You can only drink this sake in Amsterdam (and not in Japan!)
Amsterdam’s Okura has created its own, unique sake. This Okura Yamazato Miyagisake is made in Japan, but the restaurant’s chef was closely involved in brewing his own sake. ‘Anyone can buy a name for a label, but this sake really belongs to Amsterdam’s Okura,’ says Menno de Bruin, sommelier at Okura, in Het Parool.
The Okura sake is made at the Kanbai Shuzo brewery. Chef Masanori Tomikawa went there to assist with making the sake. The sake is made from a special type of rice, sasa-nishiki sushi rice. It is apparently more difficult to make sake from, but very tasty. Menno calls it ‘a sake really meant for people who don’t have much sake experience yet.’
Sake from its own kitchen
Brewing sake is an age-old tradition. The rice wine is made from fermented rice, water, koji mould and yeast. It is actually quite similar to brewing beer, because here too the starch is converted into sugar by yeast, and that sugar is then converted into alcohol.
As far as is known, Okura’s sake is the first Amsterdam sake. Perhaps sake is already being made in more places in the Netherlands. It takes a bit of effort, but it can be done, we wrote earlier.
Hot or cold?
Menno is very clear about that: cold, of course, just like white wine. Hot sake is an American invention, intended for inferior sake, ‘so not for our Amsterdam sake’. According to the experts, the sake tastes best with sashimi and sushi.
