sake master blog
Finally, we have special sake instruments for cold sake drinking available on Sake Japan. In Japan, we often use special instruments called
SHUKI to enjoy sake not only for drinking but also for watching. This is a type of SHUKI called
REISHUKI which means special cold sake instruments. Here what we have is called
KIRIKO GLASS. It means
CUT GLASS. In the late 18th century, Nagasaki, Dejima in Japan was the only trading point with the foreign country such as Netherland. KIRIKO is introduced in Japan through Dejima. Soon after, Edo (present day-Tokyo)’s craft man
KAGAYA KYUBEI started hand curving glass and it led to the start of Kiriko in Japan.
Drinking sake in a colorful
KIRIKO GLASS will make its taste much better and makes you feel better indeed. Imagine if you get a nice
Kiriko Glass as a present from your friend or family. How would you feel about it? I would be happy enough to share some sake and share some laugh with your important people. Happy Sake Sipping!
KIRIKO (CUT GLASS) SAKE INSTRUMENTS are available at Sake Japan NOW!
http://www.sakejapan.com.au/index.php?main_page=sakeinstruments
JAPANESE BEER SPECIAL!!
After a long long waiting, finally Melbourne gets the recent Japan’s most popular premium beer
SUNTORY PREMIUM MALTS!!! SUNTORY believed that the high quality raw materials are so necessary to make the world class top quality beer. Using 100% Malt, 100% natural mineral water & 100% European aroma hop, brewed by very experienced Japanese brewers with extra care,
SUNTORY PREMIUM MALTS has become the very aromatic, rich body with dry & smooth finish beer. In fact,
SUNTORY PREMIUM MALTS has won the Mondo Selection Grand Gold Medal for 3 times in a row (2005-2007),
SUNTORY PREMIUM MALTS is the final answer from Japan for all Australian beer lovers. This beer is perfectly matching with Yakitori skewers! Exclusively Available at MAEDAYA.
For those who care about the calorie control, SUNTORY offers a very unique light beer.
SUNTORY DIET is low calorie & low alcohol beer with refreshing & premium taste. This beer has only 77 kcal per a 350ml can. 77 kcal is only 1/3 of a scoop of ice cream or 1/3 of a piece of pizza. If you are on diet, you can try
SUNTORY DIET matching with Cold Soba Salad, Chicken Breast Skewer & Edamame for a low calorie meal.
And of course, our other premium Japanese beers are also available.
Come and try a selection of Japanese Beer at MAEDAYA!
MAEDAYA SAKE OF THE MONTH (AUGUST) PART 2
JAPANESE BEER SPECIAL!
SUNTORY PREMIUM MALTS (5.5%) 350ml can $8.50
SUNTORY DIET (3.5%) 350ml can $6.80
KINSHACHI BEER RED MISO LAGAR (6.0%) 330ml bottle $11.50
KINSHACHI BEER BLUE DRY PILSNER (5.5%) 330ml bottle $10.50
REIJO PREMIUM (5.0%) 350ml can $6.50
This month I have picked up 2 totally different bottles for Sake of The Month.
The first one is a very unique flavored Ginjo Nama Chozoshu from
Nagano called
NANAWARAI GINJO NAMA CHOZOSHU. Nanawarai Shuzo (http://www.nanawarai.co.jp/index.html ) is a famous sake brewery from Kiso Fukushima in Nagano where is famous for Japanese alps and its cold climate even in a summer time. (Nagano is also famous for the winter Olympic in 1998) That’s why Kiso Fukushima needed to produce great sake from the ancient time to simply warm people up through a year.
Nama Chozoshu means freshly stored sake that had been stored in a low temperature room after its final press without sterilized. Once sake planned to be delivered, it’s sterilized only once just before bottling. So
Nama Chozoshu has a much more freshness in a flavour generally.
NANAWARAI GINJO NAMA CHOZOSHU has lightly sweet taste with fruity fragrance from Nagano original
Alps yeast and
Miyamanishiki rice. It almost reminds me the wild mountain vegetables such as Shida fern or even Wasabi. It also has a nutty sweet taste at the end. It’s very complex & unique flavour that is absolutely different from other authentic style sake.
The second one is
KITANOHOMARE JUNMAI DIAGINJO from
Hokkaido. This is a series of my recent favorite
Kitanohomare Shuzo (http://kitanohomare.com/ ) from Otaru city. This Junmai Daiginjo made from
Yamadanishiki rice has light Ginjo fragrance, medium rich body and long dry finish as typical Hokkaido sake. It’s very solid and enjoyable Junmai Daiginjo during your meal. Honestly, this is a bargain priced Junmai Daiginjo considering its high standard quality.
Please come in and try the new faces at Maedaya.
MAEDAYA SAKE OF THE MONTH (AUGUST)
NANAWARAI GINJO NAMA CHOZOSHU (NAGANO)
GLASS $12 / BOTTLE $55
KITANOHOMARE JUNMAI DAIGINJO (HOKKAIDO)
GLASS $13 / BOTTLE $58
MAEDAYA monthly special sake
KOKUSHIMUSO TOKUBETSU JUNMAI (limited stock) is sold out now. Thank you for your interests and tasting. Hope you enjoyed it a lot.
To replace,
KOKUSHIMUSO, I pick up another great Junmai from
Hokkaido,
KITANOHOMARE JUNMAI GINSHIN. This sake has a light fruity Ginjo fragrance even though it’s Junmai. Probably, the combination of Hokkaido original sake rice
Ginpu and a pure snow water from Tengu Mountain in
Otaru City makes this refreshing fragrance naturally. (Otaru City is very famous for its beautiful natural water in Japan. It’s called
“For water, Kobe in West & Otaru in East”) KITANOHOMARE JUNMAI GINSHIN has a strong styleJunmai flavour comes from rice itself. Even though Nihonshudo is only +2 but it has a good sharp dryness. This will be a good choice to go with any strong flavour dishes. I prefer to drink it cold, however, you can still warm this up to your body temperature to be enjoyed nicely in cold winter. (But no hotter than that Because the balance of flavour will be totally destroyed by heat.)
Please come and try Hokkaido’s pure clean sake. Happy Sipping!
MAEDAYA SAKE OF THE MONTH (JULY) PART 2
KITANOHOMARE JUNMAI GINSHIN
Glass $8.50 / Bottle (720ml) $43
In Melbourne, it’s getting still cold these days and indeed its perfect time for ATSUKAN (warm sake). However, this cold weather is not so bad comparing Japan’s Northern Island HOKKAIDO’s snowy cold winter. HOKKAIDO has a few great sake breweries such as Kitanohomare Shuzo, Otokoyama Shuzo, Takasago Shuzo & Godo Shuzo. With its cold climate, sake brewing must be a very hard work in Hokkaido but the result is very outstanding.
This month, we will feature SAKE from HOKKAIDO. One is called KOKUSHIMUSO RETSU TOKUBETSU JUNMAI (Takasago Shuzo
http://www.takasagoshuzo.com/) from Asahikawa City. This special Junmai sake is Takasago’s signature bottle. It’s made from Miyamanishiki rice and it has light and dry flavour. Good dry sake to be warm and you may be able to drink a few glasses with soy flavored dishes or deep fried dishes.
The Other one is called KITANOHOMARE OYADAMA NIGORI (Kitanohomare Shuzo
http://kitanohomare.com/ ) from Otaru City. This sake is unfiltered cloudy sake, looks white as powder snow, and it has a sweet and milky flavour. However, comparing to other classic Nigori sake such as Shirakawago Junmai, this one is much smoother and lighter in taste. You will be surprised how easy it can be drunk. This could be a perfect sake to end your meal as desert.
MAEDAYA SAKE OF THE MONTH (JULY)
“HOKKAIDO SAKE SPECIAL”
- KOKUSHIMUSO RETSU TOKUBETSU JUNMAI (ASAHIKAWA CITY)
Glass selling only $8.00 (Very limited / until stock lasts)
- KITANOHOMARE OYADAMA NIGORI (OTARU CITY)
Glass selling only $8.50 (Limited / until stock lasts)
Last Saturday, I had a very special guest visited MAEDAYA. It was M san family and actually Mrs. M is a niece of the president of RANMAN AKITAMEIJO! It was very exciting thing for me to meet people from my favorite sake brewery surprisingly in Melbourne!
So today, I would like to introduce RANMAN AKITAMEIJO here in my blog.
AKITAMEIJO was established in 1926 in Yuzawa City, Akita Prefecture. Yuzawa City is famous for Onsen (hot spring), Ski and Akita Bijin (Akita beautiful ladies. Famous one is Onono Komachi 9 century’s poetess.) Most importantly, Yuzawa City has a perfect environment for sake brewing such as good rice, beautiful pure water and cold climate in winter time.
AKITAMEIJO believes that the most important thing about sake brewing is “Love and passion for growing sake based on human relations”. They also believes that stable supply of stable quality items are very important to satisfy the consumer’s needs so they have 2 different Kura (brewing house), one has fully automatic computer system (Mitake Kura) and the other one has human manual system (Ogachi Kura).
Most of RANMAN sake is made from Akita local grown rice such as Akita Sake Komachi, Akita Komachi and Menkoina with traditional strong style sake brewing method succeeded by Sannai Toji and beautiful Akita snow water. Its flavour is generally soft sweet and rich in body. In Melbourne, we have 4 different bottles DAIGINJO HANARANMAN KOMACHI, GINJO REIRYO, JUNMAI FUNAOROSHI & KIMOTO TOKUJO ONJOZO available from Sake Japan, Taxi Dinning, Vue De Monde and Maedaya.
Please come and try one of the finest sake from Akita, Japan!
http://www.ranman.co.jp/
Last night, one of the regular customers at Maedaya “J” san and me were talking about the history of sake. Then suddenly one of the question occurred in our minds “Who is the oldest sake brewery that is still existing in Japan?” To be honest, I didn’t know who is so I promised J san to make a research for it.
As far as I can find out on internet, the answer will be Sudohonke from Obara city, Ibaragi prefecture. They have been brewing sake since 1141 (Heian Era). It’s over 850 years!! The head of brewery, Yoshiyasu Sudo is the 55th generation president and he is the only person who can succeed to Sudo family’s top secret original brewing method. (Even other veteran Toji sake artisans can’t know everything of it.)
Sudohonke has 5 words of “Sake, Rice, Soil, Water, Tree”. It means to make good sake, good rice is necessary. To make good rice, good soil is necessary. To make good soil, good water is necessary. To make good water, good tree is necessary. That’s why cutting trees are prohibited in Sudohonke and over 600 trees in their property are transplanted only when it is necessary.
To make sake, sudohonke use their well water in property and contracted premium sake rice only. To keep the original flavour and freshness of sake, most of their sake is delivered unpasteurized as Namazake. I can see their famous bottles must be very popular and will be delivered quickly to all over Japan.
Unfortunately, I haven’t tasted any of Sudohonke series yet but I will try my best to introduce Sudohonke sake bottle to Australia one day.
Sudohonke (Ibaragi) http://www.sudohonke.co.jp/ (English site)
Hello, everyone
Today, I would like to introduce Nagoya, Japan’s super premium local beer “KINSHACHI BEER BLUE LABEL” and “KINSHACHI BEER RED MISO”.
These two beers have very outstanding characters and both are very rare Japanese imported beers from Nagoya that you can hardly find anywhere in Australia. (Well, these days, actual MADE IN JAPAN beer you can drink in Australia are very limited.. Asahi is made in Singapore and Kirin is made in Australia.)
KINSHACHI BEER BLUE LABEL is a pilsner type smooth and super super dry tasted beer. I can imagine something between Asahi Super Dry and Kirin Lager but much dryer than that. I can imagine it will go very well with Yakitori, Kawa, Gyoza and Tebasaki Chicken. KINSHACHI BEER RED MISO is a soy bean blended unique tasted beer. The color is dark brown and it looks like dark ale. It has a sweet flavour and you can actually feel soy bean miso taste in it slightly. It can go well with rich and sweet soy flavour dishes such as Wagyu Steak, Yakiniku and of course, Miso Kushikatsu.
You can try those two beers at MAEDAYA anytime. They are seasonal special items and not listed on a grand menu so please ask the staff for special.
KINSHACHI BEER BLUE LABEL $10.50
KINSHACHI BEER RED MISO $11.50
Available at MAEDAYA!
Hello, everyone
It has been a busy busy time since my sake bar Maedaya has liqour license 3 weeks ago. (Sorry that I couldn't have any spare time to update this blog for a while..) I am so happy to see people finally enjoying real premium sake from all over Japan at Maedaya along with Yakitori & Yakiniku.
To make sake more handy and closer to you, I have started Sake Of The Month from today as a special monthly featuring sake. Basically, I pick sake that is usually available only for the bottle sell. But during this period, I sell them from a glass so people can taste the different sake without taking risk to pay the whole bottle.
For the first time, I have picked Tateyama Ginjo Honjozo & Tateyama Junmai Ginjo (This one is not even availabe at SakeJapan.com.au yet!). They are both Toyama's legendary sake brewers Tateyama's classic bottles. Ginrei Honjozo has smooth and dry flavour and it might go well with Tsukune Skewer with Black Pepper topping, Nagoya Tebasaki & Tori Kawa. It can be drunk in any temperatuer. Junmai Ginjo has more fragrance with sweeter flavour with dry sharp finish. It might go well with Bacon Shiso Cheese, Agedashi Gyoza & Miso Kushikatsu. They are both really well made premium sake and this is a great opportunity for you to try the real one for very reasonable prices. Come to MAEDAYA and ask me for Sake Of The Month !
MAEDAYA Sake Of The Month (June)
- Tateyama Ginrei Honjozo glass $8.50 / bottle $35.00 (Cold or Warm)
- Tateyama Junmai Ginjo glass $15.00 / bottle $69.00 (Cold or Room Temperatuer)
Happy Sipping!
Sake & Grill MAEDAYA has finally got a liquor license granted last Friday! !
It has been a long long waiting but I am so happy now we are officially allowed to introduce Sake to Richmond, Australia.
That means you can come and try our over 60 different sake collections anytime. Also most of products you see at Sake Japan are available to be tested at MAEDAYA. So if you are not sure to purchase the bottle, just come and try them along with Yakitori, Edamame, Gyoza and many other Japanese tapas.
We open Monday to Saturday from 6pm to 11pm.
400 Bridge Road, Richmond
9428-3918
Hope to see you soon.
TM
