's so smooth! It doesn't have that muddy, earthy smell to it! It's not fluffy or dry, and it just melts away in my mouth!" "This is 'potato stewed in butter.' It's a dish I learned from Ajihyakusen, an izakaya in Sapporo. For the soup, you use the ichiban-dashi of a katsuobushi. That way you won't waste the scent of the potato. And for ten potatoes, you place half a pound of salted butter into the dashi... ...flavor it with a very slight amount of salt and sugar, and stew it over extremely low heat. In about forty minutes, the potatoes will start to float in the dashi. If you keep boiling the potatoes, they'll sink again and then come floating back up in two and a half hours. All you need to do after that is to boil it for about thirty more minutes, and it's done." "Then you boil it for almost four hours total?" "Right. It takes a whole day to cook this, so even though this dish only costs 600 yen, you have to order at least a day in advance to eat it at the izakaya. The dishes Kurita and I made the other day were all made to your order. They were dishes that avoided the true nature of the potato. But this is a dish that draws out the full taste of the potato in a very straightforward way. By cooking the potato for several hours over low heat, the flavor of the potato seeps out into the dashi, and when that happens, the unique muddy smell of the potato disappears. The potato can be easily broken apart in the soup, and it melts away on your tongue." "That's the biggest difference from the other potato dishes." "You can taste the true flavor of the potato with it.”

SoupFlavorPotatoesStewButterJapanese CookingBoiled
Book:Izakaya: Pub Food
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“Each person has a different idea about how they want to finish off a meal. The Japanese are avid noodle lovers. Eating ramen after having a drink is a classic thing for the Japanese. And then there's curry udon; the Japanese people love curry. So I'm sure there are many people who want to finish off the meal with that. If those two are a little too heavy, then kitsune udon or warm sōmen would be a lighter alternative." "Hmm?! So that's what you mean..." "Some people want to eat something sweet after a drink. And for them, there's red beans with shiratama dumplings... ... and anmitsu for those who want something a little heavy. For those who don't have a sweet tooth, there's tokoroten... ... and we also have grilled rice cakes wrapped in nori. And for the extreme sweet lovers, we've made Western style desserts as well: frozen yogurt, chocolate parfait, vanilla milkshake and donuts.”

DessertsFood And DrinkJapanese FoodPreferencesIzakayaAgar
Book:Izakaya: Pub Food
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“And the last one is the chicken-skin hot pot. The best parts of a chicken to eat are the skin and the innards. There are many ways of cooking them, but this chicken-skin hot pot is easy to make, and it tastes great. First you heat the pot, place the chicken inside... ... and slowly cook it inside the pot. Once the oil from the skin comes seeping out, you add the innards to the pot. You basically use the oil from the skin to stir-fry the innards. After the innards have been slightly cooked, you add some spring onions which have been cut around two inches long... ...and finally add sake and soy sauce to it. The oil from the chicken skin and soup from the innards have not been thinned down with any kind of broth or dashi, so the young people will love its rich, strong taste and scent. And anybody can make it once they see it being made.”

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Book:Izakaya: Pub Food
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“Sardine sashimi. It tastes better when you eat it with ginger instead of wasabi." "Look at the shine on that skin! These sardines are fresh!" "They're small but fatty." "And they don't smell fishy at all. As a matter of fact, they have a nice scent." "Marinated sardines. You half-dry the sardine with the backbone still in it, and then marinate it in vinegar. Then you add small amounts of sugar, soy sauce and chopped red chili... ...and leave it in the refrigerator for a day." "Hmm... it feels nice biting into the firm flesh." "The spicy and sour flavor goes well with the fatty sardine." "Fried sardine fish cakes. You mash the sardines after removing the head and the organs, add chopped spring onions, ginger juice and salt for the flavoring... ... then make them into an oval shape and deep-fry them." "It's very crisp, and it must be nutritious since the bones have been mashed inside it too.”

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Book:Izakaya: Pub Food
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“Ah, chopped horse mackerel." "Yeah, but it's not just an ordinary chopped horse mackerel." "Oh? What?! You're wrapping the chopped horse mackerel in a dumpling skin?! And you're going to deep-fry it?!" "Here you go. Deep-fried chopped horse mackerel dumplings. It's another one of Tatsu's ideas. Eat it with Japanese mustard, ginger and soy sauce." "So this is another one of your creations, Tatsu. Ha ha! That's a pretty wild taste! The chopped mackerel is half raw. And the spicy Japanese mustard and ginger sting your nose and wrap up the flavor of the dumpling!" " Ha ha . Just playing around!" "Playing around, huh..." "Here. Tatsu's special 'Everything Rice.'" "Whoa! It's got so many things on it! Curry, omelet, hayashi-rice, salted cod roe and nori, three slices of deep-fried pork cutlet with demi-glace sauce and stewed offal. Ha ha ha ... this is so sumptuous, it's over the top!" "Heh heh. You know how we homeless people collect leftovers and eat 'em all together, right? Interestingly, they kinda taste better than when ya eat 'em on their own." "I see! You've got a point... this really is a dish that only you could've come up with, Tatsu." "Just playing around!" "Playing around!”

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Book:Izakaya: Pub Food
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“This one is skewered guts. It's all the guts except the liver." "It's got that unique texture of a gut, with a slightly bitter taste!" "The flavor of the guts tends to seep out when you make soup with it, but this retains all its refreshing original flavor!" "This is a fin skewer. As you can guess from its name, it's the dorsal fin of the eel... ... wrapped around a skewer with ribs and garlic chives." "This is my favorite one!" "They throw these parts away when they make kabayaki." "Ah! I understand why this is your favorite, Yamaoka-san! The eel and the garlic chives create a rich, savory flavor!" "I never thought eel and garlic chives would go so well together!" "The dorsal fin of a left-eyed flounder is called an engawa, and it's considered a delicacy. It's the most active part of the fish's body, so it's fatty and good to eat." "The same goes for the eel." "This one is the collar. It's the meat around the neck, below the eyes... ... which I cut open and skewered after taking the head off. The head bone is very tough, so this is the only part of the eel I throw away." "Hmm, so it's called the "collar" because it's the area around the neck." "It has a complex flavor to it too. It's totally different from the stomach meat, the guts or the dorsal fin!" "It kind of tastes like a mixture of fish and lamb meat! There are so many other skewers, right?!" "Yahata-maki, which is eel meat wrapped around burdock. Tanzaku, where the meat has been cut like strips of paper. Smoked eel. And of course, we can't forget the famous kabayaki.”

GarlicJapanese FoodEelSkewersSpecializeIzakayaInnards
Book:Izakaya: Pub Food
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“Chicken meat, gizzard, chicken skin and chicken wing. This time, I added about 10 percent more water to the Takazasu I gave to you... ...and let it sit for about a week to blend the alcohol and flavor together. And I've warmed it just like the last one so that it will be 118 degrees when poured into the cup. If the temperature is any lower than that, the sweetness of the sake becomes too distinct and it loses its lightness." "Hmmm! This one tastes so light, even though it's the same temperature!" "After eating for a while, people tend to start getting a bit tired. If you warm this sake up to the right temperature, it helps you continue to eat." "That's right. And this sake is not only light, but it also has a strong, rich taste... ... so it can capture the fatty parts like the chicken skin and chicken wing and boost their flavor." "This way, you can continue to eat, and you'll never get tired of drinking.”

SakeTemperatureFood And DrinkChickenJapanese FoodFood ScienceRice WineSkewersYakitori
Book:Izakaya: Pub Food
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“The word gochisō not only means "feast," but also... ... "to run" or "rush." The host rushes around to gather the ingredients, get them ready, and then cook the food. The vegetables and chicken were homegrown... ... and you must have sought out the halfbeak and quail yourself. Miyasato sensei expended a lot of time and effort to treat us to this meal. The dishes we had are all common ones so that we'd easily be able to compare them with versions we've eaten before. For the wakame and green onion with miso, you pulled the onions out of your own vegetable patch, and you also used fresh wakame and homemade miso. And that's why it tasted so much better than usual. The care you've put into getting all these dishes ready... ... is what made this a real gochisō.”

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Book:Japanese Cuisine
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“Kombu is a species of edible kelp (Laminaria japonica) that thrives in long streamers about a palm's-width wide that can reach up to thirty feet in length. Along with katsuobushi, it is the other main ingredient for making dashi. Kombu contains a high level of the amino acid glutamate, which is the source of the "fifth taste", umami, and a precursor to the flavor enhancer MSG. Japan consumes about 50,000tons of kombu a year--- about half wild, and half farmed--- most of it harvested off the coast of the northern island, Hokkaidō.”

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Book:Japanese Cuisine
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“This is spinach ohitashi." "Ha! Here it is! And the red part of the root has been finely chopped and placed upon the leaves and stem...!" "The redness of the root looks so pretty on the green leaves and stem." "Hmm. Roots are crunchy, but they don't have any bad texture to them. It's been boiled to perfection, and the dashi... Hmm, it's got something in it... Dashi made katsuobushi with soy sauce, and there's a very slight secret flavor added to it... the plum..." "Yes. A very slight amount of the umezu I got from making the umeboshi. You sure do have a keen sense of taste, Kyōgoku-san... Grilled young taro. It's a little early for them, but I love the refreshing taste of these small taro. The skin has been grilled, so you can peel it off very easily. They taste good with just salt... ...but they're irresistible with salted sea urchin." "Ooh! The refreshing taste of the small taro and the rich flavor of the sea urchin matches perfectly!”

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Book:Vegetables
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“This is salmon takikomi gohan. You slice the salted salmon into fillet strips and grill just its skin first to give it a savory scent. Then you cut it into cubes and cook them along with the rice. By placing some Japanese wild parsley on it before eating it, the fishy scent will disappear, making it even more better to eat." "Hmm. I like how they grilled the skin first to give it the savory scent. And cooking the bones with the rice really brings out the flavor." "This takikomi gohan lets you taste every essence of the salmon." "The next one is a classic maze gohan, hijiki rice. A good hijiki is one that's thick and long, with a slight firmness to it. You cook that hijiki along with carrots, shiitake mushrooms, lotus roots and thin fried tofu into a sweet and salty taste and then mix them into the cooked rice." "Ha ha ha. This is definitely a very Japanese flavor!" "It's rustic, but it has a rich, fertile flavor that moves my heart.”

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Book:The Joy of Rice
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“Seafood is also something we cannot do without as a country surrounded by sea. And the rich variety of seafood is often used in rice balls. The first one is a classic rice ball, with salted salmon. It's slightly different since the grilled salted salmon is broken down into flakes... ... and mixed into the rice together with chopped green onion... ...then made into a rice ball and wrapped in roasted dried seaweed." "Ah, the salmon has been mixed nicely into the rice, so it has a very rich taste." "And the flavor of the green onion gets rid of the fishy scent of the salmon, making the rice ball taste even better." "This will be great to have in a lunch box." "The next rice ball is coated with shredded dried seaweed just like the last one, but the filling is different. It's sea urchin, but it's not raw sea urchin or the typical bottled sea urchin. It's sea urchin shiokara." "Sea urchin shiokara?" "Most of the typical bottled sea urchins have been steeped in alcohol. It's probably because they're easier to make and easier to eat. But in the old days, sea urchin was often made into shiokara. If you salt the sea urchin and let it age and ferment, it becomes far richer tasting compared to a raw sea urchin or the alcohol-macerated sea urchin. Nowadays, that sea urchin shiokara has become very rare, and many people don't even know what it tastes like. So I've decided to use it as a filling for the rice ball." "Ooh, it has such a rich taste." "By being fermented, the sea urchin has developed a completely different flavor along with the original flavor it had.”

SeafoodSalmonSeaweedJapanese FoodRice BallsFermentedSea Urchin
Book:The Joy of Rice
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“The filling for the rice ball is the wasabi leaves and stem marinated overnight in soy sauce. You make that into a rice ball using sushi rice... ... and wrap dried seaweed around it to create a rice ball the size of a ping-pong ball. Meanwhile, you create a barazushi. Ingredients like grilled saltwater eel with sauce, kohada marinated in vinegar, kanpyo, steamed shrimp, steamed abalone and others... ...are all chopped up... ...and mixed into the rice. Then use the small rice ball you made beforehand as the next filling... ... to create a larger rice ball. And then you coat it with thin strips of grilled egg.”

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Book:The Joy of Rice
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“The last one is a fun rice ball. The filling is ground black sesame and walnuts flavored with sweet honey. We made a rice ball out of that... ... and coated it with kinako soybean powder." "Huh... a sweet rice ball." "I've never seen a rice ball coated in kinako." "Ha ha ha... this is fun." "The black sesame and walnut isn't just sweet--- it also has a wonderful scent. Come to think of it, this really is the taste of Japan." "The taste of good old Japan too." "Sesame, walnut, powdered soybeans and honey. The combination of these sweet flavors... It soothes the heart, doesn't it?" "This really is like a dessert.”

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Book:The Joy of Rice
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“Hmm... the noodles are good. I can taste the flour; their scent and flavor are clear, not masked by the smell of kansui. Ah, this is good broth. You used only chicken to make it. You did well with the condiments, too. You cannot get such a rich flavor unless you use condiments made from pure ingredients. And I see you used Chinese vinegar. Hmm. This barbecued pork is well made. It's Kurobuta from the Kagoshima prefecture that has been fed properly on sweet potatoes. The cucumber was organically grown, without pesticides or even herbicides. This egg is impressive too. Only a chicken that has been properly grass-fed in a healthy environment can lay an egg this good.”

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Book:Ramen and Gyoza
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“I thought you said these were Chinese-style noodles... ...so I was expecting something with pork spareribs on top. The fish dumpling noodles in Hong Kong are good... but I've never seen anything like this in China. What's this on the top?" "Barbecued pork made from Berkshire boar, and jakoten." " 'Jakoten'? " "It's a specialty from the Shikoku prefecture. They're fish cakes made from ground sardines and deep-fried in oil. They're nutritious and taste good too." "Sardines, is it?" "Ah, this barbecued pork is completely different from Chinese-style barbecued pork!" "And this soup?" "I made the stock with pork bones and flying fish yakiboshi... ... and boosted the flavor with some miso and soy sauce. I don't use any MSG in it." "Hmm... the combination of pork bones and yakiboshi isn't something that a Chinese chef would have thought of." "I've never tasted a soup like this before!" "The noodles have no kansui in them. After kneading the dough with eggs... ... I let it rest for a whole week." "Mmm... they're firm and flavorful!" "I haven't seen noodles like this in China either!" "The aged noodles taste so good!”

SoupFishPorkNoodlesRamenJapanese CookingSardines
Book:Ramen and Gyoza
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“Even though hiyashi chūka is a dish that was developed in Japan, does it make a difference or not if one prepares it using Chinese ingredients? The most important things--- the noodles and the broth--- are both items borrowed from Chinese cuisine and are prepared using Chinese cooking methods. The barbecued pork on top is also Chinese-style. Which obviously means that Chinese condiments would be better suited to it. Chinese soy sauce and Japanese soy sauce taste different. The same goes for the sake and mirin. Shirō used the best ingredients he could get his hands on in Japan. That is perfectly fine as long as you're making Japanese food. But the Chinese condiments have a far better chemistry with the dish. Shirō paid great attention to each of the ingredients individually but neglected to consider the dish as a whole. Because the ingredients are Chinese, by using Chinese condiments... ... he was able to blend the flavors into one, which is impossible to do with Japanese condiments.”

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Book:Ramen and Gyoza
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“Good eggplants are hard to find these days. It's because the eggplants don't get fully ripe because of the pesticides and herbicides." "This isn't just about Hitoshi. Anybody who eats this bad eggplant... ... will come to think that eggplant doesn't taste good at all. Eggplant and oil are a perfect match. Let me make you a dish that even the greatest eggplant hater will like. Pour sesame oil into the wok. Eggplant soaks up a lot of oil, so pour a lot in. Once the oil is heated, cut the eggplant into thin slices of about a quarter inch. You want to carefully stir-fry the eggplant trying to make every slice soak up the oil, but you also have to be fast at it. Keep the flame at high heat. It's done when the eggplant starts to get soft and brown. If you cook it too much, the skin gets hard, so be careful. Now you pour some soy sauce on top of it.”

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Book:Vegetables
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“Hmm. A grilled miso rice ball and a grilled soy sauce rice ball... But what is this covered in dried seaweed?" "When we think about the rice ball and its connection to the Japanese climate and culture, the existence of fermented food is something we can't ignore. Eating fermented food on a daily basis is a unique trait of the Japanese culinary culture. The most famous of the fermented foods are the soy sauce and miso. Seasonings that the Japanese diet cannot do without. We coated one of the rice balls with soy sauce and the other with miso... ... and grilled them over charcoal." "The slightly burnt scent of the soy sauce is so appetizing." "The grilled fragrance of miso is irresistible to a Japanese person. And this we can only taste in the form of a rice ball too." "Another fermented Japanese product that we must not forget about is natto. Natto is a little tough to put inside a rice ball as it is... ... so we've minced it along with diced green onions. It has been flavored with soy sauce and Japanese mustard. And to add some punch to it, we coated the rice ball with roasted shredded seaweed. By shredding it, the flavor of the dried seaweed becomes far better than just coating the rice ball with a sheet of it.”

SeasoningsSeaweedJapanese CookingSoybeansRice BallsFermented Foods
Book:The Joy of Rice
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“The first one is stewed hard clam. You stew the hard clam in soy sauce until it's rather salty... ... and then you place it inside the rice ball... ... and wrap it with dried seaweed." "Huh, stewed hard clam?" "Stewed hard clam is what you eat in sushi, right? Why's that the future?" "Next is a matsutake rice ball. You cook the matsutake you picked during the season and simmer it until it's salty... ... then preserve it. That becomes the filling for the rice ball." "The scent and flavor... it brings back the joy of being Japanese." "It's good... but why is this the rice ball of the future?" "The last one is a katsuobushi rice ball. You shave a katsuobushi from makurazaki as thinly as possible... ...then you flavor it with soy sauce... ... and place it into the rice ball. Finally, wrap it in dried seaweed.”

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Book:The Joy of Rice
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“This is an eel roll-up skewer. It's thinly sliced eel meat wrapped around a skewer." "What do you mean by the eel meat?" "Take a look at the diagram behind you." "Hmm! It's been separated into so many different parts! It's soft, meaty and fatty... I can enjoy the flavor of the eel to the fullest!" "I must say... this skewer tastes good." "The taste of the eel is a lot richer since it hasn't been steamed like a Tokyo-style kabayaki! And it's a lot more soft and succulent than the kansai-style kabayaki!" "It's the very essence of the eel's flavor." "This is the liver. I can only get one liver out of an eel, so I can only provide the customers with a limited amount each day." "Oh, but isn't the liver the guts?" Ah, look at the diagram. At my place, the liver is one specific part while the guts are the whole thing." "Ooh, I see. That's what it means." "Animal guts have a distinct smell to them. But the eel liver has no smell at all!" "Unlike an ordinary liver skewer... I've taken out the gall bladder, so it's not bitter. Next come the grilled ribs. The ribs are the abdominal bones in the eel that you get rid of when making kabayaki. I skewer and grill them.”

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Book:Izakaya: Pub Food
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“This is an item used in Chinese cuisine. It's made from the same beans you use to make Chinese vermicelli, but it's been formed into a thin sheet instead of into noodles. Because it's tasteless and odorless in itself, we're obviously meant to focus on the mouthfeel, enjoying the firmness with our teeth and the silkiness with our tongues. As far as the taste goes, the important thing is the dressing... Hmm... the dashi is perfect, and the balance of flavors is well done too. There's vinegar in it, but the strength of the vinegar has been skillfully toned down.”

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Book:Japanese Cuisine
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“The first one is paella-style takikiomi gohan rice ball. You chop up white meat fish, clams, shrimp and squid and fry them in olive oil with garlic and saffron. And in a different pan, you fry finely chopped tomatoes, onions and green pepper in olive oil. You mix those two together and cook them with rice using a broth made from beef shank and chicken bones. Then you make that into a rice ball... ... and wrap it in Parma ham." "Oh my! It sure is something to make a paella-style takikomi gohan into a rice ball." "But when it's wrapped in Parma ham, they match perfectly." "It's completely Western, but it still tastes like a rice ball." "This is a surprise. And the judges seem to like it too." "Next is a rice ball coated in pork flakes. This is a pork flake you often see in Chinese cooking. You cook the lean pork meat in soy sauce seasoned with star anise until it becomes flaky. The filling inside is Dongpo pork--- a Chinese dish made of pork belly that's been slowly braised." "Ooh, the soft Dongpo pork came out as I bit into the rice coated in the sweet and salty pork flakes!" "Ah, the flavor and texture are superb!" "This combination is just wonderful! " "You've made Dongpo pork into such a great rice ball, it's making me cry. It looks Chinese, but it's very much a Japanese rice ball." "Now the judges are taking his side..." "And the last is a deep-fried chicken rice ball. You deep fry chicken that has been marinated in soy sauce with ginger and garlic... ...and then use that as the filling of the rice ball... ... then coat it in red shiso seasonings." "Ah, the rich taste of the deep-fried chicken is something the young people will like. And the red shiso seasoning creates a refreshing aftertaste.”

SpicesSeafoodPorkSeasoningsChickenThe PresentJapanese CookingRice BallsDeep FriedPaella
Book:The Joy of Rice
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“What a pretty color... A kind of goldish-green, with an emerald tint to it... Mmm...! A sweet, gentle, slightly bitter flavor with a soft aftertaste... It's as if a breeze from a mountain stream has just blown through my body... I probably wouldn't have understood this flavor if you had just given it to me the moment I arrived here after walking under the sun. It's all because I drank that hot hōjicha first... Now I get it! You made me walk under the scorching sun so that I'd understand the flavor of this tea... This house... the mild breeze from the rice paddies... the sound of cicadas... the dragonflies... What luxury..." "This gyokuro is the last thing I've prepared for you today." "Ōhara, I'm going to get angry if you give me anything else. I've just had a taste of real Japan. The spirit of Japan. As long as the Japanese do not lose this spirit, they'll be fine. This is that essential ingredient all those expensive feasts were lacking. So what more could I ask for?”

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Book:Japanese Cuisine
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“Look at the way the rice is shining... it looks like jewels. Each grain of rice retains its original shape... and they're all the same size too. It's stickiness and scent... it's been washed to perfection. Washing the rice just to rinse off the dirt and excess bran without wasting the flavor and scent of the rice is extremely difficult. I made my fortune before the war at the rice market... I still find time to do research on rice. I'm sure I can figure out what this rice is and where it comes from... It's Sasanishiki... but it's not from Miyagi. It's Shonai rice, from Amarume-Yamagata prefecture! Well?! " "That is correct!" "Wow... he guessed the type of rice and where it came from!" "I don't believe it!" "This rice has been dried under sunlight, not by machine--- and you milled it right here, just before washing it, didn't you?" You cook it over an old-fashioned furnace using firewood for fuel... and just before steaming it, you throw a handful of straw into the fire if you want to cook rice like this." "Yes." "Then this miso soup too... Ah... it's real miso made from domestic soy and natural salt. The dashi is made from katsuobushi, an obushi from Makurazaki. And he used the good part in the center. And the tofu is made with domestic soybeans and real brine. Aah... this is so good that it's making me cry!”

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Book:The Joy of Rice
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“I believe that sake and wine are the only drinks in the world that have achieved the level of being forms of art. Wine is made from grapes. Grapes have a lot of sugar in them to start with. Although it's a gross simplification, if you crushed the grapes and put them in a barrel they'd naturally ferment and turn into wine. But that's not the case with sake. In order for fermentation to occur, the starch in the rice has to be converted into sugar. And that involves a far more complex and difficult process than what's involved in making wine. In the entire world, no other country has developed such a refined drink out of cereal grains. What you usually get out of cereal grains is something like beer, which has a low proof... ... or a distilled liquor like whiskey, which has a high one. I want you to understand what a wonderful and unique thing sake is... ... and to appreciate the amazing skill it takes to create a drink that is practically an art form out of plain rice.”

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Book:Sake
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“Choosing a wine to pair with escargot is difficult. The escargot have been grilled with garlic butter and have a strong, meaty taste. But they're neither seafood nor red meat. So none of these wines would be right." "But I thought escargot was a common dish in France. So wouldn't they know what the right wine pairing would be?" "Like Koizumi-san said, Chablis, Meursalt or Pouilly Fuissé wouldn't go well with the escargot. Even with red wine, you'd have to choose a very full-bodied one. Try tasting the escargot with Koshino-Karoku." "The strong aftertaste of the garlic butter is washed away. It's a lot more refreshing!" "And it helps bring out the rustic flavor of the escargot!”

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Book:Sake
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“Try this smoked chicken with a dressing made from wine vinegar and herbs. Than the liver sashimi with just salt. Try the gizzard and chicken leg sashimi with salt and sesame oil. This one is from Nakagomi-san's Yorozuya brewery. It's a Shunnoten Junmaishu, 'Takazasu.' I've warmed it so that it'll be 108 degrees when poured into your sake cup." "108 degrees! Do you have to be that precise in warming the sake?!" "Of course. That's why the Okanban's job is so important. I've made it slighty lukewarm to stimulate your taste buds, It should be just the right warmth to enjoy the delicate differences of the various sashimi." "Wow. You really put a lot of thought into warming the sake." "Okay. Let's try the sake and food together." "The chicken leg is sweet! And the warm sake wraps that sweetness and enhances it in your mouth!" "The warm sake spreads out the aftertaste of the liver on your tongue!" "The more I chew on the gizzard, the richer the taste becomes!" "Man, it's totally different from cold sake! Its scent and flavor are so lively!" "Exactly. That's what's important. Warming the sake brings the flavor and scent to life, so they're much stronger than with cold sake. That's the reason you serve sake warm." "I see... I never knew there was a reason like that behind warming sake." "And now the main dish--- yakitori. Please start with the chicken fillet, heart and liver. This is a Shunnoten Junmai Daiginjo that has been aged a little longer than usual. It's made from Yamadanishiki rice that has been polished down to 45 percent and then dry-steamed to create a tough malt-rice... ... which is then carefully fermented in low temperatures to create the sake mash. Many people think I'm out of my mind to warm such a high-class Daiginjo. But when sake like this, which has been aged for a long time, is warmed to be 118 degrees when poured into the cup... you can clearly taste the deep flavor of the aged sake." "Wow!" "But 118 degrees is a little hot, isn't it?" "I wanted you to taste the succulent, savory chicken heart and other skewers... ...with a hot Daiginjo that has a rich yet refreshing flavor and can wash away the fat." "I think Junmai Ginjoshu tastes good when you warm it. People who claim that it's wrong to warm Junmai Ginjoshu don't know much about sake." "Aah... the sake tastes heavier since it's warmer than the last one!" "The flavor and scent of the sake fill my mouth and wash away the fat from the chicken too!" "This sake has such a rich, mature taste!”

SakeWarmFood And DrinkChickenRice WineEnhancer
Book:Izakaya: Pub Food
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“Katsuobushi is dried bonito, or skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis). Chunks of the fish are smoked and dried into hard blocks, which keep for several months. Along with kombu, katsuobushi is the other main ingredient used in making dashi. Throwing the whole block of fish in the water won't work; it must first be shaved into flakes with a tool that resembles an inverted carpenter's plane. However, almost no one actually prepares the flakes by hand anymore; home cooks buy bags of them at the grocery store or use instant powder preparations instead. Although bonito is the most popular type of dried fish for making dashi, many others are used as well, such as mackerel (sababushi), bluefin tuna (magurobushi), and sardines (niboshi).”

SeafoodJapanese CuisineBonitoDried Fish
Book:Japanese Cuisine
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“Sweetfish with pickled plum. I like it!" "This is the season for pike conger, but since they're better down in Kyoto I decided instead to use sweetfish that was caught this morning in the Kano River." "Wow, this one is such a pretty, light pink color. The flesh is smooth, and it has a nice, firm texture..." "It's saltwater eel sashimi. Tastes rich." "Lessee, then the last one is..." "It's flyingfish sashimi from Sagami Bay. Please try it with the miso vinaigrette." "Hmm... flyingfish has a strong taste that's probably too much for most people. But this miso dressing gives it a nice, rich flavor.”

SeafoodJapanese CuisineCondimentsSeasonalSashimi
Book:Japanese Cuisine
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“Cubes of Mita's Kuroushi Beef." "Oh, raw meat? At first glance, it looks raw, but it's actually been cooked. And when you bite it all the juice from the meat comes seeping out!" "Ohh... if it was raw, you wouldn't get such a succulent juice coming out of it. This has been cooked very skillfully." "One has soy sauce with Japanese mustard, and the other has soy sauce with wasabi on it. Two different sauces to enjoy." "We slowly roasted a prime tenderloin of the Mita Beef, and then cut away the meat on the outside... ... to take out the meat on the inside." "What an extravagant thing to do." "Hmm, this meat is top-notch, but Mamiya's skills have definitely improved. It's not easy to cook the meat so delicately..." "This one is wrapped in a bamboo sheath... I wonder what's inside. Oh, it's tilefish." "And underneath is..." "It's shredded snow peas with tilefish on top... ... wrapped in a bamboo sheath and steamed. Please pour some kuzu sauce on it... You can also place some wasabi on it if you want to." "The fish has been steamed to perfection. If he had steamed it any more, the flesh would have become tough, but if he had steamed it any less, it would still be a bit raw. It is just soft enough, and the juice is still left in it too..." "The snow peas have sucked up the flavor of the tilefish and have bloomed in flavor.”

MeatFishPeasSurf And TurfJapanese CuisineSaucesSteamed
Book:Vegetables
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“Both of the dishes you just made use only eggplant. You didn't use any other vegetables or meat." "Of course. If you want to learn the real taste of an eggplant, you can't mix it with anything else." "And the secret seems to lie with the oil. Eggplant is good when you simmer it, but simmering eggplant is rather difficult. If you simmer it together with something else, its bitterness will sometimes taint the flavor of the other ingredients." "Eggplant goes very well with oil, so simple methods like this tend to draw out the goodness of the eggplant that even people who don't like it will enjoy. It's good when stir-fried with meat, onions and green pepper, but I like it better alone so I can enjoy its flavor.”

OilEggplantSimmer
Book:Vegetables
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