FavorFlavs #24

We all have them: favorite flavors, ingredients, and kitchen tools. FavorFlavs we always reach for (again). These are ours.

Sake

Ever since we saw the documentary The birth of sake, filmed at the 145-year-old traditional family brewery Yoshida in Ishikawa Prefecture, we’ve been in love.

And not only with the young Japanese god who brews sake there during the bitterly cold winter, and personally poured us his favorites during a live spring tasting in Amsterdam.

Grilled chicken

The warmed-up sake we drink at the all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant has nothing to do with noble rice wines like these. Or with Shirataki Junmai Ginjo. An unpasteurized sake from the ‘Japanese Alps’. More precisely, Niigata, the mecca of sake.

The crisp rice wine from the more than 150-year-old artisanal Shirataki brewery is not only great with sashimi or sushi, but also with grilled chicken. And because it is unpasteurized, it comes to the Netherlands in a special refrigerated container and is best enjoyed at home at snow-cold temperatures.

With thanks to: sake samurai Simon Hofstra.

Shirataki Ginmo is available at Sakelicious in Amsterdam.